Academic Aunties

Moonlight Murder with Uzma Jalaluddin

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 00:00:00 -0400

This week, we are SO excited to talk to Uzma Jalaluddin about her new book, Moonlight Murder! This is the latest instalment in her amazing Detective Aunty series. In our conversation we talk about her love for Agatha Christie, writing, why Scarborough is a hotbed of amazing writers and artists and why Kausar Khan is the anti-heroine we have all been waiting for.

After you listen to this episode, make sure you buy Moonlight Murder from a bookstore near you!

Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Perimenopause and Menopause

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 10:45:00 -0400

This episode is a long time coming for us. We're tackling perimenopause and menopause. On this episode we talk about the reality of going through perimenopause and menopause in the context of capitalism, a culture of celebrity, the continual erosion of robust public healthcare and medical racism.

We talk to Dr. Robin Turner, Associate Professor of Political Science at Butler University and Academic Aunties producer, Dr. Nisha Nath, Associate Professor of Equity Studies at Athabasca University.

Related Links

The Black Girl's Guide to Surviving Menopause
A Letter to My Future Self in a Time of Undoing by Omisade Burney-Scott
What Fresh Hell Is This? Perimenopause, Menopause, Other Indignities, and You by Heather Corinna
Heat Is Not a Metaphor by Alexis Pauline Gumbs

Good Supervision, Bad Supervision

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 00:00:00 -0400

The most important decision that grad students have to make is who to work with as their supervisor. A common joke in grad school is that graduate student-supervisor relationships outlast many marriages. Your choice of supervisor helps determine the trajectory of your graduate and postgraduate careers with supervisors.

So on this episode we talk about what its like to be a supervisor. What to expect, how to be ethical, and what its like to be supervisors as racialized faculty. Joining us is Dr. Nhung Tran, Associate Professor of History at the University of Toronto.

Related Links

Nature article on "shadow supervision"

Academic Parenting

Wed, 25 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0400

A few weeks ago my eldest daughter turned 10. It's so incredibly hard to believe because of how truly how fast did time flew. Thinking back 10 years ago, it was an incredibly chaotic time. I had interviewed for a job without knowing I was pregnant. Then after I received my offer, I had to navigate across country move. Then I gave birth a month after starting my faculty position at York. It was a time of trying to parent, teach, write, and research all at the same time.

And yet, despite these moments of intense stress, there were also so many moments of pure joy. When my daughter was born, my dad was still with us, so seeing him and my mom turn into doting grandparents and my partner turned into a dad was a gift. Being rooted in family and appreciating the life we have right now is something that I always try to remember to do.

Going down memory lane has made me think about how are other academic parents doing right now. What is it like to both parent and do your PhD? What decisions did you have to make to do both? How do you organize your family life and your time? What does care work look like? And honestly, how do we parent today in fascist times to answer these questions?

To answer these question, I immediately thought of Dr. Jenna Nassiri. Jenna recently finished her PhD in anthropology at York University and writes so thoughtfully and powerfully about care. She is also the mom of a 2-year-old and can speak to what it's like both doing your PhD and parenting.

Coming Home, Part 2

Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:00:00 -0400

On part 2 of Coming Home, we continue our conversation with Professors Mariam Georgia and Eisenstein Staats-Pangowish about what it means when our work is deeply tied to our homelands. This week, we talk about what home means, how we need to unlearn colonial ways of teaching, and the arrogance of western colonial academia. We also talk about why our commitments to this work drives us to teach differently and the ways we attempt to decolonize the classroom.

Coming Home, Part 1

Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:00:00 -0400

Last summer, I had an opportunity to return home to the Philippines. It was a bittersweet homecoming. I returned in part because my family and I needed to sort out my dad's estate, but it was also joyful homecoming because I reunited with family and community. Being able to be home where I heard my language spoken everywhere, where I understood cultural scripts was a relief.

But as I reflect on going home, I realize the tremendous privilege I have in being able to do so many of our friends live in exile, where going home is no longer possible. Many are witnessing imperial plunder take place in their lands, as in the case of colleagues in Venezuela, and find that going home is especially fraught, if not altogether impossible. And yet others see research on their homes as being tied to larger political projects, a commitment to escape scholarly erasure, and to recuperate lost histories.

Yet the way academia functions is that these complex emotions engendered by going home is not openly acknowledged. Something that many of us know is that the university can be profoundly inhospitable to how we take up these lineages, especially if we are insisting that our connections to home ground innate important knowledges.

And it is also the case that when it comes to academics, especially outsider academics, researching our homes can also be sources of colonial damage. Academics often treat our homes as their research playgrounds, where they suddenly become experts who know more than us.

So in this two part series, I chat about home with two of my favourite people, Dr. Mariam Georgis, and Professor Esentsei Staats-Pangowish.

Heated Rivalry

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 01:00:00 -0400

We're just weeks into 2026, but it is already messed up. US imperial attacks on Venezuela, the ICE raids across the US and Renee Good’s murder, the kidnapping of activist Chantal Anicoche by the Armed Forces of the Philippines, continued Israeli attacks in Gaza...it's been a lot.

So why are we talking this week about Heated Rivalry, the unexpected hit TV show from Crave and HBO about two hockey superstars who embark on a decade-long secret relationship despite being the faces of an intense hockey rivalry?

How can we possibly be thinking about a TV show amidst the fascist hellfire all around us?

To be honest I was initially hesitant about releasing this conversation in this exact moment.

But on reflection, I realized that maybe the overwhelmingly positive response to Heated Rivalry these past few weeks-an excitement and energy that I definitely felt-says something about what we are yearning for right now. When talking to friends about Heated Rivalry, I realize that we are seeking tenderness. Community. Love. Connection. In a world where we have elected leaders who are the antithesis of these very values, and where many of us feel real deep despair, stories like Heated Rivalry allow us to be part of a world where our only concern - for that 30 to 40 minute episode - is to be immersed in a love story. And not just any love story. But one that dares to dream that love can thrive in the face of a world that is deeply homophobic and anti-queer. Maybe this show is resonating not in spite of this awful political moment we find ourselves in, but because of it.

So I’m happy to bring you the conversation I had recently with my good friend and previous guest on the pod, Dr. JP Catungal. We talk about JP’s creation of a Heated Rivalry syllabus, which addresses hockey culture, queer Asian representation, homonationalism, and much more. We also talk about the academic impulse to intellectualize things, fandom, and neurodivergence.

Related Links

JP's Heated Rivalry Syllabus

After Hours Part 2

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 07:30:00 -0400

(Audio fixed)

In our last episode for 2025, we welcome back the OG auntie, Dr. Rita Dhamoon, and Academic Aunties producer, Dr. Nisha Nath for the latest instalment of our year-end conversation, Academic Aunties After Hours. It's been quite a year, but it's always wonderful to think about what inspired us, what vexed us, and what gave us joy.

Hope you enjoy this conversation, and we'll see you in January!

Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Academia is an MLM

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 -0400

In academia you are constantly making compromises. In my time, there have been numerous instances when I've found myself having to make compromises, prioritizing academic expectations over family and community. Times where I have to hustle hard, forgoing time with my young kids just to try to get tenure. I even remember writing my PhD dissertation, seeking to ground it in community centered knowledges and being told that academic conventions necessitate legibility, which means citing, analyzing and writing in a way that faculty members could understand.

On this week's episode, we speak to Dr. Tari Ajadi, a longtime community activist researcher, and a good friend. He completed his PhD in Political Science at Dalhousie University, a journey which you'll learn more about in our conversation.

We talk about the seeing academia for what it is, and how sometimes leaving is what we need to do in order to live a more fully realized life.

Following Your Instincts

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 -0400

There are many so-called truths in academia. One of them is the belief that academia is a calling, and that you have to relinquish everything for your career. Even if it means leaving everything behind, taking you away from family and support systems.

On this episode, we challenge this truth with our guest, Dr. Jessica Ticar, an Assistant Professor of Social Work at Algoma University. We talk about her journey and the hard decision she had to make to leave her academic job to support family, without knowing how it would turn out. And we also talk about listening to the cues that our bodies tell us, even before our minds are aware, that we might be in a toxic environment and have to leave.

