BG Ideas

In this episode of  BG Ideas,  we welcome Rosemarie Poiarkov, Max Kade Writer in Residence in Fall 2025 at Bowling Green State University, where she was also featured in the Prout Chapel Reading Series. Throughout the episode we discuss how literature affects imagination and listening throughout society.  Follow along, as she discusses the importance of listening in literature and the way that dif...

In this episode of  BG Ideas,  we welcome Rebekah Monroe, a current Clinical Psychology PhD student at Bowling Green State University and recipient of the 2023-2024 Graduate Teacher of the Year Award. Throughout this episode, we explore the various ways religious trauma shapes identity, often producing both positive and negative effects. Listen as Rebekah discusses different forms of religious tra...

This week, Claudia Salazar, an award-winning Peruvian Writer, literary critic, and scholar, joins us on  BG Ideas . She has a PhD in Latin American Literature from New York University and is recognized internationally for her contributions both as a novelist and as a cultural critic. In this episode ,  we discuss how emotion can provoke a different way of understanding, conversations surrounding g...

We welcome Haley Shipley on this week's episode of  BG Ideas . Haley is a Doctoral Student in American Culture Studies at BGSU, Co-President of the Ray Brown Association, and a Graduate Student Supervisor at the Browne Popular Culture Library. In this episode we discuss how the Browne Popular Culture Library earned its name, what materials you can find in the archive, and what makes this archi...

In this episode of  BG Ideas , Dr. Kristine Ketel joins us to discuss the relationship between humans and robots. Kristine recently earned her PhD in American Culture Studies from Bowling Green State University in the Spring of 2025. Based on her research on the cultural and ethical implications of artificial intelligence and human robot interaction, she argues that robots aren’t all bad. She high...

In this episode of  BG Ideas,  we are joined by two guests, Joe Macdonald and Garrett Scherff. Joe Macdonald is a Popular Culture Graduate Student at BGSU studying counterculture, the goth subculture, and the capacity of fandoms to evolve into spaces of cultural resistance. Garrett Scherff is an instructor in the Department of Popular Culture within the School of Cultural and Critical Studies at B...

In this episode of  BG Ideas,  Dr. Clayton Rosati, Associate Professor in the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University and ICS Fall 2025 Faculty Fellow, discusses how the raise of artificial intelligence (AI) impacts our landscapes, communities and resources. Specifically, he focuses on the growing infrastructure that is being built around the country, from Virginia, the...

In this episode of  BG Ideas , Dr. Rachel Walsh, Associate Teaching Professor of English and International Studies at Bowling Green State University and ICS Faculty Fellow in the fall of 2025, discusses Pat Heartly and Dick Fontaine's recently restored documentary on James Baldwin,  I Heard It Through the Grapevine  (1982) and how it foreshadows the current backlash to diversity, equity and in...

In this vibrant episode of BG Ideas, Arigon Starr, award-winning Kickapoo artist and performer, joins us for a powerful conversation on Native storytelling as an avenue of resistance and healing through music, theatre, and comics. In our conversion, Arigon  conveys the importance of using art to illuminate, respond to, and challenge injustices, emphasizing the transformational effect of balancing...

In this exciting new episode of BG Ideas, we sit down with Dr. Clayton Rosati, Associate Professor of Media Studies at Bowling Green State University and Claire Cromly, an undergraduate student who took Dr. Rosati’s course about media, place, and power through the works of James Baldwin. During this conversation, our guests navigate the construction of social environments, the values within them,...

In this episode of BG Ideas, we welcome two inspiring guests: Heather Andolina, President of the Melungeon Heritage Association and host of the Melungeon Voices Podcast, and Dr. Muhammad Sheeraz Dasti, a literary scholar and translator, specializing in linguistic criticism. Both were presenters at ClassCon , a conference hosted at BGSU, inspired by Ray Brown, that seeks to give, “education a broad...

In this exciting episode of BG Ideas , we sit down with Jay Grummel, a BGSU creative writing student and recipient of the Hoskins Global scholarship, as well as BGSU creative writing Professor and Jay’s research advisor, Abby Cloud, to delve into her transatlantic exploration of opera libretti in Europe. Their conversation brings light into the specifics of writing libretti and how it requires a d...

