Trustees Without Borders

Podcast Interview with Dr. Ariel Otruba

In this episode, we talk with Dr. Ariel Otruba about her work that centers around peacebuilding, borders, and the politics of displacement. She discusses her photovoice exhibit "Violent Infrastructure: Ecologies of Decay & Displacement," which captures the feelings and experiences of internally displaced people (IDPs) in the Republic of Georgia. Along the way, she shares about the politics of Georgia and displacement more broadly. Lastly, Dr. Otruba delves into her approach to qualitative research and how she thinks about what it is that she is doing.

Ariel Otruba, PhD is a feminist political geographer and conflict resolution practitioner, who specializes in the study of violent geographies in the South Caucasus. Her research interests include critical geopolitics, border and migration studies, and posthumanist approaches to political ecology. She currently teaches in the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program at Arcadia University. Prior to this role, she was the InFocus War and Peace Scholar-in-Residence at Moravian University. Her publications have appeared in several edited volumes and Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space.

Interviewers: Amin Farzaneh & Brad Stephens, PhD Students in Planning, Governance, and Globalization

Made possible with the support of the Institute for Policy and Governance, the Center for European Union, Transatlantic, and Trans-European Space Studies, the Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies, and the Community Change Collaborative in partnership with Newman Library.

Podcast Interview with Khishi Enkhbayer

In this episode, Khishi Enkhbayer shares her experiences working to empower the young people of Mongolia and build the capacity for international collaboration. She shares how she has navigated and come to understand working in Mongolia's unique context and why she is drawn to this youth-driven work so important. She also talks about leadership more broadly and how she understands the role of international NGOs.

Khishigjargal (Khishi) Enkhbayar is a consultant on youth engagement at UNICEF in Mongolia. Previously, Khishi was a desk officer at the Office of the President of Mongolia, working on environmental issues. She co-founded the United Nations Association of Mongolia, which conducts various programs for youth empowerment. She is also engaged in the United Nations Futures dialogues on Northeast Asian peace and security as part of the co-design team and has co-authored several articles on the subject, including a policy brief on regional narrative building. Khishi graduated from Tsinghua University with a Masters in Global Affairs and was a UNESCO Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore.

Interviewers: Yugasha Bakshi, Ph.D. student in Planning, Governance, and Globalization; Brad Stephens, Ph.D. student in Planning, Governance, and Globalization.

Podcast Interview with Doug Jackson, Virginia DHCD & City of Roanoke

On this episode, Doug talks about how he approaches facilitation and how it can play an essential role in building community capacity. He makes it clear that establishing good processes in a community can go a long way to building efficacy and improving outcomes. He goes on to discuss the connection he sees between his work with the arts and process facilitation, highlighting the way these seemingly disparate fields work are closer than we might think.

Doug is a capacity development specialist with the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), where he provides facilitation and strategic support to Virginia communities and their placemaking partners. Additionally, for the past 15 years, he has served in leadership roles with Roanoke, virginia’s Arts Commission and co-chaired that community’s first arts and cultural plan. He currently serves as the City of Roanoke’s arts and culture coordinator, providing staff support and leadership for civic arts initiatives, including the City’s public art program, creative placemaking strategies, and municipal arts funding.

Interviewers: Brad Stephens, Ph.D. Student in Planning, Governance, & Globablization

Podcast Interview with Mark Valdez, Mixed Blood Theater

As the problems facing our communities grow bigger, our collective imagination for solutions seems to only get smaller. This is where art and creativity come into play. On this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Mark Valdez explores his work sparking civic imagination with the communities in which he works to support people in seeing solutions and success.

Mark Valdez is a director, writer, and cultural organizer who partners with communities, organizations, civic institutions, and others, using theater and creative tools to address community needs and to lift up community voices and stories. His work has been seen at community venues and professional theaters across California, from a tomato field in Grayson to a de-commissioned Catholic cathedral in downtown LA; from the stages in La Pena Cultural Center in Berkeley to the stages of the Ricardo Montalban Theater/CTG in Hollywood. 

Interviewers: Sarah E. Plummer, a recovering journalist, a proud Appalachian, and a PhD candidate at Virginia Tech researching the way Bread and Puppet Theater mobilizes performing objects within their performance styles and spaces, and C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, artist, cultural organizer, and master’s degree candidate at Virginia Tech in the Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre: Directing & Public Dialogue programs.

In partnership with the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts.

Podcast Interview with Dr. Michelle Ramos, Alternate ROOTS

Dr. Michelle Ramos, Executive Director and Vision Keeper of Alternate ROOTS, discusses the legacy of activism that energizes her work, and shares tangible examples of her work disrupting long standing white supremacist structures and systems.

Dr. Michelle Ramos, Executive Director of Alternate ROOTS and founder of Ramos Coaching. Dr. Michelle Ramos applies critical race theory and lived experiences to disrupt long standing white supremacist structures and systems. A licensed attorney with a PhD in Psychology, she has significant organizing experience and has committed her career to serving communities and individuals adversely impacted by issues of race, gender, disability, class, socioeconomics, inequitable laws and systemic oppression. She has consulted for over 20 years nationally and internationally with expertise in non-profit consulting, DEI work and mediation.

Interviewers: Nicole Nunoo, a PhD candidate in Virginia Tech’s Department of Agricultural Leadership and Community Education, a food justice enthusiast by heart and a community development analyst by profession, and C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, an artist, cultural organizer, and master’s degree candidate in Virginia Tech’s Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre’s: Directing & Public Dialogue programs

In partnership with the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts.

Podcast Interview with Michael Carter, Jr. (Carter Farms) & Josephus Thompson III (The Poetry Project)

On this episode of Trustees Without Borders we are joined by Josephus Thompson III, poet and creator of the Poetry Cafe, and Michael Carter Jr., 11th generation farmer and owner of Carter Farms in Orange, Virginia. Josephus and Michael discuss creativity, the rhythm of poetry, and nature as embedded in liberation work.

