The Academic Life

Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0000

Caroline Bicks became the first scholar granted extended access by Stephen King to his private archives, a treasure trove of manuscripts that document the legendary writerʼs creative process—most of them never before studied or published. The year she spent exploring King’s early drafts and hand-written revisions was guided by a question millions of Kingʼs enthralled and terrified readers (including her) have asked themselves: What makes Stephen King’s writing stick in our heads and haunt us long after we’ve closed the book? Dr. Bicks focuses on The Shining, Carrie, Pet Sematary, ʼSalemʼs Lot, and Night Shift—to reveal how he crafted his language, story lines, and characters to cast his enduring literary spells.

While tracking King’s margin notes and editorial changes, she discovered cut scenes and alternative endings that King is allowing her to publish now. The book also includes her interviews with King, that reveal new insights into his writing process and personal history. Part literary master class, part biography, part memoir and investigation into our deepest anxieties, Monsters in the Archive is unlike anything published about the master of horror. It chronicles what Dr. Bicks found when she set out to unearth how King crafted some of his scariest, most iconic moments. But it’s also a story about an English professor facing her childhood fears and getting to know the man whose monsters helped unleash them.

Guest: Dr. Caroline Bicks is the Stephen E. King Chair in Literature at the University of Maine. She is the author of Cognition and Girlhood in Shakespeare’s World and Midwiving Subjects in Shakespeare’s England; co-author of Shakespeare Not Stirred: Cocktails for Your Everyday Dramas; and co-host of the Everyday Shakespeare Podcast.

Show Host: Dr. Christina Gessler is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the creator and producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Once Upon A Tome

The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at the New Yorker

Claire Myers Owens and the Banned Book

Before and After the Book Deal

Your Art Will Save Your Life

Becoming The Writer You Already Are

The Top 10 Struggles in Writing A Book Manuscript and What To Do About It

Do You Need A Developmental Editor?

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Please join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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The Case for Career Services

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0000

What exactly is career services? If you don’t know, you aren’t alone. Most of us operate from a limited or outdated idea of what career services offers, why it’s necessary, and how soon you should start consulting with a career advisor [hint: as soon as possible]. Dr. Rebekah Paré joins us to demystify the how, what, where and why of college to career pathways.

This episode explores: career services as a strategic asset for both student retention and post-graduation thriving, pipelines and pathways, the tension around tuition and student debt, the “ROI” mindset, translating coursework jargon to skills acquisition competencies, reclaiming the importance of the liberal arts, understanding what higher education can do, the lifelong value of learning, and why we can all plan for job change.

Our guest is: Dr. Rebekah Paré, who is a higher education strategist focusing on strengthening coordination across academic and student affairs, and building roadmaps for career preparation. She has held numerous leadership roles in higher ed, and has a Ph.D. in Music History and German Literature.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a writing coach and editor for academics. She is the creator and producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0000

Each year, police officers kill over 1,000 people they’ve sworn to protect and serve. While some cases, like George Floyd’s and Sandra Bland’s, capture national attention, most victims remain nameless, their stories untold. The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence (Beacon Press, 2025) reveals a disturbing truth about these cases: coroners and other death investigators are often complicit in obscuring the violent circumstances of in-custody deaths. Through rigorous research—including critical records analysis, public health studies, and interviews with victims’ families—this book unmasks the systemic failures within forensic medicine. Dr. Terence Keel shows how incomplete autopsy reports, mishandled medical documents, and strategically lost evidence effectively shield law enforcement from accountability.
The Coroner’s Silence uncovers how the current system of death investigation operates as a mechanism of institutional safeguarding. By highlighting the structural powerlessness of coroners and their disconnection from the communities most affected by police violence, Dr. Keel demonstrates how bureaucratic processes can render human suffering invisible. True accountability requires more than procedural reform. It demands a fundamental reimagining of how we investigate, document, and understand deaths at the hands of state institutions. The Coroner’s Silence is a crucial intervention that challenges us to confront the deeply ingrained mechanisms that perpetuate systemic violence.

