KUCI: Office Hours: Recent Episodes
Cybelle Kaehler
Dr. Rudo Mudiwa is a professor of gender and sexuality studies at UC Irvine whose work examines the intersections of race, gender, and decolonization. This week, we hear about her research on the figure of "the prostitute" in the political discourse of Zimbabwe in its early years of independence. She describes how policing women's bodies and sex work reveals truths about Zimbabwe's public conceptions of gender and citizenship.
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris".
For more information: https://rudomudiwa.com/
This week, I'm honored to chat with Dr. Ngugi wa Thiong'o, celebrated novelist, playwright, and theorist, and one of the foremost writers of Kenya. Dr. wa Thiong'o's work tells of the bloody impact of colonialism and the struggle for decolonization, particularly the war for independence in Kenya, which he lived through. For his controversial play, I Will Marry When I Want, he was imprisoned by the government of Kenya and was later released due to Amnesty International naming him a Prisoner of Conscience. Dr. wa Thiong'o writes primarily in his native language, Gikuyu, and his influential book, Decolonizing the Mind, states the vital importance of creating literature in the native language of colonized countries. Dr. wa Thiong'o has written over 30 novels, books, and plays, and is now a Distinguished Professor of comparative literature at UC Irvine.
Video games have made their mark on the last four decades as an unforgettable cornerstone of pop culture, and one of the most common pastimes of today. Dr. Bo Ruberg from UCI's Film and Media Studies department joins to discuss LGBTQ representation in video games, and how "gamers" are so much more diverse than the stereotype of their culture would seem. Dr. Ruberg also discusses making academic environments more inclusive to transgender students and professors, and how they are working to make everyone feel welcome in the world of video gaming.
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris".
For more information on Dr. Ruberg's research and books, see below: http://ourglasslake.com/ https://twitter.com/MyOwnVelouria https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sex-dolls-sea https://nyupress.org/9781479843749/ https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-queer-games-avant-garde#:~:text=How%20LGBTQ%20Game%20Makers%20Are%20Reimagining%20the%20Medium%20of%20Video%20Games&text=In%20The%20Queer%20Games%20Avant,the%20medium%20of%20video%20games.
In the first episode of 2021, marking a year since "Office Hours" started, we reflect on television history with Dr. Allison Perlman, a professor of Film and Media Studies and History at UCI. We discuss how social movements, politics, and struggles for diversity have played out in the last seventy years of television history, and how they are changing today. Talking points include how television contributed to the turbulent 1960's, how Rush Limbaugh's broadcasting set back discussions about race, and how to navigate the fast paced political news of today.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
To find out more:
Public Interests: Media Advocacy and Struggles over U.S. Television: https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/public-interests/9780813572291
Flow TV: Television in the Age of Media Convergence: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/flow-tv-michael-kackman/1110950147
Rush Limbaugh and the Problem of the Color Line: https://www.jstor.org/stable/23253595?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents
This week, we hear from the experienced theatre director Beth Lopes, talking about her exciting upcoming production at UCI, She Kills Monsters. The play follows Agnes Evans, a high school cheerleader, as she strives to connect to her late sister through playing a Dungeons and Dragons game her sister had written. Beth discusses balancing the hope, grief, comedy, and fantasy of this play, and shares insight into her process as a director. Tune in to hear about the challenges of navigating the new world of creating theatre online through Zoom, and how artists are shaping a new future for the theatre industry. She Kills Monsters will be streamed live on Vimeo, December 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
You can get free tickets to stream She Kills Monsters here: https://drama.arts.uci.edu/events/she-kills-monsters-virtual-realms-qui-nguyen
To find out more: http://bethlopes.com/ http://newswanshakespeare.com/
Returning to air after a brief hiatus, "Office Hours" dives into a hot topic- the state of the healthcare system in America. We sit down with Dr. John Billimek, a psychologist and professor at the UCI School of Medicine, to discuss his extensive research on health disparities in the US. From insurance woes, to socioeconomic and racial factors, to bias from doctors, to workplace hazards, health in America is anything but equal. Join us as we discuss the problems with the system, and how it could be changed. Dr. Billimek runs the HELIOS lab at UCI, which researches health disparities, and is a director of the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community in the School of Medicine.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Additional Resources: The HELIOS Lab: https://thehelioslab.org/
John Billimek: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/billimek/
Dr. Billimek's Diversity Education Initiatives: https://www.meded.uci.edu/curricular-affairs/lead-abc.asp https://www.familymed.uci.edu/residency/primelc.asp
Local Healthcare Nonprofits: https://www.latinohealthaccess.org/ https://www.ocapica.org/
When the pandemic hit, UC Irvine professor of statistics Vladimir Minin began moving quickly into action. Working with his colleagues, he developed two websites to display numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Orange County and all of California. Join us as we discuss trends of cases, how to understand statistics, and his process of collecting information and presenting it to the public. The websites can be reached here (https://www.stat.uci.edu/covid19/index.html) and here (https://www.stat.uci.edu/oc_covid_model/index.html).
