Selected Public Scholarship
As a public sociologist, I have disseminated insights on racism, sound and audio production through: (1) public audio projects on how racism shapes society (see first panel below); (2) public-facing articles (see second panel below); and (3) trainings for audio producers (see third panel below).
I also appeared on WAMU’s 1a, an NPR member station, in 2021 to discuss my dissertation research and to advocate for structural reforms to public media. Listen here.
The announcement for CSREA’s “Race &” in America Series
“Race & in America” Series for the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America
Over the course of the 2020–21 academic year, the Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity in America at Brown, in partnership with the Office of the Provost, undertook a systematic investigation of the enduring contemporary effects of anti-Black racism in America. Drawing on the expertise of Brown scholars from a range of fields and perspectives, a series of eight webinars generated critical engagements with society’s most fundamental and urgent questions around race.
I co-produced an audio series for this digital publication, entitled Student Voices. For each webinar, there are supplemental ten-minute audio interviews between panelists and Brown University students, which I edited for clarity and quality. This supplement is meant to amplify the impact and extends the reach of the series through expanded content and greater student involvement in these discussions.
Cover photo for my original piece on the whiteness of public radio in The American Prospect
I Just Don’t Hear it
After the reckoning in media in June 2020, I decided to write a piece for The American Prospect on how whiteness dilutes voices and perspectives of employees of color in public radio, based on my dissertation research.
In it, I argue:
Within this well-established system of public radio, bringing on “more diverse voices” is not enough. This white, highly educated core—both listeners and managers/editors—will have to give up their entitlement to these airwaves. Otherwise, the relationship of NPR member stations to their employees of color will continue to be parasitic. And people whose perspectives are already sorely lacking will leave for spaces with more opportunities to tell stories to their own communities.
The announcement for my Third Coast Audio Conference presentaiton
Rekindle: Using Radical Soundwork of the Past to Guide Us Beyond the Present Reckoning
The “reckoning” in the media industry has laid bare the fact that audio is not meeting its radical potential. What can radical soundwork of the past teach us about how to navigate our present and map our collective future?
In 2020, Babette Thomas and I presented at the Third Coast International Audio Festival historical examples of Black and Indigenous radio programming in the 20th century that was used as both a mode of care and as a vehicle to raise political consciousness.