PhDivas

April is the cruelest month! It's a rough time in higher ed: originally our theme for this episode was just "being tired." Work, travel, bills, dying houseplants. We push through our exhaustion to talk about the musical Hamilton, Get Out, Ghost in the Shell, and that awful Pepsi commercial with Kendall Jenner. The PhDivas just came back from their visit to Earlham College where they gave talks on their individual research and on bridging the STEM/humanities divide. Connecting with students and our listeners helps to give us energy! ...but we still need to get enough sleep.

You can view our joint talk at Earlham College on Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/EarlhamPsychology/videos/1090781751068369/

Our latest guest Brianda is at a turning point: pursue a PhD in STEM or follow her dream of growing Flyy Science, which combines science communication with hip hop and style. This is a coming-of-age in academia episode that everyone can relate to! Liz and Xine chat with Brianda about her current work as a certified Medical Laboratory Scientist, the gap between STEM degrees and jobs, and the journey from realizing you love something to what it means to develop a career. Why don't kidneys get the same attention as hearts in popular culture? Brianda asks the PhDivas for advice on the next steps as a possible pre-PhDiva and what the best path might be for someone who describes herself as a mix of Bill Nye the Science Guy, Aaliyah, and Left Eye.

Brianda on Twitter: @flyyscience1

On Tumblr: http://flyyscience.tumblr.com/

On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCKzUwVctzKHV6_VGB8cp1KQ

Black child joy is a fundamental reason Black History Month needs to exist. We recap Black History Month 2017 with Danielle Morgan, Assistant Professor of English at Santa Clara University, from Beyonce's pregnancy with twins to Moonlight, Fences, and Hidden Figures at the Oscars. The figure of the Black child is important to address beyond sentimentality: Danielle and Liz explain to Xine what celebrating Black History Month meant to them as children. How do we make space for respecting all forms of black excellence?

Danielle's piece on Black History Month for Al-Jazeera: http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/02/black-history-month-criticism-170210113100632.html

This week we have a double episode release for Black History Month! Historian Mari N. Crabtree is Assistant Professor of African American Studies at the College of Charleston and works on lynching, narrativity, and memory in the South. She researches and teaches Black history not far from Emanuel AME Church, the site of the massacre committed by Dylann Roof, and in South Carolina, where Bree Newsome took down the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds. We talk with Professor Crabtree about how the past collapses into the present amidst the protests against and counter-protests for Bree Newsome's talk at the College for Black History Month. Mari, Liz Wayne, and Xine Yao discuss Dr Martin Luther King Jr, the institution of Black History Month, the North/South dichotomy -- and how Mari is teaching a class based on our episode about Asian American and African American crosscultural influences!

Mari Crabtree's reflections on Black History Month: http://blogs.cofc.edu/aast/2017/02/21/reflections-on-black-history-month/

More on Professor Crabtree: http://african-american-studies.cofc.edu/program/faculty-pages/crabtree-mari.php

What do power, society, and ideology have to do with science? PhDiva Liz Wayne interviews Associate Professor Sarah Richardson, speaker at the 2017 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics at Harvard. Professor Richardson's research uses a multidisciplinary approach to analyze how scientists understand sex and gender. In this episode, she discusses her interdisciplinary journey through history, philosophy, genetics, and feminism. Richardson challenges us to go beyond the 'Women in STEM" pipeline inclusion model. What if biology doesn't determine gender, but gender -- and other forms of difference -- can change biology? In this conversation Liz and Professor Richardson talk about making science and the teaching of science better.

More on Sarah Richardson here: http://scholar.harvard.edu/srichard/home

Muslim fictions and fictions about Muslims: we talk politics, stereotypes, and histories with Dr. Noor Hashem, expert on Muslim American literature. What are the ordinary, everyday, boring lives of Muslims in the United States? What is it like to be a person of faith in the academy and how does it inform one's work? Noor, Xine and Liz discuss points of intersection, activism, and ethical emotions. If tough love isn't doing it, what do we need? We end with a more recent interview with Dr. Noor to discuss the #MuslimBan and the heartening support for activism in Boston.

Council on American-Islamic Relations:

https://www.cair.com/

Massachusetts Chapter: http://www.cairma.org/

Preparations for the Science March on Washington are underway! Whose science is it anyway? Liz brings us a group interview with aspiring physicists from the 2017 Conference for Undergraduate Women in Physics at Harvard. We get insight into how these young women are inspired to study different aspects of physics: from Instagram selfies to engineering to parental guidance to the thrill of knowing the wonders of the universe. How do you transition from a childhood love to your professional path? Xine and Liz frame this interview with questions about politics and intersectionality as part of the plans of the upcoming Science March on Washington and around the US.

CUWIP: http://www.aps.org/programs/women/workshops/cuwip.cfm

SPIN UP: https://sites.google.com/site/harvardcuwip/application/spin-up-application

Crystal Springs, Mississippi: two girls graduated from their small town high school and grew up to be Dr. Shahara'Tova "Shaye" Dente, English PhD, and our own Dr. Liz Wayne, TED Fellow. Shaye gives us insight into the research and teaching of hip hop, social movements, and hip hop literature. Xine and Liz interview Shaye about pipeline programs for underrepresented minorities to the question of what makes good literature. We talk Jay-Z, Drake, Meek Mill, Nicki Minaj, Lil' Kim, Iggy Azalea -- and whether the vampires of Twilight suck. What does it mean to teach African American literature in the South, passing by cotton fields and former plantations, if you're Black?

Think positive, not punitive. How can we make resolutions that are not just individually-oriented? Make resolutions shared with friends, nominate good people for awards, buy a coffee/tea/drink/lunch for someone junior. We are trained in critique and then forget how compliments feed the human self. Xine and Liz are committed to making sure they lift others as they climb! The PhDivas are also dedicated to their own different approaches to body positivity -- but they're both aiming for unassisted pull-ups.

Oh, and Xine's theme song for the year is DMX's "X Gon' Give It to Ya." (Get it, X? We amuse ourselves...)

On New Year's Eve we go meta and reflect on our best moments, interviews, behind-the-scenes production, and the melanin contrast between us in our promo photos thanks to the inadequacies of phototechnology. We discuss what it means for us to be in public while academics are under attack in this post-Steven Salaita moment. How do we talk to each other in seminar, in question period, in our citations? As we climb, let's not forget to lift each other.

Thank you to our amazing interviewees and the support of our listeners!