The Institute Podcast
The Institute for the Arts and Humanities empowers faculty to achieve their full potential by creating community and cultivating leadership. At the heart of this mission is the affirmation of the crucial value of the arts and humanities to the life of the university and the world. The Institute Podcast engages in conversations with faculty, program directors, and guest scholars about their work in teaching, service and research. We learn the makings of successful leaders across disciplines. And we share this with you. The owl tops Hyde Hall, our Franklin Street home.
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Episodes
Monday Jan 12, 2026
Monday Jan 12, 2026
Historian Morgan Pitelka (FFP ’17, ’24) returns to the podcast to discuss material culture and his research project, The Resilience of Kyoto: Environmental and Cultural Renewal, 1586-1670. Plus, he provides historical context about camelias.
Wednesday Dec 17, 2025
Wednesday Dec 17, 2025
In this 2017 episode, Asian and Middle Eastern studies professor Morgan Pitelka discusses his research and how his parents had a big influence in his scholarship. He discusses his love of Japanese film, particularly, the work of Hidden Fortress was the inspiration for Star Wars.
Stay tuned for a new interview with Pitelka, coming to this podcast feed and iah.unc.edu soon.
Monday Dec 01, 2025
Monday Dec 01, 2025
Elizabeth Olson, interim director of the Institute, returns to The Institute podcast to share what she is looking forward to during the academic year. She also discusses the significance of tenure and how it supports critical research, and how her own work in care ethics has informed her style of leadership.
Read a transcript at iah.unc.edu/podcasts.
Tuesday Nov 11, 2025
Tuesday Nov 11, 2025
In this 2020 episode, we interview geography professor Elizabeth (Betsy) Olson, who discussed her career as a scholar and role as a campus leader. Stay tuned for our next new episode featuring Olson, who is currently serving as the interim director of the Institute for the Arts and Humanities.
Read a transcript at go.unc.edu/Jj72R.
Wednesday Jul 09, 2025
Wednesday Jul 09, 2025
After the 2025 Reckford Lecture, IAH Director Patricia Parker and Yale professor Fatima El-Tayeb reunite on Zoom for The Institute podcast. In this episode, Parker and El-Tayeb reflect on the lecture and discusses the themes El-Tayeb explored in her talk and her latest book, Un/German: Racialized Otherness in Post-Cold War Europe.
Monday Jun 16, 2025
Monday Jun 16, 2025
English and comparative literature professor Mary Floyd-Wilson received the 2024 George H. Johnson Prize for Distinguished Achievement by an IAH Fellow. In March 2025, she received the prize and delivered a lecture on her latest work exploring the representations of the devil on stage, particularly in Hamlet. In this podcast, Floyd-Wilson looks back on the lecture and her career.
Tuesday May 13, 2025
Tuesday May 13, 2025
Sociologist Tania Jenkins (FFP ’24) studies the social impacts within medicine and health care, from status hierarchies to physician burnout. As a DuBose Fellow in the IAH's Faculty Fellowship, Jenkins explored the structural underpinnings of satisfaction and well-being in medicine. In this episode, she describes her research journey and interest in medical sociology and her current research.
Tuesday Apr 15, 2025
Tuesday Apr 15, 2025
Actor and dramatic art professor Julia Gibson joins the podcast to reflect on her past roles, including ones in PlayMakers Repertory Company’s 2024-25 season. She compares her roles in What the Constitution Means to Me and Death of a Salesman, and shares how acting differs from directing and teaching. In fall 2024, Gibson was a Turner Fellow in the Faculty Fellowship Program where she worked on her project, “Being Invisible?”
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
Thursday Mar 20, 2025
Associate professor Brandy Brimmer reflects on her fellowship experiences and research in historical legal practices regarding Black attorneys post-Emancipation, and Black women in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Black attorneys and claims agents in the post-emancipation South. Brimmer’s work emphasizes the interdisciplinary nature of her work and the importance of archival research in understanding historical legal practices and community building.
Thursday Feb 06, 2025
Thursday Feb 06, 2025
Brian Hsu (FFP ’24) joins us this episode to share how he fell in love with language and linguistics from a young age. Additionally, Hsu describes his recent projects about uncovering Cherokee word order and “Starship Generative Enterprise,” a Star Trek-spin on modern linguistics. We also discuss Hsu’s time as a Faculty Fellow in Spring 2024, where he worked on “Principled Probability in Language.”