Lora – Space Out

Segment 2: Who are we?
I’m Lora, she/they (oftentimes refer to myself as a lad). I lead a very transnational life as a Welsh person studying and teaching Italian in the US. Class is a huge part of my identity, having grown up in the UK, and now inhabiting an academic space where I very rarely meet anyone from a background like mine. I’m a first generation student, never expected to go to university, let alone grad school, and I’m the proud descendent of Welsh miners and Roma people. 

RE: where are we all calling in from?
Currently in northern Indiana, the homelands of the traditional homelands of Native peoples including the Miami, Peoria, and particularly the Pokagon Potawatomi. 

Segment 3 : Question 1
This is a tough question for me. I think I spent my whole life wanting to get out of the place where I grew up, and like Charlotte, I hadn’t contemplated this question until I moved to the US. Home is where the people I love are, and fortunately for me, there are a lot of people in my life whom I love, and they’re all over the world. The US has a big place in my heart now; it gave me the home and the stability I never had before, but I’ll always be a Welsh lad in the end.

Segment 4: Question 2
Absolutely. I found immigrating really difficult, because it is a process that requires some major privileges in order to happen successfully: race and nationality, and access to income. On the first basis, I am incredibly privileged. I am rarely considered an immigrant in the US, because of my whiteness and my proficiency in English. My British-ness also conceals the second fact about me: my class, my lack of cultural capital, and my absolute lack of financial stability when I immigrated. But for the first six years in the US I was always broke. In fact, every single step of my trajectory through higher ed has been colored by the need to navigate systems designed for middle class and wealthy people, always battling the fears and the realities of poverty. Positively, this experience of navigating bureaucracy and social systems has proved handy, because I’m excellent at making funding applications!

Segment 5: Question 3
I’m working on the historical, political and cultural connections between Italian cinema and the oil industry. I look at the physical use of oil branding in cinema, as well as the actual sponsorship that the oil industry provided to some of Italy’s most influential filmmakers (Bertolucci, Pontecorvo, Dino Risi). Italy’s oil industry was able to develop in the post WWII period because it positioned itself as a benevolent European power, securing lucrative contracts with decolonizing countries and stabilizing its operations even in nations that it had formerly colonized (Somalia, Eritrea, Libya). Now this has developed into a neo-colonial battlefront, largely concentrated in West Africa, and ENI (Italy’s National Hydrocarbons Company (rebranded from the fascist era Agip)) is armed by the Italian government. As is always the case with oil, this is about the domination of space and resources.

Segment 6: Question 4
This makes me think about Hannah McGregor, and her reasons for getting into podcasting. She talked about the feeling of hiding parts of oneself in academia, and this act of pretending that we’re all only brains, without emotions or outside interests. Podcasting for the humanities permits me, to some extent, to rectify the parts of myself outside of academia to those within, so that they can interact in way that democratizes intellectual thought.

Segment 7: Question 5
Your perspectives really resonate with me, especially because public educational programming, particularly radio, is such a big part of British culture. Growing up, radio shows on the BBC gave me unprecedented access to new concepts and the broader world. Whilst radio is still massively popular in the UK, podcasts are now responsible for doing a lot of this same work. Free access to academic thought is life-changing!


Segment 8: Conclusion
The spoken word is also about space; filling space with ideas; taking up room that is traditionally reserved only for particular groups of people. This podcast project is an addition to the multitude of new voices that are building a space that is welcoming for everybody.