Podcast Interview with Liz Lerman

In this episode, Liz Lerman talks about how she conceptualizes of dance, artistry, and social change. She digs into how her practice and understanding of the work she does has developed over time. She discusses how she has developed deep relationships with diverse communities in a number of domains while bridging the divide between the "usefulness" of dance and pure artistry.

Liz Lerman is a choreographer, performer, writer, teacher, and speaker. Liz has spent the past four decades making her artistic research personal, funny, intellectually vivid, and up to the minute. Her choreography has examined everything from her days as a go-go dancer in 1974 to investigating the matters of our origins by putting dancers in the tunnels of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. A key aspect of her artistry is opening her process to everyone from shipbuilders to physicists, construction workers to ballerinas, resulting in both research and experiences that are participatory, relevant, urgent, and usable by others. She founded Liz Lerman Dance Exchange in 1976 and cultivated the company’s unique multi-generational ensemble into a leading force in contemporary dance until 2011, when she handed the artistic leadership of the company over to the next generation of Dance Exchange artists.

Interviewers: Sarah Halverson-Fried, Master's student in Urban and Regional Planning; Sara Lyon-Hill, Ph.D. student in Planning, Governance, & Globalization; Max Stephenson, Director of the Institute for Policy and Governance

A Presentation from Tay Keong Tan

In this episode, Dr. Tay Keong Tan discusses his work in Bhutan which was focused on promoting better governance and limiting corruption. He walks through how he challenged corruption with the support of the abdicated leader in a newly democratic society. He talked about how Bhutan sought to promote development differently and build a better-governed country.

Dr. Tay Keong Tan is Director of International Studies and Leadership Studies at Radford University. He teaches leadership, international studies, and public administration. His research is focused on global sustainability; he is author and editor of five recent books on sustainable development and anti-corruption. He served as the Chief of Staff of the Office of Internal Oversight Services at the United Nations and led organizations in Singapore, Israel and the United States. For more than a decade, Tay Keong worked a consultant specializing in governance, anti-corruption, and public management in more than two dozen countries, including Armenia, Bhutan, Bulgaria, Cambodia, China, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand. Dr. Tan has a doctorate in Public Policy from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Arts and Sciences and a Master’s degree in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Podcast Interview with John Ferguson

In this episode, John Ferguson discusses cultural diplomacy and engagement through music and nations emerging from conflict and isolation. He highlights the work of his organization, American Voices, in nations such as Sudan, Iraq, Pakistan, and beyond.

John Ferguson is a pianist and Executive Director of American Voices, residing in Bangkok, Thailand. His performing activities include over one hundred concerts, broadcasts and master classes per year throughout Europe, North and South America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Interviewers: Eric Hodges, recent PhD in Planning, Governance, and Globalization; Naftalie Fields, Masters Student in Directing and Public Dialogue in the School of Performing Arts

Podcast Interview with Holly Lesko and Several Healthy New River Valley Participants

In this episode, Holly Lesko introduces the Healthy NRV project and facilitates a conversation with four high school students about what they have learned about community health and digital storytelling through the project. Healthy NRV was a unique community-based participatory research program focused on assessing the impacts of health factors on community development and engaging youth in local communities in community health conversations. The students involved engaged with a number of issues and brainstormed several creative community engagement processes.

Holly Lesko has worked with communities and organizations in the New River Valley region and across the Commonwealth for the past 30+ years in the areas of comprehensive planning, leadership development, economic development and enhancement, educational training and curriculum development, public health assessment and program delivery, grant writing, facilitation, assessment, and evaluation as well as grassroots community organizing. Her focus in community development is on long-range goal development with community health assessment evaluation tools to create new ways of viewing and approaching issues and concepts through inclusive and diverse community engagement. In previous work at Virginia Tech, she served as the Principal Investigator for the Healthy NRV project in partnership with the NRVRC with Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funding.

