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The Freedom Plow - A Podcast By NCOBPS

The Freedom Plow - A Podcast By NCOBPS

By NCOBPS

The National Conference of Black Political Scientists (NCOBPS) is hosting this podcast series called “The Freedom Plow” in recognition of its 50-year anniversary . The poet Langston Hughes said that when times get hard and it seems like dreams have been deferred, we must keep our hands on the Freedom Plow and Hold On! Hold On!
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African Americans and the Politics of Immigration in the U.S. South

The Freedom Plow - A Podcast By NCOBPSNov 23, 2019

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52:50
Black Women and the Reproductive Justice Movement

Black Women and the Reproductive Justice Movement

This episode of the Freedom Plow podcast looks at Black Women and the Reproductive Justice (RJ) movement. Our two guests are academicians and scholar activists with decades-long experiences in the reproductive justice movement.  Dr. Tonya M. Williams is the Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at Cosumnes River College in California and previously worked at Johnson C. Smith University.  She spent years in the reproductive justice movement working in California and the Deep South, including as a Program Director at SPARK, a Black-led Reproductive Justice organization in Atlanta.  She has also produced groundbreaking research on reproductive justice activism at both the grassroots and elite levels. Dr. Kimala Price is an Associate Professor of Women’s Studies at San Diego State University. She has been co-director of the Bread and Roses Center for Feminist Research and Activism at her university.  She has also been an active member of SisterSong, a prominent reproductive organization in the South.  Her research focuses on reproductive health policy and politics.  



Jun 18, 202001:05:29
Arm in Arm, Stronger Together: Labor Organizing on College Campuses

Arm in Arm, Stronger Together: Labor Organizing on College Campuses

This episode of the Freedom Plow podcast looks at labor organizing on college campuses such as unionization and collective bargaining; struggles for better wages and social benefits; and campaigns against privatization. These battles have been propelled by campus workers (faculty, staff, graduate students) affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers, Communication Workers of America, United Autoworkers, Service Employees International Union, Unite HERE, and other unions.  Our guests are Dr. Nikol Alexander-Floyd and Patrick Scott.  Dr. Alexander-Floyd is an Associate Professor of Women’s and Gender Studies and an Associate Member of the Political Science Graduate Faculty at Rutgers University-New Brunswick.  A lawyer and political scientist, she is the co-founder of the  Association for the Study of Black Women in Politics and author of Gender, Race, and Nationalism in Contemporary Black Politics.  She has served on the Executive Council of the American Association of University Professors-American Federation of Teachers (AAUP-AFT) at Rutgers University. Mr. Scott is the Deputy Director of the AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and previously coordinated the Southern Regional Office of the AFL-CIO.  He worked closely with the AFL-CIO’s Union Summer Program that was established in the mid-1990s, and has offered basic organizing skills and immersion training in union-based organizing campaigns to hundreds of young activists.   He has also worked on labor education, "train up" organizing sessions, and the ATL Solidarity Committee that organized employees at Delta Air Lines.

Mar 31, 202052:55
Black Politics, Neoliberalism, and Class Consciousness

Black Politics, Neoliberalism, and Class Consciousness

In this episode of the Freedom Plow, we talk to Dr. Cedric Johnson about a wide range of topics including neoliberalism, reparations, the Black Lives Matter movement, and the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign.  Dr. Johnson is Associate Professor of African American Studies and Political Science at the University of Chicago at Illinois.  He was the editor of The Neoliberal Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, Late Capitalism and the Remaking of New Orleans (University of Minnesota Press, 2011) and co-editor (with Robert C. Smith and Robert G. Newby) of What Has This Got to Do with the Liberation of Black People? The Impact of Ronald W. Walters on African American Thought and Leadership (SUNY Press, 2014). He also authored Revolutionaries to Race Leaders: Black Power and the Making of African American Politics (University of Minnesota Press, 2007).  