Our guest is: Dr. Terence Keel, who is an award-winning scholar, the founding director of the BioCritical Studies Lab, and a professor of human biology, society, and African-American studies at UCLA. He received fellowships from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the National Institutes of Health, and is the author of Divine Variations, and The Coroner’s Silence.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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The Club: Where American Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 08:00:00 -0000

In Belle Époque Paris, the Eiffel Tower was newly built, France was experiencing remarkable political stability, and American women were painting the town and gathering at a female-only Residence known as The American Girls' Club in Paris. Opened in 1893, The Club was the center of expatriate living and of dedication to a calling in the fine arts, and singularly harbored a generation of independent, talented, and driven American women.
Now in The Club: Where American Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris (Bloomsbury, 2025), curator, art historian, and podcast host Jennifer Dasal presents the untold story of the Club, the philanthropists who created it, and the artists it housed. These women forged connections in the arts and letters with luminaries like Auguste Rodin and Gertrude Stein or became activists through their relationships with the likes of Emmeline Pankhurst. But just as importantly, these women's lives revealed the power of the Club itself, and the way that having a safe home for single women of ambition allowed them to grow as teachers, artists, suffragists, and people.

A Neuroscientist's Guide to a Healthier, Happier Life

Our guest is: Jennifer Dasal, who is the creator and host of the ArtCurious podcast, the author of ArtCurious: Stories of the Unexpected, Slightly Odd, and Strangely Wonderful in Art History. She holds an MA in art history, and is the former curator of modern and contemporary art at the North Carolina Museum of Art. She lectures frequently on art both locally and nationally

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0000

Most employers in the United States routinely conduct criminal background checks on job applicants, weeding out those with criminal convictions—and thus denying opportunities to those who need them most. In The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America (Princeton UP, 2025), Melissa Burch sheds light on one of the most significant forces of social and economic marginalization of our time—discrimination on the basis of criminal records. Chronicling the daily interactions of hiring managers, workforce development professionals, and job-seekers with felony convictions in Southern California, Dr. Burch shows that this discrimination is not simply a matter of employer bias. Hiring is shaped by a set of institutions, organizations, and industries that promote the erroneous idea that people with criminal records are dangerous to employ. This “criminal record complex,” as Dr. Burch names it, encourages exclusion and undermines employers’ common-sense ways of assessing candidates. In vivid and intimate detail, Dr. Burch reveals both the futility and devastating human consequences of discriminatory policies.
Dr. Burch places today’s routine practice of background screening within racialized notions of risk originating in early capitalist development, tracing how, over decades, criminal background checks became a convenient catch-all, leveraged by entities with a direct interest in growing the practice. Despite this reach, however, Dr. Burch discovers that small business owners tend to put less value on background checks, trusting their own judgment. Approaching the issue from both personal and policy perspectives, The Criminal Record Complex upends what we thought we knew about the causes of criminal record discrimination. It suggests that our best hope for creating safe workplaces lies not in the false promise of background screening, but in building the kinds of economies and communities that support true safety.

Our guest is: Dr. Melissa Burch, who is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Michigan and Director of the Afterlives of Conviction Project.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a writing coach and editor for academics. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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⁠The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health⁠

Thu, 19 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0000

A powerful blend of deeply human stories and rigorous research, The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health (Beacon Press, 2026) reveals how social and structural factors like income, occupation, race and ethnicity, neighborhood conditions, and social connections, profoundly shape our well-being. Dr. Monica Wang, an award-winning public health researcher, educator, and working mother who came of age as an Asian American bussing student, brings a personal lens to these complex issues and shares a hopeful, action-oriented vision for building healthier communities from the ground up.
Through her own personal and professional journey and the lives of 3 extraordinary women across the US, readers are invited to see how health is shaped in everyday spaces: Marielis, a first-generation Latina student navigating financial insecurity in the Bronx; Dorothy, a semi-retired Black community organizer in rural Alabama; and Rosa, an Indigenous clinical social worker preserving ancestral traditions in Texas.

With clarity, urgency, and optimism, The Collective Cure bridges powerful storytelling with evidence-based solutions. More than a diagnosis, this book is a call to reimagine what’s possible when we invest in people and places.

