CFD Team Spotlight: Shandra Back, Podcast Director and Student Fellow
The Newsletter Team sat down for an interview with our Podcast Director, Shandra Back, for an interview about her work, passions, hobbies, and special CFD projects. The transcript of our interview is below.
CFD Team: Tell us a bit about yourself.
I am from Portland, Oregon. I am a journalism major and political science minor at BU. A lot of my college experience so far has been in learning how to meld these two passions. I work with WTBU, the radio station at BU. As the Audio Productions Director I get to train and help all new podcast teams realize their dreams of starting their own podcasts. Within the radio station I also host my own travel podcast called Sunshine on a Dime!
CFD Team: What is your role within the Center?
This may not come as a surprise based on my previous answer but… I am the Podcast Director! This past semester we have launched two new podcasts at CFD which I am so excited to share and continue.
The Sawyer Bites Podcast cuts down presentations from our Sawyer Seminar Series into bite-sized pieces. So whether you missed any of the seminars, want to refer back, or simply see a topic that intrigues you, make sure to check these out!
CFD Conversations highlights the work of researchers, practitioners and artists from across the globe. This podcast is hosted by me, a student, and seeks to inspire more students to explore and enter into the field of forced displacement.
CFD Team: What experiences most directly lead you to your role with the Center?
I took a Forensic Anthropology seminar in my freshman year with Dr. Tallman which focused on forced displacement, migration and human rights. For me it was a pretty random class I needed to take to fulfill some credits and it ended up being the gateway to my work and research within forced displacement.
Upon applying for the Border Studies Program, I found CFD and saw on Instagram that they were looking to hire a Podcast Director. “This is actually my dream job,” I thought to myself. And I’ve been working with the team here ever since.
CFD Team: What inspires you about this work?
As a storyteller, I am constantly inspired by the connections that people have to this field of work. Everyone has a connection. And I think that connection is something that is lacking in the way forced displacement is viewed in many contexts. Working with CFD, I’ve already had the opportunity to meet individuals from so many backgrounds and experiences. And the coolest thing about my job is that I get to reach out to many of them and dive even deeper into their stories, their work and their connections.
CFD Team: Tell us about some of your passions and hobbies outside of academia. What makes you you?
I love to travel. And to me, travel means grabbing my backpack and heading off on a completely unknown adventure. Connecting with different cultures is the main reason I travel. While it can be challenging to embark on journeys in unknown countries, it allows me to fully immerse myself into a foreign environment and learn both about my surroundings and myself. And I love to learn languages! I learned Spanish on my travels through Central America and this past summer spent a lot of time in Italy working on my Italian.
CFD Team: Why is this a field that has brought you to dedicate your time and career path towards it?
At the core of everything I do and want to continue exploring seeks to bring cultural disconnect and biases out into the open to identify the gaps before we try to find ways to bridge them. And I think this begins by having conversations. I do this on a personal level with my traveling and language learning and now, with the CFD Conversations podcasts, I can continue having conversations and sharing these learning with the community.
CFD Team: Do you have any tips and/or advice for people starting out in your field?
Yes! Listen to the podcast! But before you roll your eyes at another shameless plug let me explain. Forced Displacement is not a field of study we can currently major or minor in at Universities. But it is a crisis that needs all hands on deck. Whatever you are studying now, I can guarantee that there is an avenue to enter into this field. This has been made clear to me in the team we have at CFD as well as other professors and people I’ve met in this work. So continue listening to the podcast and if you feel that you’ve stumped me, reach out and I will bring on a guest that works in your field and in the context of forced displacement. Challenge accepted.