Advertise on podcast: University of Washington Jackson School of International Studies

Danny Hoffman, director of the Jackson School of International Studies, speaks with former Jackson School Director (2010-2020) Dr. Resat Kasaba on the first day of classes following Dr. Kasaba’s retirement.  After a long and distinguished career as an educator and academic leader, Dr. Kasaba reflects on what has changed and what remains the same in International Studies and in the institution that has done so much to shape the field at the University of Washington and around the world. Recorded on Sept. 30, 2026

Ansgar Mohnkern is the author of Someone Always Loses: Reflections on Football and Ideology (2023), Universitair Docent at the University of Amsterdam, and served as the Max Kade Distinguished Visiting Professor in German Studies this spring at UW. He joined Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab, to discuss the relationship between sports, political ideology, and right wing movements in Germany, the United States, and beyond. The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy. Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106 Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Danny Hoffman, director of the Jackson School of International Studies and interim director of University of Washington's Religious Studies Program hosts a conversation on researching and teaching Southeast Asian literary Islam today with UW faculty Nazry Bahrawi, Assistant Professor, Department of Asian Languages and Literature, and Celia Lowe, Professor of Anthropology and International Studies. Dr. Bahrawi was trained in comparative literature and specializes in in the decolonial study of genre fiction and literary Islam from Southeast Asia and its diasporas. Dr. Lowe is the outgoing Director of the Center for Southeast Asian Studies and its Diasporas and currently serves as Associate Director of the Jackson School of International Studies. Her work concerns science and technology studies in Indonesia. Recorded on May 26, 2026. Our UW Religious Studies Series introductory and closing music are generously provided by Dr. John-Carlos Perea, chair of the UW Department of Ethnomusicology, from the title track of his 2014 CD Creation Story. For more, see johncarlosperea.bandcamp.com/album/creation-story.

Thea Riofrancos, Associate Professor of Political Science at Providence College, discusses her recent book, Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism (WW Norton and Company, 2025). In conversation with Catalina Caputo, Guadalupe Gonzalez Orozco, Marcus Goodbody, Yunue Moore, and Mary Jose Ortega Ortiz--students from the spring 2026 Latin American Studies Senior--Riofrancos offers insights into lithium mining and the landscape for environmental justice in Latin America. Recorded on May 19, 2026.

The Global Sport Lab welcomes three pre-eminent historians of global football in the francophone world to the podcast: Paul Dietschy, professor of contemporary history at the University of Marie and Louis Pasteur and editor of the French journal Football(s): History, Culture, Economy, Society; Stéphane Mourlane, lecturer in modern history and deputy director of the Mediterranean Institute of Social and Human Sciences at Aix-Marseille University; and Yvan Gastaut, lecturer in contemporary history at the University of Côte d’Azur. They join the director of the Global Sport Lab, Ron Krabill, to discuss why the World Cup has always been political, and how those politics have played out across nearly a century of men’s world cups. The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy. Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106 Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Farnoush Djavaheripour is one of the only women who teaches the ancient Persian sport and practice of Zoorkhaneh (also known as Pahlavāni). Restricted to men within Iran, Djavaheripour is extending the practice to both diasporic and women and gender expansive communities alongside the University of Washington graduate student Sara Modjib Shirazi, who has founded a new non-profit called “We are Zoorkhaneh.” They share both their vision and the obstacles they face in conversation with Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab. The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy. Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106 Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Having led the US Women’s National Team to one of sport’s iconic victories in the final of the 1999 Women’s World Cup, along with two Olympic gold medals, Briana Scurry shares highs and lows of a remarkable career. One of the first openly gay African American professional athletes in the United States, Scurry’s was ended by a severe concussion. She sits down with Caley Cook, former professional goalkeeper and Teaching Professor in Communication at the University of Washington, along with Director of the Global Sport Lab Ron Krabill, to discuss her trailblazing early years and her efforts to strengthen diversity and player safety across US soccer. The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy. Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106 Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Dr. Courtney M. Cox is the author of “Double Crossover: Gender, Media and Politics in Global Basketball” (Univ. of Illinois Press, 2025) and Associate Professor of Indigenous, Race, and Ethnic Studies at the University of Oregon. She talks about her book, the rapid growth and change – particularly in the experiences of the players – in the WNBA, and the intersections of race, gender, and nation with Dr. M. Aziz, Assistant Professor of Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of Washington and Dr. Ron Krabill, Director of UW’s Global Sport Lab. The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy. Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106 Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Lisa Uperesa is the author of the award-winning Gridiron Capital: How American Football Became a Samoan Game (Duke, 2022) and an associate professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA. She sat down with Ron Krabill, Director of the Global Sport Lab, and Ronalei Gasetoto, who is pursuing her Ph.D. in cultural anthropology at UW, to discuss the book, the relationship between the modern diaspora of Polynesians and global sport, and Pacific Islanders in the academy. The Global Sport Lab, based in the UW's Henry M. Jackson School, is supported by over a dozen UW departments and schools and was founded in 2024. The Lab uses the lens of sport to explore the big challenges of our global world, such as inequity, politics, injustice, human rights, popular culture, democracy and the economy. Music credit: “Merci Kylian” by Laurent Dubois. Full song "Merci Kylian": music.apple.com/us/album/merci-ky…0482?i=1734841106 Music label: www.wotiproduction.com/music-1

