Huss Banai

02/22/24 • 122 min

Huss Banai of Indiana University is an individual Brent considers himself incredibly fortunate to call a friend. He joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast to tell his amazing story and journey through life and academia. Huss was born in Iran and grew up in Northern Tehran until his family moved to Canada when he was 15. In Iran, Huss and his family experienced the war with Iraq, the fallout from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (his father worked with Afghan refugees during that time), and with a dad who worked for a business promoting Japanese Exports, electronics and video games. The transition to living in Canada was a bit bumpy for Huss until he had a key bit of counsel and guidance from a high school teacher. Huss talks about going to York University as an undergrad, working on the set of The Fog of War with Errol Morris and Robert McNamara, his experiences as a Master's student at LSE and working on the editorial team of Millennium, and pursuing a PhD at Brown University. He talks about his experiences on the market, working at Occidental and now Indiana, his approach to writing, his love of gardening, and more!

Previous Episode

Erica Resende

Dr. Erica Simone Almeida Resende of the Brazilian War College joins the Hayseed Scholar podcast. Erica grew up in Brazil but, as she phrases it, 'in between worlds'. There was her Brazilian home, and there was her German school, which she explains has situated her as a sort of 'bridge' moving between the Global North and Global South. Erica went to law school and worked for a law firm in the 1990s, but changed gears and pursued graduate degrees in Political Science and International Relations. In this period of her life, she started attending ISA meetings which she 'loved' going to. She shares what the Brazilian academic market process is like, her love of travel, how her German schooling shapes her enjoyment of 'administration', how she approaches writing, and more!

Next Episode

Lene Hansen

Professor Lene Hansen of the University of Copenhagen likely needs no introduction to most listeners of this podcast. She has worked within what would be called the Copenhagen school or securitization theory, emphasizing within that school the overlooked lens of gender. Her work on discourse analysis is famous for being a key contribution to the development of especially interpretive methods in the 2000s and 2010s, and her more recent work in visual IR and visual/image analysis. She talks about growing up on an island, Langeland or Long Island, off the coast of Denmark, riding horses and playing sports while also being a great student (as she said she ‘had to be’ with parents who were teachers at the school), attending uni first at the University of Southern Denmark then the University of Copenhagen. Taking a course from Ole Waever on IR and French philosophy got her interested thereafter in poststructural IR and doing research on European security architectures. She talks about an impactful visiting professor position at Yale University in the late 1990s, as well as some of the background to her famous works like the 2000 Millennium article on gender in securitization and Security as Practice the 2006 book. She concludes reflecting on how she approaches writing, selecting images to analyze, and how she relaxes and recharges through exercise and cooking.
As this episode was getting ready to launch, it was announced that Professor Hansen just won the 2024 ISA Susan Strange award! This award 'recognizes a person whose singular intellect, assertiveness, and insight most challenge conventional wisdom and intellectual and organizational complacency in the international studies community'. MANY congratulations Professor Hansen!
https://www.isanet.org/News/ID/6384/2023-2024-Award-Recipients