RIC launched a collaborative publishing initiative with Public Books, “Freedom Education,” in 2021. It features long-form interviews with leading intellectuals, conducted by JHU PhD students that came from the Democracy Dialogue Awards. The six winners of the awards are now represented as interviewers in the new series “Freedom Education,” published in October 2021. This initiative extends existing RIC commitments to politically engaged and public-facing scholarship, graduate professionalization, and interdisciplinarity, among others.
These interviews are all major contributions, diverse in their range of topics and deeply interdisciplinary, hewing close to the core themes and topics that drive the Program in Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship but covering new ground as well.
The introduction by Connolly and Schrader, titled “Freedom Education,” explains more about the genesis and development of the project.
And the interviews are below (to be updated as links become available):
- Nikki Giovanni, interviewed by Pyar Seth (Interdisciplinary Humanistic Studies)
- Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, interviewed by Raychel Gadson (Political Science)
- Madeline Y. Hsu, interviewed by Shirley Lung (Sociology)
- Shawn O. Utsey, interviewed by Elliott Schwebach (Political Science)
- Michael Hanchard, interviewed by Julieta Casas (Political Science)
- Rebecca Marchiel, interviewed by N.D.B. Connolly (RIC and History)
- Mae Ngai, interviewed by Jilene Chua (History)
RIC is grateful to the JHU Office of the Provost and the Center for Africana Studies for supporting this venture, as well as to the 21st Century Cities Initiative for hosting one of the original conversations, between Nathan Connolly and Rebecca Marchiel. Thanks also to RIC graduate assistant Sheharyar Imran.