BG Ideas Podcast
Welcome to the BG Ideas podcast page! BG Ideas is a podcast produced by the Institute for the Study of Culture and Society (ICS) and the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University. In each episode, Dr. Jolie Sheffer, the Director of ICS, talks with academics, artists, activists, and other professionals about their work for the public good. We hope our podcast helps listeners learn more about the amazing interdisciplinary work being done in and around the university to help address big social problems. We hope you enjoy and learn from these podcasts.
Each podcast is researched, written, and edited in part by students, including ICS interns and graduate assistants, as well as sound engineered by students from the School of Media and Communication.
You can find links to each episode on Podbean below!
You can also listen and subscribe on the following platforms:
Melody Freeland and Dr. Cynthia Ducar "BGSU Mathematics Education Graduate Self-Efficacy for the Teaching of Hispanic English Language Learners"
In this special COVID-19 episode of the BG Ideas podcast, Melody Freeland, a BGSU grad student and winner of the ICS ICS Student Research Award, and Cyndi Ducar sit down to discuss teaching strategies in application to students learning math without English as their first language.
Melody Freeland and Dr. Cynthia Ducar's podcast
Dr. Albert Dzur "The Opioid Crisis: Wicked Problems and Creative, Collaborative Problem-Solving"
In this special COVID-19 episode of the BG Ideas podcast, we talk with Dr. Albert Dzur, professor of political science at BGSU and a Spring 2020 ICS Faculty Fellow. He studies collaborative governance and how citizen engagement with government institutions might impact the opioid crisis.
Gray Strain and Allie Lahey "Building People Power and Organizing for Reproductive Freedom"
In this special COVID-19 edition of the BG Ideas podcast, guest host Gray Strain from the Center for Women and Gender Equity interviews BGSU alum Allie Lahey. Lahey is Senior Organizing Manager for NARAL Pro-Choice California. They discuss Allie’s work organizing for reproductive freedom, building people power, and developing strategies for engaging communities in the political and legislative process.
Dr. Peg Yacobucci and Blaze Campbell "BGSU Allies: Women in STEM"
Dr. Peg Yacobucci, professor of Geology, and Blaze Campbell, PhD student in Bowling Green's higher education and Student Affairs, discuss their work on the nearly $1 million grant funded by the National Science Foundation's Advanced program, which is committed to increasing the participation of women in STEM fields.
Madi Stump and Chris Gajewicz "Listening and Learning: Lessons from the Land"
Madi Stump, a BGSU student and winner of the ICS Student Research Award, and Chris Gajewicz, Natural Resources Coordinator for the City of Bowling Green, discuss environmental stewardship, human's relationship to nature, and restoration in local parks.
Dr. Jackson Bliss "Writing Identity: Experimenting With Form and Style"
Jackson Bliss is an assistant professor of creative writing at BGSU. His genre-bending fiction focuses on being mixed-race in a global world. This episode features a conversation about exploring identity through writing and a reading from his forthcoming novel, The Amnesia of June Bugs.
Antionette Carroll and Amy Fiedler "Community-Based Design"
Antoinette Carroll (graphic designer, entrepreneur, and founder and CEO of Creative Reaction Lab) and BGSU graphic design lecturer Amy Fiedler discuss the importance of individuals taking action to solve problems affecting their communities, specifically in regards to training and challenging Black and Latinx youth to become leaders designing healthy and racially equitable communities.
Melissa Miller "Moms on the Run: Breakthroughs and Barriers in the 2018 Election"
Dr. Melissa Miller is an ICS Faculty Fellow and Associate Professor of Political Science and Affiliated Faculty in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at BGSU. She discusses her research on women who are mothers who ran congressional campaigns in the 2018 midterms.
Dr. Sekile Nzinga-Johnson and Kaelyn Rich "Women of Color Leadership Summit"
Keynote speakers for the 2019 Women of Color Leadership Summit Dr. Sekile Nzinga-Johnson (Director of the Women's Center at Northwestern University) and KaeLyn Richa (queer feminist, a direct-action organizer, a nonprofit leader, and a sexuality educator in upstate New York) discuss women of color in places of leadership, as well as collaboration across universities between women of color.