Find out more at: https://vnminin.github.io/ https://news.uci.edu/2020/08/10/uci-researchers-launch-first-of-its-kind-coronavirus-statistics-portal/ https://news.uci.edu/2020/09/15/uci-statisticians-release-new-online-orange-county-covid-19-information-resource/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Returning for the second time to "Office Hours" on the week of Labor Day, Dr. Keith Danner explains how socialism is an answer to solving today's increasingly untenable economic and racial inequality. As a union leader, he also shares information on how to be an effective activist. Join us as we discuss socialism in regards to COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, the Green New Deal, the Democratic Party, and the future of the Left. Dr. Danner is a lecturer of composition at UC Irvine and the local president of the union UC-AFT.
Find out more at: https://rampantmag.com/ https://spectrejournal.com/ https://jacobinmag.com/ https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=6616 https://socialistworker.org/2017/07/12/why-socialism-was-a-big-deal https://www.sun-sentinel.com/tn-dpt-me-0121-uci-rally-20170120-story.html
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
From the moment the pandemic hit America, researchers began thinking of how to apply their knowledge to combat COVID-19. This week, we hear from Dr. Pramod Khargonekar, Dr. Nalini Venkatasubramanian, and Dr. Sharad Mehrotra, three professors of computer science at UC Irvine who have done exactly that. By tracking which devices are logged onto the UCI campus wifi, they developed a system which is able to monitor if social distancing protocol is being followed and notify people if they have likely come into contact with an infected person, all while protecting the privacy of individuals.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Find out more at: https://healthitanalytics.com/news/uci-uses-campus-wi-fi-to-test-covid-19-contact-tracing-app https://www.newswise.com/articles/uci-researchers-use-campus-as-test-bed-for-coronavirus-contact-tracing-system?ta=home https://www.educationdive.com/news/colleges-look-to-apps-that-screen-for-virus-symptoms-and-trace-contacts/583387/ https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/khargonekar/ https://nalini.ics.uci.edu/ https://www.ics.uci.edu/~sharad/
Familial love is something that money can't buy or take away. However, examining how and why parents spent money on their children leads to insights about societal trends, the job market, and wealth inequality. Here to share her research on the economies of parenting is Dr. Nina Bandelj, a sociology professor at UC Irvine and a 2019-2020 fellow at the esteemed Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Find out more at: https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691034591/pricing-the-priceless-child https://provost.uci.edu/2019/01/11/nina-bandelj-new-associate-vice-provost-faculty-development/ https://ideasandsociety.ucr.edu/event/bandelj/ https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023118795953 https://casbs.stanford.edu/people/nina-bandelj
In this "Office Hours" double feature, Dr. Keith Danner speaks about his research on climate change, as well as his role as the local president of UC-AFT, the lecturers' union at the University of California. He describes potential outcomes of climate change in the coming years, and what preventative measures are urgently needed. He also describes the work UC-AFT has done to obtain job security for lecturers, and the rewards of union organizing. Dr. Danner is a lecturer of composition at UC Irvine.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Find out more at: https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=6616 https://www.newuniversity.org/2017/06/06/letters-to-the-editor-lecturers-union/ https://ucaft.org/content/irvine https://www.greenpeace.org/usa/global-warming/exxon-and-the-oil-industry-knew-about-climate-change/exxons-climate-denial-history-a-timeline/
This week, we dive into a lesser known corner of trans-Atlantic colonialism with Dr. Chelsea Schields, a professor of history. She talks about her research on leftist anticolonial movements in the Dutch Caribbean, and how they imagined sexual politics and liberation as a part of the revolution. Postcolonial activists of the Dutch Caribbean wrote about issues of prostitution and reproductive rights, and argued that women's sexual freedom as well as LGBT equality were a key part of dismantling imperialist control of the islands.
Find out more at: https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=6440 https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3025&context=gc_etds https://uci.academia.edu/ChelseaSchields https://www.academia.edu/39851248/Eros_against_empire_Visions_of_erotic_freedom_in_archives_of_decolonisation
Our intro song was If I Had a Dime by David Ryan Harris.
To celebrate Pride Month, this week we learn about LGBTQ history with Dr. Jennifer Terry, the chair of gender and sexuality studies at UC Irvine. We discuss how the medical and scientific communities have studied the LGBTQ community throughout the past century, as detailed in her book, An American Obsession: Science, Medicine, and Homosexuality in Modern Society. We also talk about the history of the gay liberation movement through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, amidst the AIDS crisis. The conversation concludes with discussing how the US government and its institutions of the military and the police currently treat LGBTQ citizens.