Feb 03, 202001:16:21
Blacks, Public Opinion, and the 2018 and 2020 Elections

Blacks, Public Opinion, and the 2018 and 2020 Elections

This episode of the Freedom Plow looks at black public opinion and the 2018 and 2020 elections.  Dr. Ray Block is Associate Professor at Penn State University and the co-author (with Sekou Franklin) of Losing Power: African Americans and Racial Polarization in Tennessee Politics.  He is a research analyst for the African American Research Collaborative and Latino Decisions, and one of the lead investigators of a 9,400-person poll during the 2018 mid-term election.  Dr. Juhem Navarro-Rivera is the Political Research director and Managing Partner at Socioanalitica Research and a Senior Fellow at the Institute for Humanist Studies.  He was one of the lead investigators of the Black Census Project, a survey of 30,000 Black Americans sponsored by the Black Futures Lab in 2018 and 2019.  

Jan 14, 202052:22
Dr. Kathie Stromile Golden and the Value of International Education and Study Abroad Programs

Dr. Kathie Stromile Golden and the Value of International Education and Study Abroad Programs

In this episode of the Freedom Plow, Dr. Kathie Stromile Golden talks about the value of international education and study abroad programs as well as her unlikely path from small-town Louisiana to world-wide traveler.  Dr. Golden is the Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs at Mississippi Valley State University (MVSU).  She has spent three decades creating and administering international education and study abroad programs, having traveled to 70 countries on all seven continents.  Prior to her appointment as Provost, she was the Director of International Programs and Special Assistant to the President at MVSU.   She previously served as Project Director of the Mississippi Consortium for International Development’s Higher Education and Development Project for Iraq.  In 2005, she was also a Fulbright Lecturer working for the President of the Azerbaijan Republic. From 1998-2001, she worked on international programs for the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation.  

Dec 27, 201936:32
From the Bayou to the Bay: Robert C. Smith and the Evolution of Black Politics

From the Bayou to the Bay: Robert C. Smith and the Evolution of Black Politics

Dr. Robert C. Smith, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at San Francisco State University, is one of the country’s best minds on black politics. Dr. Smith has authored and co-authored a dozen books. His final book, which will be published next year is called, From the Bayou to the Bay.  The book documents his life journey from rural Louisiana to the San Francisco Bay Area and acts as a guidebook for understanding the struggle over black studies on college campuses on the West Coast and the evolution of black politics from the 1970s to the 21st century. 

Dec 24, 201901:08:60
Five Years After the Police Killing of Tamir Rice

Five Years After the Police Killing of Tamir Rice

Five years ago, 12-year old Tamir Rice was shot and killed by a police officer in Cleveland, Ohio.  Rice, who was playing with a toy pellet gun, was shot by the officer within two seconds after he got out of his police car.  The incident was the latest in a series of police killings and excessive use of force incidences in the city. A Department of Justice investigation completed a few weeks after Rice's killing found persistent and systemic patterns of misconduct by the Cleveland Police Department.  This episode looks back at how local organizers and activists in Cleveland engaged in a daily resistance struggle to make changes in policing culture in the aftermath of Rice’s death. It also looks at the broader terrain of the Black Lives Matter movement and related discourses that position racial justice at the forefront of U.S. politics and policymaking.  We have two guests.  Joseph "Joe" Worthy is the Ohio Director of Youth Leadership and Organizing at the Children’s Defense Fund.  In 2014, he was a member of the New Abolitionist Association and a frontline activist working mainly with young people in response to the police killing of Tamir Rice.  Dr. Tehama Lopez Bunyasi is Assistant Professor at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution at George Mason University.  She is the co-author (with Dr. Candis Watts Smith) of the new book, Stay Woke: A People's Guide to Making All Black Lives Matter.

