Episodes

Friday Mar 24, 2023
Friday Mar 24, 2023

Friday Dec 24, 2021
Episode 15 - David Laitin
Friday Dec 24, 2021
Friday Dec 24, 2021
David Laitin reflects on lessons learned from a lifetime of fieldwork -- and imagines the road ahead. How did watching the Sardana folk dance in Cataolonia reveal the limits of Gramscian hegemony as an explanatory framework? After one just decides, in middle life, to "learn Russian", how does one get started? How does one arrange to take a family, with two young children in tow, to Nigeria? True adventures on the social science frontier, as narrated by a uniquely experienced voice of authority.

Thursday Dec 23, 2021
Episode 14 - Sarah Cameron
Thursday Dec 23, 2021
Thursday Dec 23, 2021
Sarah Cameron (University of Maryland) shares practical advice for conducting archival research in non-English languages, based on her her experiences living in Kazakhstan conducting research for her award-winning HUNGRY STEPPE: FAMINE, VIOLENCE, AND THE MAKING OF SOVIET KAZAKHSTAN. Why start with children's elementary school textbooks to develop a research vocabulary? The podcast's first bona-fide historian!

Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
Episode 13 - David Cunningham
Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
Wednesday Dec 22, 2021
David Cunningham (Wash U St. Louis), next in our "when the field is home" series, discusses the archival and interview research that yielded KLANSVILLE USA: THE RISE AND FALL OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS-ERA KU KLUX KLAN and THERE'S SOMETHING HAPPENING HERE: THE NEW LEFT, THE KLAN AND FBI COUNTERINTELLIGENCE. How do we mentor graduate students planning work on topics that will put them in close proximity to dangerous political actors? The podcast's first bona-fide sociologist!

Monday Nov 01, 2021
Episode 12 - Cynthia Enloe
Monday Nov 01, 2021
Monday Nov 01, 2021

Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Episode 11 - Kanisha Bond
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Wednesday Oct 13, 2021
Kanisha Bond (SUNY Binghamton) on doing participant observation on the contemporary Antifa movement, the blurring of the line between researcher and activist roles, thinking about America as a comparative case, and thinking purposefully about the need to sometimes step back from research that can be repurposed by the state as op-sec. The third in our "when the field is home" series.

Wednesday Sep 29, 2021
Episode 10 - Asfandyr Mir
Wednesday Sep 29, 2021
Wednesday Sep 29, 2021
Asfandyr Mir (Stanford - CISAC) shares his reflections on the challenges of presenting himself as a neutral scientist observer when researching the U.S. drone war in Pakistan. The second in a "when the field is home" series.

Thursday Sep 23, 2021
Episode 9 - Tariq Thachil
Thursday Sep 23, 2021
Thursday Sep 23, 2021
Tariq Thachil (UPenn) is the first in a "when the field is home" series. What are the advantages and disadvantages of being able to present as a local? Is being ambushed on social media part of what we should be preparing students for? Does it "count" as ethnographic observation if you are also looking for measurable indicators for quantitative tests as you go? How should we teach THEFT OF AN IDOL?

Wednesday Sep 15, 2021
Episode 8 - Zachariah Mamphilly
Wednesday Sep 15, 2021
Wednesday Sep 15, 2021
Zachariah Mamphilly (CUNY) answers the big questions about agency and responsibility. What does it mean to be an oppositional intellectual in the field of political violence? Should we expect any accountability for the role that our field has played in legitimizing the war on terror as we chase grants and policy relevance? As we professionalize our students, who are we teaching them to write for?

Monday Aug 30, 2021
Episode 7 - Leonard Wantchekon
Monday Aug 30, 2021
Monday Aug 30, 2021
Leonard Wantchekon (Princeton University), activist and scholar, reflects on his journey. Saddle wisdom, "The Tao of Leonard", and practical advice for early-career scholars.