Author Archives: smfalcon

December 2017 shows

Link

Dec. 7th: A Look Back on the 25-year history of the UCSC’s Chicano Latino Research Center.
Professor Emeritus Norma Klahn (Literature) and Professor Emeritus Pedro Castillo (History) are the co-founders of UC Santa Cruz’s Chicano Latino Research Center (CLRC). They also served as the Center’s first co-directors in the 1990s. The CLRC is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year (2017) and the opening of its own archives (Nuestras Historias) for research. We discussed how the CLRC started, its impact in the University of California system, its relevance for understanding a range of social issues today, and the importance of CLRC in mentoring graduate students and supporting faculty research.

Dec. 14th: Women Protesters & the Transforming of Public Space
Professor Beth Currans is the author of a new book called Marching Dykes, Liberated Sluts, and Concerned Mothers: Women Activists Transform Public Space (2017, University of Illinois Press). She is an associate professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Eastern Michigan University. We discussed her major research findings, her views on the January 2017 Women’s Marches, and how she engages in scholar-activism today.


Dec. 21st: The Life of an NPR Foreign Correspondent.
Ms. Carrie Kahn is an award-winning NPR foreign correspondent. In this interview, she discussed the challenges of reporting about natural disasters and the bravery of local journalists in Latin America who risk their lives everyday. She provided an update on the rebuilding efforts in Mexico (from 2017 earthquakes) and Haiti (from 2010 earthquake). She also discussed the recent removal of Temporary Protective Status for Haitians living in the US and the kinds of devastating effects this may have for families in Haiti who rely on remittances.


Dec. 28th: A Celebration of Voces Críticas first year!

November 2017 shows

Link

November 2nd: The Gail Project: An Okinawan-American Public History Project
The Gail Project: An Okinawan-American Dialogue is a multi-year public history project involving professors and undergraduate student researchers. As the project director, UC Santa Cruz Professor Alan Christy spoke about the extent of military occupation of Okinawa today, about Charles Eugene Gail (the namesake of the project) and about the extensive labor involved in creating a digital public history project. He explained the ways in which students played a key role as project collaborators. Alan Christy is an associate professor of history and provost of Cowell College at UC Santa Cruz.


November 9th: It is PLEDGE drive – Please #Give2KZSC and support our work… Re-airing interview with assistant professor of Sociology Patrick Lopez-Aguado (Santa Clara University) from July 6, 2017 about his forthcoming book titled Stick Together and Come Back Home: Racial Sorting and the Spillover of Carceral Identity (University of California Press, 2018).

November 16th: No show
November 23rd: No show – Happy Holidays!

November 30th: Latino Mass Mobilization
Chris Zepeda-Millan is the author of a new book called Latino Mass Mobilization: Immigration, Racialization, and Activism (2017, Cambridge University Press). Dr. Zepeda-Millan is an assistant professor in Comparative Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley.  We discussed his book’s major findings, about his views regarding today’s political climate when it comes to immigration, and about the role of Spanish media in informing the public about anti-immigrant legislation.

October 2017 shows

Link

October 5, 2017: Coal Industry & Global Warming: Tracking Coal Projects Around the Globe
An interview with Dr. Christine Shearer of Coalswarm about the coal industry and global warming.  Coalswarm is a conglomerate which tracks coal projects around the world. Dr. Shearer discussed how these coal projects are affecting the climate, the myths purported by the current administration about “clean coal,” and her vision for the future of the environmental justice movement. Dr. Shearer discussed the most egregious coal projects happening in parts of Asia and about the urgent need to garner a renewed commitment to addressing global climate change.

 

October 12, 2017: “No Place Like Home:” The Santa Cruz Housing Crisis
Santa Cruz County is experiencing a major housing crisis.  Steven McKay, Associate Professor of Sociology at UC Santa Cruz, is the co-Principle investigator of a research project called “No Place Like Home” to better understand the housing crisis in the area.  Hermes Padilla is an undergraduate student who was part of the research team for “No Place Like Home” after taking Professor McKay’s class. This study involved well over 1,400 surveys and interviews with local residents about how they are experiencing the local housing crisis.  They, along with the other researchers, will be discussing the findings of their study at a community event scheduled for October 19, 2017 at 7PM in downtown Santa Cruz. The event is the kick-off event to Affordable Housing week with a wide-range of county organizations and community groups.


