The Emergence Room

T.J. Dedeaux-Norris
  • 5.0 (5)
  • Arts
  • Updated Semiweekly

Hosted by TJ Dedeaux-Norris & Jason Šimánek. Conversations on art, care, creativity, and what it means to emerge.

  1. Katharine Ogle

    6d ago

    Katharine Ogle

    The Emergence Room

    57 min
  2. Adam Summers

    Jun 4

    Adam Summers

    On this episode of The Emergence Room, we had the pleasure of talking with Adam Summers, scientist, educator, explorer, and 2026 Rome Prize Fellow in Environmental Arts & Humanities at the American Academy in Rome. Adam can almost always be found somewhere around the Academy wearing one of his now iconic fish shirts, which at this point feel less like clothing and more like a long-running conceptual art piece disguised as field biology.  Our conversation moved through some wonderfully unexpected territory: flying airplanes, 3D printing, fish anatomy, poetry workshops, childhood homes, memory, collaboration, privilege, and curiosity itself. Adam reflected on how the home he grew up in shaped his understanding of the world and spoke candidly about recognizing his own privilege and the importance of sharing access, resources, and knowledge with others through his lab and collaborative work. We also talked about poetry and the surprising intersections between scientific inquiry and creative practice. Adam shared stories about taking poetry classes and being pushed to write poems, embracing uncertainty and metaphor in ways that expanded how he thinks about observation and discovery. Listeners may also recognize Adam as the collaborator of poet Katharine Ogle, whose episode recently aired on The Emergence Room. Their collaborative project, Piscis Romana, merges poetry, ecology, Roman history, and marine biology into a playful and deeply thoughtful exploration of fish and fishlike forms throughout the city of Rome.  This episode felt expansive, generous, funny, and slightly delightfully unhinged in the best way. Adam has the energy of someone perpetually wandering toward an interesting idea just to see what might happen there next.

    1h 4m
  3. Peter N. Miller

    May 28

    Peter N. Miller

    This is a very special episode of The Emergence Room. On this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Peter N. Miller, President and CEO of the American Academy in Rome, historian, scholar, and longtime advocate for interdisciplinary research and public intellectual life. (aarome.org (https://www.aarome.org/about/staff/peter-n-miller)) For cohost T.J. Dedeaux-Norris, whose current doctoral research focuses on leadership, authenticity, and emergence, this conversation felt especially meaningful. It was a rare opportunity to speak candidly with a leader whose path through academia was far from linear and whose career reflects a deep commitment to curiosity, experimentation, and intellectual generosity. Peter reflected on the years after completing his PhD, when finding stable academic employment proved difficult, in part because his interests moved across disciplines and categories in ways that did not always fit neatly within traditional academic structures. What once may have appeared to be a limitation eventually became one of his greatest strengths: the ability to think expansively, connect ideas across fields, and lead institutions through complexity rather than rigidity. Throughout the conversation, we discussed leadership not as authority or performance, but as a practice of listening, risk-taking, adaptability, and sustained learning. Peter spoke thoughtfully about the importance of research, the pleasure of intellectual discovery, and the reality that meaningful leadership often requires pushing boundaries, questioning systems, and occasionally embracing the role of the rebel inside institutions. There was something especially inspiring about hearing a scholar speak openly about uncertainty, persistence, and the long arc of building a life in the humanities. This episode became a conversation about leadership, interdisciplinarity, curiosity, institutional life, and what it means to remain open to transformation over time. A thoughtful, generous, and deeply energizing conversation from the heart of the American Academy in Rome.

    38 min
  4. Tameka Baba

    May 21

    Tameka Baba

    On this episode of The Emergence Room, we are joined by Tameka Baba, a landscape architect, artist, curator, and Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Tameka is also a Professional Practice Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Knowlton School at Ohio State University, where her work explores public space, ecology, community, and the transformation of overlooked urban landscapes.   In this conversation, we talk about representing the Midwest, teaching, growth, and the ongoing process of becoming. We reflect on how place shapes identity and creative practice, and how Tameka's work has continued to expand across disciplines during her time in Rome. It's been incredible to witness her evolution from landscape architecture into a broader artistic and curatorial practice, embracing weaving, installation, research, and community-centered approaches to public space. Her work moves fluidly between design, art, and cultural storytelling, opening new ways of thinking about landscape as both social and imaginative space.   This episode is a conversation about transformation, creative expansion, and what it means to keep growing into new forms of practice and possibility.