To find more of Dr. Terry's work: https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=4925 https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/A/bo3626344.html
Some places to donate to: https://marshap.org/# https://www.thetrevorproject.org/ https://www.theokraproject.com/ https://www.naacpldf.org/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
In the wake of Juneteenth and the ongoing police brutality protests, "Office Hours" hears from Dr. Damien Sojoyner, a professor of anthropology, and Ms. Stephanie Jones, a PhD student in sociology. Both have focused on issues of anti-blackness and structural inequality in the United States. We discuss systemic racism, conceptions of race, the current protests, and Dr. Sojoyner's book First Strike: Educational Enclosures of Black Los Angeles, which describes how the policing, discipline, and curriculum in American schools leads to the oppression and subjugation of Black students.
Resources Mentioned: https://thenewpress.com/books/fatal-invention http://www.socallib.org/ https://blacklivesmatters.carrd.co/
Other writings from Dr. Sojoyner: https://www.upress.umn.edu/book-division/books/first-strike https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/sojoyner/ https://escholarship.org/content/qt35c207gv/qt35c207gv.pdf?t=oxpfpy&v=lg https://truthout.org/articles/keywords-in-black-protest-a-n-anti-vocabulary/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
This week, "Office Hours" shoots for the stars with Dr. Virginia Trimble, a distinguished professor of astronomy and physics at UC Irvine. She discusses her research on the ways science is conducted, and shares some knowledge about stars, galaxies, and dark matter. Dr. Trimble has won several awards for her lifetime of contributions, and has served in leadership positions in the International Astronomical Union, the American Physical Society, the American Astronomical Society, and the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics.
Find out more at: https://www.wired.com/story/the-woman-who-knows-everything-about-the-universe/ https://www.aip.org/news/2019/lifelong-successes-public-enlightenment-virginia-trimble-receive-gemant-award-championing https://baas.aas.org/pub/2020i0204/release/1 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1811.04310.pdf
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris. For information and ways to help Black Lives Matter, go to blacklivesmatter.carrd.co
Join us this week as Dr. Arash Kheradvar, a cardiovascular engineer and a professor of biomedical engineering and medicine at UC Irvine, discusses his innovative research in using artificial intelligence to analyze cardiac MRIs for patients with congenital heart disease. Recently, he has used this AI technology to predict the course of the disease from looking at chest scans of COVID-19 patients. Dr. Kheradvar has worked on several lifesaving cardiac technologies through the years, has founded his own research lab at UCI, and is an elected fellow of the American Heart Association.
Find out more at: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Arash_Kheradvar https://pureresearch.americanheart.org/en/awards/cloudbased-ai-platform-for-automatic-segmentation-and-analysis-of-pediatric-cardiac-mri-datasets(ddf23476-13e3-4174-b773-20d03a8e9250).html https://oc-covid19.org/engineers-aim-to-use-ai-on-chest-x-rays-to-predict-disease-severity/ http://kheradvar.eng.uci.edu/index.php
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris
This week, "Office Hours" brings timely updates from cutting edge COVID-19 research. Dr. Weian Zhao is an Associate Professor at the Sue and Bill Gross Stem Cell Research Center, Edwards Lifesciences Center for Advanced Cardiovascular Technology, and the departments of Biomedical Engineering, Biological Chemistry, and Pharmaceutical Sciences at UCI. His current project is developing a more accurate method of testing for COVID-19 that detects antigens in the blood instead of the current nasopharyngeal tests.
Find out more about Dr. Zhao and how you can donate to his research here: https://pharmsci.uci.edu/dr-weian-zhao/
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris
In this episode, Ingrid Allen interviews an advocate and member of the UCI Digital Filmmaking minor, Jenna Morehouse. Jenna and Ingrid discuss the very competitive minor, what applicants can expect, the saga behind the threat of defunding this year, and how the minor has helped her.
Check out Jenna's film work on her Instagram: @jene.vie.ve And the Digital Filmmaking site: http://digifilmuci.com/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris
This week, we hear from Dr. Elizabeth Cauffman, a professor of psychological science, education, and law at UC Irvine. She discusses her research on whether adolescents should be tried as adults, and how they are affected by the criminal justice system. Tune in to hear how her unpack how the teenage brain develops, what her studies have shown, and how she contributed to the Supreme Court decision to ban the death penalty for minors.