Nov 25, 201901:03:55
African Americans and the Politics of Immigration in the U.S. South

African Americans and the Politics of Immigration in the U.S. South

This episode of the Freedom Plow podcast explores African Americans and the politics of immigration in the U.S. South. We have two guests.  Dr. Niambi Carter is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Howard University.  She is the author of American While Black: African Americans, Immigration, and the Limits of Citizenship.  Dr. Jennifer Jones is Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. She is the author of The Browning of the New South.  This podcast was recorded in  August 2019.  The guests make reference to two events that occurred in August: the mass shooting of Latino residents by a white nationalist in El Paso, Texas; and the raid at food processing plants in central Mississippi by Federal law enforcement officials that resulted in the mass arrests of 680 people. 

Nov 23, 201952:50
State Preemption, Takeover, and Black Politics
Nov 10, 201955:13
Radical Self-Care and Blacks in the Academy
Oct 28, 201944:10
Norris Henderson, the Angola Special Civics Project, and the Voice of the Incarcerated/Formerly Incarcerated

Norris Henderson, the Angola Special Civics Project, and the Voice of the Incarcerated/Formerly Incarcerated

In this episode of the Freedom Plow Podcast, we interview Norris Henderson, one of Louisiana’s prominent criminal justice advocates. Mr. Norris is the founder and executive director of Voice of the Experienced (VOTE).  He spent 27 years in prison on a wrongful conviction. While in prison he was at the forefront of incarcerated activism. He and others developed the Angola Special Civics Project—an electoral organizing and civic engagement initiative, in which justice-involved persons inside of the state’s prison system, mobilized their friends, family, and voters to support criminal justice legislation. Since leaving prison in 2003, Mr. Henderson has been at the forefront of initiatives such as Ban-the-Box, democratizing the jury system, and voting rights.

Oct 15, 201913:53
Dr. Christina Rivers & Inside-Out Prison Exchange Programs

Dr. Christina Rivers & Inside-Out Prison Exchange Programs

In this episode of the Freedom Plow Podcast, we talk to Dr. Christina Rivers, Associate Professor of Political Science at Depaul University. Several years ago, as part of her broader research interest in mass incarceration, she began teaching courses in the Stateville Correctional Center (SCC), a maximum security state prison in Illinois. The courses are offered through Depaul’s Inside-Out Prison Exchange program. In this episode, Dr. Rivers talks about the value of Inside-Out programs for justice-involved persons, as well as faculty and students.

Oct 15, 201939:55
 Charisse Burden-Stelly and the Black Radical Tradition
Oct 08, 201942:02
Blacks and the Politics of Gentrification

Blacks and the Politics of Gentrification

In this podcast, we look at gentrification and its impact on public health, affordable housing options, and political representation.  We have three  guests for this episode. Dr. James Jennings is Professor Emeritus at Tufts University and is one of the leading scholars on urban politics.  Chanera Pierce has worked on fair housing policy in Detroit and recently worked as the Policy Coordinator at the Fair Housing Center in New York City.  Ari Theresa is a civil rights attorney focusing on Zoning and Administrative Law.  He is principal partner of Stoop Law, which is located in the Anacostia neighborhood of Southeast Washington DC.

Oct 07, 201959:47
Michelle Boyd and InkWell Academic Writing Retreats

Michelle Boyd and InkWell Academic Writing Retreats

Michelle Boyd, PhD is an award-winning writer and scholar, a writing coach and retreat facilitator, and the founder of InkWell Academic Writing Retreats. She spent the first part of her career studying the political significance of black racial identity. In 2008, her book Jim Crow Nostalgia: Reconstructing Race in Bronzeville won a Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association.  In 2015 she founded InkWell, where she specializes in helping stuck, scared scholars free themselves from fear and build a satisfying, sustainable writing practice.  Michelle has helped hundreds of scholars - from all ranks and a wide range of institutions and inter/disciplines- move past their anxieties, reconnect with their writing, and develop a calmer, more confident, more productive writing practice.

Oct 03, 201938:07
The Freedom Plow Podcast

The Freedom Plow Podcast

See http://www.ncobps.org for more information about NCOBPS.  

Listening devices can determine the quality of the sound.  The theme song is "Freedom" by Lizz Wright. 

Sep 20, 201901:21