Academic Aunties

Ethel Tungohan
Academic Aunties

Academia. It is a site of exclusion. For those of us who are first-generation, who are racialized, who are women, and who inhabit social locations that are traditionally unrepresented in this space, academia is full of landmines. This is why we need academic aunties. This podcast will bring you stories and advice about how to navigate this treacherous world and maybe even plant the seeds for structural transformation. Come listen to Auntie Ethel and her friends. Episodes drop monthly. Message us on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie and visit us online at academicaunties.com.

  1. 2 DAYS AGO

    Fighting for Our University

    (This is a reissue of the episode with audio issues corrected) Last week, at the end of the day on a Friday, York University announced the suspension of program admissions for 19 undergraduate programs, including Indigenous Studies, Gender Sexuality Women's studies programs. These cuts occurred against established procedures for collegial governance, and is part of a wider attack on higher education at academic institutions around the world. On this episode, Dr. Ethel Tungohan speaks to Dr. Ena Dua, Dr. Sarah Rotz, and Academic Aunties producer Dr. Nisha Nath on what is going on, how this is part of a global backlash against DEI, the role of management consultants pushing an agenda for a neoliberal university, and why it is time for anyone who cares about the future of higher education to mobilize and do something. Related Links Petition to Support York and Calling for Reversal of SuspensionsStatement from Indigenous Studies at York on Program CutsStatement from Women's, Gender and Social Justice AssociationInside Doug Ford's Plan to Starve Ontario's UniversitiesUndergraduate Employment Rates Thanks for listening! Sign up for our forthcoming newsletter, get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

    55 min

  2. FEB 12

    Recognizing Our Messy Leaky Bodies

    In academia, we assume that our value rests solely with our brains. The smarter we are, the more grants and publications we have, the more value we give to our institutions, to our fields, to our professions. What this means is that anything that gets in the way of our ability to produce is seen as a distraction. Having a personal life is a distraction. Trying to build a family is a distraction. Pregnancy is a distraction. Seeking fertility treatments, going through miscarriages, giving birth, getting abortions. These are all distractions. This of course, is deeply problematic. On this episode, we speak to Dr. Alana Cattapan, an expert when it comes to all things reproduction related, including serving as Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Reproduction at the University of Waterloo. We talk about the need to shift the norms of silence around fertility, around pregnancy and miscarriage and abortion, and recognizing the complexities of our, as we talk about, our messy, leaky bodies. Related Links Some States Are Turning Miscarriages and Stillbirths Into Criminal Cases Against WomenThe Changing Voice of the Anti-Abortion Movement: The Rise of "Pro-Woman" Rhetoric in Canada and the United States, by Paul Saurette and Kelly Gordon Reproductive rights backsliding around the worldDonations to Planned ParenthoodAction Canada for Sexual Health and Rights National Abortion Federation Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

    48 min

  3. JAN 29

    I am not my mind

    Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the passage of time, about priorities, about health, about our larger purpose. I've been thinking, too, about intentionality. What is it that I want to do with my career? Am I doing the work that feeds me and my community? Or am I pursuing projects not because they are meaningful to me, but because this is what I am expected to do at this juncture of my career? And what of my health? Am I putting up guardrails to make sure that I'm not sacrificing my health for the academy and not letting corrosive institutional pressures get to me? I'm sure that these are questions that many of us grapple with. And who better to think through these questions than my dear friend, Dr. Gina Velasco. Dr. Velasco is an Associate Professor and Director of Gender and Sexuality studies at Haverford College. Her book, Queering the Global Filipina Body, was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2020. Gina and I have known each other for 10 years, and I've always appreciated our hangouts where we both just chill and talk about work and life. I've also really admired how Gina's relationship with work has evolved over the past decade as she battled major health challenges and life changes that led her to understand, as she puts it, the impermanence of being healthy. Related Links Gina K. Velasco, Ph.D.Queering the Global Filipina Body: Contested Nationalisms in the Filipina/o Diaspora

