Listen to this interview of Laura Lindenfeld , Executive Director of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science. We talk about how improvisation helps people communicate for real. Laura Lindenfeld : "I feel that communication as a field has often been thought of as communica tions , you know, more technical, less relational. But we at the Alan Alda Center see ourselves as studying something and also helping with something that is very relational, and relating, of course, is done in real-worl...
Jan 17, 2023•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 95
Medieval manuscripts are our shared inheritance, and today they are more accessible than ever—thanks to digital copies online. Yet for all that widespread digitization has fundamentally transformed how we connect with the medieval past, we understand very little about what these digital objects really are. We rarely consider how they are made or who makes them. Digital Codicology: Medieval Books and Modern Labor (Stanford UP, 2022) demystifies digitization, revealing what it's like to remake med...
Jan 14, 2023•51 min•Ep. 94
This episode is a recording of a short paper presented by Kim and Saronik in the panel “Literary Criticism: New Platforms” organized by Anna Kornbluh at the 2023 Convention of the Modern Language Association . In the paper, they reflect on the nature of the voice in the humanities and the role of the humanities podcast inside and outside institutions. Image: © 2023 Saronik Bosu Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Jan 13, 2023•12 min•Ep. 107
Listen to this interview of Gang Wang , Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We talk about using writing to research better. Gang Wang : "I personally view writing as a very useful process to polish my own thinking. For example, when my group are on a project, until we actually put things in writing, we won't find little flaws in the design, or jumped steps in the argumentation, or missing experiments in the study. But when we put...
Jan 08, 2023•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 93
The essential handbook for doing historical research in the twenty-first century The Princeton Guide to Historical Research (Princeton UP, 2021) provides students, scholars, and professionals with the skills they need to practice the historian's craft in the digital age, while never losing sight of the fundamental values and techniques that have defined historical scholarship for centuries. Zachary Schrag begins by explaining how to ask good questions and then guides readers step-by-step through...
Dec 31, 2022•42 min•Ep. 1292
Professor Sarah Willen talks about her part in creating the Pandemic Journaling Project and how that has morphed into a series of visual exhibitions that emphasis how we all can work to create new histories, shape archives, and reclaim our own creativity and power. Learn more about the Seeing Truth exhibition at our website . Follow us on Twitter @WhyArguePod and on Instagram @WhyWeArguePod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Dec 29, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 55
" The Partially Examined Life " is a philosophy podcast by some guys who were at one point set on doing philosophy for a living but then thought better of it." In this interview, I chat with PEL host, Wes Alwan, about creating one of the longest-running philosophy podcasts. Wes discusses the personal value he's gotten from participating in publically-available debates and discussions. We also talk about the relevance of philosophy today and how to deal with controversial subjects. Wes Alwan (wes...
Dec 26, 2022•44 min•Ep. 92
What is the feeling of archival kismet? And how can we reimagine the format of academic conferences to better support scholars? This episode explores: The complex feelings of finding unexpected things in an archive. Why using conference presentations as openings for scholarly conversations is important. How Dr. Thompson founded an online conference during the pandemic, and her future plans for Archival Kismet. What can make online conferences more inclusive and inexpensive. Tips for feeling comf...
Dec 22, 2022•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 121
A close reading of Wikipedia's article on the Egyptian Revolution reveals the complexity inherent in establishing the facts of events as they occur and are relayed to audiences near and far. Wikipedia bills itself as an encyclopedia built on neutrality, authority, and crowd-sourced consensus. Platforms like Google and digital assistants like Siri distribute Wikipedia's facts widely, further burnishing its veneer of impartiality. But as Heather Ford demonstrates in Writing the Revolution: Wikiped...
Dec 21, 2022•58 min•Ep. 91
Becoming the Writer You Already Are (Sage, 2022) helps scholars uncover their unique writing process and design a writing practice that fits how they work. Author Michelle R. Boyd introduces the Writing Metaphor as a reflective tool that can help you understand and overcome your writing fears: going from "stuck" to "unstuck" by drawing on skills you already have at your fingertips. She also offers an experimental approach to trying out any new writing strategy, so you can easily fill out the par...