Podcast Interview with Ben Knapp, Aki Ishida, Ivo Bukvic & Liesl Baum from Virginia Tech ICAT

In this episode, Ben Knapp and other members of the leadership group at the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) discuss how they launched their transdisciplinary work. They dig into how they bridge institutional departments and colleges in search of new understandings. They talk specifically about how they have connected the arts and sciences in order to break down disciplinary boundaries and build something entirely new that moves forward with scholarship. Notably, they talk about how each discipline can learn from others when they are allowed to be flexible and follow their curiosity and creativity.

Ben Knapp is the Founding Director of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) and Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. Dr. Knapp also leads the Music, Sensors, and Emotion research group, with researchers in the UK and the US. For more than 20 years, Dr. Knapp has been working to create meaningful links between human-computer interaction, universal design, and various forms of creativity. His research on human-computer interaction has focused on the development and design of user-interfaces and software that allow both composers and performers to augment the physical control of a musical instrument with direct sensory interaction. He holds twelve patents and is the co-inventor of the BioMuse system, which enables artists to use gesture, cognition, and emotional state to interact with audio and video media.
Aki Ishida is a registered architect, Associate Professor of Architecture, and the Interim Associate Director of the School of Architecture + Design. Since joining Virginia Tech in 2012, she has collaborated with ICAT affiliates on multiple interactive light installations and healthcare design projects. She holds a Bachelor of Architecture with distinction from the University of Minnesota and a Master of Science in Advanced Architectural Design from Columbia University. She practiced architecture for 17 years in New York City prior to arriving at Virginia Tech.
A transdisciplinary creative, Ivica Ico Bukvic's work is defined by community building through creative enabling technologies and experiences. Bukvic’s output encompasses aural, visual, acoustic, electronic, performances, installations, technologies, research publications, presentations, grants, patent disclosures, and awards. His most recent work focuses on multisensory immersion with a particular focus on spatial audio and immersive sonification, new interfaces for musical expression, exploring connections between the arts and human health, and recontextualizing STEM K-12 education through innovative approaches to creativity and technology. Bukvic has spent most of his career as a scholar-practitioner developing new transdisciplinary trajectories. Between 2011 and 2019 he has received more than $1 million in external funding.
Liesl Baum is a research professor associated with ICAT. She is the head of the Idea Studio, which is dedicated to promoting critical and creative thinking skills. She is primarily interested in creating a culture of transdisciplinary collaboration for both teachers and students in K-12 education. Together with her studio team, she develops programs to connect students and teachers to the culture being fostered at ICAT.

Interviewers: Sabith Khan, Ph.D. Student in Planning, Governance, & Globalization; Sarah Halverson-Fried, Master's Student in Urban and Regional Planning

Podcast Interview with Penny Franklin

In this episode, Penny Franklin digs into her personal story and shares how she became engaged in her community. She shares her stories of starting to engage with the schools and then growing a broader movement that includes the Dialogue on Race. She goes on to encourage everyone to "show up, speak up and step up," look beyond stereotypes and speak truth to power.

Penny Franklin, a lift truck operator in Shipping Utility at Hubbell Lighting, serves on and is former chair of the Montgomery County Board of Education; member of the Virginia School Board Association Board of Directors; president of Local 82160 of the IUE/CWA; former board chair, now Area Chair of the Montgomery Count-Radford City-Floyd County NAACP; and member of the national Executive Council of the IUE. She is co-founder of the Community Group, an African American civil society organization in Montgomery County; founding member of the New Mountain Climbers, the first giving circle in southwest Virginia, the first African American philanthropy in southwest Virginia.

Interviewers: Eli Jamison, Ph.D. student in ASPECT; Eric Hodges, Ph.D. student in Public and International Affairs

Podcast Interview with Joanna Sherman & Michael McGuigan from Bond Street Theatre

In this episode, Joanna Sherman & Michael McGuigan from the Bond Street Theatre discuss the capacity of theatre to bridge divides and foster change. They also dig into how they make their work relevant in incredibly varied contexts and culturally appropriate around the world while pushing the boundaries of what theatre can be. They emphasize the importance of engaging with local artists and building strong relationships across boundaries.

