Genevieve Carpio

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In this episode, the user is asked to consider the shifting uses of university space as a portal, one that allows increased recognition of how urban universities are inhabited and speculation about what they might become. Organized as a sonic log, listeners will journey through UCLA’s campus life, both before and during the spread of COVID-19. Along the way, they will encounter sound walks, narration, and interviews. Among these voices is a faculty member who lives on campus, students grappling with university closures, and a photographer working closely with graduates seeking lasting mementos of their college experience. In a sonic log format, listeners are asked to bear witness to the shifting use of this space, where 14,000 students formerly resided and where campus life was transformed during stay-at-home-orders. Or was it? In the wake of a drastically reduced residential community, would campus grow mute? Or, would campus closures create an opening where new uses and users would emerge?

Dr. Genevieve Carpio is Assistant Professor of Chicana/o Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she works on questions related to spatial theory, relational racial formation, and 20th century U.S. history. She holds a PhD in American Studies and Ethnicity, a Masters in Urban Planning, and a graduate certificate in Historic Preservation. Carpio is author of Collisions at the Crossroads: How Place and Mobility Make Race (University of California Press, 2019). She lives on UCLA’s campus, where she has served as a UCLA Faculty in Residence since 2016. You can follow her here on Twitter @GenaCarpio and on Instagram @DrGenaCarpio.