October 19, 2017: Bookshop Santa Cruz: Words to Act On: Education, Empathy, and Action.
Bookshop Santa Cruz, a locally owned and independent bookstore, has organized a series of events this past year as part of a new program called Words to Act On: Education, Empathy, and Action. This Fall 2017, Santa Cruz Bookshop has organized a series of events and campaign addressing the topic of immigration.  Casey Coonerty Protti is a second generation owner of Bookshop Santa Cruz and has run daily operations since 2006. We discussed the events, the history of this established family business, and about the challenges facing independent bookstores in today’s market.
Read a letter from Casey about why she started the program.

 

October 26, 2017: Puerto Rico in the Aftermath of Hurricane Maria
Puerto Rico has been devastated following Hurricane Maria. Juan Carlos Davila Santiago, is a filmmaker, journalist, writer, and graduate student in the doctoral program of Latin American and Latino Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. He recently returned from a trip to Puerto Rico where his family is based and where he spent most of his summer. He provided a first-hand account of what he witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. He addressed the issue of the impact of climate change on the islands and community-based recovery efforts that are not being reported by the mainstream US media.  These community-based recovery efforts include support from the following groups:
Center for Popular Democracy’s Hurricane María Community Recovery Fund
Defend Puerto Rico Relief Fund
Casa Taller Relief Fund Puerto Rico
Casa Pueblo
Comedores Sociales de Puerto Rico
Taller Salud

 

September 2017 shows

Link

September 7, 2017: Part 2 of my interview with Dr. Rebecca Hernandez Rosser, Director of UCSC American Indian Resource Center.

**See interview clip from August 24th for full interview.**

September 14, 2017: A Story About Climate Change & Forcible Displacement in Kivalina, Alaska
An interview with Dr. Christine Shearer, a Senior Researcher at CoalSwarm, an organization that is mapping and analyzing all major proposed coal projects on the globe.  Dr. Shearer is the author of Kivalina: A Climate Change Story (2011, Haymarket Press). She discusses the effects of climate change on the village of Kivalina, located in a remote area of Alaska. Dr. Shearer discusses how climate change is forcibly displacing this community that has agreed to a community relocation over 20 years ago. However, no federal resources are available to facilitate this relocation. Dr. Shearer also addresses a lawsuit filed by the village of Kivalina against 24 fossil fuel companies, which was recently dismissed.

September 21, 2017: Race, Critical Pedagogy, and Democratizing Education
An interview with Professor Zeus Leonardo of UC Berkeley’s Education Department. We discussed his research on race and pedagogy, about the challenges facing public education today, and about the differences between white privilege and white supremacy as a framework to discuss whiteness. We also discussed the events happening in the city of Berkeley and at UC Berkeley by right-wing groups seeking to disrupt the city, specifically discussing the enormous financial burden to provide security for these speakers.


September 28, 2017:What It Means to be #FirstGeneration
An interview with Dr. Rebecca Covarrubias, Assistant Professor of Psychology at UCSC and the Director of The Culture & Achievement Collaborative. She is a first generation college student and now faculty member who helped launch UCSC’s First Generation Initiative to raise the visibility of the First Generation community at UCSC.  We discussed the cultural challenges facing First Generation students. Being a native of Phoenix, we also talked about her reaction to the presidential pardon of Sheriff Joe Arpaoi of Phoenix.

July 2017 shows

Link

July 6, 2017: Incarceration Identity & the Consequences of Racial Sorting. An interview with Sociology assistant professor Patrick Lopez-Aguado of Santa Clara University about his forthcoming book titled Stick Together and Come Back Home: Racial Sorting and the Spillover of Carceral Identity (University of California Press, 2018).  His research interests include Race and Incarceration, Juvenile Justice, Youth and Street Cultures, and Urban Ethnography and he teaches courses on the Principles of Sociology, Sociology of the Criminal Justice System, Gender and Justice, and Sociology of Deviance.

July 13 & 20, 2017: Fish Contamination in Elkhorn Slough. An interview with Fred Evenson co-founder of the Ecological Rights Foundation and Annie Beaman and Marianna Del Valle Prieto Cervantes of Our Children’s Earth Foundation about fish contamination in Monterey County’s Elkhorn Slough. We discussed which specific fishes are of concern, the petition to have a permanent fish advisory at Elkhorn Slough, and bilingual outreach efforts to the predominately local Latino/a communities who fish here to provide for their families.  This July 20th show includes a bonus segment in Spanish with Mariana Del Valle Prieto Cervantes about the impact of fish contamination on the local Latino/a fishing community.

