July 6, 2022

EP. 272 — ICYMI: Who Built The Panama Canal? with Professor Kaysha Corinealdi

July Fourth got us thinking: what does “independence” look like for American-controlled territories? To explore that question, we’re re-running an episode from the archives with Professor Kaysha Corinealdi, where she and Jonathan discuss the political history and legacy of the US-controlled Panama Canal Zone. And all week on our @CuriouswithJVN social media pages, we’ll be highlighting episodes from our archives that interrogate the idea of “freedom” in the US and abroad.

 

Kaysha Corinealdi is an interdisciplinary historian of modern empires, migration, gender, and activism in the Americas. Her forthcoming book Panama in Black, available for preorder now, centers the activism of Afro-Caribbean migrants and their descendants as they navigated practices and policies of anti-Blackness, xenophobia, denationalization, and white supremacy in Panama and the United States.

 

Her research can also be found in Black Perspectives (September 14, 2021), Caribbean Review of Gender Studies (Issue 12, 2018), the International Journal of Africana Studies (18:2, Fall-Winter 2017), and the Global South (6:2, Fall 2013).

 

You can follow Professor Corinealdi on Twitter @KCorinealdi, and read more of her work here and on her website.

 

Join the conversation, and find out what former guests are up to, by following us on Instagram and Twitter @CuriousWithJVN.

 

Jonathan is on Instagram and Twitter @JVN and @Jonathan.Vanness on Facebook.

 

Transcripts for each episode are available at JonathanVanNess.com.

 

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Our executive producer is Erica Getto. Our associate producer is Zahra Crim. Our editor is Andrew Carson.

 

Our socials are run and curated by Middle Seat Digital.

 

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Transcript

Getting Curious with Jonathan Van Ness & Professor Kaysha Corinealdi   JVN [00:00:00] Welcome back to Getting Curious, I’m Jonathan Van Ness and for the last—let’s see—45 weeks, but who’s counting! I’ve sat down for gorgeous conversations with brilliant experts to learn all about topics that make me curious. This week, we’re turning the spotlight back on one of those episodes from December 2021 with Professor Kaysha Corinealdi, all about the US-controlled Panama Canal Zone. As we celebrate summer holidays, Independence Day, Fourth of July, whatever you call it, it’s important for us to remember independence has not meant the same things for everybody. So without further ado, here’s our conversation with Professor Kaysha Corinealdi where I ask her: What’s the story of the Panama Canal?     Welcome to Getting Curious, this is Jonathan Van Ness. I’m so excited for this week’s episode. I’m so excited for this week’s gu

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