As a teacher and lecturer, Josephus Thompson founded, The Poetry Project, where he works in the educational and corporate setting focusing on “Education through Correlation”. Josephus uses poetry as a catalyst for literacy, leadership, and service. The Host of 90.1FM’s The Poetry Café, his voice is heard weekly over the airwaves as he showcases talented artists from all over the world in the genres of poetry, hip-hop, and R&B to name a few. He has performed for Oprah, opened for Kanye West and Floetry, shared stages with The Last Poets, traveled to Australia, London, Seoul, and South Africa as well as back and forth across the United States sharing his gift.

Michael Carter Jr. is an 11th-generation American/farmer and is the 5th generation to farm on, Carter Farms, his family's century farm in Orange County, Virginia where he gives workshops on how to grow and market ethnic vegetables. With Virginia State University, he is the Small Farm Resource Center Coordinator for the Small Farm Outreach Program. As a cliometrician, curriculum developer, and program coordinator for his educational, cultural, and vocational platforms, Hen Asem (Our Story) and Africulture, he teaches and expounds on the contributions of Africans and African Americans to agriculture worldwide and trains students, educators, and professionals in African cultural understanding, empathy, and implicit bias recognition.

Interviewers: Justice Madden, community architect, graduate student in Virginia Tech’s Department of Agricultural Leadership, and C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, an artist, cultural organizer, and master’s degree candidate in Virginia Tech’s Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre’s: Directing & Public Dialogue programs

In Partnership with the Center for Food Systems & Community Transformation at Virginia Tech

Faculty Forum with LaDale Winling

In this episode, LaDale Winling discusses his work collecting stories of systemic injustices, such as redlining, and gives a history of how redlining first occurred through the nationalization of mortgage lending. He also talks about how he views public history and how it might be important with the goal of producing better and more just communities.

LaDale Winling is an associate professor of history and core member of the public history program at Virginia Tech. His research and teaching explore urban and political history in the United States, especially how space, architecture, and geography shape politics, economic life, and daily experience. His book, Building the Ivory Tower, examined the role of American universities as real estate developers in the twentieth century. Professor Winling uses spatial data tools in both his print and digital work over the web. With collaborators, in 2016 he launched Mapping Inequality: Redlining in New Deal America, on the work of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation to map and grade the credit worthiness of neighborhoods in cities across America. In 2018, he launched Electing the House of Representatives, 1840-2016, on Congressional elections. This work has been featured in The Atlantic, the New York Times, on National Public Radio, and other media outlets.

Podcast Interview with Karen O'Brien

In this episode, Dr. O'Brien speaks to the possibility of quantum social theory and what it means for avoiding the hopelessness of social change. She explores what happens when we put human capacity at the forefront for transformative possibility. She challenges us to see new paths to individual agency and true change. There is also a particular focus on climate change mitigation.

Karen O'Brien is a professor of sociology and an internationally recognized expert on climate change and society, focusing on themes such as climate change impacts, vulnerability, and adaptation including how climate change interacts with globalization processes and the implications for human security. She is interested in how transdisciplinary and integral approaches to global change research can contribute to a better understanding of how societies both create and respond to change, and particularly the role of beliefs, values, and worldview in transformations to sustainability. She has been heavily involved in the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Global Change Programmes and the transition to Future Earth, a 10-year global change research initiative. She is the co-founder and partner in cCHANGE, an Oslo-based company.  cCHANGE is a beacon for individuals and organizations seeking a new perspective, inspiration, knowledge, and tools on climate change and sustainability transformations.

Interviewers: Kathy Grimes, Communications Director for Virginia Tech Graduate School and Lara Nagle, Community-Based Research Manager at the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance

Presented in partnership with Virginia Tech Department of Political Science, the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at VT, the Institute for Policy and Governance, the Global Change Center, the Fralin Life Sciences Institute, the Community Change Collaborative, and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Innovation at VT.

Faculty Forum with Andrea Baldwin

In this episode, Andrea Baldwin shares a bit about how we might consider the concept of brackishness and how it might connect with Black aliveness. She talks about how this brackishness exists as an in-between space between saltwater and freshwater. She then uses this ecological concept can inform Black feminism.

Dr. Andrea Baldwin is an assistant professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and Africana studies in the Sociology Department at Virginia Tech. She completed her doctoral studies at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill campus Barbados in 2013 with a thesis entitled, Investigating Power in the Anglophone Caribbean Middle Class: Ideologies and Love as Power – Barbados as a Case Study. She is also an attorney-at-law who also holds an MSc. in International trade policy and her research interests include Black and transnational feminist epistemology, theorizing pedagogy as a form of feminist activism, care in Black communities, and Caribbean cultural studies.

Podcast Interview with Jiang Nengjie

In this episode, Jiang Nengjie shares his perspective on filmmaking as a storytelling tool and a powerful resource to build understanding. He also digs into the experience of the children left behind in rural China and the factors driving change in this fast-changing country. He speaks eloquently about how his own emotions and need to tell the stories he sees drives him on in the search to see better.

Jiang Nengjie is a Chinese filmmaker whose work includes four documentaries about the millions of children left-behind in villages by their parents seeking employment in China’s sprawling cities. When he was a child, Jiang Nengjie’s parents left him behind in their Hunan village when they went to find work in Guangdong province. Unaccustomed to the fast pace of city life, Jiang, 32, lives in his home town and splits his time between making films and taking care of three village libraries he established in the county for left-behind children. His documentaries include frank and revealing aspects of life in China.

Interviewers: Yezi Yang, PhD student in Geosciences; Kim Felix, PhD student in Planning, Governance, and Globalization; Neda Moayerian: Postdoctoral research associate at Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance and Center for Economic and Community Engagement

In our interview with Jiang Nengjie, since he is more comfortable speaking in Mandarin, Yezi Yang will serve as our interpreter.

