Imagine Otherwise

What complexities arise when dance becomes a site of national identity? What kind of cultural knowledges do we carry in our bodies and perform onstage? What can scholars do to better support interdisciplinarity in their students’ work? In episode 60 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews dancer and professor Manuel Cuellar about how queering Mexican folkloric dance lets him create the communities he wants to inhabit, how Indigenous knowledge production provides a vital alternative to traditional universities, and why embodied vulnerability and the generative power of wounds is how Manuel imagines otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/60-manuel-cuellar

What tensions arise when sex-positive feminists and queer folk get into the sex toy business? How can scholars get their institutions to recognize their public writing as scholarship? What ethical commitments do ethnographers have to their communities and research subjects? In episode 59 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews writer and professor Lynn Comella about the fierce women and queers who jump started the feminist sex toy revolution, how scholars can up their public engagement game (not to mention why they need to), pragmatic advice for writing a crossover or trade book, and how feminist, fat-positive, and trans-justice sexual cultures are key to how Lynn imagines otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/59-lynn-comella

How can we dismantle hierarchies between students and professors in higher education? What does critically engaged public scholarship look like? Why is fashion such a provocative and generative site for thinking about complex sociocultural issues? In episode 58 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with cultural studies scholar and writer Sara Tatyana Bernstein about why she started a digital magazine focused on fashion and politics, why public engagement and community projects are the future of education, and how becoming a public scholar is allowing Sara to imagine otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/58-sara-bernstein  

How can we make queer histories accessible beyond the academy? What might those histories teach us about how social justice organizations can sustain themselves over the long haul, despite hostile political conditions? In episode 57 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with Alice Y. Hom about the political and personal process of starting a history podcast about queer and trans people of color, what nonprofits and community organizations face in the coming years, and how self-care and community care are at the core of how Alice imagines otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/57-alice-hom

How can we imagine and create speculative futures beyond whiteness? What can anthropology teach us about design and technology? And how might autoethnography and dance allow us to imagine otherwise? In episode 56 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with dancer and ethnographer Elizabeth J. Chin about the simultaneous freedom, fun, and vulnerability inherent in writing about oneself, how dance is fantastic preparation for academic work, how she makes space for her whole self amidst a busy academic career, and how teaching kids how to make stuff is how she imagines otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/56-elizabeth-chin

What are the emotional and political stakes of knowledge production? How can queer and trans communities of color reject transparency to better protect themselves and their cultural production? What might drag and voguing teach us about entanglement of performance, politics, and performance? In episode 55 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with professor and artist Shaka McGlotten about the passionate relationship we often have to the things that we study as well as how that always necessitates both desire and loss, how students can harness the power of Afrofuturism and speculation to combat white supremacy and climate change, and how queer and trans communities of color can use voguing, drag, and what Shaka calls “Black Data” to imagine and create new worlds. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/55-shaka-mcglotten

What racial and gender norms are baked into our concepts of professionalism? How can we push ourselves to expand our definition of what “counts” as knowledge production? What does it mean to honor blackness in all its possible forms? In Episode 54 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with cultural producer Yaba Blay about how beauty culture and colorism shape her publicly engaged approach to scholarship, how being an insider/outsider in the academy allows one to enact broad social change, the importance of meeting students where they’re at, and how her celebration of everyday #BlackGirlMagic is how she imagines otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/54-yaba-blay

How can we put reproductive justice in conversation with racial and economic justice? How are queer Latinx communities and other queers of color leading the field in comprehensive, queer-positive sex education? What can we do to make space for multiply marginalized people within ALL advocacy organizations? In episode 53 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews Elicia Gonzales about how reproductive justice organizations can better incorporate intersectionality (and why they should), the role of Latinx and other queer of color movements in Philadelphia’s radical history, why pleasure is a right not a privilege, and why Elicia puts listening at the center of how she imagines otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/53-elicia-gonzales

What can popular music teach us about migration and cultural change? How can pleasure and joy help us redefine what it means to be a “serious” intellectual?  What might be stimulating or even transformative about the sprawl of Southern California? In episode 52 of the Imagine Otherwise Podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews podcaster and professor Karen Tongson about music and its relationship to place, the migratory and melodic flows between Manila and Los Angeles, how the Spice Girls can help us understand Adorno and Horkheimer, and the queer and transnational inspiration that Karen draws from her namesake, Karen Carpenter. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/52-karen-tongson

What role does food play in building sustainable communities? How might cultural traditions challenge us to think differently about the environment and public health interventions? What roles do food activism and culinary entrepreneurship play in social justice work? In episode 51 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews chef and eco-educator Aileen Suzara about her journey into professional cooking, the familial stories she has uncovered connecting land to community and memory, the important role of Filipino farmers in the sustainability movement and food activism, and how Filipino cooks and farmers across the diaspora are creating some tasty ways to imagine otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/51-aileen-suzara

