This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Today’s conversation is with Philip McHarris, who teaches in the Frederick Douglass Institute and Department of Black Studies at University of Rochester. In addition to numerous scholarly and public facing essays, he is the author of Beyond Policing (2024) and is completing a book manuscript titled Brick Dreams, to be published by Princeton University Press. In this conversation, we discuss the urgency of the study of policing and mass incarceration for Black Studies, the politics of thinking expansively about Black study, and the transformative work that comes from teaching and imagining from a space of Black liberation struggle.

This is Ashley Newby and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Today's conversation is with Dawn-Elissa Fischer, who teaches in the Department of Anthropology at San Francisco State University. She centers her scholarly endeavors around the thematic core of "Representing the Unseen." For over two decades, ethnographic research has been her pathway to navigating the frontlines of social movements and Black entertainment, unearthing narratives obscured from view, exposing both the unnoticed struggles and triumphs. Her work intricately illuminates the dynamic digital worlds of today’s youth, weaving stories from underground emcees, grassroots organizers, cosplay vloggers, gaming influencers, and other digital creators into a cohesive narrative of an ongoing online revolution. Beyond exploration, the thematic framework of "Representing the Unseen" serves as a lens to acknowledge and elevate historically excluded educators' intellectual and social justice contributions in critical pedagogy and public engagement. With meticulous evaluation spanning K-12 and postsecondary education since 1999, Fischer's commitment remains steadfast to shedding light on hidden narratives and fostering inclusivity within academia and broader societal contexts.

This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Today’s conversation is with Neil Roberts, Associate Dean of the Faculty and Professor of Africana Studies at Williams College. Along with numerous articles in academic journals, he is the author of Freedom as Marronage (2015) and editor or co-editor of Creolizing Rousseau (2014), Journeys in Caribbean Thought (2016), and A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass (2018). In this conversation, we discuss the place in Caribbean history and thought in Black Studies, the complexity of thinking freedom in the Black Atlantic world, and the challenges that have come with the institutionalization of the field.

This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Today’s conversation is with Donelle Boose, who teaches in the Department of History and African American Studies Program at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. She is an historian who works between public history, archival research, and Black Studies sensibilities. In this conversation, we discuss the relation between public facing work and Black study, documentation and evidence in popular and academic historical writing, and the transformative nature of the Black Studies classroom.

This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Today’s conversation is with Ashanté Reese, who teaches in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Texas, Austin. In addition to a number of scholarly and popular articles, she is the author of Black Food Geographies:Race, Self-Reliance, and Food Access in Washington, D.C. (2019) and the co-editor with Hanna Garth of Black Food Matters: Racial Justice in the Wake of Food Justice (2020). In this conversation, we discuss the place of ethnographic research in Black Studies, the relationship between teaching, scholarship, and racialized space in disciplinary and non-disciplinary places, and the politics of community work as a form of Black study and practice.

This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Today’s conversation is with Kameelah Martin, who teaches in the Department of African American Studies at the College of Charleston. She has written extensively on African American literature and diasporic cultural studies and is the author of Conjuring Moments in African American Literature: Women, Spirit Work, and Other Such Hoodoo (2012), Envisioning Black Feminist Voodoo Aesthetics: African Spirituality in American Cinema (2016), and co-editor of The Lemonade Reader (2019). In this conversation, we discuss the place of literary studies in the field of Black Studies, the relationship between folk cultural production and everyday Black life, and the reach of Black study inside and outside the academy.

This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Today’s conversation is with Melissa Daniels-Rauterkus, who teaches in the Department of English at the University of Southern California. She has written extensively on African American literature and cultural studies and is the author of Afro-Realism and the Romances of Race: Rethinking Blackness in the African American Novel, published in 2020 and designated as honorable mention for the MLA William Sanders Scarborough Prize. In this conversation, we discuss the place of literary studies in the Black Studies imagination, the relationship between cultural production and everyday Black life, and the politics of Black study inside and outside the academy.

This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Today’s conversation is with Eddie S. Glaude, Jr., who is James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University. In addition to numerous scholarly and public facing essays, he is the author of a number of books including most recently An Uncommon Faith: A Pragmatic Approach to the Study of African American Religion (2018), Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own (2020), and We Are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For (2024). He also maintains a Substack newsletter under the title A Native Son. In this conversation, we discuss the place of religious studies in the field of Black Studies, the impact of pragmatism, prophetic work, and political thinking on reckoning with Black life, and the complex methods, critical frames, and sensibilities that comprise the field.