Colouring Outside the Lines

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Academia likes to put people into a box. The pressure to stay within disciplinary boundaries is strong. For those who reject these disciplinary regimes, this can be felt personally, with gatekeepers discouraging this kind of scholarship at every opportunity.

On this week's episode, we talk to Dr. Aadita Chaudhury, who just finished a PhD in Science and Technology Studies from York University, about these dynamics. We talk about pursuing scholarship that colours outside the lines and the importance of community to carry the load.

Nice White Women

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 00:00:00 -0400

For many of our listeners, and certainly in conversations among friends, we talk about how one of the most dangerous figures we've encountered within the university are nice white women, and I don't use the word dangerous lightly. A lot has been written about the exaltation of white womanhood and especially the collusion of white women in settler colonialism, imperialism, and more.

This happens in all sorts of institutions, and of course in academia. Tears, gaslighting, gatekeeping, civility, appropriation, extraction, exploitation. All of these done with a smile and under the banner of care. These are all things that come to my mind when thinking about the ways in which nice white women can be such an obstruction to the flourishing of so many of our listeners.

Our guest this week is well positioned to talk through these dynamics. Dr. Willow-Samara Allen is an Associate Professor at Royal Roads University. Her research examines reproductions and disruptions of settler colonial socialization in public sector work, antiracist and anticolonial pedagogies and methods for critical adult learning and collaborative leadership, as well as the subject-re/making and complicities of white settler women, and the micro socio-political spaces of multiracial families.

The Summer I Turned Pretty Old

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 01:30:00 -0400

In academia, it's taboo to be unserious. Not here, though, at Academic Aunties. On today's episode, we show that we can be good academics and also like unserious things by diving deep into one of my guilty pleasures, The Summer I Turned Pretty, streaming on Amazon Prime.

The show, despite supposedly having a target audience of tweens and teens, became so popular among my demographic of 30+ and 40+ cynical academic women. What is it about the show that we love? What did we think about the contrived plot points? Why were so many of us wringing our hands at the main character, Belly?

We get into it with my friend, Dr. Nicole De Silva, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Concordia University.

The Energy We Bring

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Season 6 premiere!

We've just started the school year and I'm realizing that I am already stressed. How can this be? The year literally just started!

My goal this year was to slow down, to take it easy and to not lose sight of my health. But it's so hard to do when it seems like all the good things that we love about universities and colleges are being taken away. And it seems like the neoliberal academy loves nothing more than to take us away from teaching and researching, and instead imposing upon us increasing amountos of paperwork, heaps of ever escalating fear mongering about AI that require ridiculous regulations that are designed to reveal students, and mounting pressures to increase enrollment because didn't, you know, we have a budget crisis and so on and so on.

That's why I found this week's conversation so refreshing. This week we talk to Dr. Carrianne Leung, a fiction writer and assistant professor at the University of Guelph in Creative Writing. We talk about how her winding non-traditional path into academia gives her a refreshing perspective about the energy she chooses to bring into the classroom, how she views her relationship with her students, including teaching in the age of AI and why we should all slow down and not hustle so hard.

Related Links

Carrianne Leung's Website

Organizing, Mobilizing...and AI

Wed, 14 May 2025 02:00:00 -0400

Season finale!

The past year, we’ve talked a lot about just how much we’ve had to fight for the university. From authoritarian leaders who wish to suppress dissent and protests in universities, particularly protests in support of Palestine, to rudderless senior administrators who suspend programs, fire long-term staff, and hire expensive and useless consultancy firms, there’s a lot of reasons to feel disheartened because the odds seem stacked against us.

And yet, the fight continues. And we are seeing lots of victories. To counter Donald Trump’s attacks against higher education, more and more chapters of the American Association of University Professors are being founded. Unions are being established. And continued organizing for Palestine has led to a number of wins. The University of Toronto’s Faculty Association, for example, successfully passed a motion divesting from companies that fuel genocide in Palestine and in other illegally occupied territories.

On a more personal note, witnessing and reporting and mobilizing against senior administrators’ decisions has actually pushed me to get involved in the fight for our university. Overcoming my aversion to running for positions, I ended up running for a seat in our university senate, and won! So did all of my progressive, feminist friends who are sick of being told by senior administrators that we just had to trust that senior admin knows what they’re doing. We’re there to roll up our sleeves, dig up reports, and ask questions.

So organizing matters. Being savvy, strategic, and smart matters. And building relationships matters the most. This is the core of our organizing work.

In today’s episode of Academic Aunties, our season finale, my new friend, Dr. Elisha Lim, and I talk about organizing tactics, the importance of relationships, and the potentialities of artificial intelligence. That's right, AI can be be put to good use. Elisha is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Humanities and does groundbreaking research on AI, social media, critical race theory, and much more.

Related Links

Declarations of Interdependence: How Media Literacy Practices are Developed, Negotiated, Rejected, and Exploited Across Social Media Platforms, by Elisha Lim, Gina Marie Sipley, Ladan Siad Mohamed, Francesca Bolla Tripodi Tripodi, Vincente Perez
Prof explores colonial roots of digital platforms

Thanks for listening! Get more information and support the show at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Communities of Care

Wed, 30 Apr 2025 01:00:00 -0400

The need for care - for radical care, for decolonial care, for accountable and reciprocal and emancipatory care - has never been more obvious. In a world where it is clear that institutions don’t care for us and that many of our elected political leaders just want to amass power and wealth, it is clear that it is our “communities of care” that hold us up.

The importance of “communities of care” is something that my badass friend , Dr. Valerie Francisco-Menchavez, has stressed over the years, both in her academic work and in her activism. Val is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University.

On this episode, we talk about her new book, Caring for Caregivers: Filipina Migrant Workers and Community Building During Crisis. We talk about care as a practice, about the centrality of community-led and community-centered ethos to our work in the academy, and about the sustainability of the work that we’re doing.

The conversation was especially healing in the wake of the Lapu-Lapu Tragedy in Vancouver, where eleven people died - most of whom were women - and many more were injured after a car drove into the festival. It was devastating to see a day that was meant to be a joyful celebration for the Filipinx community in Canada end in grief. So Val and I talked about the care that the community showed too, immediately after what happened, with organizations mobilizing rapidly to provide support and to create space for grief.

Related Links

Filipino BC Instagram
Caring for Caregivers: Filipina Migrant Workers and Community Building During Crisis
Matatag Photovoice Project

Depleting Higher Education

Wed, 16 Apr 2025 23:30:00 -0400

We are living in an age of fascism where you have political leaders who disregard democratic process and are going full steam ahead in shaping the world the way they want it to look like. And this world includes a depleted higher education sector that they see as enemy number one. All over, we are witnessing a move to defund higher education, pushing universities and colleges to adopt corporate, neoliberal norms and practices. Programs are cut while tuitions fees rise with little tangible improvements in education.

So where is the money going? Why do senior administrators keep bringing their hands saying that there is a budget crisis? And why is it that as members of the university community, we can't seem to get any answers from our university leaders who are resentful that they keep being held to account for poor management decisions?

To talk about this, we speak to Dr. Todd Horton, the chair of the Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations' Governance Working Group. We also talk to Dr. Sheila Embleton, a colleague at York University, and the former interim president of Laurentian University.

Fear, Heartbreak, Betrayal

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 00:30:00 -0400

Higher education is under attack. You've probably heard about the cases of Mahmoud Kahlil, Rumeysa Ozturk, and Alireza Doroudi. Students, studying in American universities being arrested and disappeared for their political stances. And our academic institutions are all too willing to capitulate in the face of the fascist, anti-education turn of our leaders.

On this episode, we try to make sense of this all. Host, Dr. Ethel Tungohan speaks with Academic Aunties producer, Dr. Nisha Nath, and friend of the podcast, Dr. Shaista Patel, an Assistant Professor of Ethnic Studies at UC San Diego, about what it's like to be an academic in the United States, how colleagues and institutions–who until very recently called themselves allies–have been all to quick to betray us, and how what is happening in the US can and is happening around the world.

Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and check out our newsletter at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on BlueSky, Instagram, or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

DEI in Academia

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 00:00:00 -0400

There is a backlash to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. All around us, we see the dismantlement of various DEI initiatives including in academia. Institutions and corporations that once rushed to put out statements in support of Black Lives Matter, Landback, and other social movements for justice, now seem all too ready to abandon their initiatives now that DEI is no longer trendy.

