Off the Cuff – The Oberlin Review

Jad Abumrad, OC ’95, Creator of Radiolab, Dolly Parton’s America

December 13, 2019

Jad Abumrad, OC ’95, is the creator and producer of some of the most popular public radio programs and podcasts, including Radiolab, More Perfect, and Dolly Parton’s America. Abumrad’s show Radiolab — previously co-hosted by Robert Krulwich, OC ’69 — airs on over 500 stations in the United States and is downloaded over 9 million times a month as a podcast. Radiolab was awarded a Peabody Award in 2011 and 2015, and Abumrad was named a MacArthur Fellow in 2011. While at Oberlin, Abumrad st...

OTC: Tom Rosenstiel, OC ’78, Journalist and Fiction Writer

December 6, 2019

Tom Rosenstiel held a convocation speech titled “Objectivity, Facts, Fiction, and the Future of Journalism” at Oberlin this past Thursday. Rosenstiel is nationally recognized for his work as an author, journalist, researcher, and media critic. He founded the Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Center and directed the program for 16 years. He has written seven books on journalism, politics, and ethics, including The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the P...

Sam Bailey, OC ’19, Sustained Dialogue Coordinator

November 22, 2019

What does your work as Dialogue Coordinator entail? Mainly, I coordinate a program called Barefoot Dialogue, which I was involved in when I was a first-year as a participant, and then a facilitator and researcher. And now — having graduated last year — I’ve stepped into a coordinator position, which is a staff position on campus. It’s a crazy job because the range of duties is wild. I host some dialogues — we believe in home-cooked food for dialogue and we’re a vulnerability-based mode...

OTC: Sebastiaan Faber, Professor and Chair of Hispanic Studies

November 15, 2019

Professor and Chair of Hispanic Studies Sebastiaan Faber has taught at Oberlin since 1999 and is fluent in English, Spanish, and Dutch. Recently, he coordinated with other faculty members to propose an integrative journalism concentration, which the College Faculty Committee passed with 49 out of 51 members’ approval on Nov. 6, 2019. In addition to writing for a variety of English and Spanish publications, Faber regularly contributes articles to The Nation, covering topics such as Catalan indepen...

Off The Cuff: Jen Deerwater, Indigenous Activist and Journalist

November 8, 2019

Jen Deerinwater is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, bisexual, Two Spirit, multiply-disabled journalist, and organizer. Deerinwater writes on a variety of topics, including national politics, reproductive justice, ableism, resource extraction, and justice for indigenous communities. Deerinwater is a contributor at Truthout, a Freedomways and New Economies Reporting Project fellow, and the Founder and Executive Director of Crushing Colonialism, an international, Indigenous multi-media collec...

Off The Cuff: Greggor Mattson, Cleveland Immersion Program Professor

November 1, 2019

Associate Professor of Sociology Greggor Mattson teaches the Cleveland Immersion Program, a two-credit module course offered over fall break which educates students on the greater Cleveland area. Students learn about the history, challenges, and opportunities that Cleveland has to offer and visit the city for a day. Mattson is an urban sociologist who has written about gentrification and LGBTQ+ communities. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. Can you tell us a little bit ab...

Off the Cuff: Gio Donovan, College Third-Year and OSCA President

October 11, 2019

College third-year Gio Donovan is the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association president. In addition to leading OSCA, Donovan works at the ’Sco and is majoring in Africana Studies. As president, Donovan is responsible for maintaining the relationship between OSCA and the College, as well as managing negotiations between the association and the administration. Among other accomplishments, Donovan has read Where the Wild Things Are more than a thousand times. This interview has been edited for length and clarity...

OTC: Jessa Klotz New, OC ’01, Slow Train and The Local Co-Founder

October 4, 2019

Jessa Klotz New, OC ’01, co-founded Slow Train in 2010 and The Local in 2012 with her husband, Oberlin’s Head Men’s Soccer Coach Blake New, and Zach Tesler, OC ’06. Born in Rochester, New York, she received a graduate degree from Ashland University certifying her to teach third grade. A few years later, she decided to make a life and career change. She moved back to Oberlin to settle down with her family and tackle a new challenge. She is now a mother of two daughters and is passionate ab...

OTC: Tim Uyeki, OC ’81, Chief Medical Officer, CDC Influenza Division

September 27, 2019

Dr. Tim Uyeki, OC ’81, is the chief medical officer in the Influenza Division of the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, GA. Since 1998, Uyeki’s primary focus at the CDC has been on the clinical aspects, epidemiology, prevention, and control of influenza in the U.S. and worldwide. Uyeki visited campus on Thursday to discuss the possibility of integrating public health classes in the College curriculum as well as to gi...

OTC: Rev. Erica Saunders, Peace Community Church Pastor

September 20, 2019

Rev. Erica Saunders is one of the first openly transgender women to be ordained in the Baptist Church. She joined the Oberlin community last July as the new pastor for Peace Community Baptist Church. She is passionate about her work in congregational ministry and LGBTQ+ education and advocacy. Saunders earned her B.A. from Queens University of Charlotte and her M.Div. from Wake Forest University School of Divinity. This interview has been edited for length and clarity. What brought you to Oberli...

OTC: Dr. Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, Iñupiaq Environmental Activist

September 13, 2019

Rosemary Ahtuangaruak is an Iñupiaq environmental activist from Alaska who has collaborated with Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Chie Sakakibara for many years. In her home village of Nuiqsut, Ahtuangaruak’s work focuses largely on addressing environmental health impacts resulting from heavy industrialization in the area, including air pollution connected to oil and gas production. She is also heavily involved in local politics, including work on education. In 2017, Oberlin College ...

Off The Cuff: Keith Tarvin, Professor of Biology

September 6, 2019

Professor of Biology Keith Tarvin published a study last Wednesday which has been covered by major news outlets such as CNN, The New York Times, and NPR. The study, titled “Eavesdropping grey squirrels infer safety from bird chatter,” finds that squirrels use the tone of bird chatter to determine whether an environment is safe. Previous studies had only observed squirrels response to alarmed bird calls. Tarvin earned his B.A. from Hendrix College, an M.S. from the University of Arkansas, a Ph...