Second Nature

As part of GMU's Cultural Studies colloquium series in Spring 2022, PhD candidate Eric Ross interviews Professor of Political Science on the Frederick Thompson Chair and Faculty Director of Research Development at Vassar College, Dr. Katherine Hite. Her recent work focuses on the politics of memory, as well as issues in higher education, access and equity. Her research has been supported by the Fulbright Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, and the Ford Foundation. Her teaching interests include the politics of the Americas, social movements, the politics of memory, and the legacies of violence for states and societies around the globe. She is also a co-founder of Celebrating the African Spirit, a Poughkeepsie-based community organization.

As part of GMU's Cultural Studies colloquium series in Spring 2022, second-year PhD student Carl Leak interviews Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at George Mason University., Dr. Amaka Okechukwu. Dr. Okechukwu’s research agenda concerns the intersection of collective action and racial justice, as well as urban spatial politics. In this interview, Dr. Okechukwu talks about her work surrounding the historiography of Freddy "Fab Five Freddy" Brathwaite, an American visual artist, filmmaker, and hip hop pioneer, and what tracing his genealogy reveals about Black urban life in the twentieth century. 

In another Faculty Spotlight on Second Nature, we speak with Assistant Professor of Film and Media Studies, Hatim El-Hibri, about his 2021 book,Visions of Beirut: The Urban Life of Media Infrastructure.In this interview, Dr. El-Hibri discusses the themes of his book, his research process, the idea of concealment and how it relates to visual culture and politics, and what he hopes his book inspires other scholars to investigate within their own fields. 

As part of GMU's Cultural Studies colloquium series in Spring 2022, first-year PhD student Aparna Shastri interviews Associate Professor of English and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Dr. Julietta Singh. Her first academic book, Unthinking Mastery: Dehumanism and Decolonial Entanglements has emerged as a vital theoretical touchstone for global scholars and artists grappling with the politics of mastery that drive our professional, political, and personal pursuits. Her second book, No Archive Will Restore You turns theory into creative praxis through an experimental meditation on the body as a plural and porous archive. In her newest work, The Breaks, Dr. Singh pens a long letter to her young daughter about race, inheritance, and queer mothering at the end of the world. In this interview, Dr. Singh talks about her work and its important contextualization in decolonial studies. 

In the first of our Faculty Spotlights on Second Nature, we speak with Cultural Studies Professor Paul Smith about his upcoming book on vaccines. He is the author of Pound Revised, Discerning the Subject, Clint Eastwood: A Cultural Production, Millennial Dreams: Culture and Capital in the North, and Primitive America: The Ideology of Capitalist Democracy. In this interview, we discuss Dr. Smith's unique approach to the discussion of vaccines across society and popular culture, particularly through a cultural studies lens. 

In this episode of Second Nature, we speak with Ph.D. candidate, Shauna Rigaud. Shauna has been running the Post-Colonia/Decolonization reading group through GMU's Center of Humanities since winter 2020. We speak with her about the progress of the reading group, topics of discussion for the group, as well as the future Shauna sees for the reading group, and the culture of communal reading/thinking in academic spaces.

In the first of our Alum Spotlights on Second Nature, we speak with University Professor and Chair of the Department of Photography & Imaging at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University, Dr. Deborah Willis. Dr. Willis graduated from the Cultural Studies program in 2000 and ever since, she's been a trailblazer in the arts, focusing her work on Black iconography, photographers, and issues with the archive. Dr. Willis released The Black Civil War Soldier: A Visual History of Conflict and Citizenshipthis year through New York University Press. In this interview, we discuss Dr. Willis' body of work at-large as well as lessons she gained from being in the program. 

In this episode of Second Nature, Cultural Studies PhD candidate Eric Ross takes the lead as host. He congregates various social justice educators within the student body of Cultural Studies, including Shauna Rigaud, Mariah Wakefield, Luma Asem, Ian Sinnett, and Ayondela Mcdole. In this roundtable, they discuss the successes and tribulations of teaching courses centered around the concept of social justice, particularly as students and researchers themselves.

In this episode of Second Nature, we profile the newly founded Center for Humanities Research at George Mason University. We hear about the Center's conception and goals from the planning committee themselves, as well as provide information on their current theme, upcoming talks, funding opportunities, and preview their new theme for the upcoming year. 

In this episode of Second Nature, we speak with Professor of Political Science and the College from the University of Chicago, Dr. Adom Getachew. Dr. Getachew released her first book, Worldmaking After Empire, in Feburary of 2019. In this interview, we discuss her work as well as her thoughts after America's summer of 2020. 

In this episode of Second Nature, we speak with Ph.D. candidate, Austin Gallas. Austin has been running a Das Kapitalreading group during the fall 2020 semester. We speak with him about a new reading group he is forming for the spring 2021 semester focused on racial capitalism. We hear about the texts that inspired this endeavor as well as his goals with the reading group.