University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies

This podcast features Milan Vaishnav in conversation with University of Washington Jackson School faculty Radhika Govindrajan and Sunila Kale. Our guest talked about a range of topics including his route to graduate school, how he chose his dissertation topic, mixed-methods research, and public scholarship. Vaishnav is a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program and the host of the Grand Tamasha podcast at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His primary research focus is the political economy of India, and he examines issues such as corruption and governance, state capacity, distributive politics, and electoral behavior. He also conducts research on the Indian diaspora. He is the author of When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics (Yale University Press and HarperCollins India, 2017), which was awarded the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay New India Foundation book prize for the best non-fiction book on contemporary India published in 2017.

Recorded on Feb. 2, 2026

Dr. Christopher Tounsel: What is Religious Studies at UW?

Dr. Christopher Tounsel is an historian of Sudan and a scholar of Global Blackness who puts “race and religion as political technologies” at the center of his research and teaching. Join us as we unpack what that work means today, on campus and off, from the Mahdist wars of 19th century Sudan to the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Recorded on Jan. 29, 2026

Our series introductory and closing music are generously provided by Dr. John-Carlos Perea, chair of the UW Department of Ethnomusicology, from the title track of his 2014 CD Creation Story. For more, see johncarlosperea.bandcamp.com/album/creation-story.

From Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security to founding Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS), Amb. Bonnie Jenkins has led a life and career of service.  In this conversation with Jackson School Director Danny Hoffman and Gates Foundation senior program officer, and former foreign service officer, Heather Hwalek, Amb. Jenkins explores the values and the structures that are required to support a diverse and effective diplomatic corps.

Photo L to R: Amb. Bonnie Jenkins and Heather Hwalek

Dr. John-Carlos Perea (Mescalero Apache, Irish, Chicano, German) brings it all to his religious studies scholarship - his role as associate professor and chair of the ethnomusicology department at the UW; his talents as a multi instrumentalist jazz musician and composer; his research into intertribal Native American musical forms, jazz traditions and the work of Creek and Kaw saxophonist Jim Pepper. Join us for a musical first installation of our exploration of what UW religious studies can be.

Recorded on Jan. 14, 2026

This episode’s introductory and closing music comes from the title track of John-Carlos Perea’s 2014 CD Creation Story. For more, see https://johncarlosperea.bandcamp.com/album/creation-story.

U.S. Foreign Service Career Minister (retired) Mark Ward has seen all sides of the U.S. foreign aid, humanitarian assistance, and foreign policy landscape.  In this conversation with Jackson School Director Danny Hoffman, Mark reflects on his career in some of the most difficult environments of the past 30 years; the Trump administration’s dismantling of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID); and the emerging picture of what foreign aid and the foreign service may look like in the years to come.

Evangelicalism is not new in American political life. But the second Trump administration coincides with a surprising development in the role of Christian faith in the nation’s politics. The once fringe notion of Christian Nationalism now sits squarely at the point of intersection of American culture, politics and the economy. Danny Hoffman, Director of the Jackson School of International Studies, interviews Jim Wellman, Professor and former Chair of the UW's Comparative Religion Program, which is housed in the Jackson School, on what Christian Nationalism means and the tensions it creates in faith communities and secular politics. Wellman's latest book is "High on God: How Megachurches Won a Nation," published by Oxford University Press in February 2020.

Recorded Nov. 7, 2025

Dr. Tracie Canada is the author of Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football (2025) and the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology at Duke University. She is a Black feminist anthropologist and ethnographer whose research uses sport to theorize race, kinship and care, gender, and the performing body. Tracie joined Dr. Alvin Logan, Jr., the Director of Unite.Ed at the University of Washington and a former Huskie football player, and Dr. Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab, to discuss her research and what it tells us about how black players experience college football, masculinity and care, and the changing dynamics of college sports today. Recorded on November 6, 2025.

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106; Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Nikita Gicanda is the newly elected Commissioner of Women’s Football for the Rwanda Football Federation (FERWAFA) and the founder of Local Champions Africa, an organization dedicated to the empowerment of women and girls through sport. Nikita sat down in Kigali with Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab, and Layan Arrabi, a mathematics major at the University of Washington Bothell who participated in a study abroad program with Ron which focused, in part, on sport as a tool for development. They discussed the work of Local Champions, the ways in which sport can help empower women and girls, and the challenges and opportunities for women’s football in Rwanda today. Recorded on Sept. 19, 2025.

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106

Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Zaria Court is a newly-opened sports, entertainment, and cultural district located next to Amahoro Stadium and BK Arena (home of the Basketball Africa League) in the heart of Kigali, Rwanda. Zaria Court seeks to become a model for African urban development centered around sports and related activities. Join the Director of the Global Sport Lab, Ron Krabill, as he sits down with Che Rupari, Brand and Campus Manager for Zaria Court Kigali, and UW professor Ben Gardner to discuss the challenges and opportunities of using sports and sports infrastructure for economic development, tourism, and nation building in post-genocide Rwanda.

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106; Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

On July 24, 2025, three members of the U.S. Sepak Takraw National Team gave a demonstration and talk at the University of Washington, thanks to support from the UW's Center for Southeast Asia & Its Diasporas. That same day Ron Krabill, Director of the UW Global Sport Lab, sat down with them as well as a software engineer based in Washington, D.C. who played Takraw in Tamil Nadu, India, and the Executive Director of the Cambodian-American Community Council of Washington, who also received a Master's in Southeast Asian Studies at the UW's Jackson School, to discuss how Takraw is a Southeast Asian indigenous game that in recent years has been spreading to other parts of Asia, Africa, and the U.S. In the U.S. it is an important activity that builds community and connects Southeast Asian migrants and refugees to their heritage in the region.

The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy.

Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106; Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1