COVIDCalls

EP #334 - 09.06.2021 - Teaching Medieval History in the COVID Era

Today I talk with Esther Liberman Cuenca about teaching medieval history in the COVID Era.

Esther Liberman Cuenca is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Houston-Victoria, in Victoria, TX. She teaches courses in World, European, American, and Medieval History, and has published widely on pedagogy. She recently edited a special cluster of essays for the journal EuropeNow, which is published by the Council of European Studies at Columbia University, on teaching medieval history in the COVID era.

EP #333 - 09.02.2021 - Disability Rights, Activism, and COVID w/Ashley Shew

Today I talk with disability activist and scholar Ashley Shew, professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech.

Ashley Shew is an associate professor of Science, Technology, and Society at Virginia Tech. Her current work, as part of a National Science Foundation CAREER grant, examines narratives disabled people share about technology, that are often different from dominant ways of thinking about disability tech. She is co-editor of three edited volumes in philosophy of technology, current co-editor-in-chief of Techné (the journal of the Society for Philosophy and Technology), and author of Animal Constructions and Technological Knowledge (2017). She works alongside other disabled people on issues of disability rights, inclusion, and activism through her local center for independent living and through the campus group the Disability Alliance and Caucus. Her writing on disabled positionality, tech, and access has been featured within the past 18 months in Nature, AAUP's Academé, and Inside Higher Ed. She is a proud signatory of the Accessible Campus Action Alliance's Statement on "Beyond High Risk," that advises universities in colleges to enact "a new, accessible normal" as pandemic planning continues. 

EP #332 - 09.01.2021 - Maternal and Child Health in the Pandemic w/Cecila Tomari

Today I talk with Cecilia Tomori about maternal and children’s health in the midst of the pandemic.

Cecília Tomori is Associate Professor and Director of Global Public Health and Community Health at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, with a joint appointment at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is a Hungarian-American anthropologist and public health scholar whose work addresses the structural and sociocultural drivers that shape patterns of health and illness. Dr. Tomori has collaborated with colleagues at Johns Hopkins and beyond on breastfeeding, infant sleep, and infectious disease prevention. She has authored three books on breastfeeding and reproduction, and numerous publications on a range of public health issues, including the COVID-19 pandemic.

EP #331 - 09.01.2021 - Breathing Communities in South Korea

Today I talk with Heewon Kim and Sungeun Kim about South Korea and air quality in the COVID Era.

Sungeun Kim is a PhD candidate at the graduate school of science and technology policy in KAIST. His research interest focuses on the relationship between environmental knowledge, nation-states, and spatial order in East Asia. His dissertation project examines the role of environmental sciences in the making of territorial claims and national identities.

Heewon Kim is a PhD candidate at the graduate school of Science and technology policy in KAIST. She is interested in the entanglement between the knowledge of the human mind and body, technology, and politics.  Her dissertation project examines the history of the sciences of non-verbal communication and the development facial expression recognition technology in the US since the 1960s.

EP #330 - 08.31.2021 - Social Justice and Public Health in Louisana

Alma C. Stewart is the Founder and President of the Louisiana Center for Health Equity.

Throughout her career, Alma has testified during countless legislative hearings, spearheaded numerous advocacy campaigns, and addressed social and political determinants of health in a manner that boldly places the needs of disparate populations at the forefront of Louisiana's political and social agenda. Alma's tireless civic engagement and uncanny ability to engage community stakeholders at the grassroots level have earned recognition on national, state, and local stages. One of her most noteworthy accomplishments was organizing and leading the Campaign for Healthcare for Everyone – Louisiana to advocate for Medicaid expansion closing the coverage gap for over 500,000 adults.

EP #329 - 08.26.2021 - Caring for the Dying: Coping with Death in the Age of COVID

Today I talk with Deborah Streahle, an expert in the history of end-of-life and death care.

Deborah Streahle is a historian of medicine, technology, and care in American life. I am pursuing a PhD in history at Yale University. Her current research investigates alternative end-of-life and death care since 1960.

EP #328 - 08.25.2021 - Global Health in the Covid Era w/Adia Benton

Today I talk with anthropologist Adia Benton.

Adia Benton is a cultural anthropologist at Northwestern University with interests in global health, biomedicine, development/humanitarianism and professional sports.

She writes frequently on her blog, ethnography911.org, and on twitter (as ethnography911), connecting these issues with broader conversations about political economy, race and gender.

Her first book, HIV Exceptionalism: Development through Disease in Sierra Leone (University of Minnesota, 2015), explores the treatment of AIDS as an exceptional disease and the recognition and care that this takes away from other diseases and public health challenges in poor countries.