July 27, 2017: Academic Freedom Today. An interview with Dr. David Lloyd, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside and Executive Committee member of California Scholars for Academic Freedom about academic freedom.  We discussed the definition of academic freedom, the work of the California Scholars of Academic Freedom, the increasing surveillance in social media about professors’ online posts, even when they are not representing their institutions. Of particular concern are scholars of Middle Eastern studies, specifically those who study Palestine and are critical of Israeli policies. Lastly, we discussed resources available for scholars who are on the receiving end of an attack on their academic freedom.

August 2017 shows

Link

August 3, 2017: In honor of having just passed the 6 month anniversary of the Women’s Marches, a re-airing of January 24, 2017 conversation with UCSC Professor Lisa Rofel of Anthropology and UCSC Associate Professor Felicity Amaya Schaeffer of Feminist Studies about the unprecedented Women’s Marches of Jan. 21, 2017 in Santa Cruz and Washington, DC.

August 10, 2017: Re-Airing of February 7, 2017 interview with the Electronic Frontier Foundation‘s Grassroots Advocacy Director Shahid Buttar about the extent and breadth of surveillance and the urgency of people’s resistance.

August 17, 2017: Empowering Girls & Young Women in the CA Central Coast.
An interview with Perla Pineda (Project/Program Coordinator) and Angelica Villegas (Program Facilitator) of Girls Inc of the Central Coast.  We discussed the programmatic work of Girls Inc of the Central Coast in the local Santa Cruz and surrounding communities, the importance of offering gender-specific programs and services targeting girls, and about the role of empowering middle school and high school girls/young women to be confident leaders.

August 24, 2017: Yoga, Social Justice, and Body Health.
**SUB INTERVIEW** for Transformation Highway show.
An interview with Jackie Sue Powell, certified yoga instructor in Santa Cruz, California.  We discussed the role yoga has played in her health and well-being. Jackie discussed her commitment to make yoga accessible, both in terms of cost and imagining yoga practices outside the studio.  She spoke about her life-changing experiences teaching and learning yoga around the world, including Guatemala, Costa Rica, and Palestine. We also talked about the role yoga could play in improving the well-being of social justice activists.

August 24, 2017 & September 7, 2017: US Indigenous Communities: About Health, Art, and Identity. An interview with Dr. Rebecca Hernandez Rosser, Director of UC Santa Cruz’s American Indian Resource Center.  We covered a range of topics pertaining to U.S. indigenous communities, including mental and physical health struggles, the food justice movement, including the UCSC People of Color Sustainability Collective, indigenous cultural representation and the art market challenges facing Native artists. We also discussed the incarceration rate of Native peoples and AIRC’s upcoming programs.

August 31, 2017: Prisoners and the Right to Books. An interview with Peter Esmonde, long-time volunteer with the Prisoners Literature Project.  The Prisoners Literature Project is an all volunteer, grassroots, non-profit organization that has sent books to prisoners in 49 states.  We discussed how the PLP started, about the history of the books-to-prisoners movement, and the arbitrary regulations PLP navigates in trying to get books to prisoners. We also discussed the rights of incarcerated people to an education and what receiving books means to them.

June 2017

Link

June 6, 2017: Activism Then and Now.  An interview with distinguished professor Bettina Aptheker of Feminist Studies. She is a renowned scholar of history in areas ranging from women’s history, feminist oral history and memoir, and African American feminist history. We discussed the current political climate in the United States, about comparing and contrasting 60s/70s activism with today’s social movements including Black Lives Matter, about academic freedom, and her recent appointment as the inaugural endowed chair of the Peggy and Jack Baskin Foundation Presidential Chair of Feminist Studies.

June 13, 2017: Spotlight Interviews. Interview highlights featuring excerpts with Professor Vijay Prashad, a Professor of International Studies and South Asian History at Trinity College in Connecticut and a renowned journalist (air date May 2 & 9, 2017), Professor Catherine Ramirez, Director of the Chicano Latino Research Center and Associate Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at UC Santa Cruz (air date April 11, 2017), and Claudia Lopez, a PhD candidate in Sociology, with Designated Emphases in Feminist Studies and Latin American and Latino Studies, at UC Santa Cruz (air date May 16, 2017).

