Episodes

In this episode, Dr. Shea pulls back the curtain on the quiet, surgical removal of Black professional staff from the American academy. Following the 2025 "Dear Colleague" letter, institutions engaged in "Preemptive Compliance...

In this episode, we move beyond individual experiences to examine how higher education institutions maintain power and reproduce inequality, often without appearing overtly racist. This conversation centers the experiences of...

In this episode, we examine how institutions maintain power not only through policy and structure, but through psychological and cultural mechanisms. Centering the experiences of Black professional staff in higher education, ...

In this episode, we examine how white supremacy is maintained not only through institutional policy and formal authority, but through relational dynamics shaped by history, gender, and credibility. Building on earlier convers...

In this episode, a counterstory examines how institutional procedures can maintain the appearance of fairness while preserving predetermined outcomes. Drawing on Critical Race Theory and plantation politics, this episode expl...

In this episode, Dr. Shea reflects on what it means to work inside systems that were never designed with Black folks in mind. This conversation isn’t about discovering harm, it’s about naming what many Black professional staf...

In this episode, Dr. Shea examines professionalism not as a neutral workplace standard, but as a mechanism of control that shapes belonging, visibility, and survival for Black professional staff in higher education. This conv...

Episode 1: Welcome to The Discourse: Why Truth-Telling in Higher Education Matters Welcome to The Discourse with Dr. Shea. In this first episode, Dr. Shea introduces herself and the purpose of The Discourse, a podcast where storytelling meets scholarship and where honest conversations unfold at the…