History 4 Two (History For Two, Social Justice For All)

Professor Summers Sandoval is an associate professor of History and Chicana/Latina Studies at Pomona College, where he has twice received the Distinguished Professor Award for teaching. There, he teaches classes on Latinx history, social movements, oral history, and racial inequality in the United States, specifically in California. He currently serves as the First Vice President of the Oral History Association. In this episode, he addresses the criticality of identity, diversity, and inclusion in the history and development of communities.

Professor Samuel Richardson is an expert in Economics and Game Theory. He is an award-winning professor who has taught at Boston College and the University of Texas at Austin and is currently teaching game theory at Harvard Kennedy School. Professor Richardson completed his undergraduate degree at Stanford University before earning a Ph.D. from Harvard University. In this episode, we talk about today’s information polarization, health economics, and the Russo-Ukrainian War through the lenses of game theory, social welfare, and economic drivers.

Mr. Ma Chi Un is a standing committee member of the Shanghai CPPCC, a director at Macau’s Luso International Bank, a director of Lightpoint logistics group in Shanghai, and a director of Concord Industrial and Commercial Development Enterprise in Macau. In this podcast, we talked about how to proactively market and deploy the digital Rmb to individuals and SMEs, its role in financial inclusion, and also the potential usage of digital Rmb in facilitating cross-border trade.

Professor Richard Wang is currently the Associate Director of Fudan University’s Fintech Research Center and a Visiting Scholar at the Fanhai International School of Finance. Prior to this, he was an Associate Professor of Practice and Director of LIVE Learning Center at the Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF), Shanghai Jiao Tong University, and taught management at Chihlee University of Technology, Taiwan. Professor Wang is also a founding partner of NewRiver Capital Partners and has over 20 years of experience working in the financial and investment industry. In this episode, Professor Wang talks about financial inclusion and social entrepreneurship in the fintech industry.

Dr. Andrew Field is a scholar of Chinese history and culture who is currently the Associate Professor of Chinese History at Duke Kunshan University. He has taught Chinese history at the University of Puget Sound, the University of New South Wales, and New York University.

Additionally, Dr. Field is the author of multiple books, the host of multiple walks, and has even produced his own documentary. In today’s episode, Professor Fields talks about the history of Shanghai, China, rising Sino-American tensions, Shanghai’s recent lockdowns, and how performing arts can help promote global harmony.

Tara Nair and Elijah Tay are youth human rights advocates working on abolishing capital punishment in Singapore. Their latest work, an open letter to President Halimah has garnered signatories from over 20 countries. In this episode, they talk about the death penalty, justice systems, as well as youth activism.

Tara is an Institution for International Law and Justice Joyce Lowinson Scholar at New York University and Elijah has been a civil society advocate for diverse communities. Elijah is the founder of initiatives like My Queer Story, a program aimed at raising awareness about LGBTQ+ discrimination.

Mr. Tewon Turner serves as a military police officer and an interpreter with the United States Army. He speaks 12 languages of varying levels and is a devout polyglot. In this episode, Mr. Turner explores the idea of language justice and how languages has played crucial roles in war situations from his actual experience. Mr. Turner is an advocate of minority languages and encourages the mandatory teachings of multiple languages in schools for children to expand their world perspectives and sense of empathy.

Professor Georgiy Kasianov is an active scholar, having authored, co-authored, and co-edited more than twenty books on the history of Ukraine in the 19th–21st centuries. Some of his recent work examines the current Russian - Ukraine situation by looking at how historical memory has been distorted for political reasons. Professor Kaisianov Head of the Laboratory of International Memory Studies at Marie Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin, Poland. In this episode, Professor Kasianov discusses the roots of these different historical views and how he feels the war between Ukraine and Russia will play out.

Professor Michael J. Wishnie is William O. Douglas Clinical Professor of Law and Counselor to the Dean at Yale Law School. Professor Wishnie’s teaching, scholarship, and law practice have focused on immigration, labor and employment, habeas corpus, civil rights, government transparency, veterans law, and voting rights. For years, Professor Wishnie and his students have represented low-wage workers, immigrants, veterans, and voters in federal, state, and administrative litigation. In this episode, Professor Wishnie zeroes in on the recent discussions around gun violence sparked by the Uvalde shooting and shares his views on civil rights in America.

