Episode 7: The Racial Environmental State with Keith Miyake

Episode 7: The Racial Environmental State with Keith Miyake

In this episode, we are joined by Keith Miyake [https://keithmiyake.info/], a professor in the Department of Ethnic Studies and Labor Studies at UC Riverside and a core member of the UC Ethnic Studies Council. Keith talks about how their moorings in STEM and ethnic studies inform and sharpen their research and organizing, including within the university, and how their work as an environmental engineer in Southern California helped inspire their new book, The Racial Environmental State: Contested Spaces of Resistance [https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295754642/the-racial-environmental-state/], published in June 2026 by the University of Washington Press. In this discussion, Keith addresses how activists and organizers have engaged with the Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) process in ways that exceed the parameters of the racial environmental state, opening up the possibility of redistribution of resources, the elimination of borders and prisons, challenging settler colonialism, and the forging of unlikely solidarities. They explore the pros and cons of working with the state in pursuit of racial and environmental justice and wrestles with how abolitionists can craft new relationships rooted in radical notions of democracy.   Keith’s book can be purchased [https://uwapress.uw.edu/book/9780295754642/the-racial-environmental-state/] through the University of Washington for a 40% discount until July 11 with the code warm26.

Episode 6: The War Within: Repression and Resistance at UCSD with BT Werner

In the first episode of a new series, “The War Within,” featuring those fighting against war, imperialism, and repression from inside the UC system, we talk to BT Werner about their long history of organizing at UC San Diego (UCSD). Werner, a physicist who has been at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography for 35 years, discusses how understanding complex systems can help us fight back against UC repression while providing examples from the Black Winter of 2010 to the 2024 Gaza solidarity encampments. Two years after the May 6 police raid that violently dismantled the UCSD encampment, Werner and one other UCSD professor are still facing disciplinary changes and suspension. We encourage listeners to sign a petition [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMnp7M3I3MFfG2FKbKUd4TRiCk4qZmPAcbjqAiMTcz4IKu_g/viewform] demanding that the UCSD administration drop the charges immediately. Links: Struggle for the Liberation of Palestine – UCSD Edition [https://cryptpad.fr/code/#/2/code/view/ibovyu+DslN6RVWDLcfUY63v1rqtRvui4ZTQHdk5WQI/present] Petition to Drop the Charges against UCSD Professor Lily Hoàng and Professor BT Werner  [https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdMnp7M3I3MFfG2FKbKUd4TRiCk4qZmPAcbjqAiMTcz4IKu_g/viewform] Drop the Charges Email Campaign [https://palestine-citations.org/form/drop-the-charges-palestine-excep] Legal and Support Funds for Survivors of The Palestine Exception at UCSD [https://chuffed.org/project/legalaidforucsdprofs]

Episode 5: The UC v. Trump

When the UC Regents and administration failed to stand up to the demands of the Trump administration, faculty and workers stepped up to join the fight.  In this episode, Zoé Hamstead (Associate Professor of City and Regional Planning, UCB, co-chair of Berkeley Faculty Association, CUCFA Chair of Legal Affairs), Annie McClanahan, (Associate Professor of English, UCI, Co-President of the Council of UC Faculty Associations), and Anna Markowitz (Associate Professor of Education, UCLA, President of the executive board of the UCLA  Faculty Association) join The Lower Frequencies to discuss the role of faculty and the faculty associations (in partnership with UC unions, the AAUP, and other organizations) in waging a successful series of legal challenges that forced the Regents to disclose the federal demand letter and won a preliminary injunction against the Trump administration.   Links: CUCFA amicus brief in AAUP v. Rubio [https://www.aaup.org/sites/default/files/Faculty_Association_Amicus_Brief.pdf] UC Researcher Grant Terminations Class Actions [https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69784731/american-association-of-university-professors-v-rubio/] Faculty Lawsuit Demands Public Access to Trump Administration’s Settlement Demands on University of California [https://cucfa.org/2025/09/faculty-lawsuit-demands-public-access-to-settlement-demands/] Trump demand letter to UCLA [https://ucop.edu/communications/_files/confidential-rule-408-communication-ucla-08-08-25.pdf] Order granting preliminary injunction against Trump demands [https://democracyforward.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/PI-decision.pdf]

Episode 4: UC Move Your Money!

Episode 4:  UC Move Your Money! In this episode of The Lower Frequencies, we speak with UCLA Associate Professor of Anthropology Hannah Appel (who is also Associate Faculty Director of the Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy [https://challengeinequality.luskin.ucla.edu/] and co-founder and organizer with the Debt Collective [http://debtcollective.org/]), about a new systemwide UC campaign that empowers faculty to begin the process of divesting from war and genocide.  We walk through the three-step UC Move Your Money [https://www.ucmoveyourmoney.org/] campaign and how it offers faculty a chance to take action today while building power for more ambitious efforts down the road.   Links: UC Move Your Money website [https://www.instagram.com/ucmoveyourmoney/] and Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/ucmoveyourmoney/] Unmasking the UC [https://drive.google.com/file/d/1bVCLeniQz7CGZ844zGoYUnkaZqwIv66o/view] A brief primer [https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/032415/how-does-defined-benefit-pension-plan-differ-defined-contribution-plan.asp] on the difference between defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans.

Episode 3: The Right to Teach Truth: What K-12 Teachers Need to Know

In this third installment of The Lower Frequencies we host educators, lawyers, and activists who share practical advice and inspiration for teachers to defend the presentation of vital topics in K-12 schools. In response to the intensification of attacks to censor the teaching of genocide and queer and trans lives, for example,  Lupe Carrasco Cardona, Mark Kleiman, Tracie Noriego and Liz Jackson discuss how building community, knowing legal, employee, and union safeguards and responsibilities all protect our right to teach truth and defend student’s rights to a full and liberatory education. Visit our Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/ucethnicstudiescouncil/?hl=en] for resources for teachers.