This week on It’s Hot in Here, hosts Amanda Kaminsky, Neal McKenna, and Brendan Wu discuss China-Africa relations with Dr. Omolade Adunbi, an Assistant Professor in the University of Michigan’s Department of Afroamerican and African Studies. Amanda, Neal and Brendan are all students in Dr. Adunbi’s new winter course, When China Comes to Town: Environment and the Politics of Development (AAS 458). The course covers Chinese foreign development policy in Africa and across the Global South.
Our show features a conversation about the social and environmental implications of Chinese infrastructural investment across the African continent. We begin by discussing Dr. Adunbi’s research on wealth distribution in the Niger Delta, which he investigates extensively in his new book Oil Wealth and Insurgency in Nigeria. Our conversation focuses on urban reconstruction in Lagos and Chinese investment in a new project called the Lekki Free Trade Zone. Next, we examine the cultural dynamics of South Africa’s longstanding Chinese communities, drawing from a lecture given by Dr. Yoon Jung Park in New York in 2012 (watch the full lecture here). Finally, we explore the economic and environmental implications of China’s rising middle class through the eyes of Amanda, Neal, and Brendan, each of whom spent several years living in China. For more information on China-Africa relations, including podcasts and the latest news stories, check out The China Africa Project.
This week on “It’s Hot in Here,” hosts Mike Burbidge, Claire Poelking, and Katie Brownecontinued with the second part of the Conservation Series with an in-depth discussion of ongoing efforts to curb poaching in Africa. Inspired by the visit of reknowned conservationist Craig Packer to the University of Michigan, we spoke with photojournalist and documentary filmmaker Kate Brooksabout her first-hand experience at the epicenter of poaching, as well as with Drew Cronin, a researcher exploring how bushmeat off-take is affecting the abundance of primates in Equatorial Guinea.Continue reading Last Animals, Lasting Solutions for Conservation→
In this week’s broadcast, we dive into a complicated and contentious issue, discussing the increasing militarization of conservation and anti-poaching efforts on the African continent, especially as they relate to broader anti-terrorism agendas.
Host Katie Browne, accompanied by first time co-hosts Mike Burbidge and Claire Poelking, introduce this week’s topic with discussion of the new Global Anti-Poaching Act (H.R.2494), currently under debate in the US Senate, which calls for support of anti-poaching efforts, strengthening of partner country capacity to counter wildlife trafficking, and designation of major wildlife trafficking countries. Continue reading Militarization of Conservation: Narratives of Poaching→
This show brings lively conversation on the challenges of climate change planning, both in Ethiopia and across the diverse governance landscapes of East and North Africa. Tied with the Gala case study on climate adaptation in Ethiopia this podcast explores the complexity of crafting effective and equitable adaptation policy. Specifically, we ask how national adaptation plans are made? By and for whom? What are the decision-making criteria? And what could these criteria fail to account for? Bringing together legal, economic, anthropological, and environmental expertise, we take adaptation policy as the starting point for broad-ranging dialogue on climate change impacts, social conflict across ethno-linguistic groups, and national planning as a tool that can either address or worsen marginalization.
*Vamping is to repeat a short, simple passage of music until otherwise instructed.
In today’s show, we focus our chat on the Michigan Mackinac pipeline and recent SNRE grad Katie Browne’s experience on capacity-building projects in Gabon. In addition, we vamped about our favorite non-American foods and non-English languages, and shared a letter from Rebecca Hardin in Hyderabad, India about her sustainability-case teaching experience to scholars from around the world. Continue reading Mackinac Pipeline + Project in Gabon + IHIH Summer Vamping→
As President Obama touched down in Kenya early on Friday July 24, 2015 Carmella Tal August, Clinical Assistant Research Professor at the University of Michigan School of Public Health, had only recently returned from Nairobi herself. Ella studies complex links between age, place, social and psychological factors, and physical impairment. She has recently expanded from research into what makes for healthy communities here in the U.S. to work within scientific communities overseas. She is developing pre-publication support services to complement intimate, face to face workshops where she enables U.S. students and younger scholars to train with their international counterparts for more focused and effective writing, more responsible conduct of research, and more collaborative and productive careers. All of this aims to close age, gender, geographical location and economic gaps in international scientific expert communities. Sign us up! Co-hosts Jennifer Johnson and Sam Molnar peppered this episode with upbeat recent Kenyan dance tracks (playlist here), as we honed in on Ella’s collaboration with Professor Jesse Njoka, who directs the Center for Sustainable Dryland Ecosystems and Societies (CSDES) at the University of Nairobi (UoN). Other UoN faculty Judith S. Mbau and Stephen Merithi collaborated with Ella to facilitate the workshop. They are pictured here in a peer review writing exercise they plan to continue using within their own curricula and communities.
SEAS Prof and occasional Hot host Rebecca Hardin convened a “Metaworkshop” with African colleagues from Gabon, Kenya, and Ethiopia in October of that same year, under the auspices of UM’s STEM-Africa initiative (Science, Technology, Environment/Engineering and Medicine/Math), African Studies Center and International Institute, and with support from colleagues at UCLA and Tulane working on a National Science Foundation PIRE grant in equatorial Africa. The meeting reviewed models for academic bridge building that can offer a next generation of scholars in sustainability and global health fields more integrative and collaborative training from early in their careers. It is currently awaited review as an edited volume Sustaining African Science Partnerships in the African Perspectives book series at University of Michigan Press.