It seems that those who felt that they had to pay lip service to DEI and thus instituted hollow and toothless statements and programs in support of diversity, are now thrilled that they don’t have to pretend anymore - they can continue, unchallenged, with their desire to amass power and wealth.

In this episode, we welcome Professor Angie Beeman, Professor in the Marxe School of Public and International Affairs and Affiliate Faculty with Black and Latino Studies at Baruch College-CUNY, to address DEI head-on. We criticize DEI when it is used as a superficial tool used by institutions, namely neoliberal academic institutions, to performatively show that they care about diversity without actually making steps towards structural transformation. We address the question of why and how targeted racist harassment still takes place in universities and colleges that have DEI policies - weren’t DEI policies meant to protect us? And we also talk about the importance of having an understanding of diversity that isn’t superficial.

Related Links

Fighting for Our University

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 08:26:00 -0400

(This is a reissue of the episode with audio issues corrected)

Last week, at the end of the day on a Friday, York University announced the suspension of program admissions for 19 undergraduate programs, including Indigenous Studies, Gender Sexuality Women's studies programs. These cuts occurred against established procedures for collegial governance, and is part of a wider attack on higher education at academic institutions around the world.

On this episode, Dr. Ethel Tungohan speaks to Dr. Ena Dua, Dr. Sarah Rotz, and Academic Aunties producer Dr. Nisha Nath on what is going on, how this is part of a global backlash against DEI, the role of management consultants pushing an agenda for a neoliberal university, and why it is time for anyone who cares about the future of higher education to mobilize and do something.

Recognizing Our Messy Leaky Bodies

Wed, 12 Feb 2025 00:00:00 -0400

In academia, we assume that our value rests solely with our brains. The smarter we are, the more grants and publications we have, the more value we give to our institutions, to our fields, to our professions.

What this means is that anything that gets in the way of our ability to produce is seen as a distraction. Having a personal life is a distraction. Trying to build a family is a distraction. Pregnancy is a distraction. Seeking fertility treatments, going through miscarriages, giving birth, getting abortions. These are all distractions.

This of course, is deeply problematic. On this episode, we speak to Dr. Alana Cattapan, an expert when it comes to all things reproduction related, including serving as Canada Research Chair in the Politics of Reproduction at the University of Waterloo.

We talk about the need to shift the norms of silence around fertility, around pregnancy and miscarriage and abortion, and recognizing the complexities of our, as we talk about, our messy, leaky bodies.

Related Links

I am not my mind

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0400

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the passage of time, about priorities, about health, about our larger purpose. I've been thinking, too, about intentionality.

What is it that I want to do with my career? Am I doing the work that feeds me and my community? Or am I pursuing projects not because they are meaningful to me, but because this is what I am expected to do at this juncture of my career? And what of my health?

Am I putting up guardrails to make sure that I'm not sacrificing my health for the academy and not letting corrosive institutional pressures get to me? I'm sure that these are questions that many of us grapple with. And who better to think through these questions than my dear friend, Dr. Gina Velasco. Dr. Velasco is an Associate Professor and Director of Gender and Sexuality studies at Haverford College. Her book, Queering the Global Filipina Body, was published by the University of Illinois Press in 2020.

Gina and I have known each other for 10 years, and I've always appreciated our hangouts where we both just chill and talk about work and life. I've also really admired how Gina's relationship with work has evolved over the past decade as she battled major health challenges and life changes that led her to understand, as she puts it, the impermanence of being healthy.

Related Links

Reference Letters

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 00:00:00 -0400

If you have had to write or request an academic reference letter, which is probably all of you, then you know that there is a whole, mysterious hidden curriculum behind them. On this episode, Ethel and Nisha talk about what it's like to write reference letters, how letter readers react to different kinds of letters, and what makes a letter good, bad, or ugly.

Remembering Boyet

Wed, 04 Dec 2024 05:00:00 -0400

What is it like to go into the holiday season when grieving the loss of a loved one? How do we honour and remember people who are no longer with us? In this episode, I remember my dad, Leonides Tungohan - or Boyet - for short. With special guests, Winifred and Georgina, we talk about our wishes for the holidays, how we’re feeling, and our favourite memories of Boyet.

Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Bluesky at @AcademicAunties.com or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Remagination

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Can we reimagine new ways living and being? Our guest this week certainly did so. After suffering tremendous loss during the pandemic, including the loss of her son, Dr. Robyn Magalit Rodriguez gave up her tenured faculty position as a full professor at UC Davis to become land steward of Remagination Farms.

Located two and a half hours north of San Francisco, Remagination Farms takes up Asian American activist Grace Lee Boggs invitation to "re-imagine everything."

In our conversation, we talk about how devastating loss and heartache can push us to radically change the way we live, and about what it means to take education away from the corporate university to the people.

"The time has come for us to reimagine everything. We have to reimagine work and go away from labor. We have to reimagine revolution and get beyond protest. We have to think not only about change in our institutions, but changes in ourselves.”

- Grace Lee Boggs

Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

What happens now?

Wed, 06 Nov 2024 18:00:00 -0400

As I record this episode, it's been about six hours after the major news networks have declared that Donald Trump will once again be the President of the United States. I've got a lot of feelings. I'm unsurprised, but also disheartened.

I'm still processing all of this and I know you are too. So today I want to bring you an impromptu chat that I have with my dear friend Petra Molnar. Petra is a migration and human rights lawyer, a colleague at York University, where she is the Associate Director of the Refugee Law Lab, and the author of The Walls Have Eyes, Surviving Migration in the Age of Artificial Intelligence.

Petra was with me back in 2016, the day after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton. I was teaching a class on migration and the diaspora, and I had invited Petra to speak. Instead, we went off script in that class and just held space for students who were horrified by Trump's victory. So when I saw the election results last night showing that Trump will have a second term, I immediately thought of Petra, And the experience we shared that day in 2016.

We chatted today, the day after the elections, and discussed what we might expect in terms of the impacts of Trump's election on border policies, on research, on higher education, and on critical thought. We also talked about how to fight back, and on hope as a critical practice.

Demystifying Book Publishing

Wed, 23 Oct 2024 00:00:00 -0400

We take a deep dive into the world of academic book publishing. If you're in academia, you probably have, or want to work with a university press to publish your work. And at the heart of the book publishing process are university press editors. But many scholars don't know what it is that editors do, what the norms and expectations are when working with editors, and what the larger world of academic publishing looks like.

To demystify the role of editors and how academic book publishing works, we have the amazing Dawn Durante, the Wyndham Robertson Editorial Director of the University of North Carolina Press. Dawn was my editor when I released my first solo authored book, last year, Care Activism, Migrant Domestic Workers, Movement Building, and Communities of Care and who was awesome really in helping me think through my project in a really generative way.

Related Links

Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Instagram at @AcademicAunties, on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

One Year Later

Wed, 09 Oct 2024 22:59:00 -0400

Over the months, we have felt compelled to focus episodes on the ongoing genocide in Gaza, as well as on the implications here via the repression of solidarity work.

While the brutality of the Israeli state extends back decades and decades to the Nakba, by the time this episode is released, it would be a little bit more than one year since the Israeli state began one of the most brutal campaigns of genocidal terror and violence against Palestinians.

Last week such brutality extended towards attacks in Beirut, Lebanon, with the Israeli government conducting airstrikes in the city, all the while continuing its attacks in the occupied West Bank and Gaza. The scale of human atrocity perpetrated by the Israeli state is difficult for many of us to fathom. And yet this is a reality that many of our friends and colleagues are facing.

With us today to discuss the situation on the ground in Gaza is Dr. Ghada Ageel. She talks about what it has been like to bear witness to this occupation that has affected countless family members and friends. Dr. Ageel is a visiting professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta and has written extensively about Palestine for outlets such as The Guardian and Middle East Eye.

Related Links

Academic Assholes Redux

Wed, 25 Sep 2024 00:00:00 -0400

The OG academic aunties are back! On the season 5 premiere, we have Dr. Nisha Nath and Dr. Mariam Georgis, who appeared on the very first episode of the pod, to talk about what how the world of academic assholes have changed since we started Academic Aunties. We talk new types of assholes we've discovered, including the "stealth asshole", whether we're in a position yet to say no, and how time is collective.

