The Baldy Center Podcast

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The Baldy Center Podcast highlights UB faculty research and perspectives on current issues and events. We focus on UB's interdisciplinary scholars of law, legal institutions, and social policy. This page contains the listing for each podcast episode, published since Fall 2020.

AUDIO STREAMING 24/7

The Baldy Center Podcast is streaming on PodBean,   Spotify,   Apple Podcasts, or most any audio app. You can also listen by using the audio player on each episode's webpage.

Podcast Fall 2024 (forthcoming)

Tarun Gangadhar Vadaparthi, Podcast Host/Producer 2024-25

Tarun Gangadhar, host/producer, The Baldy Center Podcast.

Tarun Gangadhar

Tarun Gangadhar Vadaparthi is the host/producer for the 2024-25 edition of The Baldy Center Podcast. As a graduate student in Computer Science and Engineering at the UB, Vadaparthi's research work lies in machine learning and software development, with a focus on real-time applications and optimization strategies. He has interned as an ML Engineer at Maksym IT, where he improved deep learning models, and as a Data Engineer at Hitachi Solutions contributing to World Vision Canada initiatives. He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from NIT Nagpur and has also completed a summer program on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at the University of Oxford. Vadaparthi's research and projects are rooted in data-driven decision-making, with a strong commitment to practical innovations in technology.

Seasons 5 and 6

  • Kate Nelischer, “Privately-directed participatory planning: Examining Toronto’s Quayside smart city”
    5/29/24
    In Episode 43 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Kate Nelischer talks about her paper, “Privately-directed participatory planning: Examining Toronto’s Quayside smart city”. This paper discusses a past “smart city” urban development project, the importance of public participation in urban planning policy, and the implications it may have on local legislation.
  • Paul Linden-Retek discusses postnational constitutionalism
    5/24/24
    In Episode 42 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Paul Linden-Retek discusses his book, Postnational Constitutionalism: Europe and the Time of Law (OUP: 2023). He shares insight on why he wrote the book, and addresses questions concerning global justice, the open-ended nature of identity, and the humanistic qualities of law, leading to a reconsideration of the grounds of an international legal order. Linden-Retek frames refugee law and policy within the EU as humanitarian issues at the center of his research.
  • Theophilus Coleman discusses Ghana's proposed legislation and its impact on human rights
    4/30/24
    Theophilus Edwin Coleman discusses Ghana’s proposed anti-LGBTQ+ Bill and its effect on academic freedom. Coleman outlines the basic structure of the bill, the relationship between church and state within Ghana, and the possible future implications for this bill, if it were to be passed.
  • Melissa Crouch discusses how Myanmar's military acts as a constitutional actor
    3/25/24
    In Episode 40 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Melissa Crouch, The Baldy Center Fellow 2024, discusses the role of courts in military regimes and the challenges of studying the military as a constitutional actor. She recently published the paper, “Judicial Loyalty to the Military in Authoritarian Regimes: How the Courts Are Militarized in Myanmar.” 
  • Rebecca R. French and Mark A. Nathan discuss Buddhism and Law
    2/19/24
    In Episode 39 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Rebecca R. French and Mark A. Nathan discuss Buddhism and Law in the context of past, present, and future plans for collaborative research among international scholars. Cultivated over decades, this research is seen in the depth and scope of related publications, and, in the remarkable trajectory of the scholarly journal,  Buddhism, Law & Society,  founded at UB School of Law, and continuing at Rutgers University.
  • Mihreteab Taye discusses the institutional design of Africa's court systems
    1/30/24
    In Episode 38 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Mihreteab Taye provides insight into the nuanced dynamics of state behavior in Africa's courts. He finds that the African human rights system does not automatically grant individuals the right to bring cases before the African courts unless states make a declaration allowing direct individual access to the court. Whereas in the East African Court of Justice, individuals have direct access to the Court.  What matters in each court is the institutional design, which can either facilitate or inhibit the withdrawal of individual access to the courts by African states.
  • Greta LaFleur discusses “‘How Sex Became Good…”
    1/9/24
    In Episode 37 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Greta LaFleur discusses the draft monograph, “‘How Sex Became Good: The Feminist Movements and Racial Politics that Made Modern Sexuality.” LaFleur, recipient of The Baldy Center Podcast Mid-Career Fellowship (2023-24), is associate professor of American Studies and Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Yale University. 
  • Nellie Drew and 3L students discuss model laws and initiatives to safeguard athletes
    12/7/23
    In Episode 36 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Helen “Nellie” Drew, Professor of Sports Law, and her 3L students: Maddie Drechsel, Matt Pickard and Juliette Miranda discuss the importance of having pre-established action plans for professional sports injuries, as well as the need for education on how to prevent injuries in youth sports. From model laws to collaborative projects, we discuss the ins and outs of sports injury law and practice.
  • Athena Mutua discusses the Critical (Legal) Collective
    11/14/23
    In Episode 35 of The Baldy Center Podcast, Professor of Law Athena Mutua discusses the importance of protecting critical thinking inside, and outside of, the university setting. She describes its intersection with social justice issues surrounding race, sex, gender, class, and more. Professor Mutua talks about the Critical (Legal) Collective and how the diverse group of scholars has come together to work towards generating real social change.