Our guest is: Dr. Monica L. Wang, who is an award-winning public health researcher and educator. She is an associate professor at the Boston University School of Public Health, an adjunct associate professor at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, and executive editor at Public Health Post.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and developmental editor. She produces and hosts the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0000

Mothers and fathers use their time differently, with women spending roughly twice as many hours on family labor as men. But what about the gendered differences in the ways women and men think? What’s on Her Mind examines the cognitive labor that families depend on, and reveals why this essential aspect of family life is disproportionately handled by women—even in couples that aspire to practice equality. While most accounts of household labor center on how people use their time, Dr. Allison Daminger focuses on a less visible and less easily quantifiable aspect of family life. She introduces readers to the concept of cognitive labor—anticipating, researching, deciding, and following up—and shows how women in different-gender couples do most of this critical work.

Dr. Daminger argues that cognitive labor has less to do with personality traits—for example, she’s type A while he’s laid-back—and more to do with learned skills that men and women deploy in distinct ways. Yet not all couples fall into the personality trap. Dr. Daminger looks at different-gender couples who achieve a more balanced cognitive allocation while also exploring how queer couples carve out unique relationships to the gender binary. Drawing on original, in-depth interviews with members of different- and same-gender couples, What’s on Her Mind points to new ways of understanding the interplay between who we are as individuals and the cognitive work we do on behalf of our families.

Our guest is: Dr. Allison Daminger, who is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She’s the author of What’s On Her Mind; her work has also been featured in publications such as the New York Times, the Guardian, Psychology Today, and the Atlantic.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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Stuck: How Money, Media and Violence Prevent Change in Congress

Tue, 10 Mar 2026 08:00:00 -0000

Fifty years of changemaking and reform haven't fixed Congress—what does that reveal about American democracy? In Stuck: How Money, Media and Violence Prevent Change in Congress, Maya Kornberg chronicles the efforts of congressional reformers over the last fifty years and documents the mounting forces that have kept their reforms from creating meaningful change.

Dr. Kornberg reveals how political violence, astronomical campaign costs, relentless fundraising demands, shrinking staff, and centralized party leadership all constrain the ability of new members to legislate and represent their constituents. Social media, while offering new platforms for political expression, has also heightened harassment and fed a performative culture that rewards spectacle over substance. Bolstered by dozens of interviews, congressional records, and the voices of lawmakers past and present—including Henry Waxman, Toby Moffett, Phil English, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Lauren Underwood—Stuck offers a sobering portrait of a legislative body paralyzed by its own internal dynamics.

Dr. Kornberg outlines tangible reforms that could restore Congress's capacity to function and amplify the power of its newest members. At a time when Americans are losing faith in democracy's most representative institution, Stuck makes the case for how it could be saved.

A Neuroscientist's Guide to a Healthier, Happier Life

Our guest is: Dr. Maya Kornberg, who is a senior research fellow and manager in the Brennan Center’s Elections and Government Program. She’s taught political science at NYU, Georgetown and American University, worked on democratic governance issues at numerous institutions, and led research for a UNDP and IPU project examining civic engagement in the work of over 80 parliaments around the world. She is the author of Stuck.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Bears and Ballots

House of Diggs

The Fight To Save The Town

The End of White Politics

Understanding Disinformation

You Are Not American

The Vice-President's Black Wife

You Have More Influence Than You Think

We Refuse

Dear Miss Perkins

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The Vet at the End of the Earth: Adventures with Animals in the South Atlantic

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 09:00:00 -0000

The role of a resident vet in the remote islands of the Falklands, St. Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha encompasses many wonderful complexities: caring for the world’s oldest living land animal (a 200-year-old giant tortoise, denizen of the St. Helena governor’s lawn); pursuing mystery creatures and invasive microorganisms; relocating herds of reindeer; and rescuing animals in extraordinarily rugged landscapes, from subtropical cloud forests to volcanic cliff faces. Dr. Hollins’s tales of island vet life are not only full of ingenuity and astounding fauna—they are also steeped in the unique local cultures, history, and peoples of the islands, far from the hustle of continental life.