Thanks for listening! Get more information, support the show, and read all the transcripts at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Instagram at @AcademicAunties, on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Student Encampments for Palestine

Wed, 28 Aug 2024 00:00:00 -0400

This is normally a time when we’re readying ourselves for the term, often with optimism, energy, and hope for what the new year will bring. But I know I speak for many when I say that this year feels different.

This Fall marks almost a year of relentless conflict in Gaza. And rather than a restful summer, students and community members have been actively organizing in solidarity with Palestinians, setting up encampments on university campuses.

These encampments have faced harsh crackdowns from university administrations and police. Many have been dismantled. But as we enter the Fall, with a new academic year ahead of us, an American electoral season that is rapidly evolving how people talk about the rights of Palestinians and our own personal stresses and pressures, it’s easy to lose sight of the purpose of these encampments and why the attacks on them were so abhorrent.

On this special bonus episode of Academic Aunties, we bring you a conversation we head earlier this summer with to talk about the student encampments and protests in support of Palestine at the University Alberta, and hopefully make sense of all of this.

Feminist Killjoy Book Club

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 00:00:00 -0400

On the Season 4 finale, we revisit Sara Ahmed's new book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way, with our very own feminist killjoy book club!

We're joined by Rita Dhamoon, Tka Pinnock, and our very own producer, Nisha Nath. We talk about why the book resonates so much in this present moment, and why being a feminist killjoy is more important than ever.

And remember to check out our interview with Sara Ahmed (Episode 40)!

Related Links

The Feminist Killjoy Handbook: The Radical Potential of Getting in the Way

We didn't need the university, it needed us

Tue, 26 Mar 2024 23:00:00 -0400

We've talked a lot this season about the accelerating attacks on academic freedom, including the campaigns of repression against expressions of Palestine solidarity. Student groups, faculty and staff are increasingly surveilled, policed and targeted with spurious charges of antisemitism if they dare to voice support for Palestine.

We often focus on faculty and students, but it's easy to forget how vulnerable staff are with few protections. This was the case at the University of Alberta, where after a post was shared by staff and volunteers at the U of A Sexual Assault Centre about a student-organized Palestine solidarity event, they were subjected to harrasment online, in person and via phone calls. And on January 23, they were fired from their jobs.

On this episode, we talk to three core staff members of the Centre about the conflicting messages they received from university administration leading up to their firing, the harrasment they faced, and the toll all of this has taken.

Suing for Silence with Mandi Gray

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 00:00:00 -0400

A few days ago, we recognized International Women’s Day. Every year we shine a spotlight on the continuing realities of gender-based discrimination and gender-based violence worldwide. So on this episode, we are so glad to have Dr. Mandi Gray. She has just released a new book “Suing for Silence: Sexual Violence and Defamation Law,” which unpacks the ways that systems of power - specifically the criminal legal system that is “composed of patriarchal and colonial laws” – protect the privileged. In our conversation, we explore the ways that abusive men and abusive institutions punish women for speaking up about their experiences of abuse, and how they they also punish women for providing support to women who have experienced sexual abuse. This includes campus sexual violence, and the repercussions faced by students and faculty members who break the silence.

Win a free copy of Suing for Silence!

If you want a chance to win a free copy of “Suing for Silence,” retweet or repost this episode using hashtag #SuingforSilence, and tag Mandi at @gotmysassypants and Acadmic Aunties at @AcademicAuntie on Twitter or @AcademicAunties on Bluesky and Instagram

Related Links

Suing for Silence: Sexual Violence and Defamation Law by Mandi Gray, UBC Press
Mandi Gray's Website
Can't Buy My Silence

There Can Only Be One

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0400

Without community, a I wouldn’t have lasted through grad school and the years since.

For me, in grad school, a special community that I was with were the group of critical Filipinx scholars who I’ve since grown with over the years. We called ourselves the “Kritikal Kolektibo,” and we were grad students and junior faculty at the University of Toronto who met regularly, to hang out of course, but also to share our work, and dream about what Filipinx Studies in Canada could look like.

We shared stories of what was going on with our lives. We talked about the gendered and racial microaggressions - and outright aggressions - that we experienced, our strategies for subversion, and our moments of triumph.

One member of this group, and our guest this week is Dr. John Paul Catungal.

JP and I started our PhDs at the same time, in different departments with very different research projects. And yet, we were oftentimes pitted against each other. We knew this too: we knew, for example, that if one of us got shortlisted for a position, the other cannot be, because there can be “only one of us,” – there can only be one Filipino, no matter the differences in our research and our approaches. This is how the neoliberal academy operated, and how it still operates.

On today's episode, we talk about friendship, our parallel paths through academia and our attempts to do and be otherwise.

Fighting Feelings with Gulzar Charania

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0400

We’re in conversation with Dr. Gulzar Charania about her incredible new book “Fighting Feelings: Lessons in Gendered Racism and Queer Life.” Fighting Feelings is about Black and racialized women, answering the question: “how and in what directions do we learn to think, act, and live in relation to racism”?

The book touches on so many things that we talk regularly about on Academic Aunties. How women of colour navigate intensely white spaces, how perceptions of our ‘excellence’ can only really be understood in relation to who doesn’t get to be excellent, and how, as Gulzar writes, we constantly ‘fight feelings, and other times use feelings to fight’.

It’s a book that I really think all of you will love and I am so happy that we had a chance to talk to Gulzar about her journey in writing it.

Related Links:

Fighting Feelings: Lessons in Gendered Racism and Queer Life, by Gulzar R. Charania

One Foot In, One Foot Out

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 00:00:00 -0400

For many in academia, there is always a certain ambivalence about being here. And historically, institutions have been pretty ambivalent about our presence here too. Academia has traditionally never been a place for those who are Black, Indigenous, women of colour. For many scholars, a pragmatic approach is to have one foot in, and one foot out, of the academy.

In today’s episode, we talk to Dr. Chavon Niles and Dr. Nicole Bernhardt. Both Chavon and Nicole had found themselves having one foot in, and one foot out, of the academy while they pursued their PhDs. They both worked outside of academia throughout. Yet the academy called them back. We talk about why they came back and what they’re doing to stay true to the values that made them keep one foot out of the academy in the first place.

Related Links

How to Make 2024 Easier

Wed, 17 Jan 2024 00:00:00 -0400

We're just a couple of weeks into 2024 and we are tired. After a restful break, we are back to the intense pressures of teaching, advising, and dealing with administrative tasks, plus all of the care and domestic responsibilities that many women have to also take on. Host, Ethel Tungohan, wanted strategies to manage, so she decided to talk to good friends, Dr. Tobin LeBlanc Haley and Dr. Laura Pin to get their advice.

Are we allowed to rest?

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0400

As the year comes to a close, many of us are feeling unsettled. After the rush of marking, teaching, and activism, are we allowed to rest during this holiday season? In this episode, Dr. Ethel Tungohan and Dr. Nisha Nath close out 2023 talking about why rest is political, and how community care is even more essential these days.

Related Links

"In Hajar's footsteps : a de-colonial and islamic ethic of care" by Sarah Munawar
Black Liturgies by Cole Arthur Riley

Striving for Systemic Safety

Wed, 13 Dec 2023 00:00:00 -0400

We recently passed the 34th anniversary of the École Polytechnique anti-feminist shootings. The sad thing is that this horrendous crime isn't a thing of the past. From a stabbing attack on a Gender Issues course at the University of Waterloo in June, to the mass shooting at the University of Nevada, violence against academics is a serious concern. And while these are just two prominent examples of physical violence, we know of so many scholars who are victims of persistent cases of doxing, cyber harassment, and cyber bullying.

This week, we continue our conversation about safety on university campuses. Joining us is Dr. Fady Shanouda, an Assistant Professor at the Feminist Institute of Social Transformation at Carleton University. He spoke to Ethel about the frustrating journey he was forced to take to seek safety after becoming the target of vitriolic, hateful cyber harassment last summer.

