Hello, my name is Isaac Brickman, and welcome to Office Hours.
Each episode, I will talk to a professor about a topic that is relevant to you. Each guest will have a different perspective on the topic.
The goal is twofold. First, I want to make academia more accessible and applicable to everyone, including non-academic audiences. I also want to help dissolve the boundaries between disciplines by taking a holistic approach to learning.
07. I asked a communications professor about journalism
Dr. Shakuntala Rao is a professor of Communication Studies at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh. She completed her Ph.D. at my alma mater, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, has taught classes in media ethics, popular culture, social media, and fundamentals of electronic media, and is a published author. Outside of academia, her background is wide-ranging, including working as a political columnist, conducting federally sponsored workshops on journalistic ethics, and advising multiple political campaigns.
17 Jan 2026
06. I asked a screen scoring professor about film music
Have you ever wondered why sound makes us feel? What about how film scores get made? Learn about all that and more in this edition of Office Hours!
Our guest is Tim Huling, a screen scoring professor at the Berklee College of Music. Outside of teaching, he is a composer, orchestrator, and producer who works in music for film, TV, video games, the concert hall, and more. His credits include films such as Georgia Rule and Mad Money; TV shows such as Little People, Big World and Inside Passage; video games such as Planetary Annihilation and Skyrealm; and installations such as Hunger Games at the Motiongate Theme Park and Great Seattle Fire at MOHAI. Tim has composed concert premieres, including works for symphony orchestra, chamber ensemble, various jazz works, and two ballets.
3 Dec 2025
05. I asked a psychology professor about how memory informs identity
Dr. Kristina Steiner is a lifespan developmental psychologist who teaches at Denison University. She runs a research program that focuses on autobiographical memory and is especially interested in investigating the directive function of personal and shared memories across age groups and cultures, as well as the relationships between life story narratives and various outcomes, such as well-being.
15 Sept 2025
04. Asking a Ukrainian Professor About Social Media in Russia
I would like to welcome Alina Parker to our fourth episode of office hours. Alina is a full-time lecturer in the Writing Program and the Russian, Eurasian, and Polish Studies Program at UMass Amherst. Her research interests include postsocialism, Eastern Europe, political contention, and far-right politics. She is originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine, and I took a class on Russia's invasion of Ukraine that she taught last semester.
18 Aug 2025
03. I Asked a Historian About How Religion Has Influenced Society
I am thrilled to welcome İrvin Cemil Schick to our third episode of Office Hours, and first episode on religion, a timelessly controversial topic.
İrvin is a historian who has taught at Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Istanbul Şehir University. He has also held guest positions at Boston University, Sabancı University, Boğaziçi University, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where, fun fact, I had an exciting class with him last semester, and had the privilege of writing a paper about authoritarianism and technology in Turkey.
His current research interests are focused on cultural and intellectual history, the arts of the book, gender and sexuality, and human-animal relations, all in the context of Islam and particularly Turkey. He is the author, editor or co-editor of eleven books as well as numerous articles.
Welcome to the show İrvin.
5 Aug 2025
02. Baron Pineda, What are Cultures on Social Media?
I am excited to welcome Baron Pineda to our second episode on social media. Baron is a professor of cultural anthropology at Oberlin College in Ohio, who specializes in human rights, indigenous peoples, and Latin America. He is the author of Shipwrecked Identities: Navigating Race on Nicaragua’s Mosquito Coast, as well as numerous articles in scholarly journals, including work that deals with the intersection of anthropology, internet governance, and human rights
22 Jul 2025
01. Ethan Zuckerman, is Social Media a Good Thing?
Hello, my name is Isaac Brickman, and welcome to the first episode of Office Hours.
Each week, I will talk to a professor about a topic that is relevant to you. Each professor will have a different perspective on the topic.
The goal is twofold. First, I want to make academia more accessible and applicable to everyone, including non-academic audiences. I also want to help dissolve the boundaries between disciplines by taking a holistic approach to learning.
Our first topic is social media and I am excited to have Ethan Zuckerman on the show to talk about it.
Ethan is an associate Communications, Computer Science, and Public Policy professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He was an affiliate of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard, former director of the Center for Civic Media at MIT, a ted talker, author, and regretful inventor of the pop-up ad. His crowing achievement, however, is being my thesis advisor.
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