Podcast Interview with Sage Crump

On this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Sage discusses her work incorporating complex sciences, emergent strategy, and creative practice to imagine the world we want to live in and to build strategies and practices that will get us there.

Sage Crump is an artist, culture strategist, and facilitator who supports cultural workers and arts organizations involved in social justice to build social movements. She believes in leveraging art, creative practice, and the cultural sector to transform systemic oppressions.

Interviewers: C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, an artist, cultural organizer, and master’s degree candidate in Virginia Tech’s Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre’s: Directing & Public Dialogue programs, Gabe Velazquez, a theatre producer, performer, and Masters Candidate in Virginia Tech’s Theatre: Arts Leadership Program, and Molly Todd, a PhD student in the interdisciplinary ASPECT program, who works at the intersection of politics and culture

In Partnership with The School of Performing Arts at Virginia Tech

Podcast Interview with Alia Malek, International Reporting Program

On this episode of Trustees Without Borders, we consider what replaces the very idea of home when home itself becomes unattainable and its permanence illusory. Alia Malek discusses the meaning of home, as well as relevant local, national, and international policies and programs, positive and negative, that affect refugees.

Alia Malek is the author of A Country Called Amreeka: US History Re-Told Through Arab American Lives (Simon & Schuster, 2009) and editor of Patriot Acts: Narratives of Post 9/11 Injustices (McSweeney's 2011). With collaborators the Magnum Foundation and Al Liquidoi, Alia edited and co-conceived EUROPA: An Illustrated Introduction to Europe for Migrants and Refugees, released in Europe in 2016. Her narrative nonfiction book, The Home That Was Our Country: A Memoir of Syria, was released in 2017. Her reporting has appeared in The New York Times, Foreign Policy, NewYorker.com, the Nation, the Christian Science Monitor, Jadaliyya, McSweeney’s, Guernica, and other publications.

Interviewers: Neda Moayerian, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Virginia Tech at the Institute for Policy and Governance, and Molly Todd, a PhD student in the interdisciplinary ASPECT program at Virginia Tech, who works at the intersection of politics and culture

In Partnership with Virginia Tech's Center for Refugee, Migrant, and Displacement Studies and the Center for Rhetoric in Society at Virginia Tech.

Faculty Forum with Cruz Garcia & Nathalie Frankowski

In this episode, Cruz Garcia and Nathalie Frankowski share about their search for critical forms of architectural pedagogy and how they are deeply invested in the development of new curricula and pedagogical experiments searching for diverse forms of public engagement with architecture, as well as a decolonization of the role of architecture in the construction of new worlds. Garcia and Frankowski discuss their international art and architecture workshops for diverse participants, spanning from children, to college students working across different fields and the general public.

Cruz García is a Puerto Rican architect, educator, author, theorist, curator, and artist. Nathalie Frankowski is a French architect, educator, author, poet, curator, and artist. Together they are working across different platforms to ask critical questions about the role of architecture, art and pedagogy in the construction of new worlds. In 2008 they co-founded in Brussels WAI Architecture Think Tank to contribute to the collective intelligence of architecture from a panoramic and critical approach oscillating from the design of buildings and master plans with a public agenda, to the creation of publications and pedagogical projects addressing questions of historical urgency. The work of WAI Think Tank includes the shortlisted design for the National Centre for Contemporary Art (NCCA) in Moscow, the design of LI Creative Offices, and several cultural and educational buildings and spaces around the world, as well as a series of Narrative Architecture projects exploring the role of architecture in an age of planetary challenges.

(Both were also serving as Assistant Professors at Virginia Tech at the time of recording.)

Podcast Interview with Lily Yeh, Barefoot Artists

Lily Yeh is an unconventional changemaker for cities guided by abundant hope. In this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Lily Yeh speaks from the heart, sharing approaches she has taken across her career to build community through art, learning, land transformation, and economic development.

Lily Yeh is an artist whose work has taken her to communities throughout the world. As founder and executive director of The Village of Arts and Humanities in North Philadelphia from 1968 to 2004, she helped create a national model in creative place-making and community building through the arts. In 2002, Yeh pursued her work internationally, founding Barefoot Artists, Inc. to bring the transformative power of art to impoverished communities around the globe through participatory, multifaceted projects that foster community empowerment, improve the physical environment, promote economic development and preserve indigenous art and culture. In addition to the United States, she has carried out projects in several other countries.

Interviewers: Lydia Gilmer, Master of Urban and Regional Planning Candidate at Virginia Tech, and Small Business Solutions Specialist for Pulaski County, VA, and C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, an artist, cultural organizer, and master’s degree candidate in Virginia Tech’s Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre’s: Directing & Public Dialogue programs

In Partnership with the Virginia Tech School of Visual Arts

Podcast Interview with Brandi & Carlton Turner, Sipp Culture

On this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Brandi and Carlton Turner speak about their use of the arts and agriculture to support rural community, cultural, and economic development in their hometown, Utica, MS.

Carlton Turner, Lead Artist and Director of Sipp Culture, works across the country as a performing artist, arts advocate, policy shaper, lecturer, consultant and facilitator. Brandi Turner, Program and Events Manager of Sipp Culture, was born in Michigan and raised in New Orleans, LA and Oxford, Mississippi. Brandi works as co-owner and Managing Director of TWA Consulting, a firm that provides services in creative consulting for organizations looking to strengthen their work in arts and culture. The Mississippi Center for Cultural Production (Sipp Culture) is honoring the history and building the future of Utica, MS. Their work weaves together research, development and local agricultural initiatives with contemporary media and storytelling to share the legacy and vision of Utica.  Sipp Cultures’ place-based model program promotes economic empowerment and self-sufficiency of low-and moderate-income people through education, technical assistance, training and mentoring in agribusiness.