    34 min

  4. JAN 15

    Reference Letters

    If you have had to write or request an academic reference letter, which is probably all of you, then you know that there is a whole, mysterious hidden curriculum behind them. On this episode, Ethel and Nisha talk about what it's like to write reference letters, how letter readers react to different kinds of letters, and what makes a letter good, bad, or ugly. Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

    38 min

  5. 12/04/2024

    Remembering Boyet

    What is it like to go into the holiday season when grieving the loss of a loved one? How do we honour and remember people who are no longer with us? In this episode, I remember my dad, Leonides Tungohan - or Boyet - for short. With special guests, Winifred and Georgina, we talk about our wishes for the holidays, how we’re feeling, and our favourite memories of Boyet.  Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Bluesky at @AcademicAunties.com or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

    19 min

  6. 11/20/2024

    Remagination

    Can we reimagine new ways living and being? Our guest this week certainly did so. After suffering tremendous loss during the pandemic, including the loss of her son, Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez gave up her tenured faculty position as a full professor at UC Davis to become land steward of Remagination Farms. Located two and a half hours north of San Francisco, Remagination Farms takes up Asian American activist Grace Lee Boggs invitation to "re-imagine everything." In our conversation, we talk about how devastating loss and heartache can push us to radically change the way we live, and about what it means to take education away from the corporate university to the people. "The time has come for us to reimagine everything. We have to reimagine work and go away from labor. We have to reimagine revolution and get beyond protest. We have to think not only about change in our institutions, but changes in ourselves.” - Grace Lee Boggs Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

    41 min

  7. 11/06/2024

    What happens now?

    As I record this episode, it's been about six hours after the major news networks have declared that Donald Trump will once again be the President of the United States. I've got a lot of feelings. I'm unsurprised, but also disheartened. I'm still processing all of this and I know you are too. So today I want to bring you an impromptu chat that I have with my dear friend Petra Molnar. Petra is a migration and human rights lawyer, a colleague at York University, where she is the Associate Director of the Refugee Law Lab, and the author of The Walls Have Eyes, Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. Petra was with me back in 2016, the day after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. I was teaching a class on migration and the diaspora, and I had invited Petra to speak. Instead, we went off script in that class and just held space for students who were horrified by Trump's victory. So when I saw the election results last night showing that Trump will have a second term, I immediately thought of Petra, And the experience we shared that day in 2016. We chatted today, the day after the elections, and discussed what we might expect in terms of the impacts of Trump's election on border policies, on research, on higher education, and on critical thought. We also talked about how to fight back, and on hope as a critical practice.

    37 min

  8. 10/23/2024

    Demystifying Book Publishing

    We take a deep dive into the world of academic book publishing. If you're in academia, you probably have, or want to work with a university press to publish your work. And at the heart of the book publishing process are university press editors. But many scholars don't know what it is that editors do, what the norms and expectations are when working with editors, and what the larger world of academic publishing looks like. To demystify the role of editors and how academic book publishing works, we have the amazing Dawn Durante, the Wyndham Robertson Editorial Director of the University of North Carolina Press. Dawn was my editor when I released my first solo authored book, last year, Care Activism, Migrant Domestic Workers, Movement Building, and Communities of Care and who was awesome really in helping me think through my project in a really generative way. Related Links Ask UP: Authors Seeking Knowledge from University PressesUniversity of North Carolina Press Care Activism, by Dr. Ethel Tungohan Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Instagram at @AcademicAunties, on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

    45 min
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Trailer

4.8
out of 5
24 Ratings

About

Academia. It is a site of exclusion. For those of us who are first-generation, who are racialized, who are women, and who inhabit social locations that are traditionally unrepresented in this space, academia is full of landmines. This is why we need academic aunties. This podcast will bring you stories and advice about how to navigate this treacherous world and maybe even plant the seeds for structural transformation. Come listen to Auntie Ethel and her friends. Episodes drop monthly. Message us on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie and visit us online at academicaunties.com.

Information

  • Creator
    Ethel Tungohan
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2025
  • Episodes
    70
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Ethel Tungohan
  • Show Website
    Academic Aunties

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