Unpack This!

Where academic misfits unload their baggage.

Unpack This!

writing

Unpacking African American Literacies with Dr. E

Constance and Jo chat with the AMAZING Dr. Elaine Richardson (https://twitter.com/DoctaE1) about everything from hip hop literacies to reclaiming our time. Among other things, Docta E,discusses her current and future research projects, and what she does in her “down” time– in this case, attending a Sy Smith concert in Atlanta. 

References from the conversation:

Dr. E’s TEDxOSU talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB5-_W-EroQ

Teaching for a World That’s Livable: Queering Pedagogy in the Time of COVID, with GPat Patterson

Constance and Jo speak with Dr. GPat Patterson, Associate Professor of English at Kent State Tuscarawas about their recent article, “Loving Students in the Time of COVID: a Dispatch from LGBT Studies.” We explore teaching as the cultivation of immersive learning experiences, why the imperative to market our disciplines as job-market training is a trap, and how to build more supportive environments for liberatory teaching and learning.

Items mentioned in this episode:

Contagion, Contamination, and Containment

Our fearless hosts discuss Constance’s “Rethinking Literature” course about infectious disease, medical ethics, and pandemics. She also loves a good meme, so those come up too. They also unpack one of Constance’s favorite quotes from Jo’s article, “Containment and Interdependence: Epidemic Logics in Asian American Racialization.” 

Jo writes, “I argue that any pursuit of justice for Asian Americans must respond to and take responsibility for the imbrications of our stories with anti-Blackness, colonization, and heteronormativity—that this difficult work of relating is necessary for breaking cycles of containment and devastation,” and in typical Constance fashion, she asks them to expand on an already expansive quote. 

Because Constance can never remember the name of anything, the texts she references in the episode are Hydra by Matt Wesolowski, The Kiss of Death: Contagion, Contamination, and Folklore by Andrea Kitta, and An Epidemic of Rumors: How Stories Shape Our Perception of Disease by Jon D. Lee. 

For questions, comments, or suggestions, email us at theunpackthispodcast@gmail.com or follow us on Twitter. theUNPACKTHISpodcast @The_UnpackThis.

Peer Reviewed Hip Hop Album-Say What??? Interview with A.D. Carson

In the Season Two preview, Jo and Constance talk with scholar A.D. Carson (aydeethegreat.com) about the peer review process for his dissertation, which took the form of a hip hop album. They also talk about A.D.’s next project, ghosts, ancestor veneration, and Black History Month, among other things. For questions, comments, or suggestions of topics and guests, email theunpackthispodcast@gmail.com. You can also follow theUNPACKTHISpodcast on Twitter @The_UnpackThis.