Interviewers: Neda Moayerian, Post-Doctoral Research Associate at Virginia Tech at the Institute for Policy and Governance, Sarah Lyon-Hill, Associate Director for Research Development at the Virginia Tech Office of Economic Development, and C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, an artist, cultural organizer, and master’s degree candidate in Virginia Tech’s Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre’s: Directing & Public Dialogue programs

In Partnership With: Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts; Blacksburg Public Library; Virginia Tech’s Women and Minority Artists and Scholars Lecture Series; Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education at Virginia Tech; The Center for Communicating Science; The Christiansburg Institute, Inc

In this bonus episode, Friends of Fulbright Argentina Student Exchange Program students share their reflections and insights after spending time at Virginia Tech.

Friends of Fulbright Argentina Student Exchange Program students left to right: Facundo Arredondo, Miguel Angel Deriane, Camila Barbeito, Valentina Boretti, Mariana Giacone, Miguel Cervantes Schamun

Podcast Interview with Henrique Gomes da Silva & Andreza Jorge

Henrique Gomes da Silva & Andreza Jorge explore what it means to be a resident of a favela in Brazil. They explore how their work utilizes arts and research frameworks while challenging standard understandings of who lives in these spaces and even what a favela is. They also dig into how they have been able to mobilize favela residents and build community power.

Andreza Jorge is a black feminist, mother, academic, and resident of Complexo da Maré. She has worked with a variety of social projects focused on racial, gender, and sexual identity. She has published numerous articles, short stories, and poems and was named the “highlight” poet of the 2017 International Literary Festival of Paraty. She coordinates Casa das Mulheres, a space for women in Maré. Jorge uses dance, music, and composition to discuss themes pertinent to the daily life of women living in favelas.  Henrique Gomes da Silva is a black activist and resident of Complexo da Maré. He works with numerous local and international academics, artists, and activists. Silva also coordinates Maré que Queremos, a project which brings together Maré’s neighborhood associations to improve favela conditions, and Espaço Normal, a space for drug users and the homeless.

Interviewers: Desiree Poets, Assistant Professor in the VT Dept. of Political Science; Courtney Surmanek, Master's student in Urban & Regional Planning & Fine Arts; Molly Todd, PhD student in the ASPECT program

NOTE: Translation by Desiree Poets, PhD. 

Podcast Interview with Dr. Monica White, University of Wisconsin

In this episode, Dr. White speaks to the history of Black agriculture in the United States and how the lessons of the past are relevant as we look to solve current problems. She touches on how we might be able to replace a broken food system with a healthier, community-growing model. Additionally, she also digs into how we should deepen our understanding of community agency and resilience.

Dr. Monica White is an associate professor of Environmental Justice with a joint appointment in the Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and the Department of Community and Environmental Sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is the first Black woman to earn tenure in both the College of Agricultural Life Sciences (1989) and the Nelson Institute (1970) at UW-Madison. Her research investigates Black, Latinx, and Indigenous grassroots organizations that are engaged in the development of sustainable, community-based food systems as a strategy to respond to issues of hunger and food inaccessibility. As the founding director of the Office of Environmental Justice and Engagement (OEJE) at UW-Madison, she works to bridge the gap between the community and the university and its resources by connecting community-based organizations that are working on areas of environmental/food/land justice to faculty and students. Her first book, Freedom Farmers: Agricultural Resistance and the Black Freedom Movement, received the 2019 Eduardo Bonilla Silva Outstanding Book Award from the Division of Race and Ethnic Minorities Section of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. 

Interviewers: Nicole Nunoo, Ph.D. student in Agricultural Leadership and Community Education; Lara Nagle, Community-Based Learning Project Manager at the Institute of Policy & Governance

Podcast Interview with Todd London

In this podcast episode, Todd London reflects on conflict and communion in society and the values of art as a core element for building strong communities. He reflects on his work in theatre and how he has seen the arts interact with communities.

Todd London has worked in the American theatre for more than thirty years, supporting the flourishing of individual artists, advocating for best practices, creating connections between independent artists and producing theatres, and documenting the evolving field. His service has taken many shapes: artistic director, educator, arts journalist and essayist, public speaker, and theater historian. He is also a novelist, and his second novel, If You See Him, Let Me Know, was published in February 2020 (Austin Macauley). Todd is currently Director of Theatre Relations for the Dramatists Guild, Head of MFA Playwriting at the New School, and Founding Director of The Third Bohemia, an interdisciplinary retreat for artists. He received an honorary doctorate from DePaul University’s schools of Theatre and Music in 2016.

Interviewers: Yvonne Chang, Master's student in Virginia Tech's MFA in Theatre program, Sarah Lyon-Hill, Associate Director for Research Development at the Virginia Tech Office of Economic Development, and C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, an artist, cultural organizer, and Master's student in Virginia Tech’s Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre: Directing & Public Dialogue programs

Presented In Partnership With Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts, Blacksburg Public Library, Virginia Tech’s Women and Minority Artists and Scholars Lecture Series, the Center for Food Systems and Community Transformation in the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education at Virginia Tech, the Center for Communicating Science, and and Christiansburg Institute, Inc

Podcast Interview with Julia Dinsmore

By sharing her first-hand account of dealing with poverty, Julia Dinsmore teaches her audience about socio-economic inequality while empowering people to be part of the solution. She invites listeners to think critically about the actual and imagined divides that alienate people experiencing poverty in society; in particular, she speaks about the weaponization of the sacred knowledge shared through "oral culture,” which she contrasts with "print culture,” and the dehumanization that can result from hoarding too much wealth.

Julia Dinsmore is an author, poet, singer-songwriter, and poverty abolitionist who is best known for her poem, “My Name is Not Those People.” Julia uses creative voice and storytelling to talk about the one thing we too often ignore – class and poverty in America. From church basements to the halls of congress, Julia has presented in her edu-performance style, calling those who listen to join the work of creating a just world for those experiencing poverty and marginalization. She is a teacher for students in high schools and ivy leagues. She has taught students at Stanford University, Brown, Duke Divinity, Swarthmore, and Amherst College, among others. She is most well known for her classes in neighborhood “porch sitting” which she calls an alternative to service-learning.

