Cogut Institute for the Humanities

The Confluence: Ethnic Studies and the Public Good

A podcast exploring how Ethnic Studies serves as an insurgent intellectual movement, site of contestation, and driver of transformation

The Confluence: Ethnic Studies and the Public Good

A podcast exploring how Ethnic Studies serves as an insurgent intellectual movement, site of contestation, and driver of transformation

Hosted by Shelley Lee (American Studies, Urban Studies, Cogut Institute for the Humanities | Brown University) and Gina Pérez (Comparative American Studies | Oberlin College), “The Confluence: Ethnic Studies and the Public Good” features conversations with thinkers and practitioners in and outside of the academy and examines how ethnic studies serves a public good, transforming education and our broader world as we grapple with questions of race, migration, identity, and justice.

The podcast’s name reflects the convergence of ideas, disciplines, and communities that define Ethnic Studies, and how its insights have in turn changed the larger culture. At a moment when Ethnic Studies faces both attacks and growing recognition as essential for cultivating democratic citizenship in a diverse society, “The Confluence” explores how this field serves as a public good — transforming academia and the broader world while addressing contemporary challenges around race, migration, identity, and justice.

This podcast is part of the multi-year “Origins and After Lives of Ethnic Studies” initiative directed by Shelley Lee at Brown University’s Cogut Institute for the Humanities, examining Ethnic Studies in multiple dimensions: its origins in social movements, its institutionalization, and its relevance for understanding today’s crises in higher education and broader culture wars.

Episode Transcripts and Notes

About the Hosts

Shelley Lee is Professor of American Studies, History, and the Humanities at Brown University. She is a U.S. historian who writes and teaches about Asian Americans, immigration, and cities. Her forthcoming revised edition of A New History of Asian America continues her work documenting Asian American experiences. She directs the “Origins and After Lives of Ethnic Studies” initiative at Brown’s Cogut Institute for the Humanities.

 

Gina Pérez is Professor and Chair of Comparative American Studies at Oberlin College. She is a cultural anthropologist whose work focuses on Latino studies. Her most recent book, Sanctuary People: Faith-Based Organizing in Latina/o Communities (NYU Press, 2024), examines faith-based organizing in Latino communities in Ohio during the Trump years. She and Shelley collaborated for 15 years at Oberlin, where they built interdisciplinary programs examining race and solidarity.