Our guest is: Dr. Jonathan Hollins, who graduated from Emmanuel College, Cambridge, and has been a working vet for four decades. Since the mid-2000s, he has spent long periods as a senior vet overseas in the South Atlantic. He has written for the British national press and presented documentary features for BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. He lives on St. Helena.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education

Thu, 26 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0000

A Light in the Tower argues that excellent education and radical support for mental health struggles can coexist, and provides detailed advice for how to do so. Dr. Katie Rose Guest Pryal debunks claims that supporting student mental health harms educational rigor (coining the term “rigor angst” to discuss the fear that rigor is declining). She outlines actionable steps professors and administrators can take, including abandoning ableist and exclusionary campus culture; replacing “bad-hard” work that creates unnecessary logistical difficulties for students in favor of “good-hard” work that challenges them intellectually; providing an easy path to disability accommodations; and teaching accessibly for neurodivergent students.

Dr. Pryal examines the anxiety that plagues campuses as a result of exploited and overworked contingent faculty and students, the systemic and institutional burnout that affects higher education at every level, and the market-driven culture of toxic overwork. Addressing the stigma that haunts mental disability on campus, the ableism that hounds our teaching, and the cascade of mental health struggles that far too many faculty and students face, Dr. Pryal provides straightforward solutions to complex challenges.

Our guest is: Dr. Katie Rose Guest Pryal, who is an author, neurodiversity expert, and adjunct professor of law at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is the author of A Light in the Tower, and other works including the award-winning Even If You’re Broken: Bodies, Boundaries, and Mental Health.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and creator of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist:

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The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0000

In an age of growing wealth disparities, politicians on both sides of the aisle are sounding the alarm about the fading American Dream. Yet despite all evidence to the contrary, many still view the United States as the land of opportunity. The American Mirage addresses this puzzle by exposing the stark reality of today’s media landscape, revealing how popular entertainment media shapes politics and public opinion in an increasingly news-avoiding nation. Drawing on an eclectic array of original data, Dr. Eunji Kim demonstrates how, amid a dazzling array of media choices, many Americans simply are not consuming the news.

Instead, millions flock to entertainment programs that showcase real-life success stories, such as American Idol, Shark Tank, and MasterChef. Dr. Kim examines how shows like these leave viewers confoundingly optimistic about the prospects of upward mobility, promoting a false narrative of rugged individualism and meritocracy that contradicts what is being reported in the news. By taking seriously what people casually watch every day, The American Mirage shows how rags-to-riches programs perpetuate the myth of the American Dream, glorifying the economic winners, fostering tolerance for income inequality, and dampening support for redistributive policies that could improve people’s lives.

Our guest is: Dr. Eunji Kim, who is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Columbia University. As a political communication scholar, she primarily studies the impact of media content on mass attitudes and political behavior. She is the author of The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy. Her research explores a range of topics, and has been published in many leading journals including the American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a writing coach and editor for academics. She is the creator and producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show’s newsletter at ChristinaGessler.Substack.com.

Playlist for listeners:

Understanding Disinformation

100 Years of Radio in South Africa

You Have More Influence Than You Think

Black Girls and How We Fail Them

Live From The Underground

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The Power of the State: Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, and Minneapolis

Thu, 12 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0000

When young people began disappearing in Argentina, their mothers searched for answers. Despite laws prohibiting protests and political gatherings, the women still met to walk the Plaza de Mayo, a central square in Buenos Aires near the president’s residence. The government worked to deny their reports of the missing, to discredit the women, and to erode their standing among their peers. But the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo persisted.

Dr. Laura Tedesco joins us to share about her own childhood in Argentina during the military junta of the 1970s, her expertise on the Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, and what authoritarianism then and now looks like, as we take a deep dive into her article “How Government Killings and Kidnappings in Argentina drove mothers to resist and revolt – and eventually win,” published in The Conversation on January 27, 2026.

This episode explores: features of authoritarianism, liberation theology, the death flights, Nunca Mas, human rights, fear, mothers’ activism, and how a society can react to state terrorism.

