Challenge. Change.

Larry Webman ’92 shares a glimpse into his life in the music industry. As a senior vice president at Wasserman Music in New York , Webman represents some of the biggest names in music, such as Coldplay, Sara Bareilles, MGMT, Bastille, the Dropkick Murphys, and more. Webman got his start on the Clark campus, haggling with bands as head of the Pub Entertainment Committee. He worked the phones and lu...

Clark University's Associate Director of Gender and Sexuality,  E. Tejada III , talks with us about their work supporting trans and gender-diverse students in higher ed. Tejada recently joined Clark's Office of  Identity, Student Engagement, and Access (ISEA)  and has begun creating new systems of support to help students safely explore their identities and sexualities. "Our queer a...

Today, Clark University  psychology  professor  Wendy Grolnick  is on campus. Tomorrow, she could be anywhere across the nation. Grolnick joins us to offer a glimpse into her work in disaster response. Since 2007, Grolnick has volunteered with the American Red Cross, using her clinical skills to help people recover and cope following tragic events. She has been dispatched to lo...

Ousmane Power-Green e, professor of  history  and program director of  Africana Studies  at Clark, joins us to talk about his new historical fiction novel “ The Confessions of Matthew Strong .” A story of race and redemption, the book follows Allie Douglass as she is kidnapped by a white supremacist. Power-Greene tells us about the inspiration for this novel and how he’d l...

Some people feel an unusual tingle in their brain after watching someone whisper in a YouTube video.  Hugh Manon , professor of screen studies and chair of the  Department of Visual and Performing Arts , and  Shuo Niu , professor of  computer science , dig into the social media phenomenon that is ASMR, or autonomous sensory meridian response. ASMR videos have racked up mil...

Ben Wolff ’23 loves working with children and discovering the importance play has on development. But do their TV-watching habits influence  how  they play? Wolff shares with us how he’s exploring this avenue in his research project. The psychology major is looking for links between the shows kids watch on television and what happens when they play. To learn more about int...

Clark University's  Dean of Students Kamala Kiem  talks to us about what it means to find success and identity during college. Kiem recalls lessons learned during her time at the former Middle Georgia College and Florida International University, including a “life-changing” decision to end her time as a student-athlete to become a resident assistant. “I'm living a life where I have no re...

Challenge. Change. is taking a brief break. We'll be back for season two come the week of Aug. 22. This fall, expect to hear episodes about the ASMR , a discussion from two Clark leaders about exploring the nuances of friendship in higher education, documenting January 6th, and political analysis as we get closer to the midterms. Have a suggestion for the podcast? Email producers Andrew Hart and M...

Music major Brenna Moore ’24 takes us inside her summer internship at Acadia Recording Company , a studio based in Portland, Maine. Moore’s audio diary guides listeners as she sets up microphones and shadows the studio’s engineer during the mixing process. On this day, Moore was able to do something unique: record herself playing violin for an artist who uses the studio. Moore finds inspiration ev...

In this episode of Challenge. Change., we talk to  Christopher Davey , the Charles E. Scheidt visiting assistant professor of genocide studies and genocide prevention at Clark University’s  Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies ,  about encouraging students to navigate difficult topics through discourse. Students in Davey’s Mass Atrocity Prevention in Theory and P...

It was during his undergraduate years at  Clark University  that Jonathan Hack '09 realized he wanted to understand the processes and behind-the-scenes conversations that lead to judicial decisions. Hack, now director of content & strategy for the Justice, Health, and Democracy Impact Initiative out of Harvard University, followed that curiosity and got a Ph. D. focused on American p...

In this episode,  Ousmane Power-Greene , a history professor and the program director of Africana Studies at  Clark University , says the recognition of Juneteenth as a federal holiday is a good starting point, but the day must include honest and open conversations about the current state of racial and social justice in America. He also discusses his course From Black Power to&...

