Providence Public School Districts have an exceptionally low level of academic instruction, despite neighboring an elite Ivy League institution. In the first episode of Season 3, hosts Morgan Awner ‘21 and Rachel Lim ‘21 take a step off College Hill and a look into the broken Providence schools. Featuring interviews from Domingo Morel Ph.D ‘14, a scholar on state takeovers, and Paige Clausius-Parks, a senior policy analyst at RI Kids Count, this episode illustrates the overwhelming issues with the schools in Providence, an explanation of state takeovers, and questions the direction of the intervention. 


Special Thanks:

Domingo Morel is a Visiting Scholar at the Annenberg Institute for School Reform at Brown University and an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Rutgers University. He is the author of Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy (2018) and co-editor of Latino Mayors: Power and Political Change in the Postindustrial City (2018). He received his Ph.D. in political science from Brown University in 2014 and is an alum of the Providence Public School District.

Paige Clausius-Parks is a Senior Policy Analyst at RI Kids Count, an organization that provides comprehensive information on Rhode Island’s children and engages in information-based advocacy for the improvement of children’s lives. Clausius-Parks is a certified secondary grades social studies teacher and worked at the Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center.  She  has a Masters in Education Administration from the Harvard University School of Graduation.

Special Thanks to Dan McGowan at the Boston Globe, for his continuous support of student journalism. 

If this episode dismays/ shocks/ intrigues you, please consider donating to the Providence Student Union, who do the critical work of empowering students in PVD to create change in their schools and communities. 

Hosts: Morgan Awner and Rachel Lim
Interviews and Scripting: Annika Sigfstead and Morgan Awner 
Executive Producer: Emily Skahill

When Schools get Schooled: A Look at the Providence State Takeover.

In the second installment of the series on the Providence School Takeover, BPRadio dives back into the Providence Public Schools to further investigate the effects of a state takeover on the parents, students, and broader community. Hosted by Morgan Awner ‘21 and Rachel Lim ‘21, this episode features an interview with Gara Field, former super-star principal of Pleasant View Elementary and current Director of Global Education and Social Innovation at Moses Brown. We also look into what you, the listener, can do in Providence.

Special Thanks:

Gara Field is the Director of Global Education & Social Innovation at Moses Brown, and the former interim Head of Upper School. She was the Principal at Pleasant View Elementary School in Providence from 2011 to 2016. Dr. Field was invited to make a presentation at the White House in 2014 for the White House Future Ready Superintendent’s Summit. Under her leadership, Pleasant View received two substantial federal grants to expand technology use and Field is credited with piloting the turnaround effort of the elementary school.

A Look at the Providence School Takeover Part II

In 2013, Ray Kelly was invited to speak at Brown University. As a well-known proponent of stop-and-frisk, the NYPD Police Commissioner's presence generated controversy on the university campus and ultimately resulted in Kelly being unable to speak. In the aftermath of the Kelly incident, Brown University has had the opportunity to examine academic freedom in the context of competing values. 

In this episode of BPRadio, we use the Kelly incident as a launching-off point to examine differing perspectives on academic freedom, concepts of justice, and approaches to free inquiry and civil disobedience in the university setting.

Special Thanks to:

William Keach is a Professor Emeritus of English at Brown University. In 1983 he was given a Lindback Award for Excellence in Teaching at Rutgers, and in 1998 a Distinguished Scholar Award by the Keats-Shelley Association of America. 

Ken Miller is a renowned biologist who attended Brown in the 1960s. He is currently a Professor of Biology and Royce Family Professor for Teaching Excellence at Brown University.

Naoko Shibusawa is a historian of U.S. political culture and teaches courses on U.S. empire. She is a Professor of History, American Studies, and Ethnic Studies at Brown University. 

Luther Spoehr is a Senior Lecturer Emeritus at Brown University who specializes in the history of American higher education and school reform.

Academic Freedom on Trial at Brown University

OVERVIEW:

Featuring interviews from three women who testified before the Congressional Subcommittee on Human Rights in South Asia in October 2019, this episode of BPRadio seeks to understand the complex media portrayals of the human rights situation in Jammu and Kashmir. Join hosts Rachel Lim ’21 and Annika Sigfstead ’22 in parsing the complicated set of facts and perspectives that surround this story.

SPECIAL THANKS:

Angana Chatterji is an anthropologist and historian. She is the Co-chair of the Political Conflict, Gender and People’s Rights Initiative at the University of California, Berkeley and co-founded the People’s Tribunal on Human Rights and Justice in Kashmir in 2008. She testified about human rights abuses in Jammu and Kashmir before the United States Committee of Foreign Affairs in October 2019.

Nitasha Kaul is a Kashmiri academic, author, and poet. She is currently an Associate Professor in Politics and International Relations at the University of Westminster. She testified before the United States Committee of Foreign Affairs about human rights in Jammu and Kashmir on October 22, 2019.

Prerna Singh is the Mahatma Gandhi Associate Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Brown University. She is the author of How Solidarity Works for Welfare: Subnationalism and Social Development in India, for which she received the American Political Science Association’s Woodrow Wilson prize and the American Sociological Association’s Barrington Moore prize.

Aarti Tikoo Singh is a journalist for the Times of India. She testified before the United States Committee of Foreign Affairs about the state of human rights in Jammu and Kashmir in October 2019.

Human Rights and Media Portrayals: Narratives of the Kashmiri Experience

OVERVIEW:

In this episode, hosts Morgan Awner ’21 and Rachel Lim ’21 examine how Brown’s Computer Science department has implemented an ethics curriculum to help students comprehend the real-world, ethical implications of the code they produce. This is the first episode in a two part series.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:

Our interviewees, Daniel Smits, Signe Golash, and Hal Triedman, who are current students at Brown University.

Teaching Ethics in Computer Science, Part I

OVERVIEW:
In the second episode of a two-part series, hosts Morgan Awner ’21 and Rachel Lim ’21 examine how Brown’s Computer Science department has implemented an ethics curriculum to help students comprehend the ethical  implications of the code they produce.

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Our interviewees, Andy van Dam, Tim Edgar, and Deborah Hurley, who are professors at Brown University, as well as Signe Golash and Hal Triedman, who are current students at Brown.

Teaching Ethics in CS, Part II

In part one of this two-part episode, we explore President Donald Trump's attempts to delegitimize the 2020 presidential election and cast Joe Biden's victory into doubt.

Trump's Efforts To Delegitimze The Election, Part 1

In part two of our episode on Trump's attempts to delegitimize the 2020 presidential election, we explore the contemporary global context and ask how we can protect our democracy going forward.

Trump's Efforts to Delegitimize the Election, Part 2

BPRadio, the official podcast of the Brown Political Review, brings you highlights from BPR's coverage of policy and political affairs.

Hosts: Annika Sigfstead and Autumn-Jade Stoner
Podcast Leads: Kate Dario, Ethan Drake, Michael Seoane
Podcast Associates: Miriam Arden, Casey Chan, Tevah Gevelber, Skylar Iosepovici, Lisa Li, Geireann Lindfield-Roberts, Gene Lu, Alexandra Ali Martinez, Lara Mikhail, Margaret Nesi, Katharine Orchard, Ben Rosenn, Emery Shelley, Ellie Thomson
Executive Producer: Auria Zhang

Founded by Michael Bass

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