Dec 13, 2022•49 min•Ep. 90
The Remaking of Archival Values by Victoria Hoyle (Routledge, October 2022) posits that archival theory and practice are fields in flux, and that recent critical archival discourse that addresses neoliberalism, racism, and the legacies of colonialism and patriarchy represents a disruption not only to established principles but also to the values that underpin them. Using critical discourse analysis and comparing theory and practice from the UK and the Anglophone world, Hoyle explores the challen...
Dec 11, 2022•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 89
Listen to this interview of David Lindsay, emeritus professor of the University of Western Australia. We talk about his book Scientific Writing = Thinking in Words (CSIRO Publishing, 2020) and how your hypothesis can save the communication of your research. David Lindsay : "It's quite unfortunate that we're training our undergraduates in science this way. I mean, undergraduates know that when they write something, for example, a protocol to be graded—undergraduates know that their professors are...
Dec 07, 2022•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 88
Dealing with the colonial archive entails acknowledging the inability to know everything, accounting for the archive’s limited and incomplete condition. Dealing with the colonial archive is not merely about stories of the past but also about the history of the present, and how it is interrupted by the past. — Irene Hilden, in conversation with New Books Network. With a firm commitment to postcolonial scholarship, Absent Presences in the Colonial Archive: Dealing with the Berlin Sound Archive's A...
Dec 03, 2022•52 min•Ep. 86
The Political Lives of Information: Information and the Production of Development in India (MIT Press, 2022), written by Janaki Srinivasan and published by MIT Press in October 2022, examines how the definition, production, and leveraging of information are shaped by caste, class, and gender, and the implications of this for development. Information, says Srinivasan, has fundamentally reshaped development discourse and practice. In this study, she examines the history of the idea of “information...
Nov 15, 2022•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 85
Scholarship is frequently imagined as a solitary pursuit, done mostly in archives or with books. This CHI Salon will feature scholars pursuing alternatives to this model and who regularly publish scholarship that emerges out of community activism, who co-write or co-edit books, and who actively seek out and create new models of authorship and research. Amherst Presidential Scholar Karma Chávez (UT-Austin) and Amherst College Press authors Megan Jeanette Myers (Iowa State) and Edward Paulino (Joh...
Nov 15, 2022•57 min•Ep. 86
The NBN would not exist but for the work of university presses. So every year we celebrate the efforts of our colleagues at UPs during " University Press Week ," which happens to be November 14 to 18. This year I talked to Charles Watkinson , director of the University of Michigan Press and president of the Association of University Presses . We discussed what UPs do, what makes them different from other publishers, how UP books are priced, and the future of open access publishing. We also talke...
Nov 14, 2022•34 min•Ep. 83
Saronik Bosu talks about humanities work engaging diverse communities and publics, misconceptions about what the ‘public’ in public humanities might mean as well as the recent attention paid to it by academic departments. In a longer version of the conversation, some individual instances of various digital humanities and archival projects are discussed. Here he speaks mainly from the perspective of his own work as a humanities podcaster and creator of humanities programming. Saronik Bosu is a do...
Nov 11, 2022•14 min•Ep. 101
Archives of Times Past: Conversations about South Africa’s Deep History (Wits UP, 2022) is an exploration of particular sources of evidence on southern Africa’s early history. It gathers recent ideas about archives and asks the question: “How do we know, or think we know, what happened in the times before European colonialism?” Historians use a wide range of source materials for this work. What are these materials? Where can we find them? Who made them? When? Why? What are the problems with usin...
Nov 11, 2022•58 min•Ep. 84
You’re going to an academic conference—and maybe even presenting a project! Whether you are going virtually or in person, for the first time or the tenth, presenting or just attending, you want to feel prepared. Are you? This podcast episode explores: Why we need to go to academic conferences. Why it can be difficult to navigate them. How can you get the most of out of it. Our guest is: Dr. Thomas J. Tobin, who is a founding member of the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring at the Unive...
Nov 08, 2022•47 min•Ep. 120
Listen to this interview of Barbara Sarnecka, Professor of Cognitive Sciences and Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies for Social Sciences, University of California, Irvine. We talk about putting your mind in print. She is the author of The Writing Workshop: Write More, Write Better, Be Happier in Academia . Barbara Sarnecka : "The more quantitative a person's field of study is, the more likely they are to say that they just don't think that writing is a big requirement in their field...