Interviewers: Lara Nagle, Community-Based Learning Projects Manager, Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance, and Steven T. Licardi, LMSW, a spoken word poet, mental health advocate, and therapist with New River Valley Community Services

Presented in partnership with Virginia Tech University Libraries, Center for Humanities at Virginia Tech, and the Office for Inclusion and Diversity Advancing the Human Condition Symposium at Virginia Tech.

Faculty Forum with Desiree Poets

In this episode, Desirée Poets explores the removal and suppression of Rio's favelas and the gentrification of Rio de Janeiro due to military and economic development activity, as well as the foundation of her research in the favela of Maré.

Desirée Poets is as assistant professor in Political Science at Virginia Tech and a core faculty member of the disciplinary Alliance for Social, Political, Ethical, and Cultural Thought (ASPECT) PhD program. Since 2013, she has been working with urban Indigenous and Black rights movements in Brazil's southeast region. More recently, her work has focused on community museums and her scholarship lies at the intersections of Latin American studies, colonial studies, Black and Indigenous studies, and collaborative and feminist research methods.

Faculty Forum with Tyler Walters

In this episode, Tyler Walters presents information about the Virginia Tech library research services available, including those related to data management, planning for research grants, and research/business intelligence. Tyler Walters has served as the Dean of University Libraries at Virginia Tech since 2011. He is responsible for a diverse set of data and information services. He has participated in and or led many multi instituional organizations and iniatives that center on open access, challenges, and scholarly communication. Currently he is a member of the AAUAPLU Public Access Working Group that recently produced a report and recommendations to US Federal Agencies and Research Universities on public access to research data. He serves on the board of an international nonprofit organization that provides services to libraries, galleries, archives, digital research, and scholarship. He has served as the president from 2017-2019 and a board member since 2013.

In this bonus episode, we feature the reflections and insights of students who are working through their program with Virginia Tech Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program for Pakistan.

Back L-R: Aisha Tariq, Humaira Zafar,Azka Kiran, Alice Dong Front L-R: Rahil Akhtar, Raj Kumar, Samiullah These interview guests are six of the 28 scholar educators from Pakistan on campus at Virginia Tech who are participating in the Virginia Tech Teaching Excellence and Achievement Program for Pakistan, a program of the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute. The Teaching Excellence and Achievement (TEA) Program for Pakistan provides Pakistani secondary school English teachers from government and foundation schools with the opportunity to develop expertise in their subject area, enhance their teaching skills and English proficiency, and increase their knowledge about the United States.

Funding for this program is provided by the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad.

Presented in partnership with the Virginia Tech Language and Culture Institute.

Faculty Forum with Laura Zanotti

In this episode, Laura Zanotti presents on her latest book, Ontological Entanglements, Agency and Ethics in International Relations - Exploring the Crossroads (Routledge Interventions, 2019), which addresses the implications of embracing quantum physics’ entangled ontology for International Relations' conceptualizations of agency and ethics. The book argues that an entangled ontological imaginary opens the way for re-imagining how as humans we inhabit the world. It nurtures an ethos of responsibility and it raises the bar for adjudicating the ethical validity of political initiatives beyond abstract principles.

Laura Zanotti is Professor in the Dept. of Political Science at Virginia Tech. Dr. Zanotti’s research and teaching include critical political theory, international ethics as well as UN peacekeeping and NGOs. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, Dr. Zanotti was a Jean Monnet Fellow at the European University Institute in San Domenico di Fiesole, Italy. She also served as a Visiting Professor at the School of International Relations, Trento University, Italy. Before becoming an academic, Dr. Zanotti worked at the United Nations, where she served both in administration and as a political officer for Peacekeeping Operations. She spent several years in the field, both in Haiti and in Croatia, where she performed the functions of the Deputy to the Head of the United Nations Liaison Office.

Podcast Interview with Alexander Wendt

In this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Dr. Alexander Wendt discusses the possibility of using quantum tools for refining empirical and theoretical social science, rethinking topics such as international relations and game theory, and enhancing our understanding of human agency, relational identity and entanglement. The interview compares quantum and classical systems regarding the conceptualization of consciousness and the mind-body relationship, material and quantum constructs, and how quantum models could help to overcome the divisions between the natural and social sciences. Dr. Wendt explains how more work is needed to quantize social science research to determine if quantum is, indeed, a revolutionary opportunity.

Alexander Wendt is Mershon Professor of International Security and Professor of Political Science at The Ohio State University. He received his PhD in 1989 from the University of Minnesota, and before coming to OSU in 2004 had taught previously at Yale University, Dartmouth College, and the University of Chicago. Wendt is interested in philosophical aspects of social science, with special reference to international relations. He is the author of several well-known journal articles, as well as Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge, 1999), which in 2006 received the International Studies Association award for “Best Book of the Decade” in the field. In the 2013 TRIP survey of 1400 International Relations scholars he was named as the most influential scholar in the field over the past 20 years. Wendt's recent book, Quantum Mind and Social Science (Cambridge, 2015), explores the implications for social science of the possibility that consciousness is a macroscopic quantum mechanical phenomenon – in effect, that human beings are walking wave functions. 