Bond Street Theatre develops creative programming that addresses international human rights issues, educates youth, amplifies marginalized voices, and promotes the value of the arts in peacebuilding. Bond Street Theatre has initiated innovative arts and theatre-based programs in over 40 countries worldwide, reaching individuals in refugee camps, schools, shelters, prisons, rural areas and urban centers through mobile theatre performances, capacity-building programs for local CSOs, media outreach, trainings, and collaboration with local organizations.

Interviewers: Lyusyena Kirakosyan, Ph.D. Student in ASPECT; Sarah Lyon-Hill, Ph.D. Student in Planning, Governance, and Globalization

Podcast Interview with Frank Dukes

In this episode, Frank Dukes breaks down how to build processes that can resolve conflicts through facilitative leadership. He talks about how all stakeholders and citizens can take on leadership roles in the search for shared goals and be involved in finding solutions. While recognizing some of the limitations of collaborative leadership, he talks about how building robust processes can help bring together people who might never come together otherwise in order to build robust solutions.

Frank Dukes, Ph.D. is a mediator and facilitator with the Institute for Engagement & Negotiation at the University of Virginia. He has mediated numerous collaborative change processes, including negotiations involving communities impacted by the 2014 Duke Energy coal ash release and work with Appalachian communities undergoing economic transition. He founded University & Community Action for Racial Equity (UCARE) to address UVA’s legacy of slavery and white supremacy, leads IEN’s “Transforming Community Spaces” project helping communities transform problematic spaces, led community engagement as a member of the design team for UVA’s Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, and was a member of Charlottesville’s Commission on Race, Memorials and Public Spaces determining the fate of the City’s Confederate statues. He was awarded the 2016 John C. Casteen III Diversity-Equity-Inclusion Award for the University of Virginia, and the 2012 Sharon M. Pickett Award for Environmental Conflict Resolution.

Interviewers: Anna Irwin, Ph.D. Student in Planning, Governance, & Globalization; Andy Morikawa, IPG Senior Fellow

Presentation by Jack Hinshelwood

In this episode, Jack Hinshelwood discusses how the Crooked Road promotes the roots and folk music of Southwestern Virginia. He talks through how the organization's influence has expanded to nineteen counties, four cities, over 50 towns, five regional planning districts, two tourism organizations, and a large number of music venues.

Jack Hinshelwood, an Executive Director of The Crooked Road, brings to the work of cultural and economic development a rich background in the musical traditions of Appalachia. He is an award-winning guitarist, fiddler, singer, and songwriter. He has taught, performed, produced, and recorded the heritage music of the Appalachian region for almost 40 years. He plays regularly with the Appalachian and Celtic Music group Celtibillies, with who he toured Alaska in 2008. Jack has produced numerous recordings which led Bluegrass Unlimited to call him "a fine quick picker with a warm welcoming voice."

Presented in partnership with the Virginia Tech Department of English, IPG, CAUS, Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, Department of Religion and Culture, Center for the Arts, SPIA, and Virginia Cooperative Extension.

Presentation by Kathie Denobriga and Melanie Hammet

In this episode, Kathie Denobriga and Melanie Hammet give several live performances to demonstrate how their music-making intersects with their work in politics. They also discuss how they hold multiple identities in a society that seeks to limit our capacity to do so.

Kathie Demobriga is the Mayor of Pine Lake, Georgia. She holds a Master's degree in Theatre and a Bachelor's Degree in Speech Communications/Theatre Arts. Her early careers include managing a local theatre, serving as a Visiting Artist for an Arts Council, and an acting ensemble member with the Road Company of Johnson City, TN. She also was a founding member of Alternate Roots, a regional service organization for arts and activism.

Melanie Hammet is a musician and composer with a long history of performance and musical theater. She is also a two-term city council person in her hometown of Pine Lake, and currently serves as Mayor Pro Tempore. Hammet has written and produced more than a dozen recordings, including her last release, Crooked Spoke. She has refocused her songwriting on a new genre she calls "documentary songmaking."

Presented in partnership with Virginia Tech Department of English, IPG, CAUS, Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, Department of Religion and Culture, Center for the Arts, SPIA, and Virginia Cooperative Extension.