Our guest is: Dr. Laura Tedesco, who is an Associate Professor of Political Science and International Relations. She specializes in Latin American Politics, Political Leadership, Political Corruption, and the dynamics of Authoritarianism and Democracy. From 2016 to 2024, she led a research grant funded by the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), focusing on the political role of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (FAR) in Cuba. Additionally, from 2009 to 2021, she directed a research project sponsored by the Open Society Institute, examining political leadership in Latin America. Since 2024, Dr. Tedesco has served as the Associate Dean for Humanities and Social Sciences at Saint Louis University's Madrid campus.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a writing coach and developmental editor for academics. She is the creator and producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 09:00:00 -0000

Rural students are unlikely to pursue degrees from private, selective schools. Why? And what happens to the handful of rural students who do attend elite colleges, colleges that may feel worlds away from home?

Educated Out shows how geography shapes rural, first-generation students’ access to college, their college experiences, and their postgraduation plans and opportunities. These students discover that home and college are very different worlds—and, over time, they start to question both. As they near graduation and navigate a job market in which the highest-paying and most prestigious opportunities are located in urban centers, they begin to feel the complicated burden of their schooling: they’ve been “educated out.”

In addition to advocating for a higher education landscape that truly includes rural students, Dr. Tieken critiques a system that requires people to leave their rural homes in search of opportunities. Without meaningful change, some students will have to make the impossible decision to leave home—and far more will remain there, undereducated and overlooked. Both engaging and accessible, Educated Out presents important and timely questions about rurality, identity, education, and inequality.

Our guest is: Dr. Mara Casey Tieken, who is associate professor of education at Bates College. She is the author of Educated Out; and Why Rural Schools Matter.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You help support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0000

Despite reform efforts that have grown in scope and intensity over the last two decades, the machine of American mass incarceration continues to flourish. In Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine: Reform, White Supremacy, and an Abolitionist Future, formerly incarcerated activist and organizer Emile Suotonye DeWeaver argues that the root of the problem is white supremacy.

During twenty-one years in prison, DeWeaver covertly organized to pass legislation impacting juveniles in California’s criminal legal system; was a culture writer for Easy Street Magazine; and co-founded Prison Renaissance, an organization centering incarcerated voices and incarcerated leadership. DeWeaver draws on these experiences to interrogate the central premise of reform efforts, including prisoner rehabilitation programs, arguing that they demand self-abnegation, entrench white supremacy, and ignore the role of structural oppression.

DeWeaver intervenes in contemporary debates on criminal justice and racial justice efforts with his eye-opening discussion of the tools we need to end white supremacy—both within and outside the carceral setting. Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine adds a sharp and unique perspective to the growing discourse on racial justice, incarceration, and abolition.

This episode considers: parole boards; hidden factors that extend sentences; how power is structured; why most reforms repackage inequality; and ways to restructure power.

Our guest is: Emile Suotonye DeWeaver, who is a formerly-incarcerated activist and a 2022 Soros Justice Fellow. California’s Governor Brown commuted his life sentence after twenty-one years for his community work. He has written for publications including the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury News, Colorlines, The Appeal, The Rumpus, and Seventh Wave.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the creator, producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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Abortion and Reproductive Justice: An Essential Guide for Resistance

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0000

Overturning Roe unleashed a wave of urgent threats to abortion and bodily autonomy, fueled by overt white supremacy, racial and anti-immigrant hatred, and support for traditional gender roles and sexual identities. But the resistance is fierce, led by a new generation of activists of color dedicated to building an inclusive movement. In Abortion and Reproductive Justice: An Essential Guide for Resistance, widely recognized movement leaders Marlene Gerber Fried and Loretta J. Ross provide a history of abortion politics through a reproductive justice framework that centers those most vulnerable.
The book emphasizes that the right to have and raise children is as important for reproductive choice as the right not to. This critical approach—originating in Black feminism—provides grounding for radical abortion advocacy. Calling on us to join in, the book highlights abortion stories from individuals and organizations who are putting this analysis into action on the front lines, in the United States and beyond. By linking abortion rights to broader social justice initiatives, including Black Lives Matter, immigrant and refugee rights, disability justice, and LGBTQ+ rights, the authors expand the conversation at a critical moment.