Dr. Rhema Hokama is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Washington, and previously an Associate Professor of English at Singapore University of Technology and Design. She is the author of Devotional Experience and Erotic Knowledge in the Literary Culture of the English Reformation. Please join us for a conversation on the development of Protestantism and English literary culture within the context of the global Renaissance. Recorded on Mar. 3, 2026 Our series introductory and closing music are generously provided by Dr. John-Carlos Perea, chair of the UW Ethnomusicology program, from the title track of his 2014 CD Creation Story. For more, see johncarlosperea.bandcamp.com/album/creation-story.

This podcast features Gönül Tol, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute (MEI), where she focuses on Turkish politics, US-Turkey relations and regional dynamics in the Middle East in conversation with University of Washington Jackson School International Studies Professor Reşat Kasaba, an expert in the history and politics of the Middle East. The discussion focuses on how Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has used international diplomacy to strengthen his political power in Turkey and enhance Turkey’s place in the Middle East and North Africa. It also covers how Trump’s second term is affecting the domestic politics and foreign policy in Turkey. Photo: Gönül Tol. Recorded on Feb. 9, 2026

This podcast features Milan Vaishnav in conversation with University of Washington Jackson School faculty Radhika Govindrajan and Sunila Kale. Our guest talked about a range of topics including his route to graduate school, how he chose his dissertation topic, mixed-methods research, and public scholarship. Vaishnav is a senior fellow and director of the South Asia Program and the host of the Grand Tamasha podcast at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His primary research focus is the political economy of India, and he examines issues such as corruption and governance, state capacity, distributive politics, and electoral behavior. He also conducts research on the Indian diaspora. He is the author of When Crime Pays: Money and Muscle in Indian Politics (Yale University Press and HarperCollins India, 2017), which was awarded the Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay New India Foundation book prize for the best non-fiction book on contemporary India published in 2017. Recorded on Feb. 2, 2026

Dr. Christopher Tounsel: What is Religious Studies at UW? Dr. Christopher Tounsel is an historian of Sudan and a scholar of Global Blackness who puts “race and religion as political technologies” at the center of his research and teaching. Join us as we unpack what that work means today, on campus and off, from the Mahdist wars of 19th century Sudan to the 2016 election of Donald Trump. Recorded on Jan. 29, 2026 Our series introductory and closing music are generously provided by Dr. John-Carlos Perea, chair of the UW Department of Ethnomusicology, from the title track of his 2014 CD Creation Story. For more, see johncarlosperea.bandcamp.com/album/creation-story.

From Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security to founding Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS), Amb. Bonnie Jenkins has led a life and career of service.  In this conversation with Jackson School Director Danny Hoffman and Gates Foundation senior program officer, and former foreign service officer, Heather Hwalek, Amb. Jenkins explores the values and the structures that are required to support a diverse and effective diplomatic corps. Photo L to R: Amb. Bonnie Jenkins and Heather Hwalek

Dr. John-Carlos Perea (Mescalero Apache, Irish, Chicano, German) brings it all to his religious studies scholarship - his role as associate professor and chair of the ethnomusicology department at the UW; his talents as a multi instrumentalist jazz musician and composer; his research into intertribal Native American musical forms, jazz traditions and the work of Creek and Kaw saxophonist Jim Pepper. Join us for a musical first installation of our exploration of what UW religious studies can be. Recorded on Jan. 14, 2026 This episode’s introductory and closing music comes from the title track of John-Carlos Perea’s 2014 CD Creation Story. For more, see https://johncarlosperea.bandcamp.com/album/creation-story.