After the 2025 Reckford Lecture , IAH Director Patricia Parker and Yale professor Fatima El-Tayeb reunite on Zoom for The Institute podcast. In this episode, Parker and El-Tayeb reflect on the lecture and discusses the themes El-Tayeb explored in her talk and her latest book, Un/German: Racialized Otherness in Post-Cold War Europe .
English and comparative literature professor Mary Floyd-Wilson received the 2024 George H. Johnson Prize for Distinguished Achievement by an IAH Fellow. In March 2025, she received the prize and delivered a lecture on her latest work exploring the representations of the devil on stage, particularly in Hamlet . In this podcast, Floyd-Wilson looks back on the lecture and her career.
Sociologist Tania Jenkins (FFP ’24) studies the social impacts within medicine and health care, from status hierarchies to physician burnout. As a DuBose Fellow in the IAH's Faculty Fellowship, Jenkins explored the structural underpinnings of satisfaction and well-being in medicine. In this episode, she describes her research journey and interest in medical sociology and her current research.
Actor and dramatic art professor Julia Gibson joins the podcast to reflect on her past roles, including ones in PlayMakers Repertory Company’s 2024-25 season. She compares her roles in What the Constitution Means to Me and Death of a Salesman , and shares how acting differs from directing and teaching. In fall 2024, Gibson was a Turner Fellow in the Faculty Fellowship Program where she worked on her project, “Being Invisible?”
Associate professor Brandy Brimmer reflects on her fellowship experiences and research in historical legal practices regarding Black attorneys post-Emancipation, and Black women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Black attorneys and claims agents in the post-emancipation South. Brimmer’s work emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of her work and the importance of archival research in understanding historical legal practices and community building.
Brian Hsu (FFP ’24) joins us this episode to share how he fell in love with language and linguistics from a young age. Additionally, Hsu describes his recent projects about uncovering Cherokee word order and “Starship Generative Enterprise,” a Star Trek-spin on modern linguistics. We also discuss Hsu’s time as a Faculty Fellow in Spring 2024, where he worked on “Principled Probability in Language.”
Institute for the Arts and Humanities Director Patricia Parker sits down with faculty program director Viji Sathy and Rob Kramer for discussion on academic leadership and their involvement with the Institute's Tyson Academic Leadership Program . Kramer, who recently left the IAH and moved to Oregon, had served as the Institute’s senior leadership advisor since 2011 working as co-facilitator to the Chairs Leadership Program and the ALP. With a bittersweet farewell to Kramer and his leadership, he...
Political science professor Milada Vachudova (FFP ’05, ’15) discusses her research on political change in Europe. In this episode, Vachudova provides context for recent democratic backsliding in countries like Hungary and Poland, and its impact on civic participation and engagement. Vachudova, who joined the IAH as the Faculty Director for Strategic Initiatives in July 2024, also shares about her work in connecting with other faculty and units across the university and beyond.
Inger Brodey (FFP '11, '24) shares details about her new publication, Jane Austen and the Price of Happiness, and her upcoming Jane Austen research she worked on as a recent faculty fellow. In addition to book projects, she discusses her public humanities service with UNC's School of Civic Life and Leadership, the Jane Austen Summer Program, and more.
Adam Versényi is a professor of dramaturgy in the UNC Department of Dramatic Art. In this episode, Versényi shares his collaborative work in dramaturgy and translation projects. He also discusses his previous fellowships with the IAH and also what the current Chairs Leadership Program cohort is up to this year.
History associate professor Michelle King specializes modern Chinese gender history and food history. In this episode, she discusses her experience in the IAH Faculty Fellowship Program and the research behind her new book, Chop Fry Watch Learn: Fu Pei-mei and the Making of Modern Chinese Food (Johns Hopkins University Press).
In advance of the 2024 Weil Lecture on March 25, Director Patricia Parker conducts a phone interview with speaker Judy Woodruff. During her lecture, Woodruff will speak on her reporting project, Judy Woodruff Presents: America at a Crossroads. In this podcast, Director Parker asks Woodruff about her distinguished career in journalism, the inspirations for the project, and the divisions and conversations she witnesses throughout it.
Assistant professor of religious studies Hugo Mendez (FFP '22) discusses his research in his recent book projects: one exploring the role of St. Stephen in early Christian communities, and the most recent examining the biblical books of John. He also describes his fellowship experiences – at the IAH and at the National Humanities Center – and how they provided the needed time and interdisciplinary connections to work on his current book.
Andrea Bohlman is an associate professor of music who received a 2023 Summer International Collaborative Research Grant from the Institute for the Arts and Humanities. Part of Bohlman’s research examined the consent and politics of sound and sound-recordings, and she collaborated with colleagues at Polish universities. In the podcast, she talks about her research and the impact of the $20,000 grant.