We ask: What do we do when institutions do not have an organized response in the face of such violence? What are the different parts of the institution that have competing agendas, agendas which may actually paradoxically lead them to work against the interests of those facing violence? And what does a safe university look like?

The Violence We Face

Wed, 29 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0400

In this episode of Academic Aunties, host Dr. Ethel Tungohan talks to Dr. Rebecca Major about the realities of gendered, racialized violence in academia. Dr. Major reflects on her own personal experiences with threats and harassment as an Indigenous scholar, which escalated to involve doxing and cyber harassment. She provides insightful strategies for those undergoing similar experiences, such as documenting incidences, notifying relevant university personnel, implementing safety plans, and building supportive relationships within the institution. We also also talk about the need for changes in university practices.

Related Links

Academic Freedom and Palestine

Wed, 15 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0400

As the staggering death toll in Palestine rises, we talk about the censuring of Palestine solidarity discourse and the weaponization of anti-racism and equity, diversity, and inclusion language to silence and attack activists and scholars calling for peace. Joining Ethel is Dr. Rachel Brown, an activist with Jewish Voice for Peace, and Dr. David McNally, who has been a global justice activist since the Vietnam era.

Want to learn more? Please attend the "Academic Unfreedom: Speaking and Teaching Palestine" webinar, to be held on Tuesday, November 21, from 6 to 8 pm EST. Register to get the Zoom link.

Registration: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf33hz-C-k55o3Z-yPaUDRC6tU1WafGGw6Oblj1sYcTm3gm8g/viewform

Related Links

Jewish Voice for Peace

What We Need To Know About Gaza

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 00:00:00 -0400

The last few weeks have been devastating. Like many of you, I have been feeling this sense of immobilization, of helplessness, as we witnessed Hamas’s attack in Israel that killed 1,400 civilians and the Israeli state’s bombing of Gaza that, as of the time of taping in late October 2023, have killed over 8000 Palestinians, as reported by the Associated Press.

We had a long conversation about whether we should proceed, as planned, with the episodes that we have in store for this season. But doing so didn’t feel right. Instead, we wanted to make sense of the truly awful things we are seeing around us.

So this week, we're joined by Academic Aunties producer, Dr. Nisha Nath as we talk with Palestinian scholar and activist Dr. Jennifer Mogannam, an Assistant Professor of Critical Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Jennifer talks to us about how to understand what is happening now by understanding the larger historical context.

Related Links

The Feminist Killjoy Handbook with Sara Ahmed

Wed, 04 Oct 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Sara Ahmed, author, scholar, and one of our feminist heroes joins us to talk about her new book, The Feminist Killjoy Handbook!

Sara's work both as a scholar in the academy working on queer phenomenology, on post coloniality, and on emotions, as well as her work after she left the academy has been an inspiration. Her work, Living a Feminist Life, her work on Complaint, and her bold and powerful blog, Feminist Killjoys, taught me so much about how institutions functioned and helped me understand my experiences in the academy.

In this conversation, Sara and I talk about the book, but also talk about the aunties in her life and many other things.

Join us in the Academic Aunties Bookclub!

In December, we're going to gather some feminist killjoy aunties to talk about the book! So after listening to this episode, go out and buy a copy. And then stay tuned in December when we're going to have our very first Academic Aunties Book Club! If you'd like to contribute to the conversation, email us your thoughts or even a voice memo to podcast@academicaunties.com.

Related Links and Mentioned in the Episode

How's Your September Going?

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 00:00:00 -0400

We are back to school! So why do we feel so exhausted? On the season 4 premiere Ethel and Nisha listen to some academic aunties audio diaries about how September is going so far. We talk about why there are so many deadlines at this busy time of the year and what we can do to help make things more manageable.

The Global Scholar

Wed, 02 Aug 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Season 3 finale! We conclude our series on academia in the UK and in Europe with Dr. Kidjie Saguin, an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam. In our chat we talk about his experiences moving from the Philippines, to Singapore, to the US and to the Netherlands across his academic journey and we explore other ways of being in academia.

We'll be back in the Fall. See you then!

Hostile Environment

Fri, 21 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Since the end of April, the University and College Union in the UK has been on a marking strike to demand fair pay and working conditions that have deteriorated significantly. This week, we talk to Dr. Lucy Mayblin a Political Sociologist at the University of Sheffield, about what has been happening in UK academia, including how universities are transforming from institutions of public good to private institutions, and where university professors and staff are increasingly being made to act effectively as border guards with international students to create, quite explicitly, a hostile environment.

In our conversation, we talk about the rise of neoliberalism in British academia, about how bordering practices are taking hold in UK universities, and ways for academics to take back their time.

Related Links

#NameTheTranslator

Tue, 04 Jul 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Yilin Wang is an award winning writer, poet, editor, and translator based in Vancouver, and recently has been passionately working on translating the works of 19th century feminist poet, Qiu Jin. So it came as a bit of a shock when she found out that the British Museum--that big national institution, holder of stolen artifacts, and symbol of British colonialism--had been using her translations in a major exhibit without credit, and importantly, without permission.

In this special "emergency" episode, we talk to Yilin about her fight to get the British Museum to own up to and rectify their mistake, and the broader systemic issues of erasure and academic theft that translators and writers constantly face.

And we talk about how listeners can help by contributing to her legal fund to get the British Museum to make things right and ensure this never happens again.

Donate now to the CrowdJustice fundraiser and help meet the goal of £15,000 by July 10!

Related Links

Yilin Wang's Personal Website
The Lantern and the Night Moths, Yilin Wang's forthcoming book from Invisible Publishing
Twitter thread documenting the fight

Precarity in British Higher Education

Wed, 28 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Back from a fellowship in the UK, Dr. Ethel Tungohan talks to Dr. Eve Hayes De Kalaf about about cultures of backlash, processes of casualization, structured austerity, and the normalization of cruelty in academia in the UK post-Brexit.

And once you're done listening, check out Dr. Eve Hayes De Kalaf's new book "Legal Identity, Race and Belonging in the Dominican Republic"!

We Regret To Inform You...

Wed, 14 Jun 2023 00:00:00 -0400

"We regret to inform you..." Five words that academics read a lot. But no matter how many times you see it, it still hurts. On this episode, Dr. Ethel Tungohan is joined by Academic Aunties producer, Dr. Nisha Nath to talk about grant rejections, the feelings of sadness and disappointment that accompany rejection, and why often these things have nothing to do with merit.

Tweet from Dr. Ethel Tungohan on May 8, 2023:

"A few PhDs are writing me sadly because they didn't get the SSHRC scholarship. A reminder to everyone: not getting it DOESN'T mean that you're not qualified or that your project lacks merit. The allocation of awards depends a lot on WHO is sitting on the committee."

https://twitter.com/tungohan/status/1655626889887723532

Shout out to podcast Who do we think we are? by Dr. Michaela Benson

The Yale Aunties

Wed, 22 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0400

After hearing about Bobbi Wilson, a budding 9 year old scientist who was a victim of anti-Black racism, Dr. Ijeoma Opara, a scientist at the Yale School of Public Health, was determined to make sure that her memories of science would not be of her horrible experience. So she mobilized her network of "Yale Aunties" to make sure that Bobbi knew that Black and Brown girls had a place in the world of scientists. You may have heard about this in a recent profile in the New York Times.

On this episode, we are so pleased to have some of the Yale Aunties, Dr. Opara, Dr. Ashley Bell, Dr. Kristyn Carter, Dr. Ashley Bell and Dr. Aileen Fernandez, here to talk about the amazing day that they organized for Bobbi. And we get into the importance of mentorship, of dedicated spaces for Black and Brown scholars, and advice for other scientists who are constantly made to feel like they don't belong.

Related Links

Academic Citizenship

Wed, 08 Mar 2023 00:00:00 -0400

For many academics, especially those from global north and western institutions, we take our institutional and national identities for granted. But the reality is that the passports we hold and the institutions we're a part of shapes how we experience academia. This includes the hurdles that many experience to get visas, and the experiences that people have with immigration when crossing borders.

To talk about these issues, we're so happy to have Dr. Anya Kuteleva, Senior Lecturer in International Relations at the University of Wolverhampton.