Seasons 3 and 5

Seasons 3 and 4

Seasons 1 and 2

  • Episode 15: Athena Mutua discusses the origins and goals of ClassCrits
    5/5/21
    Episode 15 features Athena Mutua, Professor and Law and Floyd H. & Hilda L. Hurst Faculty Scholar in the University at Buffalo School of Law. Professor Mutua discusses the origins and goals of ClassCrits, which focuses on the heterodox, or political economy approach in law. She presents the new online journal, The Journal of Law and Political Economy and discusses ways in which ClassCrits engages with ongoing and on the ground activist work in significant social issues.
  • Episode 14: Sustaining the Alison Des Forges International Symposia
    4/21/21
    Episode 14 of our podcast series is about the work of the Alison L. Des Forges Memorial Committee, and its international symposia held at the University at Buffalo. Beginning in 2012, the symposia has been sponsored, in part, by The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy. This episode features Roger Des Forges, the group's co-founder. He is joined in discussion with the Committee co-chairs, Ellen Dussourd and Shaun Irlam. Together, they offer insight on aspects of sustaining the Alison Des Forges International Symposia.
  • Episode 13: Victoria-Idongesit Udondian discusses her sculptural work “The Republic of Unknown Territory” and immigration
    3/23/21
    Episode 13 features Victoria-Idongesit Udondian, interdisciplinary artist and University at Buffalo Center for Diversity Innovation Distinguished Visiting Scholar in the Department of Art. Udondian discusses her new sculptural work The Republic of Unknown Territory on exhibit in the UB Arts Collaboratory. The work is focused on immigrants’ experiences in migrating and building society. Udondian art installation highlights the politics of the post-colonial global market in second-hand clothing. The gallery exhibit runs from February 27 to March 27, 2021, in The Space Between.
  • Episode 12: Marie Jauffret-Roustide discusses harm reduction as an effective response to the opioid overdose crisis
    3/9/21
    Episode 12 features Marie Jauffret-Roustide, PhD, Senior Fellow in Interdisciplinary Legal Studies at The Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy, and, Research Fellow at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Paris, France. Jauffret-Roustide discusses the effectiveness of drug policies that are embedded in human rights and harm reduction, and compares them to repressive drug policies that are ineffective in protecting vulnerable people and the communities in which they live.
  • Episode 11: Erkin Ozay discusses his new book, Urban Renewal and School Reform in Baltimore: Rethinking the 21st Century Public School
    2/10/21
    Episode 11 features Erkin Özay, assistant professor of Architecture at the University at Buffalo, School of Architecture and Planning. Özay discusses his new book “Urban Renewal and School Reform in Baltimore: Rethinking the 21st Century Public School” (Routledge 2021), and his holistic approach to the relationships among urban development, urban design, and schools.
  • Episode 10: Waverly Duck and Anne Rawls discuss their new book, Tacit Racism.
    2/10/21
    Episode 10 features co-authors Waverly Duck, Distinguished Visiting Scholar, 2020-21, Center for Diversity Innovation, University at Buffalo, and Anne Rawls, Professor of Sociology at Bentley University. They discuss their new book, Tacit Racism (University of Chicago Press, 2020). Their research focuses on understanding how centuries of institutional racism have shaped interactions between white people and Black Americans into patterns of implicit bias and tacit racism. 
  • Episode 9: Jessica Castner, “Nurse-Initiated Protocols in Emergency Departments”
    1/27/21
    Episode 9 of The Baldy Center Podcast features Jessica Castner, a board-certified emergency nurse and an emergency nurse scientist. In 2014 she received a research grant from The Baldy Center, entitled, Complaint-Specific Protocols: Layers of Regulation and Emergency Nurse Scope of Practice.  In this podcast Castner discusses her current research and recent publication on nurse-initiated protocols in emergency departments, and offers perspective on policy and protocol impacts on pandemic emergency room care in hospitals.