What happens when we bring traditional Indian musical traditions together with electronic music and Riot Grrrl? How do marginalized communities use spiritual practices like tarot to envision other ways of being? How can we harness our multidisciplinary talents to imagine a more equitable world? In Episode 50 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews scholar and musician Lakshmi Ramgopal about Lakshmi’s musical journey through Indian classical Carnatic music, electronica, and Riot Grrrl; her research on what colonial subjects under the Roman Empire can teach us about contemporary geopolitics; using tarot to destabilize what we think we know about our lives; and how she curates art exhibits to imagine more just worlds. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/50-lakshmi-ramgopal

How can we think about skincare as a way to care for ourselves rather than fixing imperfections? How can we reimagine beauty routines as community building practices? What does it mean to create a company grounded in intersectional feminist principles? In episode 49 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews Adeline Koh about her journey from tenured English professor to entrepreneur, how she puts her postcolonial feminist training to work at her company Sabbatical Beauty, and the challenges and surprises of settling into a new life as a business owner. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/49-adeline-koh

How can poetry connect to and grow with a neighborhood? How can cultural workers blend their academic and creative efforts to better serve both their communities and themselves? How might we build more intergenerational community spaces in the places that we live and work? In episode 48 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, Cathy Hannabach interviews Philadelphia Poet Laureate Yolanda Wisher about poetry as a community engagement practice; blending academic, artistic, and activist experiences in one’s everyday work; and how building a world where everyone is able to find and utilize their gifts is key to her way of imagining otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/48-yolanda-wisher

How can we better support the work of queer and trans artists of color? How can self-publishing create cultural conversations by and for marginalized people? How can emerging artists best navigate the tension between wanting to get their work out there while also demanding fair pay for their labor? In Episode 47 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews Nia King about how she came to host the podcast We Want the Airwaves, the racial politics of the publishing industry, how she has put her ethnic studies training to work beyond the academy, and why getting queer and trans artists of color paid fairly for their work is a key part of how she imagines otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/47-nia-king

How can Shambhala Buddhist meditation and other body practices help writers manage stress and express their ideas? How might queer hip hop artists and forms provide models for worldmaking? How can Afro-pessimism and Afro-futurism help us to imagine a more conscious world? In episode 46 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews Shanté Paradigm Smalls about their journey with Shambhala Buddhist meditation; their research on the collision of race, gender, and sexuality in queer hip hop cultures; building a critical practice around embodiment; and how working towards an enlightened society is critical to how they imagine otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/46-shante-paradigm-smalls

How do Black art and creativity help imagine new worlds? How does fashion help us think about the intersection of power and desire? What can we do to make space for public scholarship and community engagement in our work? In episode 45 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, Cathy Hannabach interviews Tanisha C. Ford about her research on the cultural and political dimensions of Black fashion, the state of contemporary critical fashion studies and its possible futures, how creative practice and academic work can inform one another, and why Black art and creative genius are key to her mode of imagining otherwise. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/45-tanisha-c-ford

What if we got rid of gender or sex classification in public restrooms, sports, college admissions, and government IDs? How does transgender discrimination affect both trans* and cisgender people? How can gender studies scholars bring their expertise to bear in nonprofits, companies, and community organizations? In episode 44  the Imagine Otherwise, podcast, host Cathy Hannabach and guest Heath Fogg Davis discuss why almost all sex classification is unnecessary, in everything from bathrooms and IDs to sports and education; how the city of Philadelphia is tackling racism and queer and trans justice, how scholars can put their expertise to use in consulting projects beyond the university, and why large-scale structural change is necessary for imagining and creating more just worlds. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/44-heath-fogg-davis

How can scholar-artists best balance their scholarly and creative endeavors? Can sound media and podcasting make exclusive spaces more accessible? How do the words we use to describe ourselves affect how we and others perceive our work? In episode 43 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach talks with video artist Marcella Ernest about why complex subjects require complex film techniques, how scholar-artists can use their academic pursuits as inspiration for their creative endeavors and vice versa, imagining and building a different world requires a new relationship between humans, land, and resources. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/43-marcella-ernest

How can shared space drive artistic, healing collaborations?How does Indigenous art intervene in processes of consumerism, global warming, and the environmental effects of the toy market? In episode 42 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews artists Solomon Enos, Abigail Romanchak, and John Hina (Prime), who share their experiences working with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Museum's innovative 'Ae Kai Culture Lab exhibit in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/42-enos-romanchak-hina

How can shared space drive artistic, healing collaborations? In what ways does Indigenous art engage critically with global warming, gender identity, ancestral teachings, and the importance of local community? In episode 41 of the Imagine Otherwise podcast, host Cathy Hannabach interviews Pacific Indigenous artists Rosanna Raymond, Léuli Māzyār Lunaʻi Eshrāghi, and Ricky Tagaban, who share their experiences working with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Museum's innovative 'Ae Kai Culture Lab exhibit in Honolulu, Hawai'i. Transcript and show notes: https://ideasonfire.net/41-raymond-eshraghi-tagaban