Common Ground podcast launched

Emerson’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion has launched a new podcast, “Common Ground,” which is produced by students and staff and covers a range of topics relating to inclusive excellence, diversity, and social justice.

Common Ground is now available for free on the iTunes store.

Two episodes have been released so far: The first contains readings of speeches by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by Emerson community members during the annual Martin Luther King Jr. ceremonies; and the second has conversations with student-athletes, Athletics Director Patricia Nicol, and coaches about the perception of campus sports teams among the student population, and how student-athletes are included or excluded on campus.

Robert Amelio, director of diversity and inclusive excellence, said the podcast idea arose from Frankie Frain ’07, MFA ’12, a director in Information Technology, who attended Amelio’s Inclusive Excellence in Action program for faculty and staff, a 12-hour course on cultural competency, micro-aggressions, and other diversity-related topics.

“At the end of it, he said that a lot of people couldn’t find time to take the class, and he asked if we’d ever thought about making a podcast to bring our message to a larger audience,” Amelio said.

 “It’s a lot of fun, but it’s a lot of work,” Amelio said of the podcast. “We hope to have a small team of students during the academic year work on the podcast with us to manage it.”

The recent podcasts were produced by Frain; Amelio; Diversity and Inclusion staff members Jeeyoon Kim ’13 and Alayne Fiore; Media Services staff members Elbert Lee ’98 and Cheryl Schaffer, MA ’05; and student Justin Ferullo ’17.