    Keywords: Health and Society, Health Policy, Regulation, Emergency Nursing, COVID-19, pandemic.
  • Episode 8: Sarah Ludin discusses the socio-legal history of the Early Reformation in Germany
    11/18/20
    In episode 8 of the podcast Sarah Ludin discusses her developing book manuscript focused on the socio-legal history of the Early Reformation in Germany, which relies on close readings of 1521-1555 C.E. case files in the Holy Roman Empire to understand the historiography of secularism and the definition and significance of religion as a modern secular legal category.
  • Episode 7: Daniel Platt discusses “The Domestication of Credit.”
    11/3/20
    Episode 7 features Daniel Platt, Assistant Professor at University of Illinois Springfield and former Baldy Center Postdoctoral Fellow. Professor Platt discusses his recent article “The Domestication of Credit,” focused on the moral politics of personal finance in 19th and 20th century U.S., paying specific attention to women’s contributions to household finances, to credit, debt, and financial institutions, and to the roles of coercion and discrimination in a debt economy.
  • Episode 6: David Gerber and Bruce Dierenfield discuss disability rights and religious freedom
    9/21/20
    Episode 6 of the podcast features David Gerber, emeritus professor of history at UB and Bruce Dierenfield of Canisius College. Professors Gerber and Dierenfield discuss their new book, focused on the Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District case at the crossroads of disability rights and church-state separation.
  • Episode 5: Jennifer Gaynor discusses maritime Southeast Asia
    9/23/20
    In Episode 5 of the podcast Jennifer Gaynor discusses her current research and her previous book, Intertidal History in Island Southeast Asia, which drew on European and Southeast Asian sources, as well as four years in Indonesia, where she worked with rare Bugis language manuscripts and lived in communities of Sama sea people.
  • Episode 4: Amanda Hughett discusses the history of prisoner labor unions
    9/23/20
    Episode 4 of the podcast features Amanda Hughett discussing the history of prisoner labor unions. The work examines how efforts to litigate around prison conditions in the 1970s unintentionally cut against imprisoned people’s efforts to mobilize at the grassroots level.
  • Episode 3: David Westbrook and Mark Maguire discuss airport security and counterterrorism
    9/9/20
    Episode 3 of the podcast features David A. Westbrook, UB School of Law and Mark Maguire, National University of Ireland Maynooth. Professors Westbrook and Maguire discuss airport security and counterterrorism, and their new book, Getting Through Security: Counterterrorism, Bureaucracy, and a Sense of the Modern (Routledge, 2020).
  • Episode 2: Irus Braverman discusses medical posthumanities
    8/7/20
    Episode 2 of the podcast features UB School of Law professor Irus Braverman discussing her upcoming workshop, Medical Posthumanities: Governing Health Beyond the Human. Braverman's work explores holistic approaches to health that include scientific, natural science discussions between ecologists and virologists that also takes into consideration social and cultural understandings and also legal norms.
  • Episode 1: Mark Bartholomew discusses contact tracing
    7/28/20
    Episode 1 of the podcast features UB School of Law professor Mark Bartholomew. Professor Bartholomew discusses the pandemic, contact tracing, and the tension between public health security and privacy in using technology to track the coronavirus. Mark Bartholomew received a 2018-2019 research grant from the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy to help support his research, “The Law of Advertising Outrage.”