Stanton Abramson is the grandson of a Holocaust survivor. Gizella Abramson, his paternal grandmother, survived multiple ghettos, a stint in the underground resistance, and the Maidaanik concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland between 1941-45. He was very close to her before she passed away in 2011. From 1970 to 2010, she frequently spoke to school students in North Carolina public schools about the Holocaust and her message of hope and survival. She spoke to thousands of students during her 40 years of active service.

Her story has a lot of similarities to those that may be fleeing or helping those flee Ukraine today. I hope this chapter from history continues to shed light on the need for us to keep our attention on Ukraine and how actions are required for the sake of humanity.

Principal Leung Kee Cheong is a renowned Principal based in Hong Kong and has been influential as an educator for the Hong Kong Youth in the last four decades. He was featured and was recognized by Hong Kong media for his work as Principal of Fresh Fish Traders' School, a primary school well known for its success in turning around the lives of poor children. He is also an expert in The Art of War by Sun Tzu and in this episode, he shares his insights on the how the philosophies taught by The Art of War can be applied to a teenager’s daily life.

Ms. Susan Hammond, the daughter of a U.S. Vietnam veteran, became interested in post-war Southeast Asia after traveling to Vietnam and Cambodia in 1991. In 1996, after earning her MA in International Education from NYU. Ms. Hammond became involved in fostering mutual understanding between the people of the U.S., Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia and addressing the long-term impacts of war while working as the Deputy Director of the Fund for Reconciliation and Development from 1996 to 2007.

In 2007, Ms. Hammond returned to her home state of Vermont and founded War Legacies Project. In 2019, she received the Vietnam Order of Friendship medal for her more than two decades of work in Vietnam.  In this episode, she talks with Law Association for Crimes Across History (LACAH) participants about Agent Orange and Ecocide.  

Emmaline Bennett is Columbia University graduate with a bachelor's degree in History and Comparative Literature & Society and a Columbia Teachers College graduate with a Master's degree in Social Studies Education. Emmaline is a World History teacher and have done extensive research on war and refugees with her theses, "Cities of Defeat: Spanish Civil War Refugees and the French Concentration Camps of 1939", which won the Columbia History department's Charles A. Beard Prize as well as the George Watt Prize. In this episode, Emmaline talks about the politics and ideologies behind governments’ positions behind the Spanish Civil War and World War II. She also encourages our listeners to appreciate oral history and historical fiction to gain a fuller picture of each period.

Professor Erin Hutchinson has an M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University and currently teaches the political and cultural history of the Soviet Union at the University of Colorado Boulder. Her book project, The Cultural Politics of the Nation after Stalin, 1953-1991, explores how intellectuals sought to transform cultural understandings of the nation in the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin. Her dissertation received the 2021 Harold K. Gross Prize and was a finalist for the 2021 Cohen-Tucker Dissertation Prize. She received a Research Fellowship from ASEEES to conduct research for the project in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, and Moldova. In this episode, she gives an insider and expert view on the Ukraine crisis and its background and how everyday commoners like us can do to help.

The world is witnessing another wave of refugees because of the Ukraine crisis. Understanding the mindset and history of refugees is important for students of social justice. Ahmedina Becevac is a Bosnian refugee that grew up in the United States. She learned English when she arrived in the United States and went to diverse public schools growing up. Ahmedina is a teacher focused on immigrants and refugees needing to learn English for their daily needs. In this episode, Ahmedina talks about what it was like growing up as a refugee and tries to explore the mindset of a refugee in America. Ahmedina also talks about the importance of oral history so that future generations know what it took for their generation to enjoy the shade from the trees that the older generation planted.

Tatiana Vedenska is a widely known Russian writer and novelist.  Tatiana's first novel, called "The peculiarities of the women’s charm" (Особенности женского шарма) was published in 2005. One year later she began working with the famous Russian literary agent Nathan Zablotski, and is now the author of more than twenty-five novels. Her total books sales have reached 5,000,000 copies. One of the best of Tatiana's books called "One woman's Divorce" is available in English. In 2013, Tatiana Vedenska was invited to lead a broadcast show called "Bestseller School".   At the time of this interview (just a few days into the Ukraine crisis), Tatiana is in the U.S. but her family, including her children, are in Russia.  In this episode, Tatiana shares her personal views and emotions about Russia's current state and its crisis with Ukraine.