In this episode of BG Ideas , we speak with Dr. Sidra Lawrence, Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology, and Dr. Amy-Rose Forbes-Erickson, Associate Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at Bowling Green State University. Together, they were recipients of the ICS Interdisciplinary Team-Teaching Program, through which they co-designed and co-taught a course titled Africana Performance and the...

In this utterly informative sit-down session, we got to speak with assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at BGSU and Spring 2025 ICS Faculty Fellow Meagan Docherty to talk about gun violence reduction and prevention in Toldeo, Ohio.   She identifies gun violence as a public health crisis that disproportionately impacts children and minority communities. Docherty stresses the idea tha...

In this episode of BG Ideas we engage with Dr. Thomas Roberts, ICS Faculty Fellow in Spring 2025 and Assistant Director of Undergraduate Education and Associate Professor in the School of Inclusive Education at BGSU, to discuss the importance of access to STEM education in primary schools.   Throughout his diverse teaching experiences, Dr. Roberts has identified a resource-based disparity in STEM...

In this episode of BG Ideas, award-winning writer Saeed Jones reveals how writing became his refuge. Jones shares the intimate history of his creative journey, revealing how it became his escape as a young Black and queer person navigating life and identity in the South.   Believing that safety can be found between the pages in books, Jones uncovers how writing provides a space for one to explore...

In this episode of BG Ideas, we talk to Dr. Kristina Richardson, a visiting Phi Beta Kappa Historian from the University of Virginia. Listen as Dr. Richardson explores the hidden histories of marginalized peoples in the medieval world, and through her focus on the technological innovations of the Roma to the complex global networks of slave trades,  Dr. Richardson challenges traditional historical...

In this episode we talk to Dr. Dan Piccolo and several members of the BGSU Percussion Ensemble including Jacob Koch, Chris Harris, Nick Bahr, Emma Zemancik, and Frank Sanzo. Join us as we listen to them talk about their journey as percussionists, the history of percussion in the American conservatory tradition, and the challenge of teaching and playing global music. The group also plays many examp...

In this episode we welcome Khani Begum, an Emerita Professor of English at BGSU, and Amjad Dhouman. Together, they have organized a Palestine Film Festival in Northwest Ohio. Join us as we have a conversation about why they started the festival in the first place, and how the festival is a forum to have a timely conversation on a current issue affecting us all. A transcript for this episode can be...

In this episode, we talked to Haley Anissa Alvarez, a PhD candidate in Theatre at BGSU. Join us as we discuss her directorial debut, staging Alfaro’s Mojada, the work that went into it, and how different activist theatre techniques like antiracist acting can affect and challenge stereotypes. Alvarez hopes to show us that by thinking outside the box with theatre and using it as activism, that immig...

In this episode, we welcomed Indigenous influencer James Jones (aka Notorious Cree), a dancer and youth educator. James Jones is Nehiyaw from Tall Cree First Nation in Treaty 8 Territory in Northern Alberta, Canada. Listen as we discuss dance and performance as a form of free expression, and emphasize the significance of preserving Indigenous cultures. James Jones seeks to pass on tradition to the...

In this episode, we are joined by Dr. Kate Brodeur, a professor of Education at BGSU and ICS Fellow, to talk about her research into new and different methods for creating a sustainable tutoring clinic for reading literacy. Come along as we dive into themes of learning, community bonding, and the challenges faced by teachers, tutors, and families alike as they strive to create a better, safer envi...

In this episode, Mackenzie Kneessi, an undergraduate social work student, and Dr. Jordan Wilfong, an Associate Professor of Social Work at BGSU, join us to talk about Mackenzie’s research on the struggles faced by unaccompanied children forced to immigrate to the United States. Listen as we have a conversation about the pains and tragedies that are forced upon migrant children, their experiences i...

In this episode, Dr. Ernest Gibson, an Associate Professor of English at Auburn University, joins us to talk about the fictional works of James Baldwin. Come along as we dive into the complex themes of salvation, gender, black masculinity, and intersectionality in some of James Baldwin’s most prominent fictional works. Dr. Gibson hopes to show us that the work done by Baldwin, while it often seems...

In this episode, we welcome Dr. Sidra Lawrence, an Associate Professor of Ethnomusicology at BGSU and a 2024 ICS Faculty Fellow. Tune in as we explore themes of trauma and justice and examine how people can use art practices as a way to heal trauma, particularly in cases of gender-based and sexual violence. The conversation focuses on how to empower survivors through artistic practices and embodie...