Nov 02, 2022•1 hr 27 min•Ep. 82
Rebel Book Club is an online and in-person book club. Each month, over 1,000 people get together to discuss a non-fiction book, occasionally with the author as a participant. For new members, use code: REBELREADER Ben Keene is an entrepreneur, author, and food journalist. Caleb Zakarin is the Assistant Editor of the New Books Network (Twitter: @caleb_zakarin). Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices...
Oct 13, 2022•38 min•Ep. 16
Is there a strategy to communicating your research online? This episode explores: What an academic communications strategist does. Why having a strategy to your online presence is important. Common misperceptions about communicating online. Lessons learned from an academic communications strategist. The benefits and challenges to being an academic entrepreneur. Our guest is: Jennifer van Alstyne (@HigherEdPR) , a communications strategist for professors and researchers. At The Academic Designer ...
Sep 29, 2022•46 min•Ep. 128
How do metrics and quantification shape social science? In The Quantified Scholar: How Research Evaluations Transformed the British Social Sciences (Columbia UP, 2022), Juan Pablo Pardo-Guerra , an Associate Professor in sociology at the University of California, San Diego , explores this question using a case study of British academia. The book combines a rich array of quantitative and qualitative analysis, demonstrating the transformation of working conditions, institutional contexts, and rese...
Sep 26, 2022•42 min•Ep. 316
Listen to this interview of Sarah Huffman (Assistant Director of the Center for Communication Excellence) and Elena Cotos (Associate Professor of Applied Linguistics in the English Department and Director of the Center for Communication Excellence) and Kimberly Becker, (Lecturer in English) — all three at Iowa State University. We talk about how to ruin your or anyone's reading experience of research articles by showing you just how much is going on in the text besides research! Kimberley Becker...
Sep 23, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 81
The hardest part of research isn't answering a question. It's knowing what to do before you know what your question is. Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World) (University of Chicago Press, 2022) tackles the two challenges every researcher faces with every new project: How do I find a compelling problem to investigate--one that truly matters to me, deeply and personally? How do I then design my research project so that the results will matter to any...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 180
Listen to this interview of John Measey, Researcher at the Centre for Invasion Biology, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. We talk about the needs of early-career researchers and also about our need for early-career researchers. John Measey : "What we really need to know is what a scientific journal is for and what we want it to be for. So, we know, more or less, what it was for and where it came from, but what do we want that to be in the twenty-first century, and how will the journal meet ...
Sep 05, 2022•1 hr 28 min•Ep. 80
The Journal of Black Religious Thought advances critical scholarship in the fields of Religious Studies – with special attention to Black religious studies, which includes and intersects, but not limited to the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, New Testament, Intertestamental, Quran, theology, history, ethics, practical theology, religion-science, philosophy of religion, Black hermeneutics, philosophy of religion, womanist, intersectionality, cultural studies, among others – offering African American,...
Aug 22, 2022•43 min•Ep. 79
In Molecular Capture: The Animation of Biology (University of Minnesota Press, 2021), Adam Nocek, Assistant Professor in the Philosophy of Technology and Science and Technology Studies at Arizona State University, investigates the collusion between entertainment and scientific visualization in the case of molecular animation. “The very same tools that were invented to animate a character like Shrek or Nemo are now being applied to set in motion protein domains and cellular processes.” Opening wi...
Aug 17, 2022•55 min•Ep. 10
For this episode of How To Be Wrong, I speak with George Styles, a biochemist and author of the book Contemplation . George is also what we describe these days as an “influencer”—although as we discuss he objects to that label—on social media, with over 37 thousand followers on Twitter. His approach to Twitter is novel in that he focuses on asking probing questions designed to generate discussion, which at times become rather heated. Our conversation moves through topics related to how Twitter i...
Aug 10, 2022•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 10
Listen to this interview with Jo Mackiewicz, professor of rhetoric and professional communication at Iowa State University, and with Isabelle Thompson, emerita professor of technical and professional communication and former coordinator of the English Center at Auburn University. We talk about their book Talk about Writing: The Tutoring Strategies of Experienced Writing Center Tutors (Routledge, 2018) and writing. Jo Mackiewicz : "The more I think about writing center interactions and write book...
Aug 09, 2022•1 hr 29 min•Ep. 78
