KUCI: Office Hours

Ladies of the Night: Sex work in Zimbabwean Political Discourse

Dr. Rudo Mudiwa is a professor of gender and sexuality studies at UC Irvine whose work examines the intersections of race, gender, and decolonization. This week, we hear about her research on the figure of "the prostitute" in the political discourse of Zimbabwe in its early years of independence. She describes how policing women's bodies and sex work reveals truths about Zimbabwe's public conceptions of gender and citizenship.
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris".
For more information:
https://rudomudiwa.com/

Voice of a Revolution

This week, I'm honored to chat with Dr. Ngugi wa Thiong'o, celebrated novelist, playwright, and theorist, and one of the foremost writers of Kenya. Dr. wa Thiong'o's work tells of the bloody impact of colonialism and the struggle for decolonization, particularly the war for independence in Kenya, which he lived through. For his controversial play, I Will Marry When I Want, he was imprisoned by the government of Kenya and was later released due to Amnesty International naming him a Prisoner of Conscience. Dr. wa Thiong'o writes primarily in his native language, Gikuyu, and his influential book, Decolonizing the Mind, states the vital importance of creating literature in the native language of colonized countries. Dr. wa Thiong'o has written over 30 novels, books, and plays, and is now a Distinguished Professor of comparative literature at UC Irvine.

Leveling Up: LGBTQ Representation in Video Games

Video games have made their mark on the last four decades as an unforgettable cornerstone of pop culture, and one of the most common pastimes of today. Dr. Bo Ruberg from UCI's Film and Media Studies department joins to discuss LGBTQ representation in video games, and how "gamers" are so much more diverse than the stereotype of their culture would seem. Dr. Ruberg also discusses making academic environments more inclusive to transgender students and professors, and how they are working to make everyone feel welcome in the world of video gaming.
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris".
For more information on Dr. Ruberg's research and books, see below:
http://ourglasslake.com/
https://twitter.com/MyOwnVelouria
https://mitpress.mit.edu/books/sex-dolls-sea
https://nyupress.org/9781479843749/
https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-queer-games-avant-garde#:~:text=How%20LGBTQ%20Game%20Makers%20Are%20Reimagining%20the%20Medium%20of%20Video%20Games&text=In%20The%20Queer%20Games%20Avant,the%20medium%20of%20video%20games.

As Seen On TV: Politics in Television History

In the first episode of 2021, marking a year since "Office Hours" started, we reflect on television history with Dr. Allison Perlman, a professor of Film and Media Studies and History at UCI. We discuss how social movements, politics, and struggles for diversity have played out in the last seventy years of television history, and how they are changing today. Talking points include how television contributed to the turbulent 1960's, how Rush Limbaugh's broadcasting set back discussions about race, and how to navigate the fast paced political news of today.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
To find out more:
Public Interests: Media Advocacy and Struggles over U.S. Television:
https://www.rutgersuniversitypress.org/public-interests/9780813572291
Flow TV: Television in the Age of Media Convergence:
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/flow-tv-michael-kackman/1110950147
Rush Limbaugh and the Problem of the Color Line:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/23253595?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

She Zooms Monsters: Adventuring in Digital Theatre

This week, we hear from the experienced theatre director Beth Lopes, talking about her exciting upcoming production at UCI, She Kills Monsters. The play follows Agnes Evans, a high school cheerleader, as she strives to connect to her late sister through playing a Dungeons and Dragons game her sister had written. Beth discusses balancing the hope, grief, comedy, and fantasy of this play, and shares insight into her process as a director. Tune in to hear about the challenges of navigating the new world of creating theatre online through Zoom, and how artists are shaping a new future for the theatre industry. She Kills Monsters will be streamed live on Vimeo, December 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13.
You can get free tickets to stream She Kills Monsters here:
https://drama.arts.uci.edu/events/she-kills-monsters-virtual-realms-qui-nguyen
To find out more:
http://bethlopes.com/
http://newswanshakespeare.com/

