The Institute Podcast

Andrea Bohlman is an associate professor of music who received a 2023 Summer International Collaborative Research Grant from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Part of Bohlman’s research examined the consent and politics of sound and sound-recordings, and she collaborated with colleagues at Polish universities. In the podcast, she talks about her research and the impact of the $20,000 gran...

Historian Katherine Turk (FFP ’21) discusses her new book, The Women of NOW: How Feminists Built an Organization that Transformed America (The Macmillan Group). She shares the history of the National Organization for Women, and on three leaders who helped shape the organization.

Actor and playwright Samuel Ray Gates (FFP ’22) talks about his Faculty Fellowship experience, where he continued his work on his one-person show, When the Swelling Goes Down. Gates shares the themes of the show, the writing process, and the ways comedy can be used to explore and heal through difficult issues. Recorded in spring 2023.

Recorded in spring 2023, Courtney Rivard, a 2023 fellow in the Tyson Academic Leadership Program, discusses her work as Director of the digital literacy and communications lab at UNC-Chapel Hill. She also shares recent projects in digital humanities, gaming studies, and a book that she worked on during her spring 2022 Faculty Fellowship.

African, African American and diaspora studies professor Kenneth Janken received the 2022 George H. Johnson Prize for Distinguished Achievement by an IAH Fellow. On March 23, 2023, he received the award and delivered a lecture, "Bringing the Wilmington Ten to the Public's Attention: One Historian's Experience in Public Humanities.” Before his lecture, he sat down to talk about his research, public...

Recorded in February 2023, Director Patricia Parker talks with 2023 Reckford Lecture speaker and historian Ana Lucia Araujo about her research. Watch the 2023 Reckford Lecture on the IAH website: https://iah.unc.edu/araujo-2023-reckford-lecture/

Institute for the Arts and Humanities Patricia Parker talks about the impact of public humanities engagement. She also shares her recent interdisciplinary collaborations with other UNC faculty and international partners.

Institute for the Arts and Humanities Director Patricia Parker reflects on her first year leading the IAH, and how her experiences and work in engaged scholarship prepared her for the role.

Viji Sathy, the IAH's Tyson Academic Leadership Program Director, talks about how the program helps faculty across the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, her experiences in leadership development, and the way she brings her work in inclusive teaching into the ALP seminars. (Recorded in Summer 2022.)

Assistant professor of African, African American and Diaspora Studies, Ron Williams joins The Institute to discuss his latest book project, an institutional history of the US based foreign policy organization, "Trans Africa."

Oswaldo Estrada, professor of Romance studies, discusses the Faculty Fellowship Program. After receiving a fellowship three times, Estrada returned as its program director in 2021. As he enters the second year in the role, we talk about the program, the way that it enhances faculty research, his past experiences as a Fellow, and what he's looking forward to learning from this year's cohorts.

History professor John Wood Sweet joins the podcast to talk about his new book, The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America, published by Henry Holt and Company. He talks about the experiences of researching and publishing this book, his IAH Faculty Fellowship in 2020, and why he started telling the stories of people who aren’t widely known.

After the 2022 Reckford Lecture, speaker Magdalena Zaborowska joins Patricia Parker and Sharon Holland for a deeper dive into themes from her remarks, including questions about belonging and identity in James Baldwin’s philosophy of Black humanism. She also discusses her interdisciplinary research methodologies and provides a glimpse into her future Baldwin-inspired projects.

Recorded in summer 2021, Fall 2021 Faculty Fellow China Medel talks about her work in media and performance studies, as well as her manuscript Spectral Aethestics: Alternative Media and Visibility at the US-Mexico Border, which looks at a selection of film photography, new media and installation art about the crisis of migrant death at the US Mexico border.

Assistant Professor Gwendolyn Schwinke and Artist Maya Gurantz discuss their latest collaboration, The Endurance Project. A Work-In-Progress showing of The Endurance Project will be open to the public on Saturday, Feb. 26 from 5:00-6:30 p.m. in the Joan Gillings Center for Dramatic Arts, Room 102, UNC-Chapel Hill campus. People are invited to arrive as early as 4:30 to listen to the audio installa...

In February of 2018, Former IAH Director Mark Katz interviews astrophysicist and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Chris Clemens about his research of the stars, as well as his self-identified conservatism on a college campus, where liberalism is the dominant language. He discusses why different views on campus are fundamental to a higher educational experience, highlighting the UNC-Duke Philosoph...

Professor Pat Parker (Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities) interview Claire McCaskill on her career in politics and her thoughts on the current political and cultural climate of the United States.

Associate Professor of Classics Hérica Valladares speaks with Philip on her current research project regarding the material culture of domestic Ancient Rome.

Literary Scholar and Assistant Professor of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies Petal Samuel sits down to discuss her current research project!

Geography Professor Betsy Olson, recipient of the George Johnson Prize for Distinguished Achievement by an IAH Fellow, sits with Philip to discuss her career as a scholar and campus leader.

In this episode, Philip speaks with Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature Candace Epps-Robertson. In our conversation, Professor Epps-Robertson discusses her work on a collaborative and open-sourced syllabus on the South Korean pop group BTS and their fandom known as ARMY. Follow Prof. Epps-Robertson on Twitter: @DrEppsRobertson Follow the BTS Syllabus on Twitter: @bts_syllabus...

Helga Davis, musician, artist, Carolina Performing Arts artist in residence speaks with us on the life of an interdisciplinary artist!

Assistant Professor Ron Williams (Department of African, African American, and Diaspora Studies) discusses his current book project on the advocacy organization TransAfrica.

Assistant Professor of Dramatic Art Jacqueline Lawton joins us again to talk about the projects she is doing! How are her plays living on despite the pandemic? Listen to find out! Follow Professor Lawton on Twitter: @dulcia25 Follow IAH on Twitter: @iah_unc

Associate Professor Priscilla Layne talks about her latest research on Afro-German Afrofuturism in literature and theater.