Relationships and Academia

Wed, 22 Feb 2023 17:00:00 -0400

As we close out February, we're going to be talking about relationships and academia, specifically with our life partners. One thing we've observed is just how challenging it can be for academics and for their partners who have to contend with the limited job opportunities the academic job market provides. What are the negotiations that partners make when one partner gets a PhD admissions offer or a job offer? Is it easy to be in a romantic relationship with an academic given academia's quirks?

On this episode, host Ethel Tungohan talks to our great friends, Suzanne and Tyler, and producer and partner, Wayne Chu.

#MoreThanWork

Wed, 08 Feb 2023 00:00:00 -0400

Academia has a way to make us feel ashamed if we're not thinking about the work 24/7. In this episode we talk to Dr. Genevieve Fuji Johnson and Dr. Harshita Yalamarty about how we are #MoreThanWork, and how our passions, like boxing, or surfing, or Dungeons and Dragons are more than just hobbies.

We also hear from our listeners about what they are up to outside academia!

Perspectives of an International Scholar

Wed, 25 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0400

In this episode, we talk about another dimension surrounding this taboo of talking about money, and that is the experiences of international students and international scholars, particularly those from countries in what is known as being part of the global south for which western countries impose onerous visa requirements to talk about this. Joining us is Dr. Martha Balaguera, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto.

Related Links:

Becoming The Writer You Already Are

Wed, 11 Jan 2023 00:00:00 -0400

With a new year comes new resolutions, and for many, these resolutions inevitably involve writing. There are so many books about how to be a better writer, but none quite like this one. Becoming the Writer You Already Are is a new book by Michelle R. Boyd, who you may know from her Inkwell academic writing retreats.This book actually grapples with the emotions underlying the writing process, and, importantly, recognizes that the blocks we face are often not our fault. Instead it acknowledges what we talk about on this podcast all the time, which is that the institutions of academia do a whole lot to make things really hard for you to do your work.

Related Links

Harry and Meghan

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0400

A special holiday bonus episode for you! Harry and Meghan on Netflix is THE documentary event of this year. And of course we binged it and and of course we needed to talk about it. Joining us on this episode is Dr. Safia Aidid, an Assistant Professor of History and African Studies at the University of Toronto.

Wrapping up 2022

Wed, 14 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0400

2022 is about to come to an end, and with that comes a period of reflection for many of us. How is 2022 for you? How did it compare to 2021 or heaven forbid, to 2020? What lessons from 2022 will you bring with you to 2023? In today's episode of Academic Aunties, we will wrap up the year and talk about the highlights and some of the challenges that we face. With us is Dr. Megan Gaucher, who is an Associate Professor at Carleton University in the Department of Law and Legal Studies.

Talking About Money

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Academics would rather talk about their sex lives than talk about their salaries. So in today's episode, we talk to Dr. Rebecca Major about one of the biggest taboos in academia: money. We talk about how hard it is for many first-gen academics to make ends meet, and the bougie norms of academia that make it difficult for them to talk about these struggles.

Related Links

How do I look?

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -0400

How we appear, our dress, our hair, our style, how we carry ourselves are all things that we as marginalized academics are being judged against. Do we look the part of the academic? Do we want to? To talk about this we welcome Dr. Nadia Brown, a Professor of Government and the Director of the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Georgetown University, and Dr. Danielle Lemi, Tower Center Fellow at the Tower Center at Southern Methodist University.

They recently released an amazing book, Sister Style, The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites, that unpacks the politics of appearance and respectability. We talk about this book and how their study of Black women political elites mirror the experiences we have in academia.

Related Links

Sister Style, The Politics of Appearance for Black Women Political Elites

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Battling Toxic Productivity

Wed, 02 Nov 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Good things happen but you just can't enjoy it, and maybe you feel even more anxious. This is a common feeling and is something that this week's guest, Dr. Ayendy Bonifacio (@AyendyBonifacio) wrote about in a insightful, personal article in Slate. We talk about toxic productivity, celebration as a practice, and how the unique experience of being a first-gen scholar drives these feelings.

Related Links

My Career as a Professor Is Soaring. I’ve Never Been So Depressed and Anxious

The Not So Secret Lives of Academic Pets

Wed, 19 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Many academics have pets. For me, most of my academic life from my postdoc until very recently involved my beloved cat, a long haired Maine Coon named Cornelius, who was my sidekick, my best friend, my confidante.

We said goodbye to him on October 4, 2022. So for this episode, I want to honour Cornelius by talking about academic pets with Academic Aunties producer, Dr. Nisha Nath and returning guest, Dr. Sule Tomkinson. Throughout this episode, you'll also hear voice memos from listeners sharing stories of their pets. Thanks to Chad Cowie, Kristine Alexander, Megan Cloutier, Rita Dhamoon, Megan Gaucher, Justin Leifso, Stepanie Silverman, and Melanee Thomas for sharing your stories!

Related links

Edmonton Humane Society

Conference Audio Diaries

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 00:00:00 -0400

We're on the road at the American Political Science Association conference! Producer extraordinaire, Dr. Nisha Nath joins the podcast to discuss Dr. Ethel Tungohan's audio diaries taken at this incredibly large academic conference. Along the way, they challenge norms, discuss the value of curating your conference and finding community, and provide some interesting tips and perspectives on how to survive the conference experience.

Thanks to Rachel Brown, Jessica Soedirgo, Janis Yi-Chun Chien, Emily Andrew, Stephanie Patterson, and Fiona McDonald for agreeing to be interviewed!

The Long Road Home with Debra Thompson

Wed, 21 Sep 2022 05:00:00 -0400

Dr. Debra Thompson (@debthompsonphd), talks about her poignant, profound and powerful book, The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging, about her journey back home. She weaves together insights on the politics of race and racialization and Black identity while discussing family history, growing up in Oshawa, and her experiences, in academic spaces in Chicago, in Ohio, in Portland, and in Canada.

Buy Deb's Book!

The Long Road Home: On Blackness and Belonging by Debra Thompson

Reading List

Lose Your Mother: A Journey Along the Atlantic Slave Route by Saidiya Hartman
Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments: Intimate Histories of Social Upheaval by Saidiya Hartman
White privilege: unpacking the invisible knapsack by Peggy McIntosh
A Map to the Door of No Return: Notes to Belonging by Dionne Brand
Dear Science and Other Stories by Katherine McKittrick
The Puzzling Persistence of Racial Inequality in Canada by Keith Banting and Debra Thompson

This post contains affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something we may earn a commission. Thanks.

#AskAnAcademicAuntie: How to Sabbatical

Wed, 14 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On this bonus episode, it's host's prerogative: What do you do on a sabbatical? Dr. Genevieve Fuji-Johnson (@JohnsonFuji) and Dr. Paola Ardiles (@Paola_A_Ardiles) drop a little wisdom to help Ethel make the most of her year.

Related Links

An Unusual Academic

Back to School

Wed, 07 Sep 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Back to school is usually a fun time because it signals new beginnings. But this year it feels different. Confusing and maybe a bit frightening. After two years of the pandemic, there's this sense of forced normalcy even though the pandemic is certainly not yet over. And what about the extra labour we've had to undertake over the past few years? Kind of feels like it is now our new normal.

On this episode, we talk to Dr. Kristine Alexander (@KristineAlexand) and Dr. Jennifer Mustapha (@JHMustapha) about how they are feeling about back to school.

Related Links

Jennifer Mustapha's August 23 Tweet

The Real Deal with Job Search Committees

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 00:00:00 -0400

In theory, applying for academic jobs seems fairly straightforward. You see the job ad, you put together your application package, you send your application in, and whoever is the most qualified gets the job. In practice, the reality is a lot more complicated. So in this episode, we show you how the sausage is made.

Joining us is Dr. Sharry Aiken (@SharryAiken), Associate Professor at Queen's Law, and Dr. Sailaja Krishnamurti (@DrSailajaK), Professor and Department Head of Gender Studies at Queen's University

Related Links

“Auntylectuals: A Nonce Taxonomy of Aunty-Power” with the Feminist Critical Hindu Studies Collective

Say No to Precarious Employment

Wed, 10 Aug 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On this bonus episode of Academic Aunties, we hear from Dr. Vannina Sztainbok, who after working at her department on year-to-year contracts for seven (!) years straight, was let go...right before she would be eligible for permanent employment. Her story is the story of a lot of academics.