In Sickness and In Health

Returning to air after a brief hiatus, "Office Hours" dives into a hot topic- the state of the healthcare system in America. We sit down with Dr. John Billimek, a psychologist and professor at the UCI School of Medicine, to discuss his extensive research on health disparities in the US. From insurance woes, to socioeconomic and racial factors, to bias from doctors, to workplace hazards, health in America is anything but equal. Join us as we discuss the problems with the system, and how it could be changed. Dr. Billimek runs the HELIOS lab at UCI, which researches health disparities, and is a director of the Program in Medical Education for the Latino Community in the School of Medicine.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Additional Resources:
The HELIOS Lab: https://thehelioslab.org/
John Billimek: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/billimek/
Dr. Billimek's Diversity Education Initiatives:
https://www.meded.uci.edu/curricular-affairs/lead-abc.asp
https://www.familymed.uci.edu/residency/primelc.asp
Local Healthcare Nonprofits:
https://www.latinohealthaccess.org/
https://www.ocapica.org/

Keeping Up with Coronavirus Statistics

When the pandemic hit, UC Irvine professor of statistics Vladimir Minin began moving quickly into action. Working with his colleagues, he developed two websites to display numbers of COVID-19 cases and deaths in Orange County and all of California. Join us as we discuss trends of cases, how to understand statistics, and his process of collecting information and presenting it to the public. The websites can be reached here (https://www.stat.uci.edu/covid19/index.html) and here (https://www.stat.uci.edu/oc_covid_model/index.html).
Find out more at:
https://vnminin.github.io/
https://news.uci.edu/2020/08/10/uci-researchers-launch-first-of-its-kind-coronavirus-statistics-portal/
https://news.uci.edu/2020/09/15/uci-statisticians-release-new-online-orange-county-covid-19-information-resource/
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.

A More Equal Future: Socialism in America

Returning for the second time to "Office Hours" on the week of Labor Day, Dr. Keith Danner explains how socialism is an answer to solving today's increasingly untenable economic and racial inequality. As a union leader, he also shares information on how to be an effective activist. Join us as we discuss socialism in regards to COVID-19, Black Lives Matter, the Green New Deal, the Democratic Party, and the future of the Left. Dr. Danner is a lecturer of composition at UC Irvine and the local president of the union UC-AFT.
Find out more at:
https://rampantmag.com/
https://spectrejournal.com/
https://jacobinmag.com/
https://www.faculty.uci.edu/profile.cfm?faculty_id=6616
https://socialistworker.org/2017/07/12/why-socialism-was-a-big-deal
https://www.sun-sentinel.com/tn-dpt-me-0121-uci-rally-20170120-story.html
Our intro song was "If I Had A Dime" by David Ryan Harris.

Hacking and Tracking the Coronavirus

From the moment the pandemic hit America, researchers began thinking of how to apply their knowledge to combat COVID-19. This week, we hear from Dr. Pramod Khargonekar, Dr. Nalini Venkatasubramanian, and Dr. Sharad Mehrotra, three professors of computer science at UC Irvine who have done exactly that. By tracking which devices are logged onto the UCI campus wifi, they developed a system which is able to monitor if social distancing protocol is being followed and notify people if they have likely come into contact with an infected person, all while protecting the privacy of individuals.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Find out more at:
https://healthitanalytics.com/news/uci-uses-campus-wi-fi-to-test-covid-19-contact-tracing-app
https://www.newswise.com/articles/uci-researchers-use-campus-as-test-bed-for-coronavirus-contact-tracing-system?ta=home
https://www.educationdive.com/news/colleges-look-to-apps-that-screen-for-virus-symptoms-and-trace-contacts/583387/
https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/khargonekar/
https://nalini.ics.uci.edu/
https://www.ics.uci.edu/~sharad/

What We Owe to Each Other

Familial love is something that money can't buy or take away. However, examining how and why parents spent money on their children leads to insights about societal trends, the job market, and wealth inequality. Here to share her research on the economies of parenting is Dr. Nina Bandelj, a sociology professor at UC Irvine and a 2019-2020 fellow at the esteemed Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.
Our intro song was "If I Had a Dime" by David Ryan Harris.
Find out more at:
https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691034591/pricing-the-priceless-child
https://provost.uci.edu/2019/01/11/nina-bandelj-new-associate-vice-provost-faculty-development/
https://ideasandsociety.ucr.edu/event/bandelj/
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2378023118795953
https://casbs.stanford.edu/people/nina-bandelj