Previous Afro-optimist broadcasts on our show abound and the playlists range unapologetically across regions and eras. Our STEM Africa Partnerships broadcast starts with complex polyphonic pipe orchestras from Central African Republic, reflecting on the intricacies of African indigenous knowledge and practice. Then it takes us through Gil Scott Heron’s angry “Whitey on the Moon” poem set to rhythm, reflecting on asymmetric access to science within racist U.S. systems. It ends with Naeto MC singing “Things are Not the same…Ten over Ten” announcing positive change from his platform as the Nigerian “only MC with an MSc.”
In terms of talk, that hour we quote from the vision of STEM Africa leaders here on campus, Mechanical Engineer Elijah Kannety Asibu and Mathematician Nkem Nkumba who have engaged African scientists working internationally in considering scientific needs and strengths on the African continent. We also hear from Dr. Heather Eves, founding Director of the Bushmeat Crisis Task Force, who has taught in higher ed settings from the DC metro area to the Caribbean, and mentored many conservation professionals from Cameroon to Kenya. Heather’s persistent constructive engagement parallels the care Ella Tomey takes with her curricular materials. Dr. Eves also address radio as a tool for scientific and policy awareness and debate in African settings, and creative writing as a vehicle for better connections among and between scholars from varied disciplines and the wider publics they seek to engage.
Another Afro-optimist broadcast from 2011 tackled the Africa-Asia Nexus, with a mix of Indian and African music. A lively discussion blazed in studio between Anthropologist Omolade Adunbi about his work on oil extraction where his family and friends live and work in the Niger Delta, Geographer Dr. Bilal Butt working in his native Kenya on pastoralism in national parks, and the School of Information’s Dr. Joyojeet Pal who hails from Mumbai but has worked on installing high speed wifi cables in rural Rwanda, and studying uptake of laptop technology in rural primary schools in India. You think you know the globalized green academy? Think again…
…and again. Just last year, Dr. Pete Larson led us on an audio tour of really heavy metal African rock, while talking about his own metal band and his research on malaria in Kenya. Hot indeed! These days Pete can be found blogging in English about the interfaces of epidemiology, development and culture, and teaching in Japanese as an Assistant Professor at University of Nagasaki, based in their Institute of Tropical Medicine Kenya Field Station. Pete also holds down an Adjunct Professor position right here at the UM’s School of Natural Resources and Environment, mentoring UM masters students like Mike Burbidge, pictured below. Mike and others are seeking better field understandings of pastoralism, wildlife management, and spatial and social aspects of zoonotic disease transmission. They live with families and work with Kenyan field research teams.
Pete figured in today’s interview with Ella–especially in her tales of Nairobi nightlife, to which she was introduced right off the plane! Unlike President Obama, Pete and the Michigan Difference team did not have a heavily armored and defended vehicle. But they did and do make a lot of impact on the lives of students and teachers at UoN (Nairobi), UN (Nagasaki), and UM (that’s right, Michigan). Welcome to the future. The revolution will not be televised. But if Ella Tal Tomey has her way, it will be collaboratively thought out, and carefully written about. Go Blue!
Pictured left to right: Cameron Bothner, our fabulous radio engineer hosts Rebecca Hardin and Jennifer Johnson, and our wonderful guest Ella August.
Last word on AfroOptimism: One of our favorite Kenyan bands – Just a Band – and their music video: “Usinibore”
Today’s show features Jimmy Chin, renowned North Face team Climber and Photographer, Will Weber, Founder of Journeys International and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, and Benjamin Morse, SNRE MSc. student (2016) and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer.
This week Dr. Rebecca Hardin takes us on an auditory cruise across continents, academic disciplines, and musical gems like no one else can (NB: we can say that, cause she’s our hero).
Dr. Heather Eves enriches our conversation with insights from her conservation-oriented collaborations across Africa, the US, and Europe. Dr. Eves has worked for over 15 years to build curriculum and build capacity on management overhunting and the bushmeat trade in Central, Eastern, and Southern Africa, most recently with the Bushmeat Free Eastern Africa Network.
If that’s not enough – we feature creative (and sometimes scathing) musical and lyrical commentary on these same issues in African and African Diasporic poetics – from the orchestral stylings of the Central African Republic, Gil-Scott Heron, and Sun-Ra to the “only MC with and MSC,” Naeto C.
It’s a show you will not want to miss.
Inspirired to learn more: Register (for free) for the upcoming UM Science, Technology, Engineering and Math conference here.
February 14th marks the most celebrated (albeit, corporatized) day for lovebirds everywhere AND one of the final days of WCBN’s Annual FUNdraiser.
In celebration of this delicate confluence – where love and money intertwine and beget more love and money – we invited friends (and friendly lovers) of It’s Hot in Here to join our exxxtra special Lovefest 2K14 Fundraiser edition. We featured the loveliest of tunes and the hottest of our It’s Hot in Here Family for an exxtra-special hour of heart-warming, purse string-loosening news|views|grooves. Continue reading It’s Hot in Here’s Lovefest 2K14!→
What do malaria, heavy metal, and community art have in common? They’re the focal points of this week’s It’s Hot In Here! We’re joined in the studio by Dr. Peter Larson, post-doctoral scholar in ecology and epidemiology at the University of Michigan, and, awesomely enough, an avid metal fan and musician. Peter shares his love of his work and music with us; introducing us to a host of metal tunes from various countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and offering some insight into the spatial distribution and determinants of infectious diseases in Kenya and Malawi.
In the second half of the show, we hear from Katie and Emily of Detroit’s Heidelberg Project. The Heidelberg Project is an open-air art environment in the heart of an urban community in Detroit’s East Side. Tyree Guyton, founder and artistic director, uses everyday, discarded objects to create a two block area full of color, symbolism, and intrigue. Now in its 27th year, the Heidelberg Project is recognized around the world as a demonstration of the power of creativity to transform lives.