Dr. Arne Spohr "Forgotten Voices: Rediscovering Europe's Black Musical Past"
Dr. Arne Spohr, Associate Professor of musicology at BGSU and Spring 2019 ICS faculty fellow, discusses his research project entitled Forgotten Voices: Rediscovering Europe's Black Musical Past, in which he sheds light on the lived experiences and musical contributions of black composers and performers in Europe between 1415 and 1800.
Dr. Justin Rex "Poverty, Affordability, and Equity in Housing"
Dr. Justin Rex, Assistant Professor of Political Science at BGSU and chair of an interdisciplinary ICS research cluster studying US poverty and its many dimensions, discusses his work on housing affordability and equity in Northwest Ohio.
Iker Gil, Rick Valicenti, and Jenn Stucker "Collaborative Design"
Rick Valicenti (founder and design director of Thirst, a communication design practice for clients in the architectural, performing arts and education communities), Iker Gil (architect, director of MAS Studio, editor in chief of the quarterly design journal, MAS Context), and Jenn Stucker (associate professor and division chair of graphic design at BGSU, founding board member of the American Institute of Graphic Arts, AIGA Toledo) discuss community-based collaborative design.
Linda Butler and Lynn Whitney "Photography, the Great Lakes, and Climate Change"
Linda Butler (a photographer who's been documenting the effects of climate change for a number of years, most recently focusing on the Great Lakes), and Lynn Whitney (associate professor of photography at BGSU, whose celebrated work consists of black and white photographs of Lake Erie) discuss merging the worlds of fine art and environmental activism.
Mona Hanna-Attisha and Karen Johnson Webb "Environmental Racism and Community Advocacy"
Dr Mona-Hanna Attisha (pediatrician who's press conference and testimony before Congress alerted the public about the Flint, Michigan water crisis and the author of BGSU's 2019-2020 Common Read, What the Eyes Don't See A Story of Crisis, Resistance and Hope in an American City) and Dr. Karen Johnson-Webb (associate professor of geography at BGSU, whose research includes racial disparities in health) discuss environmental racism and the Flint water crisis.
Maurice Cherry and Taylor Simone "Digital Design"
Maurice Cherry (designer and digital creator in Atlanta, currently working as a creative strategist at Glitch and the creator and host of the podcast Revision Path) and Taylor Simone (graphic design faculty member at BGSU, graphic artist, designer and writer from Metro Detroit) discuss highlighting the work of black designers, developers, and digital creatives, or more broadly, race, technology, and design.
Dr. Nicole Jackson "Women Writing Black to the British Empire"
Dr. Nicole M. Jackson, Associate Professor of History at BGSU, discusses her research undergone in the Fall of 2019 as an ICS Faculty Fellow. Her project, titled “Women Writing Black to the British Empire,” considers black British women's contemporary popular literature as a site for working out ideas about race, sex, gender, love, and national belongings.
Dr. Starr Keyes "Disability, Race, and the School-to-Prison Pipeline"
Dr Starr E. Keyes, Associate Professor within the school of counseling and special education at BGSU, discusses her research undergone in the Fall of 2019 as an ICS Faculty Fellow. Her project, entitled “Disability, Race, and the School to Prison Pipeline,” builds on her background studying the education system regarding learning abilities and special education, as well as research related to urban school systems and behavioral interventions.
Amilcar Challu and Nathan Hensley "Place-Based Education and Sustainability"
Dr. Amilcar Challu (Associate Professor and Chair of History at BGSU) and Dr. Nathan Hensley (Assistant Professor of Sustainability Education in the School of the Earth, Environment, and Society at BGSU) discuss their research as the first recipients of the ICS Team Teaching Program grant, which supports innovative interdisciplinary curriculum revision. In their course, Dr. Challu and Dr. Hensley plan to bring together the humanities and environmental studies, and aim to develop a new place-based curriculum at BGSU, with the goal of shaping students into stewards and sustainers of nature who can effectively narrate powerful human experiences of the environment.
Tim Davis and Shanon Orr "Invasive Species and Algae Blooms: The Science and Policy Behind Water Quality Conservation"
Dr. Shannon Orr (Professor of Political Science whose research focuses on environmental policy, director of the Master of Public Administration Program at BGSU) and Dr. Tim Davis (Ryan Family Endowed Professor of Biology, member of the Lake Erie Research Center and the Environmental Protection Agency Subcommittee for Safe and Sustainable Water Resources) discuss algae blooms, water quality science, and policy in Lake Erie.