Adam Summers

Adam Summers

On this episode of The Emergence Room, we had the pleasure of talking with Adam Summers, scientist, educator, explorer, and 2026 Rome Prize Fellow in Environmental Arts & Humanities at the American Academy in Rome. Adam can almost always be found somewhere around the Academy wearing one of his now iconic fish shirts, which at this point feel less like clothing and more like a long-running conceptual art piece disguised as field biology. Our conversation moved through some wonderfully unexpected territory: flying airplanes, 3D printing, fish anatomy, poetry workshops, childhood homes, memory, collaboration, privilege, and curiosity itself. Adam reflected on how the home he grew up in shaped his understanding of the world and spoke candidly about recognizing his own privilege and the importance of sharing access, resources, and knowledge with others through his lab and collaborative work. We also talked about poetry and the surprising intersections between scientific inquiry and creative practice. Adam shared stories about taking poetry classes and being pushed to write poems, embracing uncertainty and metaphor in ways that expanded how he thinks about observation and discovery. Listeners may also recognize Adam as the collaborator of poet Katharine Ogle, whose episode recently aired on The Emergence Room. Their collaborative project, Piscis Romana, merges poetry, ecology, Roman history, and marine biology into a playful and deeply thoughtful exploration of fish and fishlike forms throughout the city of Rome. This episode felt expansive, generous, funny, and slightly delightfully unhinged in the best way. Adam has the energy of someone perpetually wandering toward an interesting idea just to see what might happen there next.

Peter N. Miller

This is a very special episode of The Emergence Room. On this episode, we had the pleasure of speaking with Peter N. Miller, President and CEO of the American Academy in Rome, historian, scholar, and longtime advocate for interdisciplinary research and public intellectual life. (aarome.org (https://www.aarome.org/about/staff/peter-n-miller)) For cohost T.J. Dedeaux-Norris, whose current doctoral research focuses on leadership, authenticity, and emergence, this conversation felt especially meaningful. It was a rare opportunity to speak candidly with a leader whose path through academia was far from linear and whose career reflects a deep commitment to curiosity, experimentation, and intellectual generosity. Peter reflected on the years after completing his PhD, when finding stable academic employment proved difficult, in part because his interests moved across disciplines and categories in ways that did not always fit neatly within traditional academic structures. What once may have appeared to be a limitation eventually became one of his greatest strengths: the ability to think expansively, connect ideas across fields, and lead institutions through complexity rather than rigidity. Throughout the conversation, we discussed leadership not as authority or performance, but as a practice of listening, risk-taking, adaptability, and sustained learning. Peter spoke thoughtfully about the importance of research, the pleasure of intellectual discovery, and the reality that meaningful leadership often requires pushing boundaries, questioning systems, and occasionally embracing the role of the rebel inside institutions. There was something especially inspiring about hearing a scholar speak openly about uncertainty, persistence, and the long arc of building a life in the humanities. This episode became a conversation about leadership, interdisciplinarity, curiosity, institutional life, and what it means to remain open to transformation over time. A thoughtful, generous, and deeply energizing conversation from the heart of the American Academy in Rome.

Tameka Baba

On this episode of The Emergence Room, we are joined by Tameka Baba, a landscape architect, artist, curator, and Rome Prize Fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Tameka is also a Professional Practice Assistant Professor in Landscape Architecture at the Knowlton School at Ohio State University, where her work explores public space, ecology, community, and the transformation of overlooked urban landscapes. In this conversation, we talk about representing the Midwest, teaching, growth, and the ongoing process of becoming. We reflect on how place shapes identity and creative practice, and how Tameka's work has continued to expand across disciplines during her time in Rome. It's been incredible to witness her evolution from landscape architecture into a broader artistic and curatorial practice, embracing weaving, installation, research, and community-centered approaches to public space. Her work moves fluidly between design, art, and cultural storytelling, opening new ways of thinking about landscape as both social and imaginative space. This episode is a conversation about transformation, creative expansion, and what it means to keep growing into new forms of practice and possibility.

Oswald Huỳnh

On this episode of The Emerence Room, we are joined by Oswald Huỳnh, a Vietnamese American composer from Portland, Oregon, and a fellow at the American Academy in Rome. Recently named a 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, Oswald's work moves through questions of memory, heritage, language, identity, and the emotional textures carried across generations. In our conversation, we talk about family, diaspora, storytelling, and the mindset of the composer: how sound can hold memory, grief, intimacy, and cultural inheritance all at once. We reflect on the relationship between music and narrative, and the ways Oswald's compositions navigate Vietnamese aesthetics and tradition through layered textures, timbre, and deeply evocative sonic worlds. We also discuss his evolving work in Rome, where he has been experimenting with reclaimed materials, hybrid instruments, and questions of environmental change, ruins, and transformation. His practice feels deeply rooted in listening: to history, to silence, to displacement, and to the echoes that shape who we become. This episode is a conversation about memory, composition, inheritance, and the emotional architecture of sound.

Kendra Stephens

In this episode of The Emergence Room, I'm in conversation with Kendra-Nicole Stephens, a chef, mentor, and community-builder whose work lives at the intersection of craft, care, and purpose. Kendra joined us at the American Academy in Rome as a friend of the Academy, and what unfolded was more than a visit—it was an exchange rooted in generosity, curiosity, and deep presence. A graduate of Howard University and the Julia Child Culinary Program, and the former Executive Pastry Chef at the Kennedy Center, Kendra brings both technical excellence and expansive vision to everything she touches. Her work spans from leading high-level culinary programs to supporting community-based initiatives like the Anacostia Culinary Center Project, serving as a Cohort Advisor with the James Beard Foundation, and now contributing to the mission of Christ House. Our conversation moves between the personal and the collective. We reflect on the shift from striving toward something external to discovering a sense of purpose that feels internally aligned. We talk about food as both craft and care—what it means to make a Southern biscuit with intention, and how farming, sustainability, and access shape the future of how we nourish one another. We also explore what it means to find the right environments and communities for one's work and spirit to thrive. There's warmth in this conversation, but also clarity. Kendra speaks with a grounded sense of knowing—one that comes from experience, reflection, and a deep commitment to people. This episode is an invitation to consider where purpose lives in your own life, and how it might already be calling you into alignment.