Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Host: Dr. Miranda Melcher
Guest: Dr. Anita Gonzalez
Book: Shipping Out: Race, Performance, and Labor at Sea (University of Michigan Press, 2025)
Episode Date: January 9, 2026

Episode Overview

This episode features Dr. Anita Gonzalez discussing her book, Shipping Out: Race, Performance, and Labor at Sea. The conversation explores the multifaceted world of cruise ships—from 19th-century packet ships to contemporary cruises—through the lenses of race, performance, and labor. Gonzalez draws on her experience as a scholar, performer, and destination lecturer to illuminate how cruise ships act as microcosms for complex social interactions, performances of servitude, and cross-cultural exchanges among both crew and passengers.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origin Story and Research Motivation ([02:06]–[03:41])

• Dr. Gonzalez traces her interest in maritime performance back to teaching about the African Grove Theater, an African American company from 1821 in NYC. She asked:

  “Where did they come from? Why were they doing Shakespeare in New York in 1821?” ([02:27] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

• Her research revealed these performers were stewards on packet ships connecting New York and Liverpool in the 19th century, sparking her inquiry into maritime labor and performance.
• The project also bridges her professional maritime research with her work as a cruise ship destination lecturer.

2. Role of Destination Lecturers on Cruise Ships ([03:41]–[04:40])

• Gonzalez explains:

  “Destination lecturers are people that come onto cruise ships in order to explain the destinations to the passengers… they have destination lectures to kind of prep the passengers about the destination that they will be going to.” ([03:56] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

• There are “special interest” lecturers on other topics, but as a destination lecturer for Caribbean cruises, Gonzalez connects history and culture with passengers’ experiences.

3. Performance on Cruise Ships: More Than Education ([04:40]–[06:55])

• The environment necessitates presenters who both entertain and educate.
• Gonzalez, as an African American scholar, observes an added layer of performing identity and expertise:

  “I’m now performing something different… I’m a part of the entertainment staff. So I’m performing a kind of expertise that’s deeply embedded in who I am as a person as I enter the ship.” ([05:22] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

• She identifies multiple layers of “performance” on ships:
  • Staff Performance: Crew continuously perform servitude in a way that’s “permanent,” often for six to nine months at sea.
  • Passenger Performance: Many passengers, often working class or retired, enact roles of entitlement, expecting and accepting this servitude.

4. Continuities in Maritime Labor and Social Dynamics Across Time ([07:11]–[09:06])

• Explores striking parallels between 19th-century packet ships and present-day cruises.
• In both epochs, ships bring together multicultural workforces who exchange knowledge and stories amid long journeys, sometimes more so than when they reach ports.
• Key insight:

  “I am proposing that people learn about one another on the ship itself. And that process started in the 19th century because the world was expanding at that moment in time.” ([08:35] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

5. The Importance of Micro-Spaces on Board ([09:06]–[11:19])

• Proposes that everyday places—cafeterias, corridors, libraries—on ships become “micro performance spaces” for authentic cross-cultural engagement.
• Passengers routinely inquire about crew origins, facilitating inter-class and intercultural dialogue rarely replicated elsewhere.

6. Sea Shanties: Work Songs as Performative History ([11:19]–[14:14])

• Sea shanties are deeply multilayered—originating as work songs blending African, Irish, and other traditions.
• Many shanties have distinct racial and regional identities, and were crucial tools for working-class communication:

  “It’s not through written languages. It’s through songs and gestures and oral histories and storytellings.” ([13:23] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

• Newer revivals use shanties as vehicles for community-building and heritage, but their context and meaning shift outside of original labor conditions.

7. Translating Sea Shanties for Modern Cruise Audiences ([14:14]–[16:01])

• Gonzalez uses shanties as participatory tools, though she notes cruise companies avoid labor topics.
• She remarks:

  “I use them on the cruise ship as a way of getting the audience involved in call and response… I do try to get them to sing along with me every once in a while.” ([14:25] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

• The meaning of shanties fundamentally changes; they now foster communal enjoyment, not labor coordination.

8. Ports as Sites of Performance and Exchange ([16:01]–[19:25])

• Modern cruise ports are tightly controlled for safety and liability, often “sealed off” from local life, yet strive for authenticity through staged cultural encounters.
• Gonzalez notes:

  “The ports, no matter what century you’re in, is a place of exchange. It’s a place where people get off the ship and money starts to pass forth, back and forth, along with information about where people have been and where they’re going.” ([18:28] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

• Some destinations, like the Dominican Republic, offer more genuine interactions, inviting passengers to local homes.

9. Reflections on Class, Performance, and Takeaways for Readers ([19:25]–[21:06])

• Gonzalez urges readers to consider the working class as enacting a “performance of class” rather than a static category:

  “…It’s a performance of class. Right. People have lives and stuff on their own and in the cruise ship, I think that it’s kind of amplified how they’re performing servitude.” ([19:54] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

• She admires the orchestration and coordination behind cruise experiences, noting the unique, immersive environment that allows meaningful, sometimes transformative, interactions.

10. Future Research ([21:06]–[22:47])

• Gonzalez is working on a project exploring rural communities along the coasts of the Bahamas and the Chesapeake Bay, using mixed methodologies (oral histories, mapping, archival research) to trace Black maritime cultures and histories of escape, survival, and community-building.

Notable Quotes & Moments

• On Ship as Reflective Space:

  “The entire cruise is a reflective space because there’s nothing to see but the water. And then you start to wonder, well, who am I in relationship to this natural environment and who is in this space with me?” ([10:28] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

• On Sea Shanties and Community:

  “The storytelling aspect of sea shanties, coupled with the work aspect of sea shanties, to be something that is very important to their core iteration.” ([13:57] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

• On Performance of Class:

  “It’s a performance of class. Right. People have lives and stuff on their own and in the cruise ship, I think that it’s kind of amplified how they’re performing servitude.” ([19:54] – Dr. Anita Gonzalez)

Key Timestamps

• [02:06] Dr. Gonzalez introduces herself and the book’s origins
• [03:56] Explanation of the role of destination lecturers
• [05:15] On layers of performance among staff and passengers
• [07:32] Historical continuities in maritime labor
• [09:48] Micro-spaces fostering cross-cultural exchange
• [12:10] Origins and significance of sea shanties
• [14:25] Adapting shanties for modern cruise crowds
• [16:39] Ports as orchestrated sites of encounter
• [19:49] What Gonzalez hopes readers take away
• [21:20] Gonzalez’s new project on Black coastal communities

Final Thoughts

This episode provides a lively, nuanced exploration of the cruise ship as a floating stage for social, racial, and performative dynamics. Dr. Anita Gonzalez connects historic maritime worlds with present-day cruising, highlighting how labor, identity, and performance remain entwined. Her expertise—grounded equally in scholarship and lived experience—invites listeners to rethink assumptions about travel, entertainment, and the people who shape and sustain these worlds. The conversation is engaging, accessible, and offers fresh perspectives even to those who’ve never set foot on a ship.