Say NO to precarious employment in academia by signing the Scholar Strike petition here: https://www.scholarstrikecanada.ca/no-precarious-employment

#AskAnAcademicAuntie: Responding to Reviewers

Wed, 11 May 2022 00:00:00 -0400

How do you respond to peer reviews for journal articles? Do you respond to every single reviewer comment? How do you respond to this strategically? On this #AskAnAcademicAuntie we have Dr. Heather Millar (@hlmillar) and Dr. Carmen Ho (@carmenjho_) dispensing a little auntie wisdom.

The Ultimate Academic Auntie

Wed, 13 Apr 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Get your elbows up. On this episode, our season 2 finale, we talk to the ultimate academic auntie, Dr. Joyce Green, an emeritus Professor of Politics and International Studies at the University of Regina. Over her three decades in the discipline she has spoken out, lifted us up, and been an inspiration for those of use who want to change academia. In her reflection, she talks about the struggles and how she's been witness to a transformation in academia that gives us hope for the future.

Want more Auntie Joyce? Check out the 2022 Indigenous Feminisms Symposium in Victoria, BC and online! More information and registration is here:

https://www.uvic.ca/research/centres/circle/events/ifs/index.php

Related Links:

Making Space for Indigenous Feminism, edited by Dr. Joyce Green

Turning Red

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0400

We talk about Turning Red, the newest Pixar film, directed by Toronto filmmaker Domee Shi, about a thirteen year old Chinese Canadian girl, Meilin Lee, who finds out that when she gets emotional, she turns into a big, red panda. Meilin also has to navigate life as a middle schooler and all that this entails, which includes learning how to manage her crushes, bullies and strict parents. Turning Red is also a movie that is about fitting in and about the vital importance of friendships. Which makes it a perfect topic for Academic Aunties! So today, we’re unpacking this film, and be warned: there are spoilers.

Joining us is Dr. Yvonne Su (@suyvonne), an Assistant Professor in the Department of Equity Studies at York University.

Related Links

The Animated Life of Domee Shi

Thanks for listening! Get more information and read all the show notes at academicaunties.com. Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Conferences

Fri, 18 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0400

Conference season is almost upon us! And man oh man, do we have a lot to say about academic conferences. Conferences are a crucial part of academics’ professional trajectories. In theory, these are the spaces where we’re supposed to present our work, engage with scholars in our field to make potential contacts for collaborations, and to find out new ideas that can help inform our own work! And yet, conferences are not always easy for many of us. For some, our experiences in conferences can encourage us to carry on in academia. For others, they can be the catalyst to actually leave, given that they can, at times, harm us in ways that make clear that we’re not welcome in these spaces.

Joining us to talk about all of this are our guests, Dr. Anita Girvan, an Assistant Professor of Cultural Studies at Athabasca University, and Dr. Catherine Clune-Taylor, an Assistant Professor of Gender and Sexuality Studies at Princeton University.

#AskAnAcademicAuntie: Productivity Tips

Wed, 09 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On this #AskAnAcademicAuntie, Dr. Alison Smith (@AliSmith_UdeM), Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto Mississauga, tells us about some of her tips and hacks to stay afloat amidst our competing responsibilities.

Have a question? Tweet us at @AcademicAuntie, or send us an e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

When Yasmeen Met Abbie: Collaborations and Friendships in the Academy

Wed, 23 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0400

When we think about academic relationships, we often think of romantic partnerships between two academics. We might also think about the power relationships between, say, a supervisor and a student, or a dean and a professor. But we often don’t think about our research collaborations as an important kind of relationship. That’s surprising because research collaborations are, arguably, the most important relationships that you will ever have in academia.

In this episode, we talk to Dr. Yasmeen Abu-Laban, a Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Alberta and Dr. Abigail Bakan, a Professor in the Department of Social Justice Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. They are research collaborators, friends, and an inspiration for those of us who are doing work that is intensely contested and political.

Related Links

Israel, Palestine and the Politics of Race, by Yasmeen Abu-Laban and Abigail Bakan
Dissident Friendships, edited by Elora Halim Chowdhury and Liz Philipose

Encanto

Wed, 09 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0400

We're talking about Encanto, the newest Disney animated film, featuring songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda, about a magical family living in the mountains of Colombia. Why are we talking about a kids movie on a podcast about academia? Well, first, because we loved the film. Second, our aunties, Natasha Sofia Martinez (@natysofia_) and Dr. Mariam Georgis (@mariamgeorgis) have plenty to say about intergenerational trauma, the immigrant experience, and who gets to decide which stories are valid.

Pandemic Parenting, Part II

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0400

On Part II of our pandemic parenting series, we talk to Dr. Yolande Bouka (@YolandeBouka), Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Studies at Queen's University. In this episode, we talk about how the pressures of being a parent in academia, and in a pandemic, are hitting us personally. Auntie Yolande talks about prioritizing our health and our needs. In doing so, we are modelling to the people in our lives, including our children, why it is important to advocate for ourselves.

Related Links

Pandemic Parenting, Part I

Wed, 19 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0400

We're talking about Pandemic Parenting. We will be talking about the compromises we’ve had to make, the hard decisions we’ve had to take, and also, more importantly, the reminder that we are enough and that blaming ourselves for not being able to be as ‘productive’ means that we let structures off the hook.

In Part I of our 2 part pandemic parenting series, we're talking with Dr. Sheila Colla (@SaveWildBees), Associate Professor in the Faculty of Environment and Urban Change at York University, about the expectations of academia while raising kids in a pandemic, and how science isn't as always as objective as it likes to say it is.

Related Links

After Hours

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 23:37:00 -0400

On this extended year-end episode, Dr. Rita Dhamoon, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Victoria, and Dr. Nisha Nath (@nnath), Assistant Professor in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies at Athabasca University grab a few drinks with Dr. Ethel Tungohan to talk about remembering who you are outside of the academy, rebuilding your strength, and how maybe it's the institution that has to get it's shit together.

Anatomy of Academic Advice

Wed, 24 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0400

Oh advice. It seems like you can’t turn a corner without someone telling you how you’re professor-ing or grad schooling wrong. Sometimes it’s a colleague. Sometimes it’s a random person on social media. Sometimes it’s sought for, but usually it’s unsolicited.

On this episode, we’re breaking down academic advice. What makes for good advice? And why is bad advice...so bad? And why is it that so much academic advice assumes that we’re all cis, het, white guys? Joining us to talk about good academic advice, bad academic advice, shadow advising, and the expectations of "academic mommy" and "academic daddy" are Dr. Shanti Fernando (@ShantiFernando), Associate Professor of Political Science at Ontario Tech University, and Dr. Sule Tomkinson (@sule_tomkinson), Associate Professor at the Department of Political Science at Université Laval and Director of Le Centre d’analyse des politiques publiques.

Get in touch with Academic Aunties on Twitter at @AcademicAuntie or by e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com. Need some auntie wisdom? Send an #AskAnAcademicAuntie question to academicaunties.com/ask.

(https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/promoting-the-value-of-unofficial-shadow-academic-mentorship)

Common pieces of academic advice from listeners

(https://twitter.com/AcademicAuntie/status/1461027530819911680)

#AskAnAcademicAuntie: Now Problems, Later Problems

Wed, 17 Nov 2021 05:00:00 -0400

On this #AskAnAcademicAuntie, a listener asks "how do you maintain a sense of peace in the face of such enormous stress?" Joining us to answer this question is Jennifer Chouinard (@JenniferChouina), a PhD student in Public Policy at the University of Regina.

Have a question? Send a voice message to #AskAnAcademicAuntie at academicaunties.com/ask, tweet us at @AcademicAuntie, or send us an e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

Hierarchies of S**t

Wed, 03 Nov 2021 04:00:00 -0400

We talk a lot about toxic work environments and strategies of survival. But there are moments when you just have to leave. And that is what today’s episode is about.

It is sometimes hard to figure out when to stay or when to go. A lot of us are trapped. A lot of us are in situations where we know that we’re being bullied, that we’re being set up to fail, that we’re not valued. But even as we know this viscerally, we second guess ourselves. “If it’s bad here, how can I guarantee that it won’t be worse somewhere else?” we ask. We end up gaslighting ourselves.

