I would like to call your attention to a podcast series, “Voices of UCR,”(Link) which explores the lives and stories of academic employees at the University of California, Riverside. Guests so far include Professor Goldberry Long, a faculty member in the Department of Creative Writing and Professor Bahram Mobasher, a faculty member in the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

 
Goldberry joined me to talk about the book publishing landscape.  She is the author of the novel Juniper Tree Burning.  Her essays and stories have appeared in Colorado Review, New Orleans Review, The Rumpus, and Poetry International. 

   
Bahram joined me to talk about the origins of the universe.  He is an astrophysicist by training, and the major foci of his research interests are the formation and evolution of galaxies, observational cosmology, star formation activity, and dark energy. 

My thanks go out to Goldberry and Bahram for their participation in the podcast series.  Interviewing them was wonderful opportunity to get to know them better, and the work they do, and I am glad to share that with you. 

In addition to podcasts, I also have an informal recorded dialogue with Vice Chancellor and Chief Diversity Office Mariam Lam and some UCR Department Chairs discussing different types of contributions to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and how they might be represented in faculty merit files. You can find the 30-minute podcasts with Goldberry and Bahram and the recorded dialogue here, (Link)