Interviewers: Nada Berrada, Ph.D. candidate in ASPECT; Linea Cutter, Ph.D. student in ASPECT; and Molly Todd, Ph.D. student in ASPECT at Virginia Tech

Podcast Interview with Roger Thurow

In this episode, Roger Throw discusses how he understands humanitarian journalism and how the Ethiopian famine was transformative for his work. He talks through how he would go on to use longer narratives to explore issues of hunger and global development. He also discusses how he comes to understand the issues facing Africa due to lack of proper development. Roger Thurow is an expert on agricultural development and is often invited to speak on high-visibility platforms related to nutrition, hunger, and agriculture in the United States, Europe, and Africa. He served as a foreign correspondent in Europe and Africa for 20 years. His coverage included the Cold War, the fall of the Berlin Wall, Nelson Mandela's relief, the end of apartheid, the former Yugoslavian wars, the humanitarian crises of the 2000s, and 10 Olympics Games. He is a recipient of the 2009 Action Against Hunger's Humanitarian Award. Interviewers: Garland Mason, PhD student in Agricultural Leadership and Community Education; Raj GC, PhD candidate in Planning, Governance and Globalization; Colie Touzel, Masters student in Urban and Regional Planning) Presented in partnership with Virginia Tech College of Agricultural and Life Sciences Global Programs Office

Faculty Forum with John Tedesco

In this episode, John Tedesco explores the importance of communication in communities including unions, young voters, disenfranchised voters, and the working poor. He discusses his research analyzing political efficacy and agency among these demographic groups.

John Tedesco is a professor in the School of Communication at Virginia Tech, where he teaches courses in public relations and political communication. His research focuses on candidate-controlled messages and their effects on media content and civic engagement. John's research appears in many of the fields leading journals, including Advertising, International Journal of Press and Politics, Journalism Studies, the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, and Government Information Quarterly. He has received research funding from the National Science Foundation, the U.S. State Department, British Economic and Social Research Council, and the Hungarian-American Fulbright Association.

Podcast Interview with Elizabeth LaPrelle

Elizabeth LaPrelle explores timeless truths about people and community through music. On this episode of Trustees Without Borders, LaPrelle discusses her creative practice of animating archival materials and the legacy of old-time music.

Elizabeth LaPrelle has been performing Appalachian ballads and old-time songs since she was eleven. Raised in Rural Retreat, VA, Elizabeth attended old-time fiddlers’ conventions and sang harmonies with her family, who taught her traditional singing styles and encouraged her to sing their favorite American folk music. She has developed her repertoire from neighbors like Jim Lloyd, under the tutelage of powerful female ballad singers like Ginny Hawker and Sheila Kay Adams, and from a wealth of field recordings of legendary singers from the mountains. Elizabeth received her undergraduate degree from the College of William and Mary with a major in Southern Appalachian Traditional Performance, and now tours the U.S. regularly, both performing and teaching.

Interviewers: C. Meranda Flachs-Surmanek, an artist, cultural organizer, and master’s degree candidate in Virginia Tech’s Urban & Regional Planning and Theatre’s: Directing & Public Dialogue programs, and Garland Mason, a PhD student in Agricultural Leadership, Community, and Education

Podcast Interview with Andrea Brunais

In this episode of Trustees Without Borders, author Andrea Brunais reflects on her new book, Hillbilly Drug Baby: The Story, a nonfiction account of the relationship that she and her husband, Hal, built with a young man named Jesse-Ray who had aged out of foster care and was struggling with substance use disorder. As Andrea and Hal learned more about Jesse-Ray’s abusive past, they served as mentors and friends hoping to cultivate his writing talents and support his recovery. Such a task proved challenging, and Andrea reflects on the experience and key insights gained.

Andrea Brunais is the Director of Communications for the Office of Outreach and International Affairs at Virginia Tech. She is also an award-winning author and editor with freelance work published in outlets such as the Christian Science Monitor, TravelPulse.com, DuPont Registry, and Appalachian Voice. Her most recent book is Hillbilly Drug Baby: The Story, chronicling the relationship that she and her husband, Hal, developed with a 19-year-old named Jesse-Ray who stayed in their “safe house” for about 6 months.

Interviewers: Lara Nagle, Community-Based Learning Projects Manager, and Laura Nelson, Ph.D. Candidate in Human Development and Family Science, both with the Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance

Podcast Interview with Theresa Williamson

In this episode, Dr. Theresa Williamson discusses the mission of her NGO Catalytic Communities and how she seeks to change the stigma around Favelas and their impact on the Rio de Janeiro community.

Theresa Williamson is a city planner, founder, and executive director of Catalytic Communities, an NGO working since 2000 in support of Rio de Janeiro through Favela Community Land Trusts and sustainable networks. She is an outspoken advocate for the recognition of Favelas' residency right to be fully served as equal citizens. She has published several chapters for op-eds in the New York Times and cited in dozens of publications and television. Dr. Williamson received the 2012 National Association of Housing Rehabilitation and Redevelopment Officials Award for contributions to the International Housing Debate.

Interviewers: Vanessa Guerra, PhD candidate in Environmental Design and Planning; Lehi Dowell, PhD candidate in Planning, Governance, and Globalization

Presented in partnership with the Women and Minority Scholars Lecture Series, VT Language and Culture Institute.

Faculty Forum with Emily Satterwhite

In this episode, Emily Satterwhite discusses her role as a scholar, climate justice activist, and pipeline fighter. She explores the institutional response to a recent direct action she participated in to block the Mountain Valley Pipeline.

Emily Satterwhite is an associate professor and the director of Appalachian Studies in the Department of Religion and Culture. Her book Dear Appalachia: Readers, Identity, and Popular Fiction since 1878 (2011) won the Weatherford Award for best nonfiction about Appalachia and the Phi Beta Kappa Sturm Award honoring excellent work that is recognized as significant by a wider audience.

Interviewers: Lara Nagle, Master's student in Urban and Regional Planning at Virginia Tech, and Neda Moayerian, PhD candidate in Virginia Tech's Planning, Governance & Globalization program

Faculty Forum with Todd Schenk

In this Faculty Forum event, Todd Schenk discusses his current work, which falls into three overlapping areas: 1) Collaborative governance, particularly in situations with high degrees of uncertainty, complexity, and institutional ambiguity; 2) Climate change adaptation, particularly as a governance challenge; and 3) Serious games as a tool for action research.

