Skip to main content
Apply Give
Menu

Rhyme & Reason Podcast

Making Sense of the World Through the Arts and Humanities at the University of Maryland

Rhyme & Reason

The Rhyme & Reason podcast features provocative and timely discussions with some of the most compelling leaders in the arts and humanities at UMD. In this inaugural season, ARHU Dean Stephanie Shonekan interviews faculty guests who are taking on pressing issues and topics related to race, equity and justice. You’ll hear from scholars studying diverse topics including indigenous feminist philosophy; race and immigration; Asian American, Latinx and Afro-diasporic cultures; the history of antisemitism; and more!

Episode 1: Talking Indigenous Futures with Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner

Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner and Stephanie Shonekan

ARHU Dean Stephanie Shonekan is joined by Shelbi Nahwilet Meissner, assistant professor in the Harriet Tubman Department of Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and a proud first-generation descendant of the La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians, who is of both Luiseño (Payómkawichum) and Cupeño (Kupangaxwichem) descent. Their discussion centers on indigenous identity and language, as well as Meissner’s vision for the Indigenous Futures Lab, which she established at UMD to serve as a hub of indigenous feminist research and evaluation.

 

Episode 2: Exploring Global Migration, Food and Ethnic Identity with Madeline Hsu

Madeline Y. Hsu and Stephanie Shonekan

ARHU Dean Stephanie Shonekan is joined by Madeline Hsu, Center for Global Migration Studies Director and professor of history, in a conversation about the historical and contemporary causes of migration, challenges facing immigrants to the U.S. today and a new project focused on the rich culinary histories of the ethnic and immigrant communities in the D.C. metro region. Before joining the faculty at UMD, Hsu was at UT Austin where she led the development of the Teach Immigration History website, a curriculum guide for teaching about immigration laws and their implications for different groups throughout history.

Episode 3: Advancing Immigrant Rights and Urban Equity with Nancy Mirabal

Nancy Mirabal, a gray haired, Latina wearing glasses stands next to Stephanie Shonekan, a Black woman with dreadlocks

ARHU Dean Stephanie Shonekan is joined by Nancy Mirabal, associate professor of American studies, who directs the Latino/a Studies program. Their conversation centers on the Chicano and Latinx communities in the United States and Mirabal’s role as the director of the Community Fellows Program for the Urban Equity Collaborative, a project funded by the UMD Grand Challenges initiative that engages community organizers as partners to respond to and develop solutions to urban displacement and dispossession.