Historian Katherine Turk (FFP ’21) discusses her new book, The Women of NOW: How Feminists Built an Organization that Transformed America (The Macmillan Group). She shares the history of the National Organization for Women, and on three leaders who helped shape the organization.
Actor and playwright Samuel Ray Gates (FFP ’22) talks about his Faculty Fellowship experience, where he continued his work on his one-person show, When the Swelling Goes Down. Gates shares the themes of the show, the writing process, and the ways comedy can be used to explore and heal through difficult issues. Recorded in spring 2023.
Recorded in spring 2023, Courtney Rivard, a 2023 fellow in the Tyson Academic Leadership Program, discusses her work as Director of the digital literacy and communications lab at UNC-Chapel Hill. She also shares recent projects in digital humanities, gaming studies, and a book that she worked on during her spring 2022 Faculty Fellowship.
African, African American and diaspora studies professor Kenneth Janken received the 2022 George H. Johnson Prize for Distinguished Achievement by an IAH Fellow. On March 23, 2023, he received the award and delivered a lecture, "Bringing the Wilmington Ten to the Public's Attention: One Historian's Experience in Public Humanities.” Before his lecture, he sat down to talk about his research, public reaction to the case, and his Fellowship experiences.
Recorded in February 2023, Director Patricia Parker talks with 2023 Reckford Lecture speaker and historian Ana Lucia Araujo about her research. Watch the 2023 Reckford Lecture on the IAH website: https://iah.unc.edu/araujo-2023-reckford-lecture/
Institute for the Arts and Humanities Patricia Parker talks about the impact of public humanities engagement. She also shares her recent interdisciplinary collaborations with other UNC faculty and international partners.
Institute for the Arts and Humanities Director Patricia Parker reflects on her first year leading the IAH, and how her experiences and work in engaged scholarship prepared her for the role.
Viji Sathy, the IAH's Tyson Academic Leadership Program Director, talks about how the program helps faculty across the UNC-Chapel Hill campus, her experiences in leadership development, and the way she brings her work in inclusive teaching into the ALP seminars. (Recorded in Summer 2022.)
Assistant professor of African, African American and Diaspora Studies, Ron Williams joins The Institute to discuss his latest book project, an institutional history of the US based foreign policy organization, "Trans Africa."
Oswaldo Estrada, professor of Romance studies, discusses the Faculty Fellowship Program. After receiving a fellowship three times, Estrada returned as its program director in 2021. As he enters the second year in the role, we talk about the program, the way that it enhances faculty research, his past experiences as a Fellow, and what he's looking forward to learning from this year's cohorts.
History professor John Wood Sweet joins the podcast to talk about his new book, The Sewing Girl's Tale: A Story of Crime and Consequences in Revolutionary America, published by Henry Holt and Company. He talks about the experiences of researching and publishing this book, his IAH Faculty Fellowship in 2020, and why he started telling the stories of people who aren’t widely known.
After the 2022 Reckford Lecture, speaker Magdalena Zaborowska joins Patricia Parker and Sharon Holland for a deeper dive into themes from her remarks, including questions about belonging and identity in James Baldwin’s philosophy of Black humanism. She also discusses her interdisciplinary research methodologies and provides a glimpse into her future Baldwin-inspired projects.
Recorded in summer 2021, Fall 2021 Faculty Fellow China Medel talks about her work in media and performance studies, as well as her manuscript Spectral Aethestics: Alternative Media and Visibility at the US-Mexico Border, which looks at a selection of film photography, new media and installation art about the crisis of migrant death at the US Mexico border.
Assistant Professor Gwendolyn Schwinke and Artist Maya Gurantz discuss their latest collaboration, The Endurance Project. A Work-In-Progress showing of The Endurance Project will be open to the public on Saturday, Feb. 26 from 5:00-6:30 p.m. in the Joan Gillings Center for Dramatic Arts, Room 102, UNC-Chapel Hill campus. People are invited to arrive as early as 4:30 to listen to the audio installation.
In February of 2018, Former IAH Director Mark Katz interviews astrophysicist and College of Arts and Sciences Dean Chris Clemens about his research of the stars, as well as his self-identified conservatism on a college campus, where liberalism is the dominant language. He discusses why different views on campus are fundamental to a higher educational experience, highlighting the UNC-Duke Philosophy, Politics, and Economics program, co-directed by Philosophy Professor and Associate Professors Pro...
Professor Pat Parker (Director, Institute for the Arts and Humanities) interview Claire McCaskill on her career in politics and her thoughts on the current political and cultural climate of the United States.