Her second book, The Fever Archive, is under contract with the University of Minnesota Press. It is a series of essays about the 2014-16 West African Ebola epidemic, focusing on the militarization of public health response, US biosecurity and the global war on terror, and what I have called the “racial immuno-logics” of triage and the politics of care.

EP #327 - 08.24.2021 - Emergency Management Update w/emergency managers

Today I talk with journalist and friend of COVIDCalls Colleen Hagerty.  Joining her are emergency manager Sarah Miller and wildland firefighter Luke Mayfield.

Colleen Hagerty is a freelance journalist telling narrative stories through video, print, and social mediums. Much of her work reflects how global communities are reckoning with our changing climate, social dynamics, technologies, and politics. You can find her bylines across BBC News outputs and on Vox, High Country News, US News & World Report, Business Insider, and others. She also has a weekly newsletter about disasters.

Sarah Miller is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM) who is currently a consultant and the Interim Chair of the Homeland Security Emergency Management Program at Pierce College. She most recently served as the Emergency Management Coordinator for the 16 cities, one tribe, and one island of south King County, Washington. Previously, she was the Emergency Manager for the City of Auburn, Washington for 9 years. Her 30+ years of public service includes 12 years as a public safety dispatcher and 9 years as a search and rescue volunteer. She holds a Master of Public Administration degree in Emergency Management, is a graduate of the National Emergency Management Advanced Academy, and has completed doctoral work in homeland security, terrorism, and public policy. She is currently working on her PhD dissertation on technology in emergency management.

Luke Mayfield is currently the Fire Program Manager for Mystery Ranch Backpacks, the current Vice President of the Grassroots Wildland Firefighters, and an AD Firefighter in Region 1.

Previously, Luke spent 18 seasons with the United States Forest Service. Luke worked in 4 regions, 7 forests, and the majority of his career was spent on Interagency Hotshot Crews. Luke resigned in 2019 as an Assistant Hotshot Superintendent/Supervisory Forestry Technician.

EP #326 - 08.23.2021 - COVID, Vulnerability, and the Aftermath with Todd Meyers

Today I talk with medical anthropologist Todd Meyers about COVID, vulnerability, and the ways we process the aftermath of a disaster.

Todd Meyers is a medical anthropologist whose work moves between ethnography, visual culture, and the history of medicine. He joined McGill University's Department of Social Studies of Medicine as the Marjorie Bronfman Chair in Social Studies of Medicine last year.  Before that he was at New York University's Shanghai campus, where he directed the Center for Society, Health, and Medicine.  He is the author and editor of several books, most recently "A Cultural History of Medicine in the Modern Age," which came out from Bloomsbury earlier this year, and "The Human Body in the Age of Catastrophe," which he wrote with the historian Stefanos Geroulanos, published by University of Chicago Press in 2018.  His new ethnography, which deals with issues of loss and aftermath, "All That Was Not Her," will be published by Ducke University Press this coming February.

EP #325 - 08.23.2021 - COVID Research & the National Assembly Futures Institute of Korea

Today I talk about COVID in South Korea with June Jeon and Yeongjun Yeo of the National Assembly Futures Institute of Korea.

Associate Research Fellow, National Assembly Futures Institute, Republic of Korea. June was previously a postdoctoral fellow at Tufts University’s Center for Civic ScienceJune is a sociologist of science and technology, studying how social power interacts with science and technology. Previously, he studied science policy changes during the Trump administration based on laboratory ethnography. Currently, June is investigating how COVID-19 is shaping discourses on science and democracy in South Korea and the United States.

Yeongjun Yeo, Associate Research Fellow, National Assembly Futures Institute Republic of Korea. Yeongjun received his Ph.D. from the Technology Management, Economics and Policy Program (TEMEP) of Seoul National University in 2019 (Ph.D. Dissertation title:  Essays on Innovation, Human Capital, and Economic Growth in a Knowledge-based Economy : Computable General Equilibrium Modelling for Innovation Policy Assessment). He joined NAFI in July 2019, and is now conducting research on future-oriented innovation-driven growth strategies.  His recent research interests include innovation and industrial policy, innovation driven growth, innovation economics and policy impact assessments. Currently, Yeongjun is sketching a wide range of possible scenarios for the COVID-19 economy (w/ COVID era), which would set the Korean economy on different courses in the recovery period. Based on future scenarios, he is exploring the national strategies (policy options) to adapt to a number of changes brought about by the COVID-19.