Join us in laughing at the absurdity of a so-called postracial world! We sip some tea with Danielle Morgan and chat about race and humor, #BlackGirlMagic, and navigating graduate school as a women of color with a family. Danielle just earned her PhD in English with a project about comedy and satire in African American culture and literature (congrats!). We talk about race, intent, and audience in Hamilton the musical and the work of Dave Chappelle and Aziz Ansari. There's also the #BlackGirlMagi...
Apr 14, 2016•1 hr 1 min
So you're used to being "the smart one." How does our pursuit of success have its pitfalls? In a guest lecture for a Cornell course on "A Life Worth Living," we talk about how we define success and how that drive feeds into problematic ideas about meritocracy and respectability. Competition can become an all-consuming mentality: it's not just about our worth as individuals but our relationship to communities and our burdens of representation. Liz addresses the pressures surrounding her identity ...
Apr 08, 2016•1 hr 2 min
Spring is a time of renewal -- and also rejection according to the academic calendar. So. Much. Rejection: grad schools, fellowships, postdocs, jobs, publications -- all come rolling in, sometimes with a little bit of success thrown in. Track records of academic success obscure every level of academia is filled with what feels like different forms of failure. It's damn hard not to internalize. Liz and Xine try to balance celebrating individual successes for ourselves and others, allowing space f...
Mar 31, 2016•59 min
It happens here: we start our second season by helping the whisper network speak up about sexual harassment and assault in academia. The Hunting Ground documentary has brought attention to sexual assault on US campuses and there are now high profile cases about sexual harassment experienced by grads in astronomy and philosophy. We interview Anna Waymack, grad student and advocate, about issues with the current system of academia writ large. Please support institutional and cultural change! We ar...
Mar 24, 2016•48 min
"But my best friend is ____!" What if this common phrase was treated as more than an excuse for bigotry, but as an ethical imperative for allyship and activism? Liz and Xine were invited to give their first keynote, "Friendship as Activism," for the Agency and Solidarity Conference at Cornell. We talk respectability politics; our studies, ourselves; diversity, activism, and service in the academy; and self-care and survival. Oh, and the keynote was covered by The Cornell Daily Sun and we were ca...
Mar 17, 2016•51 min
Are graduate students workers? Liz and Xine explore this debate by interviewing Jackqueline Frost from Cornell Graduate Students United. We discuss issues of graduate student labor at Cornell and higher education in general -- power dynamics, fear, funding, and differences between humanities and STEM in approaches to work and work dynamics. Should graduate students of the world unite? Do we have nothing to lose but our chains?
Mar 10, 2016•58 min
"BANG" -- Xine fired her confetti gun and then sauntered off-stage to applause of a thousand people. The Vagina Monologues are a perennial cultural touchstone on many college campuses for women's advocacy. Xine and Liz talk about the power and problems of the play. How can we affirm bodies and womanhood without excluding issues of race or trans women from the conversation? What kind of responses do we get from cis men and how can we encourage them to be supportive allies? Xine is proud to be a p...
Feb 25, 2016•47 min
What happens when we experience loss in grad school? How do we find ways to heal and to remember when our time is so structured by quantifiable successes and milestones? The leave of absence disrupts this timeline and people will judge you for taking it and others will condemn you for not doing it. Liz and Xine take this episode to discuss mental health and to mourn their loved ones through both intangible memories and tangible mementos. From jade necklaces to laundry to an extra winter coat, wh...
Feb 18, 2016•36 min
What if? With every BA/PhD/postdoc/job application we open so many possibilities for our academic journeys and lives in different places and even fields of interest. Xine and Liz speculate about some of these alternate realities, from family histories to career paths. How do we imagine our pasts and futures in this uncertain world? Who are these other Lizes and Xines?
Feb 11, 2016•42 min
Let's build the academia and the world we want to live in! January is National Mentoring Month (US) so Xine and Liz talk about how much success in academia is owed to mentors and the importance of paying it forward by mentoring. We discuss this emotional and gendered labor and, of course, the disproportionate (but important) burden placed on marginalized peoples in the academy. What should you know about being a mentor and about being a mentee? Thank you to all our wonderful mentors and support ...
Jan 30, 2016•42 min
Treat yourself! Xine and Liz talk about class and race in the consumerist makeup heaven that is Sephora. Lupita Nyong'o is now the face of Lancome, but our PhDivas have grown up struggling with representation in cosmetics. It's bittersweet finally being able to enter the rarefied realm of beauty... And as academics we're not supposed to care or talk about it. (FYI Liz loves the Jardin perfume series from Hermes, while Xine's signature fragrance is Tom Ford Black Orchid and is now obsessed with H...
Jan 14, 2016•38 min
Black Power, Yellow Peril! What happens when Bruce Lee's inheritor is a young African American man from Harlem? Liz and Xine discuss the classic Motown martial arts film The Last Dragon in relation to Bruce Lee's iconic Enter the Dragon. We discuss cultural appropriation, alliance, and adaptation between Blacks and Asians with a focus on Black and Asian American masculinity. Mentions include the work of scholar Vijay Prashad, Jet Li in Romeo Must Die, John Cho in Selfie, Aziz Ansari and Kelvin Y...
Jan 07, 2016•39 min
#ByeScalia -- black scientists clap back. Liz and Xine discuss Supreme Court Justice Scalia's comments about Blacks benefiting from going to "lesser schools," affirmative action, Abigail Fisher, diversity in university branding, and the history of science. We speak from the heart: Liz on the hurt from these comments and Xine trying to support Liz as a friend. 160+ Asian American & Pacific Islander Groups File Legal Briefs with U.S. Supreme Court in Support of Affirmative Action #edu4all #NotYour...