June 22, 2017: Meditation, Citizenship & Social Justice. An interview with Chair and Professor Dean Mathiowetz of Politics at UC Santa Cruz.  His research and teaching focus on political theory. He’s particularly interested in the forces that impede democratic participation and the everyday resources and practices that can be mobilized to overcome those impediments. He’s the author of Appeals to Interest: Language, Contestation, and the Shaping of Political Agency (2011, Penn State University Press) and numerous articles of political theory. We discussed his writing on meditation and citizenship, specifically drawing from a recent journal article called “Good-for-Nothing Practice and the Art of Paradox: The Exemplary Citizenship of Ta-Nehisi Coates.”

June 29, 2017: No show aired this day.

 

 

May 2017

Link

May 2 & 9, 2017: Resistance.  A two-part interview with Professor Vijay Prashad, the George and Martha Kellner Chair in South Asian History and Professor of International Studies at Trinity College to discuss the role of moral outrage in this current political moment, the security of journalists, the state of mainstream media, an evaluation of the first 100 days of 45’s administration, and much more!

May 16, 2017: Forced Displacement in Colombia.  An interview with Claudia Lopez, Ph.D. candidate of Sociology at UC Santa Cruz. The interview focuses on Lopez’s dissertation research, which examines the urban resettlement and integration of rural internally displaced persons in Medellin, Colombia. Her dissertation is titled “The Life-Cycle of Forced Migration: The Lives and Politics of Rural Internally Displaced Persons in Medellín, Colombia.”

May 23, 2017: CARECEN-SF and San Francisco’s immigrant families.  An interview with Kati Barahona-López, Ph.D. candidate in the department of Sociology of UC Santa Cruz and Senior Case Manager at the Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) in San Francisco. We discussed her work with CARECEN-SF where she provides immigrant families and unaccompanied minors with personalized and comprehensive case management to support their family’s well-being. We also discussed her dissertation research, which focuses on the role that deportation proceedings have on the day-to-day experiences of migrants, in particular unaccompanied minors living in San Francisco, CA.

May 30, 2017: The Neoliberal Project, Latinx Artists, and the Art Market. An interview with Professor Arlene Dávila of New York University about her scholarship in the field of Latin American and Latino Studies. We discussed her most recent book (El Mall: The Spatial and Class Politics of Shopping Malls in Latin America published by the University of California Press in 2016) and her new research project about the marketing and circulation of Latino/x art within the context of a global art market that is Eurocentric, elite, and exclusionary in its structure. We concluded the interview talking about her concerns regarding the state of academic freedom for scholars challenging the status quo.
Read Latino/a Art: Race and the Illusion of Equality by Arlene Dávila.

 

April 2017

Link

April 4, 2017: Art & Urban Space in Los Angeles. An interview with Mary Thomas, PhD candidate in visual studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, about her dissertation titled “Enacted Sites: Art and the Visualization of Spatial Justice in Los Angeles, 1966–2014.” Her research uses theories of improvisation to explore how artists participate in struggles for spatial justice.

April 11, 2017: Non-Citizenship. An interview with Professor Catherine Ramirez, Director of the Chicano Latino Research Center and Associate Professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at UC Santa Cruz, about the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s John E. Sawyer Seminar events on Non-Citizenship. We discussed the meaning of “citizen” and “non-citizen,” underscoring the urgency in which we need to see the humanity in all people.

April 18, 2017: Mass Deportation in the United States.  An interview with Dr. Tanya Golash-Boza, Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Merced, discussed her award-winning book titled Deported: Immigrant Policing, Disposable Labor and Global Capitalism (NYU Press 2016).

Programming note: No show aired on April 25, 2017.

 

March 2017

Link

March 7, 2017: Favela Tourism in Brazil.  An interview with international sociology scholar Bianca Freire-Medeiros from the University of São Paolo in Brazil.  We discussed her research on the growing market of favela tours in Brazil and structural poverty.  Freire-Medeiros is currently a Tinker Visiting Professor at the University of Texas at Austin.

March 14, 2017: The Struggles of Day Workers in Santa Cruz County: An interview with Ana Hirsig Gutierrez, Program Coordinator of the Day Workers Center in
Santa Cruz.  We discussed the challenges facing day laborers in the county and the services the center offers the community for both employers and day laborers.

March 28, 2017: This show played excerpts of three interviews since the start of the show.  You can hear full interviews below with Laurie Palmer of UCSC Art Department about Chicago Torture Justice Memorials, Shahid Buttar of the Electronic Frontier Foundation about surveillance, and Fernando Leiva of UCSC Latin American & Latino Studies Department about Chile, the US, and authoritarianism.