Academic Aunties

Shaista Patel, an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego, and Nisha Nath, the podcast's producer and an activist, dive into the alarming climate of fear and repression in higher education. They discuss recent cases of students imprisoned for their political beliefs and the troubling shift in university ideologies toward the right. The duo highlights the contrast between the resilience of Palestinian scholars and the systemic challenges faced in American academia, urging solidarity amid rising xenophobia and the need for genuine support in educational spaces.

There is a backlash to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. All around us, we see the dismantlement of various DEI initiatives including in academia. Institutions and corporations that once rushed to put out statements in support of Black Lives Matter, Landback, and other social movements for justice, now seem all too ready to abandon their initiatives now that DEI is no longer trendy.It seems that those who felt that they had to pay lip service to DEI and thus instituted hollow and toothless statements and programs in support of diversity, are now thrilled that they don’t have to pretend anymore - they can continue, unchallenged, with their desire to amass power and wealth.  In this episode, we welcome Professor Angie Beeman, Professor in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs and Affiliate Faculty with Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College-CUNY, to address DEI head-on. We criticize DEI when it is used as a superficial tool used by institutions, namely neoliberal academic institutions, to performatively show that they care about diversity without actually making steps towards structural transformation. We address the question of why and how targeted racist harassment still takes place in universities and colleges that have DEI policies - weren’t DEI policies meant to protect us? And we also talk about the importance of having an understanding of diversity that isn’t superficial. Related LinksLiberal White Supremacy: How Progressives Silence Racial and Class OppressionRacist targeting and denial in academia: the ineffectiveness of current policies and practices to address evolving forms of racismUniversity policies have not kept up with ‘everyday racism’Angie Beeman's WebsiteThanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

(This is a reissue of the episode with audio issues corrected)Last week, at the end of the day on a Friday, York University announced the suspension of program admissions for 19 undergraduate programs, including Indigenous Studies, Gender Sexuality Women's studies programs. These cuts occurred against established procedures for collegial governance, and is part of a wider attack on higher education at academic institutions around the world.On this episode, Dr. Ethel Tungohan speaks to Dr. Ena Dua, Dr. Sarah Rotz, and Academic Aunties producer Dr. Nisha Nath on what is going on, how this is part of a global backlash against DEI, the role of management consultants pushing an agenda for a neoliberal university, and why it is time for anyone who cares about the future of higher education to mobilize and do something.Related LinksPetition to Support York and Calling for Reversal of SuspensionsStatement from Indigenous Studies at York on Program CutsStatement from Women's, Gender and Social Justice AssociationInside Doug Ford's Plan to Starve Ontario's UniversitiesUndergraduate Employment RatesThanks for listening! Sign up for our forthcoming newsletter, get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

 In academia, we assume that our value rests solely with our brains. The smarter we are, the more grants and publications we have, the more value we give to our institutions, to our fields, to our professions.What this means is that anything that gets in the way of our ability to produce is seen as a distraction. Having a personal life is a distraction. Trying to build a family is a distraction. Pregnancy is a distraction. Seeking fertility treatments, going through miscarriages, giving birth, getting abortions. These are all distractions. This of course, is deeply problematic. On this episode, we speak to Dr. Alana Cattapan, an expert when it comes to all things reproduction related, including serving as Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Reproduction at the University of Waterloo.We talk about the need to shift the norms of silence around fertility, around pregnancy and miscarriage and abortion, and recognizing the complexities of our, as we talk about, our messy, leaky bodies.Related LinksSome States Are Turning Miscarriages and Stillbirths Into Criminal Cases Against WomenThe Changing Voice of the Anti-Abortion Movement: The Rise of "Pro-Woman" Rhetoric in Canada and the United States, by Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon Reproductive rights backsliding around the worldDonations to Planned ParenthoodAction Canada for Sexual Health and Rights National Abortion FederationThanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the passage of time, about priorities, about health, about our larger purpose. I've been thinking, too, about intentionality. What is it that I want to do with my career? Am I doing the work that feeds me and my community? Or am I pursuing projects not because they are meaningful to me, but because this is what I am expected to do at this juncture of my career? And what of my health?Am I putting up guardrails to make sure that I'm not sacrificing my health for the academy and not letting corrosive institutional pressures get to me? I'm sure that these are questions that many of us grapple with. And who better to think through these questions than my dear friend, Dr. Gina Velasco. Dr. Velasco is an Associate Professor and Director of Gender and Sexuality studies at Haverford College. Her book, Queering the Global Filipina Body, was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2020.Gina and I have known each other for 10 years, and I've always appreciated our hangouts where we both just chill and talk about work and life. I've also really admired how Gina's relationship with work has evolved over the past decade as she battled major health challenges and life changes that led her to understand, as she puts it, the impermanence of being healthy.Related LinksGina K. Velasco, Ph.D.Queering the Global Filipina Body: Contested Nationalisms in the Filipina/o Diaspora

If you have had to write or request an academic reference letter, which is probably all of you, then you know that there is a whole, mysterious hidden curriculum behind them. On this episode, Ethel and Nisha talk about what it's like to write reference letters, how letter readers react to different kinds of letters, and what makes a letter good, bad, or ugly. Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

What is it like to go into the holiday season when grieving the loss of a loved one? How do we honour and remember people who are no longer with us? In this episode, I remember my dad, Leonides Tungohan - or Boyet - for short. With special guests, Winifred and Georgina, we talk about our wishes for the holidays, how we’re feeling, and our favourite memories of Boyet. Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Bluesky at @AcademicAunties.com or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Can we reimagine new ways living and being? Our guest this week certainly did so. After suffering tremendous loss during the pandemic, including the loss of her son, Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez gave up her tenured faculty position as a full professor at UC Davis to become land steward of Remagination Farms. Located two and a half hours north of San Francisco, Remagination Farms takes up Asian American activist Grace Lee Boggs invitation to "re-imagine everything." In our conversation, we talk about how devastating loss and heartache can push us to radically change the way we live, and about what it means to take education away from the corporate university to the people."The time has come for us to reimagine everything. We have to reimagine work and go away from labor. We have to reimagine revolution and get beyond protest. We have to think not only about change in our institutions, but changes in ourselves.” - Grace Lee BoggsThanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Petra Molnar, a migration and human rights lawyer and author of The Walls Have Eyes, joins to reflect on the ramifications of Donald Trump's reelection. They discuss the emotional fallout for marginalized communities and the rise of far-right ideologies. The conversation delves into the challenges faced by higher education and the influence of funding on academic integrity. Amidst political upheaval, they emphasize the need for resilience, collective hope, and activism to combat injustices and envision a brighter future.

We take a deep dive into the world of academic book publishing. If you're in academia, you probably have, or want to work with a university press to publish your work. And at the heart of the book publishing process are university press editors. But many scholars don't know what it is that editors do, what the norms and expectations are when working with editors, and what the larger world of academic publishing looks like. To demystify the role of editors and how academic book publishing works, we have the amazing Dawn Durante, the Wyndham Robertson Editorial Director of the University of North Carolina Press. Dawn was my editor when I released my first solo authored book, last year, Care Activism, Migrant Domestic Workers, Movement Building, and Communities of Care and who was awesome really in helping me think through my project in a really generative way.Related LinksAsk UP: Authors Seeking Knowledge from University PressesUniversity of North Carolina Press Care Activism, by Dr. Ethel TungohanThanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Instagram at @AcademicAunties, on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.