Dr. Todd Schenk is an Associate Professor in the Urban Affairs and Planning Program of the School of Public and International Affairs at Virginia Tech. He has extensive research and consulting experience working on environmental policy and planning, and collaborative governance issues in North America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East. Dr. Schenk received both a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Planning and a Master in City Planning from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor’s degree in Geography from the University of Guelph. He served as the Assistant Director of the MIT Science Impact Collaborative and held a research fellowship with the Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School. Dr. Schenk has also held positions with the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe and the Consensus Building Institute.

Interviewers: Emma Martin, Master's student in Urban and Regional Planning at Virginia Tech; Catherine Cotrupi, a PhD Student in Higher Education at Virginia Tech

Faculty Forum with Jordan Lacey

In this Faculty Forum, Virginia Tech Prof. Jordan Laney and her students in the Introduction to Appalachian Studies course explore community/power mapping, discuss the relationship of Freirean pedagogy with the course curricula and connect it to community engagement projects and Jordan's research more broadly.

Jordan Laney has been an active member of CCC, and is currently a Presidential Pathways Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow teaching in the Dept. of Religion and Culture, conducting research focused on gender within bluegrass, emergent alternative economies, and qualitative methods. At VT, she designed and taught the first bluegrass music courses for the humanities and a special topics course on the music of the (global) south.

Interviewers: Garland Mason, PhD student in Agricultural Leadership and Community Education; Colie Touzel, Master's student in Urban and Regional Planning

A Podcast Interview with Lee & Art Beltrone

In this episode, Art & Lee Beltrone shared how they first came to find Vietnam era graffiti and why they decided to work to share these messages from a different time. They also discuss how physical objects can come to embody stories and meaning far beyond what was intended.

Art & Lee Beltrone are cofounders of the Vietnam Graffiti Project, which they founded after discovering graffiti from the Vietnam era on the General Nelson M. Walker, a troop carrier that had transported soliders during the time. Art is a military artifact historian and former journalist who has actively studied militaria for more than 50 years. He and his wife, Lee, coauthored the books A Wartime Log and Vietnam Graffiti: Messages from a Forgotten Troop Ship. Lee is a professional photographer and has been involved with the arts for more than 50 years. They together serve as co-curators of the Vietnam Graffiti traveling exhibit.

Interviewers: Alex Stubberfield, PhD student in ASPECT & Will Muscik, Undergraduate Junior

A Podcast Interview with William Cleveland

In this episode, William Cleveland shares his thoughts about arts-based community development and how he conceptualizes development. He also discusses the nonprofit industrial complex and how it interacts with the arts and community change. Additionally, he digs into the idea that arts are inseperable from human experience and sensemaking. Since 1991, William has been the Director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, based on Bainbridge Island, WA. Principal consultant and founder of an arts consulting and research organization specializing in arts-based community development and management support and training. The Center provides programs and services in the following areas: strategic and market planning, research and evaluation, and comprehensive training in support of arts based development and arts education. CSA&C’s clients come from the arts, education, health/human services, criminal justice, government and philanthropic sectors. William Cleveland is a pioneer in the community arts movement and one of its most poetic documenters. His books, Art in Other Places: Artists at Work in America’s Community and Social Institutions, Making Exact Change, and Art and Upheaval: Artists on the World’s Frontlines are considered seminal works in the field of arts-based community development. He is an activist, teacher, lecturer, and musician.

Interviewers: Thomas Murray, MFA candidate in Theatre's Directing and Public Dialogue program; Sarah Lyon-Hill, PhD candidate in Virginia Tech's Planning, Governance & Globalization program Presented in partnership with the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts.

Podcast Interview with Amy Goldstein

On this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Amy Goldstein discusses her award-winning book Janesville: An American Story and her research in an industrial midwest town in Wisconsin that loses the backbone of its local economy, a General Motors facility, and how community members navigate the job loss and uncertainty that follows.

Amy Goldstein has been an author at The Washington Post for over 30 years, focusing primarily on healthcare and health policy issues. She has also covered the White House and many social policy issues. She is very interested in the intersection of policy and people - how policy affects regular, everyday folks. She has written an award-winning book called Janesville: An American Story, which examines what happens in a factory town when industrial jobs go away. She was awarded a Pulitzer Prize for her national coverage of the September 11th attacks and was a 2009 Pulitzer Prize finalist for investigative journalistic work in the medical treatment of immigrants who have been detained by the federal government.

Interviewers: Vanessa Guerra, Ph.D. Candidate in Environmental Design and Planning; Mary Ryan, Ph.D. Candidate in ASPECT

Presented in partnership with VT College of Architecture and Urban Studies; VT School of Public and International Affairs; Urban Affairs and Planning Program @ VT; VT Department of Political Science; VT Graduate School; Institute for Policy and Governance; VT Institute for Society, Culture; and Environment; Outreach and International Affairs at VT; Virginia Cooperative Extension

Podcast Interview with Keryl McCord

In this episode, Keryl McCord asserts that "every theater is community-based," since all stories ultimately are born of, and draw on, human social experience. On this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Keryl reminds us that discrimination and prejudice are persistent forces in human society, and that the arts can play a significant role in creating space and agential possibilities for countering their malignant power.

Keryl McCord is President and CEO of the Equity Quotient, a national training and organizational development firm dedicated to supporting nonprofits interested in becoming more just and equitable community partners, with equity, diversity, and inclusion as outcomes of their work.

Interviewers: Neda Moayerian and Sarah Lyon-Hill, PhD candidates in Virginia Tech's Planning, Governance & Globalization program

Presented in partnership with the Virginia Tech School of Performing Arts

Podcast Interview with Wornie Reed

In this episode of Trustees without Borders, Sociology Professor Wornie Reed discusses the state of racism in the country, especially in the wake of President Trump's 2016 campaign victory, and how to improve current methods of activism.

Dr. Wornie Reed, Professor Emeritus and a professor of sociology and Africana Studies at Virginia Tech, is also director of the Race and Social Policy Research Center in the Department of Sociology. He teaches courses in health and medical care, criminal justice, and Africana Studies.

