The Black Studies Podcast

Ashley Newby and John E. Drabinski

The Black Studies Podcast is a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

  1. Kevin Holt - Department of Music, Stony Brook University

    -1 j

    Kevin Holt - Department of Music, Stony Brook University

    This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, graduate students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods. Today’s conversation is with Kevin Holt, who teaches in the Department of Music at Stony Brook University. His research blends historical study, cultural studies, and the place of hip hop in contemporary race, politics, and identity discourse. In this conversation, we discuss the importance of musicological research in Black Studies, the expansive meaning and significance of hip hop, and the place of local and regional histories in cultural studies.

    1 h 8 min
  2. Maurice J. Hobson - Department of Africana Studies, Georgia State University

    -4 j

    Maurice J. Hobson - Department of Africana Studies, Georgia State University

    This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, graduate students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods. Today’s conversation is with Maurice J. Hobson, who teaches in the Department of Africana Studies at Georgia State University.Along with numerous scholarly and public facing articles, he is the author of The Legend of the Black Mecca: Politics and Class in the Making of Modern Atlanta (2019) and co-author of With Faith in God and Heart and Mind: A History of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity (2025). In this conversation, we discuss community and academic work, the history, politics, and culture of Black study, and how Black Studies sensibilities shape writing intellectual and popular history.

    1 h 2 min
  3. Michelle M. Wright - Department of English, Emory University

    -6 j

    Michelle M. Wright - Department of English, Emory University

    This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, graduate students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods. Today’s conversation is with Michelle M. Wright, who teaches in the Department of English at Emory University where she is Emory University College of Arts & Sciences Distinguished Professor of English. Along with numerous scholarly articles, she is co-editor with Maria Fernandez and Faith Wilding of Domain Errors: Cyberfeminist Practices (2003), co-editor with Antje Schuhmann of Blackness and Sexualities (2007), and the author of Becoming Black: Creating Identity in the African Diaspora (2004), Physics of Blackness: Beyond the Middle Passage Epistemology (2015). With Jodi Byrd, she is also co-editor of the book series "Critical Insurgencies" from Northwestern University Press. In this conversation, we discuss the place of nation in theorizing and practicing Black Studies, the role of critical theoretical inquiry in Black study, and the expansiveness of the very idea of blackness.

    1 h 6 min
  4. Chrystel Oloukoï - Department of Geography, University of Washington

    29 juin

    Chrystel Oloukoï - Department of Geography, University of Washington

    This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, graduate students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods. Today’s conversation is with Chrystel Oloukoï, who teaches in the Department of Geography at University of Washington and who will be a CIFAR Global Studies Scholar from 2026-2028. Their research focuses on cinema studies, urban politics and history, and the place of gender and sexuality in Black life across the diaspora. In this conversation, we discuss how Black Studies questions challenge languages of nation and state, the complicated stories of diaspora and Black identity, and the expansive politics of Black Studies sensibilities and critical frames.

    55 min
  5. Zana Sanders - Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, University of California, Berkeley

    26 juin

    Zana Sanders - Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, University of California, Berkeley

    This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, graduate students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods. Today’s conversation is with Zana Sanders, a doctoral candidate in the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies at University of California, Berkeley. Her research examines the intersections of visual culture, contemporary Black Art, media, and technology with an emphasis on representations of race, gender, class, and sexuality. She is particularly interested in how Black artists and cultural producers use visual technologies in their image-making practices to shape political consciousness and cultural memory, document, and reimagine Black social life. In this conversation, we explore the link between histories of struggle and Black Studies practice, the encoding of blackness in popular and visual culture, and the past and future of community work as constitutive of the field.

    59 min
  6. Dionne Ford - Writer and Critic

    24 juin

    Dionne Ford - Writer and Critic

    This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, graduate students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods. Today’s conversation is with writer and critic Dionne Ford. In addition to a number of pieces in popular and writerly venues, she is co-editor with Jill Strauss of Slavery’s Descendants: Shared Legacies of Race and Reconciliation (2019) and the author of Go Back and Get It: A Memoir of Race, Inheritance, and Intergenerational Healing (2023). In this conversation, we discuss the role of study in creative writing, the place of memoir and storytelling in the study of Black life, and the intimacy and social significance of Black writing.

    40 min
  7. Jarvis Givens - Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

    22 juin

    Jarvis Givens - Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University

    This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, graduate students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods. Today’s conversation is with Jarvis Givens, who teaches in the Departments of African and African American Studies and School of Education at Harvard University. Along with a number of essays in popular and academic venues, he is co-editor of "We Dare Say Love": Supporting Achievement in the Educational Life of Black Boys (2018) and author of Fugitive Pedagogy: Carter G. Woodson and the Art of Black Teaching (2021), School Clothes: A Collective Memoir of Black Student Witness (2023), American Grammar: Race, Education, and the Building of a Nation (2025), and I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month (2026). In this conversation, we discuss the place of education and education writing in African American history, the culture and politics of Black study, and the imperative for Black Studies to impact community educational spaces.

    49 min
  8. Khalisa Rae Thompson - Writer and Poet, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Griot & Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference

    19 juin

    Khalisa Rae Thompson - Writer and Poet, Co-Founder and Co-Director of Griot & Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference

    This is John Drabinski and you’re listening to The Black Studies podcast, a series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, graduate students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods. Today’s conversation is with writer and poet Khalisa Rae Thompson, who is co-founder and co-director of Griot and Grey Owl Black Southern Writers Conference. Her writing has been featured in a number of literary and popular venues and she is the author of Real Girls Have Real Problems and of Ghost in a Black Girl’s Throat. In this conversation, we discuss the intersection of writing and memory work, poetry and community connection, and the politics of publishing on Black life.

    42 min
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À propos

The Black Studies Podcast is a Mellon grant sponsored series of conversations examining the history of the field. Our conversations engage with a wide range of activists and scholars - senior figures in the field, late doctoral students, and everyone in between, culture workers, and political organizers - in order to explore the cultural and political meaning of Black Studies as an area of inquiry and its critical methods.

Informations

  • Création
    Ashley Newby and John E. Drabinski
  • Années d’activité
    2024 - 2026
  • Épisodes
    285
  • Classification
    Contenu explicite
  • Copyright
    © @TheBlackStudiesPodcast

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