Find out more at: http://blumcenter.uci.edu/media/2018/our-kids-elizabeth-cauffman/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
This week, Cybelle Kaehler interviews Rianne Campbell, a phD student in neurology, who shares her findings on how the use of cocaine changes the long term structure of the brain. Rianne was also featured on "Bill Nye Saves the World". Join us as we dive into the science of addiction, and how her research is trying to combat it.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
In her debut episode as a cohost, Ingrid Allen interviews two members of the uci4COLA movement and UCI grad students Courtney Echols and Nalya Rodriguez. They discuss the COLA, or Cost of Living Adjustment movement at UCI, which advocates for higher wages for graduate student teaching assistants in response to the rent burden they struggle with. They also discuss the housing crisis and mutual aid fund facing graduate students, among other issues.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Welcome to the second quarter of "Office Hours"! This week, we are doing a very special show. Rather than interviewing a professor or student, we are doing a dramatic reading of "A Full Circle", a short play by UC Irvine student playwright, Mieke Rosecrans. This play follows four college students in a support group, as they navigate friendship, mental illness, and grief.
Trigger Warning: This short play deals with the topics of death, chronic illness, mental illness, addiction, and suicidal themes. Please take care when listening.
The people reading the roles were as follows: Tess: Mieke Rosecrans Abby: Cybelle Kaehler Daniel: Victor Bolyshkanov Owen: Aaron Cirillo
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime", by David Ryan Harris. The other songs used in this episode were "Out of the Woods" by Nickel Creek, "Minism" by Taylor Dupree, and "Rest of My Life" by Nickel Creek.
Though we are now producing episodes and interviewing guests remotely, the show is continuing to air new episodes every week. Our broadcast time is now Wednesdays at 8:00 AM instead of Thursdays, and we now have two cohosts instead of one- Ingrid Allen has joined Cybelle Kaehler on the "Office Hours" team.
Tune in this episode for a fascinating discussion with Dr. Jonathan Alexander, a professor of English and Gender and Sexuality Studies, on his new book, “Science Fiction and the Dismal Science”. He explains how science fiction comments on economics in society, and how both science fiction and fan fiction imagines the future.
Find out more at: https://uci.academia.edu/JonathanAlexander
His book is available here: https://mcfarlandbooks.com/product/science-fiction-and-the-dismal-science/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
This week, we heard from Dr. Tirtha Banerjee, a civil and environmental engineering professor who leads a research team of professors from multiple UCs, working to develop ways to prevent and control wildfires. Using a computer simulation, he is able to track how fire will spread and affect a habitat, and work to combat it. Don't miss this exciting conversation!
Find out more at: https://engineering.uci.edu/users/tirtha-banerjee https://news.uci.edu/2020/02/14/uci-led-project-seeks-to-combat-wildfires/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
This week, we heard from Nalya Rodriguez, a UC Irvine PhD student in sociology, on criminal justice, racism, and gang violence in El Salvador. Tune in for an insightful discussion of Salvadoran president Nayib Bukele’s recent law enforcement policies.
Find out more at: https://www.latinorebels.com/2020/02/12/elsalvadorchance/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Today we heard from UCI's student government, ASUCI president Randy Yan! He discusses his goals and initiatives as president, as well as the purpose and inner workings of student government.
Find out more at: https://www.asuci.uci.edu/president/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
This week, “Office Hours” explores new topics in neuroscience with a PhD student in neurology, Jessica Yaros, who speaks about her research on racial bias in facial recognition.
Find out more at: https://www.npr.org/2016/10/21/493252538/meet-fojbi-jessie-yaros-explorer-of-race-memory-and-discrimination
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
This week, Office Hours interviewed former elementary school teacher, education advocate, and distinguished professor of education at the University of California, Irvine, Dr. Emily Penner. She discusses her research on structural inequality in elementary, middle, and high schools in America, and how we can create a brighter future for underprivileged students.
Find out more about her work at http://emilykpenner.com/ and https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=6281
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
This week, we examined a highly topical and serious issue, as we discuss the developing situation with the Coronavirus. Alvaro Zevallos, a UCI graduate student in Public Health, shares information on the outbreak and how to stay safe and avoid the transmission of the disease, as well as other research and knowledge from a public health expert. Find out more at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html
(This episode was recorded January 28, 2020, and aired January 30, 2020. Please be advised it is NOT CURRENT INFORMATION.)
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
On the Thursday show, we heard from Sara Rodriguez, the director of the upcoming UCI drama production, “The Penelopiad” by Margaret Atwood. The play is a feminist retelling of “The Odyssey” centering on Odysseus’ wife, Penelope, and it features an all female cast. Join us as Sara discusses Greek literature, feminism, history, and the theatre making process.
And listen to “Odyssey and Chill”, Sara’s new podcast, here! https://sites.uci.edu/odysseyandchill/
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Episode 1 1/16/2020
In the premiere episode of "Office Hours", we hear from Alexa Roemmich, a graduate student in cell and developmental biology at the University of California, Irvine, about her research on epilepsy. Using Drosophilia, commonly known as the fruit fly, she alters their genes to induce epilepsy, and studies how different medications affect their brains. The drugs she tests the effects of include CBD, which is emerging as a surprising new epilepsy treatment.
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris.