HGGS - Us and Them - Season 1

Episode 9: Us? Them!: Constructing Identities and Subverting Otherness in a Drag Show in Kyoto

Diamonds Are Forever is not only the title of a James Bond film, but also the name of a drag show in Kyoto. In today's episode, Marco Del Din, PhD candidate at Heidelberg University and Ca' Foscari University in Venice talks to us about drag queens that transform into monsters, aliens, animals, and freaks. How do the performers of the oldest and longest-running drag show in Japan construct identities that connect their gender and sexual identities and their art? Find out more by listening to Laura's interview with Marco.

Episode 8: Child Protection, Social Work and Cultural Difference (Interview with Florence Wieder-Kinne (Heidelberg University))

In child protection, "Us and Them" manifests itself in different ways: Social workers and families often encounter each other with different expectations, shaped by institutional structures, biographical experiences, societal narratives and cultural influences. One of the greatest challenges in this context is the encounter with the cultural other. Social workers often interact with families whose cultural backgrounds, norms and value systems are very different from their own. How can cultural expectations be overcome? In this interview, social anthropologist Florence Wieder-Kinne talks to us about her life as a social worker, her PhD project and how lived experience and theoretical research go hand in hand.

Episode 7: Group Cohesion, Digital Education and AI Literacy: Bridging the Gap Between ‘Us and Them’ in the Digital Age (Interview with Alberto Carballo Soca (University of Havana))

Timeline 00:00 Intro 02:36 Exploring Group Cohesion and Educational Inclusion 17:20 Challanges in the Context of Digital Education 27:22 AI Literacy in the Framework of 'Us and Them' 37:27 Effects of Marathon Running on Academic Life 39:06 Outro Group Cohesion, Digital Education, and AI Literacy: three distinct topics that come together in this episode through the lens of the "Us and Them" dichotomy. Having dedicated his academic life to these fields, Alberto Carballo Soca from the Faculty of Psychology, University of Havana shares insights from his research and personal experiences, both within the Cuban context and on a global scale. Moving between individual and societal perspectives, this episode of the Podcast Series ‘Us and Them’ explores the challenges and opportunities in the fields of group cohesion, digital education, and AI literacy.

Episode 6: America’s Enemy Images – The Socio-Cognitive Framing of National Identity and Exclusion on Social Media (Interview with Isabella Gomez-O'Keefe (University of Cambridge))

Polarization in the United States did not start when Donald Trump was elected President for the second time in 2024 – but it might be more visible now than ever, largely due to social media: the ‘enemy within,’ the un-American enemy image, has become a common denominator for right-wing politicians and alt-right influencers on platforms like TikTok and Instagram. In this interview, Isabella Gomez O’Keefe (University of Cambridge) explains how foreigners, academia, “woke” activists and left-wing politicians are turned into enemy images in contemporary political debates and on social media. Tune in if you want to learn more about the banning of books in American schools, the difference between the United States and other countries with regards to political polarization, and the alt-right’s fear of progressive women.

Episode 5: Magical Urbanism: Thresholds, Hybridity, and the Transformative Power of 'Us and Them' in Woolf, Lispector, and Lahiri (Interview with Tetyana Kasima (University of Tartu))

As human beings, we are all embedded in time and space—but how does the space we inhabit shape our perspectives and experiences? Drawing on her research into Clarice Lispector’s The Besieged City and Virginia Woolf’s Solid Objects, Tetyana Kasima (University of Tartu) joins Sinan from HGGS to explore how literature reflects and reimagines urban life. The conversation touches on the concept of magical urbanism in literature and examines how philosophical concepts intersect with fictional worlds. Tetyana investigates the meaning of city life and the influence of urban environments on individuals, as portrayed in literary texts. Join us for Episode 5 of the HGGS Podcast Series Us and Them to discover how literature reshapes our understanding of the spaces we live in.