Dec 17, 2015•47 min
"It looks like I'm missing my girlfriend!" Liz and Xine have a 2 body problem since Liz is at UNC Chapel Hill and Xine is still at Cornell. We talk about the 2-or-more body problem (family and friends are bodies too!). Xine also explains Star Wars to Liz: are we Jedi or Sith? Other topics: books we want to read, The Wiz, #ThanksgivingwithBlackFamilies. We are still working out the kinks of recording apart from each other -- apologies for the delay and sound quality!
Dec 10, 2015•43 min
Xine and Liz respond to a listener's question: can someone appropriate their own cultural identity? Xine confesses that she's an Asian person who has never been to Asia. Liz muses about her relationship to her own blackness. Food, fashion, hip hop. Power and history. What's authenticity? Who gets to own culture?
Nov 19, 2015•37 min
Discussing "truth" across the STEM/humanities divide! Liz explains p-values to Xine. Xine teaches Liz what close reading means. Together, Xine and Liz examine the shifting standards of evidence in popular culture and recent events around police brutality.
Nov 12, 2015•47 min
‘‘I don’t care to speak to you anymore.’’ Nicki Minaj to her interviewer from New York Times magazine. (!) Liz and Xine bow before the throne of Nicki Minaj and discuss her role in the current climate of pop culture, racial discourse, and feminism.
Oct 29, 2015•35 min
The greatest thing you'll ever learn is how to mentor and be mentored in return. Liz and Xine reflect on their PhD experiences and give advice to early career graduate students...eating Sour Patch Kids along the way. What do we wish we knew? Thanks for all of our mentors! #academickindness
Oct 22, 2015•32 min
"Go back to Hong Kong! Speak English!" Liz interviews Xine about Toronto and multiculturalism, racial consciousness, video games, and her general attitude of defiance in her life and her study of literature. Stay tuned for end of the episode where you will also learn something about Xine that causes her friends a lot of anguish. Happy belated birthday, Xine!
Oct 15, 2015•38 min
Liz talks about her dissertation defense aka why Xine went to the Weill Institute for Cell and Molecular Biology at 9am on a Wednesday We are starting a new short format called "Footnotes" to come out between our regular long Thursday episodes! Tidbits, bloopers, and answers to your questions.
Oct 13, 2015•12 min
Liz and Xine sit down with fellow PhDiva Dr. Nadia Chernyak and discuss difficulties and similarities about applying to tenure track jobs in the humanities, social sciences, and STEM. (Yes, we are all on the job market right now.) How is the university changing? What is your #academicanxiety? For more information about Dr. Chernyak you can find her at www.nadiachernyak.com
Oct 08, 2015•1 hr
Can you study what you love? Newly minted PhD Dr. Shyla Foster talks to Xine and Liz about why she studies Buffy the Vampire Slayer and how to be a critic as well as a fan.
Oct 01, 2015•36 min
In this two part series, Xine and Liz show each other how they conduct research. In Part 2, modern-day scientist Liz joins Xine on her trip to Philadelphia to conduct research in the archives of the Mutter Museum of the College of Physicians. Skull collections! Civil War medicine!
Sep 24, 2015•34 min
In this two part series, Xine and Liz show each other how they conduct research. In Part I, Xine shadows Liz on a typical day of experimentation with in-vivo imaging in a biomedical engineering lab. What happens when Xine, who studies the history of science and medicine, gets to see Liz's day-to-day work as a scientist? Lasers! Floating tables!
Sep 17, 2015•31 min
Xine interviews Liz and highlights some of her favorite "Liz-isms." Liz reveals insight into her childhood, why she loves physics, being from the south, and why she's truly a PhDiva.
Sep 10, 2015•42 min
Liz and Xine break down the outrageous NY Times comments by Duke professor Jerry Hough about Black and Asian names in relation to assimilation in America.
Sep 04, 2015•31 min
Xine and Liz are back from summer break and bringing you the business. New music, photography, a Facebook page -- and new episodes!
Sep 03, 2015•5 min
"You're a girl so you can't do math." "Speak English and go back to Hong Kong!" Liz and Xine tackle racial and gender stereotypes that tried to hold them back -- but they ended up doing PhDs in the very subjects they weren't supposed to be any good at.
May 19, 2015•30 min
#BlackLivesMatter. DREAM Cornell. May Day. #FighttheFee. Just a few of the acts of protest on Cornell's campus at the beginning of this month. Xine and Liz discuss activism, the academy, and what it takes to be an ally. Cornell's Response to Student Activists http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/29/cornell-student-activists_n_7167092.html CAAAV's #JusticeforAkaiGurley #Asians4BlackLives letter http://caaav.org/justiceforakaigurley-national-sign-on-letter
May 12, 2015•30 min
It's hard not to have an opinion about Fresh Off the Boat, the first Asian American sitcom in about 20 years. Check out our take on the representation of Asian Americans and the use of Black culture both in the show and by its creator, Eddie Huang. Eddie Huang's initial Vulture article on FOTB: http://www.vulture.com/2015/01/eddie-huang-fresh-off-the-boat-abc.html Bill Maher interview with Eddie Huang: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oPbdydra_Ak OKCupid on race: http://blog.okcupid.com/index.php...
Apr 29, 2015•29 min