Our guest is: Dr. Marlene Gerber Fried, who is professor emerita at Hampshire College. Her scholarship and teaching focuses on abortion rights and access, reproductive and sexual rights and health, and legal theory. Her honors include the Felicia Stewart Advocacy Award, and the Warrior Women Award from SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective.

Our guest is: Dr. Loretta J. Ross, who is an activist, public intellectual, and Associate Professor of the Study of Women & Gender at Smith College. Her co-authored books include Calling In, Abortion and Reproductive Justice, and Women Who Change the World. She has also published numerous articles and book chapters. Find more here: Loretta Ross Papers.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the creator and producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show’s newsletter at ChristinaGessler.Substack.com.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You help support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Please join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Everything Is Fine, I'll Just Work Harder: Confessions of a Former Badass

Thu, 15 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0000

In Everything Is Fine, I’ll Just Work Harder: Confessions of A Former Badass (Street Noise Books, 2025), Professor Cara Gormally draws us into the familiar academic world of chronic busyness. In panel after panel, Cara brings us into a life numbed by overwork. Then, as this graphic memoir shows us, during an ordinary early-morning run, Cara’s watch dings with a Facebook friend request. Their rapist wants to “friend” them.

Cara always had a long to-do list; always had many projects; always was busy. But as their rapist continued to send friend requests and tried to reconnect with them, they began to lose their grip on their work, projects, and relationships. But then Cara connects with a therapist who guides them through a long but powerful process of healing. And Cara works to desensitize, reprocess, excavate and relive the old wounds in order to move past them and heal.

This episode explores: Cara’s path to academia; how they discovered their love of science; how art and writing can help us heal; the work of going to therapy; what radical self-acceptance is; why overwork can be a sign of a trauma response; the risks and rewards of changing; and the importance of writing communities.

This episode does not discuss sexual assault.

Our guest is: Dr. Cara Gormally (they/them), who is a professor at Gallaudet University, in Washington, D.C. Their interdisciplinary research focuses on questions related to making science relevant and accessible to increase students' belonging in STEM. Their new book is Everything Is Fine, I’ll Just Work Harder: Confessions of a Former Badass.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0000

Your brain is the most remarkable thing in the known universe. Always trying to mend itself, and always trying to protect you, it’s in a constant state of flux — adapting, reconfiguring, finding new pathways. And it has an astonishing capacity for recovery.

Rachel Barr struggled through years of devastating loss, heartache, and uncertainty until neuroscience gave her the first spark of self-belief she had felt in her adult life — and proof that, because of the brain’s near-infinite potential for neuroplastic change, it’s never too late to carve out neural pathways to form new habits, new skills, and new ways of thinking.
Whether you want to nerd-out on neuroscientific acronyms, finally understand what’s going on in your head, or take refuge in a book that’s like a warm hug for your mind, How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend is a delight-filled, evidence-based guide to taking better care of your brain — so it, in turn, will take better care of you.

Our guest is: Rachel Barr, who holds a master’s degree in molecular neuroscience. She wrote How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend while working on her Ph.D. Her videos as “Rachel the Neuroscientist” demystify the fundamental principles of brain science, empowering people to make informed decisions about their mental health. She was born and raised in Fife, studied in Bristol, and is now based in Quebec, with Gnocchi the cat.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

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How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 09:00:00 -0000

How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences is the ultimate guide to creating welcoming, safe, and accessible gatherings for everyone. With detailed strategies and illustrative examples, How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences uses principles of design justice to share how to put on truly inclusive occasions built for the needs and abilities of all. If you attend or host conferences, organize events for fun or for a living, or have ever thought, “I guess these spaces just aren’t made for me and I wish I could change that,” this book is written for you!

Dr. Alex D. Ketchum provides the ethical framework of what true inclusion in action means, considering a broad variety of identities and experiences such as economic hardship, childcare needs, racial and ethnic identities, disabilities, neurodivergence, and more. Whether you're hosting an academic symposium, an activist meeting, a feminist zinefest, or a comics con, Dr. Ketchum offers a step-by-step guide through the planning and execution process, with useful tips, timelines, and templates along the way. This book is an indispensable companion to building events and conferences from an ethic of care, allowing us to cultivate authentic community and to create the better world we desire—together.