Interviewers: Mary Ryan, Editorial Board, Community Change, Doctoral Candidate in the ASPECT Program; Jake Keyel, Ph.D. Candidate in Planning, Governance, and Globalization Program, Editorial Board for Community Change

Presented in partnership with the Race and Social Policy Research Center at Virginia Tech

Podcast Interview with Carolyn Zelikow and Brad Stephens

In this episode of Trustees Without Border, Carolyn Zelikow and Brad Stephens discuss their passion for social entrepreneurship and community innovation and the various initiatives they are involved in the Washington, D.C., Charlottesville, and Roanoke communities.

Carolyn Zelikow is the associate director of National Programs at the ASPEN Institute. She previously managed the Aspen Institute Urban Innovation Lab, a fellowship for social entrepreneurs in Baltimore and Washington. Brad Stephens is the director of Colab and Cityworks (X)po. He has spent the last several years cultivating the social entrepreneurship community in Roanoke and has been an integral part of organizing Cityworks (X)po.

Interviewers: Vera Smirnova and Sarah Lyon-Hill, PhD candidates in Virginia Tech's Planning, Governance & Globalization program

Podcast Interview with Amy Brooks

What is the story we are called upon to tell about ourselves, our community, and our future? This is the question Amy Brooks holds when making intercultural rural-urban performance. On this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Amy discusses arts and culture as a catalyst for equitable development across real and perceived divides.

Amy Brooks is the former Program Director and Dramaturg for Roadside Theater, the theater wing of Appalachian grassroots arts and media center Appalshop. A West Virginia-New York cultural hybrid who returned to Appalachia just before the 2016 election cycle, Amy investigates the confluence of dramatic narrative (“What is the story we choose to tell onstage?”) and public narrative (“What is the story we are called upon to tell about ourselves, our community, and our future?”) in intercultural rural-urban performance. Amy holds a BFA in acting from West Virginia University and an MFA in dramaturgy from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she co-founded and produced the first two seasons of the UMass New Play Lab.

Interviewers: Neda Moayerian, PhD candidate in Virginia Tech's Planning, Governance & Globalization program, and Vanessa Guerra, PhD candidate in Virginia Tech's Environmental Design and Planning program

Presented in partnership with the Department of Agricultural, Leadership, and Community Education at Virginia Tech

Podcast Interview with Francesco Manca

Francesco Manca discusses his international civil service career and the definition of democracy as a context-free concept.

Francesco Manca is an independent political analyst and former deputy director for the political and civil affairs office of the United Nations in Lebanon. He has assumed many roles at the UN addressing economic development, human rights, peacemaking, and peacekeeping.

Interviewers: Neda Moayerian, 2nd year PhD candidate in planning, governance, and globalization; Vera Smirnova, PhD candidate in planning governance, and globalization

Podcast Interview with Nicolas Antonio Vecchioli, Lara Azul Fumarola, Emmanuel Murano, Roberto Enrique Fairhurst Agosta, and Gabriela Yanina Valles

In this episode of Trustees Without Borders, the Fulbright scholars reflect on the opportunities and challenges of study abroad programs, the similarities and differences between academic and personal life in Argentina and the U.S., and what they've gained during their time at Virginia Tech.

This podcast's guests are all students from Argentina that have visited Virginia Tech through the Friends of Fulbright cultural exchange program.

Interviewer: Andy Morikawa, Senior Fellow, Virginia Tech Institute for Policy and Governance

Presented in partnership with the VT Language and Culture Institute

Podcast Interview with Virgil Wood

Podcast Interview with Hamid Bilici and Mahir Zeynalov

In this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Mahir Zeynalov and Hamid Bilici share insights and information about the state of journalism in Turkey; they explore the monumental shift from democracy to autocracy that occurred in that country in just a few short years and about the geopolitical cultural and social factors that contributed to this change. They speak from direct experience regarding the role of deteriorating media freedoms during Turkey's drift from its democratic principles.

Mahir Zeynalov is a Turkish journalist and analyst based in Washington, DC. He is the first journalist in Turkey asked to be imprisoned by Erdogan, and also the first journalist to be deported from Turkey. Hamid Bilici is a former Turkish newspaper executive and editor in chief. He frequently writes and shares views regarding Turkish foreign policy.

Interviewers: Mario Khreiche, PhD candidate in ASPECT and co-editor of SPECTRA; Alex Stubberfield, 2nd year ASPECT student and editor elect of SPECTRA.

Podcast Interview with Jeanette Abi-Nader

Jeanette Abi-Nader discusses exploring home measures for community food systems and how they can serve as a tool for communities to share their stories.

Jeanette Abi-Nader is the Executive Director of City Schoolyard Garden in Charlottesville. She is a former evaluation, training, and capacity-building director at the internationally recognized Community Food Security Coalition. During her time at the latter she authored a number of publications related to evaluation and training including "The Whole Measures for Community Systems." She is also an experienced farmer.

Interviewers: Pallavi Raonka, Ph.D. candidate in the Department of Sociology; Lorien McAuley, Ph.D. student in Agricultural Leadership and Community Education; Heather Lyne, Masters student in the School of Public & International Affairs

Podcast Interview with Ramon Zepeda

In this episode of Trustees Without Borders, Ramon Zepeda profiles Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) and how they engage with the farmworker community.

Ramon Zepeda joined Student Action with Farmworkers (SAF) as the Youth Organizer in 2011. He has experience as a union organizer and has worked with campaigns such as the Justice at Smithfield Campaign in solidarity with workers in a North Carolina pork processing plant, and a Wage Theft Campaign, in solidarity with day laborers in Washington DC. He is now the program director of the theatre program within SAF.

Interviewers: Anna Erwin, PhD student in Planning, Governance, and Globalization; Vanessa Guerra, PhD candidate in Virginia Tech's Environmental Design and Planning program; and Lorien MacAuley