Academic Aunties

The last few weeks have been devastating. Like many of you, I have been feeling this sense of immobilization, of helplessness, as we witnessed Hamas’s attack in Israel that killed 1,400 civilians and the Israeli state’s  bombing of Gaza that, as of the time of taping in late October 2023, have killed over 8000 Palestinians, as reported by the Associated Press.

We had a long conversation about whether we should proceed, as planned, with the episodes that we have in store for this season. But doing so didn’t feel right. Instead, we wanted to make sense of the truly awful things we are seeing around us.

So this week, we're joined by Academic Aunties producer, Dr. Nisha Nath as we talk with Palestinian scholar and activist Dr. Jennifer Mogannam, an Assistant Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Jennifer talks to us about how to understand what is happening now by understanding the larger historical context.

Related Links

• Palestine Feminist Collective Digital Action Toolkit
• An Open Letter from Columbia University and Barnard College Faculty in Defense of Robust Debate About the History and Meaning of the War in Israel/Gaza
• Letter signed by over 140 prominant feminist scholars
• Middle East Studies Association Board Statement on Palestine and Israel
• Race and Ethnicity Caucus at York Letter

Sara Ahmed, author, scholar, and one of our feminist heroes joins us to talk about her new book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook!

Sara's work both as a scholar in the academy working on queer phenomenology, on post coloniality, and on emotions, as well as her work after she left the academy has been an inspiration. Her work, Living a Feminist Life, her work on Complaint, and her bold and powerful blog, Feminist Killjoys, taught me so much about how institutions functioned and helped me understand my experiences in the academy.

In this conversation, Sara and I talk about the book, but also talk about the aunties in her life and many other things.

Join us in the Academic Aunties Bookclub!

In December, we're going to gather some feminist killjoy aunties to talk about the book! So after listening to this episode, go out and buy a copy. And then stay tuned in December when we're going to have our very first Academic Aunties Book Club! If you'd like to contribute to the conversation, email us your thoughts or even a voice memo to [email protected].

Related Links and Mentioned in the Episode

• The Feminist Killjoy Handbook
• Sara Ahmed's Website
• The Feminist Killjoy Blog
• The Cancer Journals, by Audre Lorde

Thanks 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 [email protected].

We are back to school! So why do we feel so exhausted? On the season 4 premiere Ethel and Nisha listen to some academic aunties audio diaries about how September is going so far. We talk about why there are so many deadlines at this busy time of the year and what we can do to help make things more manageable.

Thanks 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 [email protected].

Season 3 finale! We conclude our series on academia in the UK and in Europe with Dr. Kidjie Saguin, an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. In our chat we talk about his experiences moving from the Philippines, to Singapore, to the US and to the Netherlands across his academic journey and we explore other ways of being in academia.

We'll be back in the Fall. See you then!

Thanks 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 [email protected].

Since the end of April, the University and College Union in the UK has been on a marking strike to demand fair pay and working conditions that have deteriorated significantly. This week, we talk to Dr. Lucy Mayblin a Political Sociologist at the University of Sheffield, about what has been happening in UK academia, including how universities are transforming from institutions of public good to private institutions, and where university professors and staff are increasingly being made to act effectively as border guards with international students to create, quite explicitly, a hostile environment.

In our conversation, we talk about the rise of neoliberalism in British academia, about how bordering practices are taking hold in UK universities, and ways for academics to take back their time.

Related Links

• University and College Union Marking and assessment boycott 2023
• Backgrounder on the Hostile Environment Policy

Thanks 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 [email protected].

Yilin Wang is an award winning writer, poet, editor, and translator based in Vancouver, and recently has been passionately working on translating the works of 19th century feminist poet, Qiu Jin. So it came as a bit of a shock when she found out that the British Museum--that big national institution, holder of stolen artifacts, and symbol of British colonialism--had been using her translations in a major exhibit without credit, and importantly, without permission.

In this special "emergency" episode, we talk to Yilin about her fight to get the British Museum to own up to and rectify their mistake, and the broader systemic issues of erasure and academic theft that translators and writers constantly face.

And we talk about how listeners can help by contributing to her legal fund to get the British Museum to make things right and ensure this never happens again.

Donate now to the CrowdJustice fundraiser and help meet the goal of £15,000 by July 10!

Related Links

• Yilin Wang's Personal Website
• The Lantern and the Night Moths, Yilin Wang's forthcoming book from Invisible Publishing
• Twitter thread documenting the fight

Thanks 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 [email protected].

Back from a fellowship in the UK, Dr. Ethel Tungohan talks to Dr. Eve Hayes De Kalaf about about cultures of backlash, processes of casualization, structured austerity, and the normalization of cruelty in academia in the UK post-Brexit.

And once you're done listening, check out Dr. Eve Hayes De Kalaf's new book "Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic"!

Thanks 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 [email protected].

"We regret to inform you..." Five words that academics read a lot. But no matter how many times you see it, it still hurts. On this episode, Dr. Ethel Tungohan is joined by Academic Aunties producer, Dr. Nisha Nath to talk about grant rejections, the feelings of sadness and disappointment that accompany rejection, and why often these things have nothing to do with merit.

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Tweet from Dr. Ethel Tungohan on May 8, 2023:

"A few PhDs are writing me sadly because they didn't get the SSHRC scholarship. A reminder to everyone: not getting it DOESN'T mean that you're not qualified or that your project lacks merit. The allocation of awards depends a lot on WHO is sitting on the committee."

https://twitter.com/tungohan/status/1655626889887723532

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Shout out to podcast Who do we think we are? by Dr. Michaela Benson

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Thanks 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 [email protected].

After hearing about Bobbi Wilson, a budding 9 year old scientist who was a victim of anti-Black racism, Dr. Ijeoma Opara, a scientist at the Yale School of Public Health, was determined to make sure that her memories of science would not be of her horrible experience. So she mobilized her network of "Yale Aunties" to make sure that Bobbi knew that Black and Brown girls had a place in the world of scientists. You may have heard about this in a recent profile in the New York Times.

On this episode, we are so pleased to have some of the Yale Aunties, Dr. Opara, Dr. Ashley Bell, Dr. Kristyn Carter, Dr. Ashley Bell and Dr. Aileen Fernandez, here to talk about the amazing day that they organized for Bobbi. And we get into the importance of mentorship, of dedicated spaces for Black and Brown scholars, and advice for other scientists who are constantly made to feel like they don't belong.

Related Links

• Someone Called the Police on a Girl Catching Lanternflies. Then Yale Honored Her. (NY Times)
• Dr. Ijeoma Opara's Website
• Yale Black Postdoctoral Association
• Yale Peabody Museum

Thanks 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 [email protected].

For many academics, especially those from global north and western institutions, we take our institutional and national identities for granted. But the reality is that the passports we hold and the institutions we're a part of shapes how we experience academia. This includes the hurdles that many experience to get visas, and the experiences that people have with immigration when crossing borders.

To talk about these issues, we're so happy to have Dr. Anya Kuteleva, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Wolverhampton.

Thanks 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 [email protected].