Imagine Otherwise by Ideas on Fire

How do Indigenous forms of governance provide models for organizing beyond the state? How might scholars better work alongside of and in the best interests of the people that they study? How does Indigenous artistic production reimagine the very nature of politics?

In episode 72 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews professor Manuela Lavinas Picq about the powerful ways Indigenous Ecuadorian women are forging new models for international politics; the personal, professional, and political stakes of being a scholar in the Global South; why it is so important for academics to work with and for communities, not just write about them; and how Indigenous communities across the globe are imagining worlds beyond the state.

Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/72-manuela-lavinas-picq

How does music enable us to dream up a different world? What does respecting your audience look like as a writer? How can we empower young people access to tell stories that matter to them?

In episode 71 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with professor and writer Francesca T. Royster about the queer afterlives of soul music, Francesca's powerful family histories of women forging intellectual and familial bonds in untraditional ways, and why giving young people the tools to tell their own stories in their own ways is how Francesca imagines otherwise.

Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/71-francesca-royster

What politics shape information management and access to knowledge? What are the social and environmental implications of ubiquitous digital preservation? How are librarians and archivists at the forefront of radical social justice projects?

In episode 70 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews librarian and archivist Stacie Williams about how knowledge and information gathering has always been deeply racialized and gendered, the radical work librarians and archivists are doing to end sexual violence and the carceral state, why digitizing everything is actually a terrible idea with big environmental consequences, and how love is key to how Stacie imagines otherwise.

Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/70-stacie-williams

How might a queer lens unearth different conceptions of space and place? How do queer diasporic artists use aesthetics to forge transnational connections? How might radical relationality provide a model for queer ethics and politics?

In episode 69 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with queer diaspora studies scholar Gayatri Gopinath about how visual culture allows us to draw alternative cartographies and see things queerly, how diasporic communities are using art to challenge national governments and transnational capitalism, the radical possibilities of region-to-region connections across the Global South, and why mentoring queer scholars of color is such a vital part of how Gayatri imagines otherwise.

Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/69-gayatri-gopinath

Do we really need sex classification in our education system, our public restrooms, or our government IDs? How can we alleviate some of the harm that trans and gender-nonconforming people who don't fit into a binary face? How might gender studies scholars best work with community members on these issues?

Episode 68 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast is the final episode in a three-part miniseries that was recorded live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at a recent gathering of interdisciplinary cultural studies scholars. The three authors featured in this miniseries—Sami Schalk, Aimi Hamraie, and Heath Fogg Davis—have recently published cultural studies books that have made big splashes beyond the academy in the areas of speculative fiction, fan cultures, urban planning and design, law, and public policy. These authors' books show how the intersections of disability, race, gender, and sexuality have shaped everything from sci-fi/fantasy novels to police violence, curb cut activism, urban architecture, and the design of public restrooms.

In this episode, host Cathy Hannabach and trans studies scholar Julian Gill-Peterson talk with professor and consultant Heath Fogg Davis about his book Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter?

Transcript and show notes: http://ideasonfire.net/68-heath-fogg-davis/

How has the concept of Universal Design and its application to architectural practice changed over the years? Who is left out of design practices that are meant for "everyone"? What if the design industry actually employed the people with disabilities who have been designing adaptable and accessible products for decades?

Episode 67 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast is the second in a three-part miniseries that was recorded live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at a recent gathering of interdisciplinary cultural studies scholars. The three authors featured in this miniseries—Sami Schalk, Aimi Hamraie, and Heath Fogg Davis—have recently published cultural studies books that have made big splashes beyond the academy in the areas of speculative fiction, fan cultures, urban planning and design, law, and public policy. These authors' books show how the intersections of disability, race, gender, and sexuality have shaped everything from sci-fi/fantasy novels to police violence, curb cut activism, urban architecture, and the design of public restrooms.

In this episode, host Cathy Hannabach talks with professor and designer Aimi Hamraie about their new book Building Access: Universal Design and the Politics of Disability.

Transcript and show notes: http://ideasonfire.net/podcast/67-aimi-hamraie/

How does speculative fiction provide us models for more queer, just, and creative futures? How are Black women novelists helping us reimagine what (dis)ability and embodiment mean? What is missing from our conversations in popular representation, disability studies, and Black studies?

Episode 66 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast is the first in a three part miniseries that was recorded live in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at a recent gathering of interdisciplinary cultural studies scholars. The three authors featured in this miniseries—Sami Schalk, Aimi Hamraie, and Heath Fogg Davis—have recently published cultural studies books that have made big splashes beyond the academy in the areas of speculative fiction, fan cultures, urban planning and design, law, and public policy. These authors' books show how the intersections of disability, race, gender, and sexuality have shaped everything from sci-fi/fantasy novels to police violence, curb cut activism, urban architecture, and the design of public restrooms.

In this episode, host Cathy Hannabach and scholar Anastasia Kārkliņa talk with Sami Schalk about Sami's new book Bodyminds Reimagined: (Dis)ability, Race, and Gender in Black Women's Speculative Fiction.

Transcript and show notes: http://ideasonfire.net/podcast/66-sami-schalk/

How might we create a world where intersectional feminist, sex-positive sex education is the norm? What new avenues of liberation are opened up when we move past a theory vs. practice dichotomy in sexuality education? How can we center accountability and community responsibility in imagining a safer and more pleasurable future?

In episode 65 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews educator and sexologist Bianca Laureano about how women of color sexual health communities are challenging white supremacy and sex negativity; how a hippie Puerto Rican family shaped Bianca's journey into the sex education field; the vital support abortion doulas provide to individuals, families, and communities; and why fostering what Bianca calls an intersectional, "collective afterworld" is how she imagines otherwise.

Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/podcast/65-bianca-laureano

What is the negative capacity of art and how does it let us imagine otherwise? What tools does queer of color critique offer for building new worlds? What revolutionary futures become visible when we bring a critical scrutiny to our lives and our work?

In episode 64 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with professor Tavia Nyong'o about the ongoing project of Black abolition, repurposing social media platforms to create monthly political salons and counterpublics, how to live the contradictions inherent in public scholarship, and why centering queer of color joy and pleasure is key to how Tavia imagines otherwise.

Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/64-tavia-nyongo

What does it mean to listen to images? Why do images seem to be haunted by their contexts of production? How are marginalized communities using the intimacy of images to build new ways of relating to each other and the world?

In episode 63 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with professor Tina Campt about how listening to images reveals their multisensory and embodied nature, the haptic connections we have to photos, why the art/activism/academia braid holds such power for Black communities, and why putting intimacy at the center of all she does is how Tina imagines otherwise.

Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/63-tina-campt