Dylan Rodríguez and Setsu Shigematsu

Dylan Rodríguez is Professor and Chair of the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of California-Riverside.  Professor Rodríguez is a founding member of Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex, and he is the author of Forced Passages: Imprisoned Radical Intellectuals and the U.S. Prison Regime, which was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2006, and Suspended Apocalypse: White Supremacy, Genocide, and the Filipino Condition, which was also published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2009.  He is also the author of numerous articles and book chapters, such as the frequently cited contributions he made to the books The Revolution Will Not Be Funded and What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race, and the State of the Nation.

Setsu Shigematsu is an assistant professor in the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California-Riverside.  She completed her undergraduate studies at McGill and went on to earn a Ph.D. at Cornell University in the fields of Japan Studies, Asian American Studies, as well as feminist and critical gender studies.  Along with Keith Camacho, she is the editor of the book Militarized Currents: Towards a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific, which was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2010.  Prof. Shigematsu is also the director, writer and co-producer of the soon-to-be released documentary film Visions of Abolition: From Critical Resistance to A New Way of Life.  You can learn about this film by visiting the website at www.visionsofabolition.org.  Prof. Shigematsu’s much-anticipated study of the history, politics, and philosophy of the women’s liberation movement in Japan in the 1960s and 70s will soon be published by the University of Minnesota Press.

Adrienne Hurley, a professor at McGill University in the department of East Asian studies, interviews Professor Rodriguez on the upcoming conference titled “Critical Ethnic Studies and the Future of Genocide:  Settler Colonialism/Heteropatriarchy/White Supremacy.” After Professor Rodriguez’s interview, Professor Hurley questions Professor Setsu Shigematsu about her documentary Visions of Abolition, which addresses the racial and gendered violence of the US prison and criminal justice systems through the voices of women and also documents the prison abolitionism movement by focusing on the organization called Critical Resistance.

Today’s podcast also includes Doug Smith’s interview with Professor Setsu Shigematsu about her book Militarized Currents: Towards a Decolonized Future in Asia and the Pacific. Doug Smith was a student of Professor Adrienne Hurley’s EAST 600 class last semester.

Both interviews feature complex social and political commentary on the world we see around us. The edited version is 58 minutes long and can be downloaded here. If you enjoyed the music for today’s podcast, you can hear more at Ellie Gomez’s myspace page.

If you would like to stream the audio, please click on the arrow below.

http://ia700409.us.archive.org/22/items/AdrienneInterviewsDylanRodriguezandSetsuShigematsu/mixdown_week2.mp3″