Joining Kate and Sabrina in the studio, Kinh Vu and Aaron Hwang discuss the behind-the-scenes of their 2023 documentary Song of Earthroot. The film follows Vu as he rediscovers himself in Vietnam, the place he was born but evacuated from during the American War. Vu, a BU music education professor, and Hwang, co-founder of Fourth District Productions, trace their creative decisions and personal challenges. Covering topics from grief to hope, yearning to sexuality, and 3 am dim sum to mall boba, the group explores their experiences of longing and their special moments of belonging.

For more information on research and CFD events can be found here.

The newest edition of the Critical Forced Displacement Magazine can be found here.

Kate and Sabrina sit down with Maria Antonia Blandon, a graduate student fellow at the CFD, to discuss her father’s kidnapping. With his diary in hand, Maria shares her father’s accounts of the grueling guerrilla warfare tactics and her research into this often-avoided, multifaceted history of Colombia. Studying this period to frame her upcoming translation, Maria explores how history, both individual and collective, shows up in today’s challenges. They discuss conflict between political and regional groups, explanations for extremism, and the effectiveness of dismissal as a coping method.

For more information on research and CFD events, check out our website.

The newest edition of the Critical Forced Displacement Magazine can be found here.

In this episode, Kate and Sabrina sit down with editors Muhammad Zaman, Carrie Preston, and Marina Lažetić to discuss their newest volume, Mexico-US, Serbia-EU: Border Lives and Works. They reflect on the interdisciplinary exploration of how migrants, artists, activists, and researchers navigate, reshape, and define life in global borderlands. Could these parallel challenges possess parallel solutions?