Podcast

In this episode, we're joined by Nyusha, a steering committee member from the UCLA chapter of the UC Divest Coalition. UC Divest an anti-militarist coalition of student and community organizations seeking to end the University of California's investment in war. In our conversation, Nyusha describes the development and evolution of UC Divest's political analysis, tactics, and structure and shares stories about both the challenges faced by the Coalition and its growth to a multi-campus coalition. In doing so, he provides reflections on the connections between the student movement and broader local, national, and global struggles, the importance of building sustainable movements, and how to maintain a spirit of revolutionary optimism in the face of escalating violence.

White Coats for Black Lives (WC4BL) is a medical-student run group that focuses on dismantling racism and centering liberation, particularly within healthcare. Emerging from White Coat Die-In demonstrations in 2014, the organization now has many national chapters. In today’s episode, we are joined by members of the WC4BL chapter in the UC Berkeley-UCSF Joint Medical Program. We cover topics including the legacy of activism and student activism in the Bay Area, the chapter’s focus on mentorship and scholarships for underrepresented students, and how to do activist work sustainably. Don't miss the article published on the chapter's mentorship program and give the chapter a follow on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook.

In this episode, the Lab is joined by Sophie Wang, PhD from ⁠FreeRads⁠, an "activist collective dedicated to creating a more socially just, equitable, and accountable science," and Taylor Cruz, PhD, a professor of sociology at CSU Fullerton. Sophie and Taylor share a bit about their co-created ⁠zine on AI automation in the Port of LA⁠, as well as generally discuss zines as tools of knowledge production/sharing outside of traditional publishing structures and as tools of political education. Thinking back on their own experiences as undergraduate and graduate students, they reflect on the unique position students within the academy have to advance movements and encourage students to grasp the local political contexts of their universities, invest in relationship building, and understand the academy as an imperfect but important site of struggle. Check out the other zines referenced by Sophie and Taylor in this episode: ⁠Equity, Exclusion and Everyday Science Learning⁠ by Sophie Wang and ⁠A Survival Guide to Tech Career Fairs⁠ by Haidee Clauer, Lee Beckwith, Cleo Forman, Yoni Maltsman, Moe Sunami, Bradley Gonmiah, Liam Chalk, dri chiu tattersfield and follow Freerads on ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠Twitter⁠.

In our new series, Edge Runners, we take you with us out into the field to learn from the experts. For our first episode, join Emancipatory Sciences Lab fellows Brittney Pond and Rebecca Wolfe as they speak with a wide variety of scholars at the American Sociological Association annual conference in Philadelphia, PA. We discuss topics from video games to credit scores, the KKK to hip-hop. Come and learn with us!

In this episode, the Emancipatory Sciences Lab is joined by members of the Critical Health + Social Ecology Lab (CH+SE Lab) at Fordham University. The CH+SE Lab explores issues of space, place, aging, and neighborhood change through an interdisciplinary and intersectional lens and is led by Dr. Shellae Versey, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Fordham. She is joined in this episode by Brionna Colson-Fearon, a first year PhD student in Psychology at Fordham and a researcher at the CH+SE Lab whose research focuses on issues of food justice. They discuss how reflexivity shapes the ethos of the CH+SE Lab, the relationship between team science and interdisciplinarity, and ongoing/upcoming projects at the Lab. They also reflect on the importance of finding mentors with aligned values and being willing to push bounds in the academy in order to generate emancipatory scholarship.

In this episode, the Emancipatory Sciences Lab is joined by Dr. Lauren Hunt, Assistant Professor in Physiological Nursing at UCSF and Lab Director of the Life's End Lab. Dr. Hunt discusses the aim of the Life's End Lab to improve the end-of-life experience of vulnerable older adults and their caregivers, particularly persons living with dementia, and the importance of research collaboration in moving social change forward. 

In this episode, the Emancipatory Sciences Lab is joined by members of the the RW Turner Lab at George Washington University. The RW Turner Lab focuses on research about neurological and psychological health & health disparities, and is led by Dr. Robert W. Turner II, an Assistant Professor in the Department of Clinical Research and Leadership at GW. He is joined in this episode by four brilliant students from the RW Turner Lab, Vivika Fernes, Kate Garcia, Aaron Denicola, Nino Nadareishvili. Together, they discuss the formation of the RW Turner Lab, its structure, and ongoing projects. The students reflect on navigating reserach in team settings, and how their experience working in the RW Turner Lab will shape their work and scholarship in the future.

Judy Young is the Executive Director at the UCSF National Center of Excellence (CoE) in Women’s Health and Ramona Laughing Brook Webb is a Poet-in-Residence at the CoE. In this episode, Young and Webb discuss their work at the CoE and their journeys to the academy. They describe their work with the Black Women’s Health & Livelihood Initiative at the CoE and also reflect on strategies for engaging and working with community. Ramona Laughing Brook Webb shares the impact of arts integration in health as well as shares a poem and meditation with listeners.