On this episode, Dr. Jo Davis-McElligatt (@jcdmce), Assistant Professor of Black Literary & Cultural Studies at the University of North Texas, and Dr. Rita Shah (@TheRitaPhD), Associate Professor of Criminology at Eastern Michigan University, talk about wading through the hierarchies of s**t in academia, and tell us how and why they made the decision to leave, the importance of ultimately prioritizing and loving ourselves.

Related Links

Warning Signs That You and Your Campus Are a Bad Fit by Manya Whitaker

#AskAnAcademicAuntie: Gratitude and Gifts

Wed, 15 Sep 2021 04:00:00 -0400

This is #AskAnAcademicAuntie, our bonus mini-episodes where we take your questions and try to impart a little auntie wisdom. Have a question? Send a voice message to #AskAnAcademicAuntie at academicaunties.com/ask, tweet us at @AcademicAuntie, or send us an e-mail at podcast@academicaunties.com.

On this episode, an anonymous listener asks: “How do I pay my gratitude to my supervisor who has been my constant source of support. She has gone above and beyond to help me survive in graduate school, and continues to support me. Any ideas on how I can appropriately show my gratitude to her? I say and write thank you a lot, but I feel it's not enough. I want to give her a small material gift, but I don't want to make her feel uncomfortable as it can be considered inappropriate to give gifts to our supervisors. Any suggestions of this would be very helpful. Thank you."

Joining us to answer this question is Dr. Tobin LeBlanc Haley (@tobinatrix), an Assistant Professor of Sociology at X University in Toronto.

The Chair

Fri, 27 Aug 2021 05:17:00 -0400

Season 2 premiere! We take a deep dive into The Chair, the new Netflix series starring Sandra Oh about the first woman of colour chair of the English department at the fictional Pembrooke University. Everyone (or at least all academics!) are talking about this new show, created by Amanda Peat and Annie Julia Wyman, and we have lots of thoughts, from the moments that resonated with us to why many are finding the show a bit triggering.

Joining us are Jamie Chai Yun Liew (@thechaiyun), an Associate Professor and Director of the University of Ottawa Institute of Feminist and Gender Studies, and Kimberly McKee (@mckeekee), past Director of the Kutsche Office of Local History and an Associate Professor in the Integrative, Religious, and Intercultural Studies Department at Grand Valley State University.

Related Links

Migrant Conversations Podcast hosted by Jamie Liew
Reflections from Dr. McKee on The Chair's depictions of adoptions
Disrupting Kinship: Transnational Politics of Korean Adoption in the United States, by Kimberly McKee
The Chair Netflix Official Site

#AskAnAcademicAuntie: Playing the Game

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 23:19:00 -0400

On this #AskAnAcademicAuntie bonus episode of Academic Aunties, Dr. Shaista Patel joins host Dr. Ethel Tungohan to talk about "playing the game" in academia in order to get out and find a place actually respects us.

#AskAnAcademicAuntie: Finding Your Voice

Wed, 28 Jul 2021 04:00:00 -0400

How do you maintain your 'voice' as a writer and instructor when academic institutions expect particular structures, tones, and writing styles? And how do you maintain space for creativity and joy when doing work that is draining? Dr. Tobin Haley Leblanc joins us for our first #AskAnAcademicAuntie mini-episode.

Mentioned in this Episode:

Academic Ableism: Disability and Higher Education by Jay Timothy Dolmage

Searching for Joy

Wed, 30 Jun 2021 04:00:00 -0400

(Season finale) This was supposed to be a light episode. It's hot, it's been a long year of COVID and we all need a break. But it seems as though we're never given a chance to just be. From the fatal Islamaphobic attacks against a family in London, Ontario to the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children at Canada's residential schools to the anti-Asian shootings in Atlanta to police brutality against the Black community - white supremacy never lets up, does it? How can we keep working as though all is normal when we keep feeling like we're constantly under attack? In this episode, we talk with Dr. Shaista Patel, Assistant Professor of Critical Muslim Studies at UC San Diego, and Krittika Ghosh, Executive Director of the Asian/Pacific Islander (A/PI) Domestic Violence Resource Project about searching for joy amidst trauma, the importance of celebrating friendship and communites of care, and the generative possiblities of #TrashyProfSummer.

Wait, was that racist?

Wed, 26 May 2021 04:00:00 -0400

This is probably my most personal podcast of this series. I'm chatting with my good friends, Dr. Jessica Soedirgo, Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Amsterdam and Dr. Hae Yeon Choo, Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto, about our assorted encounters with anti-Asian racism.

From seemingly benign encounters that show how the academy doesn't actually see us as belonging—like mixing up Asian colleagues, or mistaking us for students, or the constant compliments about our English—to actual harmful moments that we still need to heal from, one of the challenges of giving voice to anti-Asian racism is that it oftentimes feels like it barely registers. Yet, Asians in the academy experience racism everyday, while struggling with the acute rise of anti-Asian sentiments, which has been amplified since the start of the pandemic. My hometown of Vancouver was even named by Bloomberg as the 'Asian hate crime capital' of North America. And it has also only been two months since the Atlanta shootings, where a man with a self-proclaimed Asian fetish murdered eight people including six Asian women.

On this episode, we talk about dealing with anti-Asian racism when institutions barely acknowledge its reality and fighting against insidious, everyday forms of microaggression.

If you want to get involved in combatting anti-Asian racism, check out Anti-Asian Racism Undone, presented by Scholar's Strike Canada on May 29 and 30, 2021. Visit www.scholarstrikecanada.ca for more information.

Related and Mentioned in this Episode

Addressing Anti-Asian Racism in the University by Hae Yeon Choo and Robert Diaz
‘Too Asian?’ On racism, paradox and ethno-nationalism by Roland Coloma
Racist, Sexist Boy by The Linda Lindas

Subversives in the Academy

Wed, 28 Apr 2021 04:00:00 -0400

For many women of colour, life in academia feels like a constant fight. As Dr. Rita Dhamoon writes, racism is a workload issue. So, when do we sit down and when do we fight back? And how do we keep fighting in the face of such intractible systemic hostility? In this episode of Academic Aunties, we talk to Dr. Debra Thompson (Associate Professor of Political Science and Canada Research Chair in Racial Inequality in Democratic Societies at McGill University) about the necessity of the fight, the value of stealing your time back, how creating subversives can drive change, and the importance of armour to survive the neoliberal academy.

Mentioned in this Episode and Related Resources:

The Abolition of White Democracy by Joel Olson
The Undercommons: Fugitive Planning & Black Study by Fred Moten and Stefano Harney
Racism as a Workload and Bargaining Issue by Rita Dhamoon article
Socioeconomic Roots of Academic Faculty by Allison Morgan, Aaron Clauset, Daniel Larremore, Nicholas LaBerge and Mirta Galesic
"CPSA" = Canadian Political Science Association Annual Conference
"REP" = Race, Ethnicity and Politics

A-holes in the Academy

Wed, 31 Mar 2021 04:00:00 -0400

Why are there so many in academia? Does the institution attract them or does the institution make them? What is institutional gaslighting? And how do we care for each other in this often toxic space? In this episode, we chat with academic aunties, Dr. Nisha Nath, an Assistant Professor of Equity Studies at Athabasca University, and Dr. Mariam Georgis, a SSHRC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Manitoba about coping with exclusionary academic norms, the messages that the neoliberal academy sends that breeds toxic behaviour, and the value of checking in.

Mentioned in this Episode:

- "I’m concerned for your academic career if you talk about this publicly" by Erica Violet Lee

- "What researchers think about the culture they work in" by Wellcome Foundation

- Critical Aunty Studies

Introducing Academic Aunties (Trailer)

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 13:09:00 -0400

Academia. A-CAAAHHH---DEEEMM--AIYA! ACA-DEEM-YAAHH. It is a site of exclusion. For those of us who are first-generation, who are racialized, who are women, and who inhabit social locations that are traditionally unrepresented in this space, academia is full of landmines. This is why we need academic aunties. This podcast will talk about how to navigate this treacherous world and maybe even plant seeds for the beginnings of structural transformation. Come listen to Auntie Ethel and her friends. Coming soon to a podcast app near you!