Stanislav Ignatovic (Stan) is a teacher of AP American History and Sociology. He was born in Ukraine but left the then newly independent Ukraine for the United States in the 1990s due to Ukraine’s instability. He is passionate about history and has remained intimately involved with the latest developments around Ukraine and Russia. He still has a lot of family and friends in Ukraine and hopes that war can end immediately between the two countries. In this episode, he shares his personal Ukrainian view of the current war between Russia and Ukraine and educates History 4 Two listeners about the background of the tension between the two countries. He also comments on the effectiveness of Inter-Government Organizations (IGO) and what IGO and individuals can do to try to help educate the public about the truth and stop the war.

Laura Berger is a senior staff attorney in the Immigration Unit at Brooklyn Defender Services. She works with the Youth and Communities Project, representing low-income immigrants in affirmative applications for immigration status and defending them in Immigration Court. Formerly, Laura spent three years as the staff attorney for the Immigrant Justice Project at the City Bar Justice Center in New York City. There, she represented survivors of human trafficking, domestic violence, abuse and neglect in immigration matters and advocated for them as victim-witnesses with law enforcement. In this episode, Laura talks about potential solutions being discussed around current immigration and human trafficking problems in the United States.

Harvard Professor and Author Dan Williams talked about the process of how capital punishment trials are conducted, dove into the details about the 1990’s Mumia Trial which successfully overturned the death penalty sentence, and shared his views on capital punishment trends in America.  Dan Williams is a former professor of law at Northeastern University School of Law and a visiting professor at Harvard Law School, where he taught a course on Capital Punishment in America. He was awarded the Thurgood Marshall Award for his anti-death penalty work. He also received the Morton Stavis Award for his work on behalf of the unjustly accused.

Ms. Victoria Erdel was one of 50 people chosen worldwide to be designated as one of the UN's Youth Innovators in 2018.  As an innovator, she was included in their annual report and invited to present her podcasting work alongside UN employees at the Nobel Peace Prize Forum later that year. She also received mentorship from the UN's Sustainable Development Solutions Network to expand her podcasts' reach.   In this episode, Victoria gives advice to youths about how to get more involved with Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) projects and shares her insights about looking for solutions within indigenous cultures.  In this episode, Victoria talks about how to get more involved in SDGs and the need to study indigenous cultures for obvious solutions. 

Samarth Desai is a 2020 graduate of Harvard College, having concentrated in Social Studies with a focus on constitutional law, American foreign policy, and political economy. He is passionate about history and is a recognized expert in exploring the similarities in great speeches and how leaders and great orators use oratory skills to move their audiences.  At Harvard, he served as President and Captain of the Harvard Mock Trial Association, co-founded the Alexander Hamilton Society, and worked as a Research Assistant to Harvard Law School professor Noah Feldman.  In this episode, Samarth analyses how great leaders make great speeches by imitating other leaders' speeches and using rhetoric tools for maximal effect. 

Maria Jimenez Moya is a Mexican journalist based in Houston who writes about minority communities across Texas. Her work has appeared in Cambridge Chronicle, DigBoston, POLITICO, Texas Monthly, Daily Free Press, and the New York Times. Maria has a B.A. in International Relations with a focus on environmental sustainability and development and Latin America.  Maria talks about bridging cultures and how to use media to negotiate with dictatorships. 

Mr. Randall Littlefield is a renowned history teacher with a wide-ranging background in independent and public charter schools.  His accolades include fellowships through the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Civil War Institute, the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad program in Russia, and last but certainly not least, studying the Holocaust in Poland and at Yad Vashem.  In this episode, he talks about choiceless choices and how we should learn to remove blinders when evaluating history. 

Meghan Riley is a Fulbright scholar and doctoral candidate in European history.  She is fluent and has conducted original research in four languages.  In this podcast, Meghan talks about humanitarian groups from the Holocaust, the importance of historical fiction and oral history, and the advantage of being multilingual as a historian.

Listen in to my fireside chat with Professor Jan Christopher Horak (Chapman University, UCLA, University of Miami Faculty member). Professor Horak is a renowned German American film historian and film restorer.  We discussed an array of very interesting topics including disinformation, the Holocaust, Fascism, and how South America became a haven for Nazi war criminals after WWII.