The Hauenstein Center Collection

This week, we hear Dan Varner, President and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, deliver a Wheelhouse Talk. Varner leads efforts to support 900+ local businesses in Detroit with a reliable workforce, and helps empower trainees with skills for workplace success. Before joining Goodwill, Dan served as the CEO of Excellent Schools Detroit, a partnership of city organizations working to improve Detroit’s public education system.

This week, we hear Dan Varner, President and CEO of Goodwill Industries of Greater Detroit, deliver a Wheelhouse Talk. Varner leads efforts to support 900+ local businesses in Detroit with a reliable workforce, and helps empower trainees with skills for workplace success. Before joining Goodwill, Dan served as the CEO of Excellent Schools Detroit, a partnership of city organizations working to improve Detroit’s public education system.

In this episode, the historian Hank Meijer talks about the work and influence of Senator Arthur Vandenberg, the Republican from Michigan who, at the dawn of the Cold War, worked with Democratic administrations to build congressional support for huge foreign policy endeavors, including the Marshall Plan, NATO, and the United Nations.

In this episode, the historian Hank Meijer talks about the work and influence of Senator Arthur Vandenberg, the Republican from Michigan who, at the dawn of the Cold War, worked with Democratic administrations to build congressional support for huge foreign policy endeavors, including the Marshall Plan, NATO, and the United Nations.

This week we hear from Andrew Hartman, a professor of history at Illinois State University. Andrew is currently hard at work on a book about Karl Marx. I asked him to come on the podcast because the name Marx seems to be in the air right now. It’s not just that we’ve come up the centenary of the Russian Revolution. People seem to want to talk about, or at least debate once again, the merit of Marx’s ideas and the form of economic and cultural analysis that he inaugurated. Consider the many books that have recently come out, like China Mieville’s "October," re-assessing the October Revolution and wondering if it inevitably led to Stalinism; consider also the many articles and essays in periodicals not just like Jacobin and the Nation, but also The New York Times, reintroducing Marxist concepts into the national debate as a way to assess and critique what is called neo-liberalism.

This week we hear from Andrew Hartman, a professor of history at Illinois State University. Andrew is currently hard at work on a book about Karl Marx. I asked him to come on the podcast because the name Marx seems to be in the air right now. It’s not just that we’ve come up the centenary of the Russian Revolution. People seem to want to talk about, or at least debate once again, the merit of Marx’s ideas and the form of economic and cultural analysis that he inaugurated. Consider the many books that have recently come out, like China Mieville’s "October," re-assessing the October Revolution and wondering if it inevitably led to Stalinism; consider also the many articles and essays in periodicals not just like Jacobin and the Nation, but also The New York Times, reintroducing Marxist concepts into the national debate as a way to assess and critique what is called neo-liberalism.

In this episode, we hear from Juliet Fleming, Professor of English at New York University and author, most recently, of "Cultural Graphology: Writing After Derrida," out from the University of Chicago Press. I ask Juliet to defend Derrida against skeptics both inside and outside the academy. She talks about what she says when she is called upon, at cocktail parties and in academe, to "explain" Derrida. We talk about the use and importance of Derrida's thought generally. We talk about his politics, as well as his contemporary followers and interpreters, and also his legacy.

In this episode, we hear from Juliet Fleming, Professor of English at New York University and author, most recently, of "Cultural Graphology: Writing After Derrida," out from the University of Chicago Press. I ask Juliet to defend Derrida against skeptics both inside and outside the academy. She talks about what she says when she is called upon, at cocktail parties and in academe, to "explain" Derrida. We talk about the use and importance of Derrida's thought generally. We talk about his politics, as well as his contemporary followers and interpreters, and also his legacy.

In this episode, we hear from Erik S McDuffie, professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois.

Just the other day, the Hauenstein Center posted a call for papers for the fourth "Finding the Lost Region" conference to be held on June 6th, 2018. The problem the conference seeks to address is the lack of institutional support for the study of Midwestern history. Why don't more historians, and more cultural critics generally, acknowledge and discuss the importance of the Midwest to American history, culture, politics?

In his talk, Erik S McDuffie argues that the Midwest plays a crucial role not just in African American history but in the history of black diaspora. A major focus of his talk: Garveyism, and the revolutionary role played by women such as Louise Little, the mother of Malcolm X.

In this episode, we hear from Erik S McDuffie, professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois.

Just the other day, the Hauenstein Center posted a call for papers for the fourth "Finding the Lost Region" conference to be held on June 6th, 2018. The problem the conference seeks to address is the lack of institutional support for the study of Midwestern history. Why don't more historians, and more cultural critics generally, acknowledge and discuss the importance of the Midwest to American history, culture, politics?

In his talk, Erik S McDuffie argues that the Midwest plays a crucial role not just in African American history but in the history of black diaspora. A major focus of his talk: Garveyism, and the revolutionary role played by women such as Louise Little, the mother of Malcolm X.