    45 min
  5. Oswald Huỳnh

    May 13

    Oswald Huỳnh

    On this episode of The Emerence Room, we are joined by Oswald Huỳnh, a Vietnamese American composer from Portland, Oregon, and a fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Recently named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, Oswald's work moves through questions of memory, heritage, language, identity, and the emotional textures carried across generations.   In our conversation, we talk about family, diaspora, storytelling, and the mindset of the composer: how sound can hold memory, grief, intimacy, and cultural inheritance all at once. We reflect on the relationship between music and narrative, and the ways Oswald's compositions navigate Vietnamese aesthetics and tradition through layered textures, timbre, and deeply evocative sonic worlds.   We also discuss his evolving work in Rome, where he has been experimenting with reclaimed materials, hybrid instruments, and questions of environmental change, ruins, and transformation. His practice feels deeply rooted in listening: to history, to silence, to displacement, and to the echoes that shape who we become.   This episode is a conversation about memory, composition, inheritance, and the emotional architecture of sound.

    48 min
  6. Kendra Stephens

    Apr 30

    Kendra Stephens

    In this episode of The Emergence Room, I'm in conversation with Kendra-Nicole Stephens, a chef, mentor, and community-builder whose work lives at the intersection of craft, care, and purpose. Kendra joined us at the American Academy in Rome as a friend of the Academy, and what unfolded was more than a visit—it was an exchange rooted in generosity, curiosity, and deep presence. A graduate of Howard University and the Julia Child Culinary Program, and the former Executive Pastry Chef at the Kennedy Center, Kendra brings both technical excellence and expansive vision to everything she touches. Her work spans from leading high-level culinary programs to supporting community-based initiatives like the Anacostia Culinary Center Project, serving as a Cohort Advisor with the James Beard Foundation, and now contributing to the mission of Christ House. Our conversation moves between the personal and the collective. We reflect on the shift from striving toward something external to discovering a sense of purpose that feels internally aligned. We talk about food as both craft and care—what it means to make a Southern biscuit with intention, and how farming, sustainability, and access shape the future of how we nourish one another. We also explore what it means to find the right environments and communities for one's work and spirit to thrive. There's warmth in this conversation, but also clarity. Kendra speaks with a grounded sense of knowing—one that comes from experience, reflection, and a deep commitment to people. This episode is an invitation to consider where purpose lives in your own life, and how it might already be calling you into alignment.

    52 min
  7. Kaaj Tshikalandand

    Apr 12

    Kaaj Tshikalandand

    In this episode of The Emergence Room, T.J. Dedeaux-Norris hosts a conversation with Kaaj Tshikalandand – cultural mediator and anthropological researcher. Recorded at the closing of T.J.'s exhibition Black Body: Ancient City at Murate Arts District in Florence, Italy. This marks the podcast's first-ever live episode, held in the museum with a live audience, and the first time T.J. is hosting the show on her own within the space of her own exhibition. As the exhibition comes to a close, the conversation unfolds in a space held by the work, the architecture, and the gathered audience. It reflects a shift in T.J.'s ongoing dissertation, where the work expands through dialogue, through people, and through presence. Together, they move through questions of intuition and becoming—what it means to be an oracle, to conjure, and to trust one's inner knowing. The conversation explores accepting one's gifts and living in alignment with them, while also reflecting on the importance of community—how it is built, sustained, and returned to. They speak to happiness as a practice, to care as a necessity, and to the ongoing work of refilling one's social and energetic capacity. Throughout, themes of authenticity, congruence, and integration emerge as lived processes rather than fixed states. The conversation holds a sense of resonance that lingers—an exchange that feels both grounding and expansive. This episode marks an opening in the work itself, where it continues to unfold not only in the studio, but in relationship, in voice, and in shared space.

    35 min
  8. Liz Glynn

    Apr 9

    Liz Glynn

    In this episode of The Emergence Room, we sit down with Liz Glynn – a sculptor, performance artist, and current Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Known for her work navigating endurance, material transformation, and the politics of labor, Glynn has been in Rome working with wax and plaster – materials that hold memory, pressure, and impermanence, echoing her ongoing interest in how bodies, histories, and systems leave their imprint. Together, we move through a layered conversation on teaching, motherhood, and research, tracing how these roles intersect and sometimes collide within contemporary academic life. We reflect on what equity might actually require of institutions, and where accountability begins – and too often dissolves. What does it mean to sustain a practice – intellectually, creatively, physically – inside structures that are not always designed for care? Glynn, who teaches at University of California, Irvine, brings a grounded and generous perspective on navigating these tensions, offering insight into how wellness is not separate from the work, but deeply entangled within it. This episode holds space for the ongoing negotiation between making, teaching, caregiving, and becoming – and the quiet, radical insistence on doing so with integrity.

    42 min
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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
5 Ratings

About

Hosted by TJ Dedeaux-Norris & Jason Šimánek. Conversations on art, care, creativity, and what it means to emerge.

Information

  • Creator
    T.J. Dedeaux-Norris
  • Years Active
    2025 - 2026
  • Episodes
    25
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2025
  • Show Website
    The Emergence Room

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