Days after the deadly 1999 school shooting at Columbine High School, Peter Langman '84 found himself working with a teen who was considered a "Columbine-type risk." Since then, the psychologist has been studying school shooters and researching ways to prevent these attacks. After 19 students and two teachers were killed by a gunman at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Langman tells us why s...

At Clark University's 118th  Commencement , more than 1,000 degrees were conferred to students who were urged to move forward with confidence and have the moral clarity to make courageous and meaningful decisions. Commencement speaker  Mary Frances Berry , a renowned scholar and civil rights activist, told graduates they have an obligation to contribute to society. Listen to highlights o...

Clark University  economics professor  Edouard Wemy  is keeping a close eye on his budget, like the rest of the country. As America grapples with inflation, Wemy explains why the Fed raises the interest rate, what that means for consumers, and what factors will dictate how the economy fluctuates through the rest of the year. Learn more about  economics at Clark .

Ed Greig, a student at  Clark University's   Becker School of Design and Technology , explores the  PAX East  gaming convention with a recorder, asking game developers and Clark Professor  Ezra Cove  about what makes a great game. PAX East is the largest gaming convention on the East Coast and gives students a chance to elicit feedback on the games they're d...

David B. Fithian ’87 was formally invested as Clark University's 10th president during a ceremony at Mechanics Hall in downtown Worcester on April 30. In his inaugural address , Fithian spoke about “higher altitude” at Clark, remarking on the way the University bolsters its students, faculty, and staff to achieve goals and create change. Special guests included world-renowned philanthropist a...

Ora Szekely , associate professor of  political science at Clark , discusses Russian militaristic behaviors in the Syrian civil war and explains how studying these behaviors may provide insight into the current war in Ukraine. Szekely's research focuses on the foreign and domestic policies of nonstate and protostate military actors (rebel groups, guerrillas, insurgents, etc.,) in the Middle E...

Angelo Guisado  ’08, a staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights, watched Ketanji Brown Jackson become the newest Supreme Court Justice this month and thought about the impact of the moment. The first Black woman and public defender to reach the high court, Guisado says Justice Jackson is bringing a perspective to the Supreme Court that is long overdue. But, Guisado believes Amer...

In a roundtable discussion moderated by Mary Jane Rein , the executive director of Clark's Strassler Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies , Professor Ken McLean and Professor Frances Tanzer analyze the documentation of the ongoing war, and how people experience a crisis in its acute phase, compared with chronic events. Home to a uniquely rich undergraduate program and a landmark doctoral prog...

Suzanne Scoggins  has read plenty of literature about contentious politics and protests in China, but never saw research about day-to-day policing. After studying in China and teaching English to police officers there, Scoggins had the connections to learn more. Her book, “ Policing China: Street-Level Cops in the Shadow of Protest ,” explores the paradox of China's self-projection as a stron...

Edward Carr , director of the International Development, Community, and Environment Department at Clark, speaks about his role as a lead author in a recent report from the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change , in which his chapter focuses on an urgent need for adaptation. To really make an impact, people need to think about climate change at the polls, Carr says. Learn more a...

We talk to  Valerie Sperling , a Clark professor of political science, about the war in Ukraine. Sperling explains why she doesn't think launching an attack on Ukraine was in the best interest of Russian President Vladimir Putin and discusses potential risks of nuclear attacks. Sperling has been studying Russia since she was in college in the 1980s and is teaching a course on Russian politics...

Clark University professors Kristina Wilson and Terrasa Ulm talk with us about the influence gender has on design. Wilson, a professor of art history, describes how designers in post-war America created furniture while thinking of the female form. Ulm, a game developer and professor of interactive media, explains that in video game design, a community of diverse consumers use social media to be in...

Last year, the U.S. Surgeon General issued a rare advisory warning that young people are facing “devastating” mental health effects from the accumulated challenges experienced by their generation. In this episode, Nadia Ward, director of the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise at Clark, describes how the Institute is confronting the crisis by creating immersive technologies that help l...