Iu Themester

In this episode, Dr. Benjamin Irvin discusses the history of disability in the United States. He explains the medical model of disability vs. the social model. Under the social model, society’s views of disability change, making disability a concept open to historic analysis. Dr. Irvin discusses views of disability and disability healthcare in the United States, starting from the Revolutionary War. Irvin’s conversation touches on issues of ableism such as barriers to access, the presumption of incompetence, invisibility disability, and the prevalence of ableist vocabulary in everyday life.

Part 2 of 2. Dr. Colin Johnson discusses the long progression of LGBTQIA+ identity in the United States and breaks down the development of queer theory. Johnson further explains the difference between urban and rural societies' viewpoints on queer culture, and how being queer in rural America isn't always what we think.

Part 1 of a 2. In these episodes, Dr. Colin Johnson of Indiana University's Department of Gender Studies discusses the long progression of LGBTQIA+ identity in the United States and breaks down the development of queer theory. Johnson further explains the difference between urban and rural societies' viewpoints on queer culture, and how being queer in rural America isn't always what we think.

In this episode, Dr. Andrew Weaver of The Media School at Indiana University discusses the impact of media on today's youth. Weaver discusses how media shapes identity and what he sees as hyperbole around the role of technology in shaping how people think and behave. This conversation took place July 22, 2022.

In this episode, Dr. Stephen Selka explains what it truly means to be "human." Selka discusses the concept of the human from a historic and cross-cultural perspective, but also its role in post-apocalyptic and dystopian fiction, to express what being human means now and for the future and how identity connects to it all.

In this episode, Dr. Amrita Chakrabarti Myers of Indiana University discusses her IU course "Wenches, Witches and Welfare Queens," and the evolution of the black woman stereotype in media. Myers comments what it means to change those stereotypes in today's society, and what can be done to include the correct representation in the ever-changing media. This conversation took place June 13, 2022.

In this episode of the Indiana University Themester podcast, Dr. De Witt Douglas Kilgore of IU's Department of English discusses the world of Marvel and DC, and the connections between identity and the world of comic books. Kilgore comments on the evolution of heroes in mainstream comics, and how youth in today's age can see more representation from the last 60 years. This conversation took place July 8, 2022. Themester 2022 focused on the theme of "Identity and Identification."

In this episode, Dr. Jessica O’Reilly analyzes the cross-sectionality of global health and environmental functions. This analysis includes observations of how distinct cultures and religions approach resilience in separate ways using their own specific epistemology. Specifically, O’Reilly contrasts Indigenous wisdom and Western science. This leads to an intriguing conversation about environmental racism and justice in colonized communities and whether resilience itself is an oppressive expectation for these communities. This conversation took place August 26, 2021.

In this episode, Dr. Betsi Grabe discusses how the increasing investment and consolidataion by major news corporations has forced journalism into a more business-style structure while at the same time the flow of information has exploded— requiring humans to adapt to an overwhelming media escape.

In this episode of the Themester 2021 podcast exploring RESILIENCE, Dr. Betsi Grabe expounds upon her scholarship on people's perception of news media and how it is packaged for the public. Grabe then shifts to how the new digital age has impacted her research and how it changed how the public ingests information. She compares her past and present experiences in the news industry and how external factors play a role in the mediascape.

In this episode, Dr. Jakobi Williams of Indiana University's Departments of History and African American and African Diaspora Studies explains the history of the Black Power Movement and how the Black Panther Party has influenced modern political figures. Williams discusses how youth activism has changed and stayed the same over the course of the last 50 years. This conversation took an introspective dive into generational trauma from oppression through racism.

In this episode, Dr. Heather Reynolds of the IU Department of Biology shares her thoughts on what a sustainable infrastructure would look like in our society. Reynolds explains this paradigm shift through the importance of community participatory research. The conversation takes an in-depth look at the intersection of the economy, environment, and society. This conversation took place August 4, 2021.

Professor Michael Hamburger (Indiana University, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences) discusses what natural disasters are and how they are impacted by climate change.

Indiana University professors Wendy Gamber (History), Lauren MacLean (Political Science), Lisa-Maria Napoli (Political and Civic Engagement), and Stephanie Sanders (Gender Studies) reflect on a semester of co-teaching a Themester course titled “Sex, Race, & Voting Rights.” The class commemorated and interrogated the centennial of the passage of the United States Constitution's 19th Amendment, which established that the right to vote in the United States could not be denied or abridged on account of sex.

In this episode, IU Religious Studies Professor Dr. Jay Kameron discusses the origins and development of the racial imaginary that lays ground for white supremacy. Carter explains how whiteness operates as religion.

Dr. Hussein Banai, a professor in the Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University, discusses democratic backsliding and erosion as well as the rise of nationalism and polarization. In this episode, Dr. Banai explains the difference between backsliding and erosion and distinguishes between ethnonationalism and civic nationalism. Civic nationalism can co-exist with democracy while ethnonationalism and polarization undermine democratic ideals.

Dr. Ben Robinson, associate professor of Germanic Studies, discusses the emergence of capitalism as the mode of production and questions its continued utility. In considering the driving forces of society under capitalism, the state and the market, Dr. Robinson urges us to consider the power the people wield. It is among the people, the public, that creativity and the possibility of progress lives. We, the people, also have influential power.

Dr Freya Thimsen, a professor in the English department at Indiana University, discusses how rhetoric can be used to create change. In this episode Dr. Thimsen asks us to consider the impact of social media. Can it used to mobilize the masses or is just empty self-gratification?

Myths of Protecting and Serving by College of Arts + Sciences

In part one of a two-part conversation, Dr. Rasul Mowatt (Indiana University) discusses the eleven forms of racial violence on a continuum, from what is intolerable to what is impossible to conceive.