The Hayseed Scholar Podcast

Jason Ralph

Professor Jason Ralph joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast. Brent has known Jason's work for two decades, but only fairly recently met him in person. Jason grew up in the village of Norton Canes in South Staffordshire near the West Midlands of England.  His father had worked in the coal mines years prior, but then started a business where all of Jason's family would eventually work. The original plan was to get a teaching degree focused in physical education, but that didn't quite work out. Jason's intellectual turn happened in a number of locations - working back at his father's business during breaks while reading the newspapers, in the US during a stint at 'Camp America', which put him close to UMass-Amherst, and then in Wales at Aberystwyth, where he would get his Bachelor's and then Master's, concluding with a PhD in War Studies at King's College London. But it was equal parts critical theory and security, as well as strategic studies and intelligence, that inspired Jason's interests.  Jason's earlier work was on American Exceptionalism and the ICC, including a Review of International Studies article that Brent would read and begin to know Jason's research through. Jason talks about breaking into academia through positions at Exeter, and then Leeds, where he remains to this day. He reflects on his approach to writing, what he does to unwind, how playing the guitar helps with both, and more!

Jamie Frueh

Associate Provost and W. Harold Row Professor of Global Politics Jamie Frueh, of Bridgewater College, joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast. Jamie and Brent have been friends for over 15 years, meeting at the ISA-Northeast conference in 2009. Jamie is also the only (other) person on this podcast besides Brent who is from Iowa, and Jamie also hosts his own podcast, The Teaching Curve. Jamie talks about growing up in Des Moines, with parents who both encouraged his curiosities and educational journey. Jamie was on his high school's debate team, which enabled him to travel throughout Midwest a bit. He talks about the decision to go to Georgetown University to pursue a degree and then career in the Foreign Service.   While that didn’t quite pan out, his protesting of apartheid in college did lead him to South Africa, where he taught at Catholic mission schools in more rural, predominantly Black areas of the country. It was a transformative trip for a bunch of reasons, including that being the setting where he discovered his love of teaching.  We go through how Jamie figured out how to apply for graduate study, and what role Thomas Kuhn played in that. We cover how he ended up and then stayed at American University, his experiences on the market, his enriching experiences at Bridgewater, his development of the ISA-Northeast Pedagogies workshop, how he unwinds, how he approaches podcasting, and more! Listen to Jamie’s podcast The Teaching Curve: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1976329 [https://www.buzzsprout.com/1976329] And on YouTube: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG5L5ARIehIiSZkjVA816OefQqY8kTZru&si=A1xJsKjFN58uOJ5W [https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLG5L5ARIehIiSZkjVA816OefQqY8kTZru&si=A1xJsKjFN58uOJ5W]

Sebastian Kaempf

Professor Sebastian Kaempf [https://polsis.uq.edu.au/profile/1237/sebastian-kaempf] of the University of Queensland joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast this week. Seb grew up in Germany, with the fall of the Berlin Wall happening when he was entering his teenage years. While it had a big impact on him,  he distinctly remembers his parents’ emotional reactions to that moment. He also was a conscientious objector and thus did not serve in the German military but his service was in some ways even more challenging as he notes here. Seb talks about going to uni in Germany before transferring to the LSE for his Bachelor’s and Masters, heading towards the academic track being trained for his PhD under Nick Wheeler and Alastair Finlan at University of Aberystwyth Wales. His first gig on a post-doc working with Alex Bellamy at UQ where he has been ever since. He discusses how the Theaters of War film project [https://go.mediaed.org/theaters-of-war] came about, what that was like, how he approaches writing, his co-hosted podcast with Al Stark, Higher Ed Heroes [https://www.buzzsprout.com/813707], what he does to unwind, and how he and friend of the pod and Hayseed Scholar co-host Matt McDonald [https://www.buzzsprout.com/515302/episodes/6714793] will likely become the next big indie rock band as they are currently playing venues in Brisbane where they have achieved almost cult status at this point.

Lene Hansen

Professor Lene Hansen of the University of Copenhagen likely needs no introduction to most listeners of this podcast. She has worked within what would be called the Copenhagen school or securitization theory, emphasizing within that school the overlooked lens of gender. Her work on discourse analysis is famous for being a key contribution to the development of especially interpretive methods in the 2000s and 2010s, and her more recent work in visual IR and visual/image analysis. She talks about growing up on an island, Langeland or Long Island, off the coast of Denmark, riding horses and playing sports while also being a great student (as she said she ‘had to be’ with parents who were teachers at the school), attending uni first at the University of Southern Denmark then the University of Copenhagen. Taking a course from Ole Waever on IR and French philosophy got her interested thereafter in poststructural IR and doing research on European security architectures.  She talks about an impactful visiting professor position at Yale University in the late 1990s, as well as some of the background to her famous works like the 2000 Millennium article on gender in securitization and Security as Practice the 2006 book. She concludes reflecting on how she approaches writing, selecting images to analyze, and how she relaxes and recharges  through exercise and cooking. As this episode was getting ready to launch, it was announced that Professor Hansen just won the 2024 ISA Susan Strange award! This award 'recognizes a person whose singular intellect, assertiveness, and insight most challenge conventional wisdom and intellectual and organizational complacency in the international studies community'. MANY congratulations Professor Hansen! https://www.isanet.org/News/ID/6384/2023-2024-Award-Recipients [https://www.isanet.org/News/ID/6384/2023-2024-Award-Recipients]

Huss Banai

Huss Banai of Indiana University is an individual Brent considers himself incredibly fortunate to call a friend.  He joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast to tell his amazing story and journey through life and academia. Huss was born in Iran and grew up in Northern Tehran until his family moved to Canada when he was 15. In Iran, Huss and his family experienced the war with Iraq, the fallout from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (his father worked with Afghan refugees during that time), and with a dad who worked for a business promoting Japanese Exports, electronics and video games. The transition to living in Canada was a bit bumpy for Huss until he had a key bit of counsel and guidance from a high school teacher. Huss talks about going to York University as an undergrad, working on the set of The Fog of War with Errol Morris and Robert McNamara, his experiences as a Master's student at LSE and working on the editorial team of Millennium, and pursuing a PhD at Brown University. He talks about his experiences on the market, working at Occidental and now Indiana, his approach to writing, his love of gardening, and more!