Our guest is: Dr. Alex Ketchum, who is the Faculty Lecturer at the Institute for Gender, Sexuality and Feminist Studies at McGill University. She is the author of Engage in Public Scholarship, and How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences. A full list of her publications and projects can be found at alexketchum.ca.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an academic writing coach and editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

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Sustainability, Identity, Artisans and Designers

Thu, 25 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Long before the fashion industry formally addressed questions of sustainability and advocated for “slow fashion,” a husband-and-wife design duo were working to create handcrafted leather-goods and functional women’s sportswear that could be worn for decades. Active from the 1940s to the late 1960s, the Phelps quickly won acclaim, attracting a broad clientele and becoming known for quality, utility, and craftsmanship.

Using vintage metal insignia and hardware, the Phelpses designed bags and belts that answered the need for American-made luxury goods during and after World War II. They worked to revive artisan workshops, fostered positive work environments for their employees, and employed injured veterans.

In Artisans and Designers: American Fashion Through Elizabeth and William Phelps, Dr. Rebecca Jumper Matheson offers the first in-depth analysis of the Phelpses’ partnership, their contributions to the fashion industry, and their forward-thinking business practices. She connects their work to larger conversations about sustainable fashion, consumerism, industrialization practices, and the intersection of art with American identity during and after World War II. The result is a richly-illustrated account of a brand, and the classic pieces that stood the test of time.

Guest: Dr. Rebecca Jumper Matheson is a fashion historian and adjunct instructor at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Her research focuses on nineteenth- and twentieth-century American women’s dress, using interdisciplinary approaches to discover women’s narratives as designers, makers, sellers, and consumers. She is the author of three monographs, including Artisans and Designers: American Fashion Through Elizabeth and William Phelps.

Host: Dr. Christina Gessler is the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a Ph.D. in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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Try to Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms and Life

Thu, 18 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Among the most common challenges on college campuses today is figuring out how to navigate our politically charged culture and engage productively with opposing viewpoints. In Try to Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms and Life (Princeton UP, 2024), Lara Schwartz introduces the fundamental principles of free expression, academic freedom, and academic dialogue, showing how open expression is the engine of social progress, scholarship, and inclusion. She sheds light on the rules and norms that govern campus discourse—such as the First Amendment, campus expression policies, and academic standards—and encourages students to adopt a mindset of inquiry that embraces uncertainty and a love of questions.

Empowering students, scholars, and instructors to listen generously, explore questions with integrity, and communicate to be understood, Try to Love the Questions includes writing exercises and discussion questions in every chapter, making it an indispensable resource for anyone interested in practicing good-faith dialogue.

Content note: The “test” Dr. Gessler references is a quiz on contraception, and the prevention and transmission of several different diseases; the prizes offered were candy bars.

Our guest is: Professor Lara Schwartz, who focuses on dialogue across difference, freedom of speech and dissent, inclusive pedagogy, dispute resolution, and depolarization. Drawing on her experience as a legislative lawyer, lobbyist, and communications strategist in leading civil rights organizations, Professor Schwartz understands how to lay the groundwork for important, tough conversations across difference. She is the author of Try to Love the Questions.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a full-time writing coach, grad student coach, and developmental editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You help support the show by downloading, teaching with, and recommending episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 300+ Academic Life episodes? Find them all here. And thank you for listening!

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Living Night: On the Secret Wonders of Wildlife After Dark

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0000

When the sun sets, things start to get interesting among wild animals. Wherever we live, whether in the city or suburbs or country, darkness conjures a hidden world of wildlife that most of us rarely glimpse. Foxes, wolves, and bears prowl while skunks, opossums, and porcupines lurk; fireflies send flashing signals to potential mates; raccoons rummage for food; owls and bats fly overhead.

Wildlife biologist Sophia Kimmig is our guide to the startling behaviors of these and many more nocturnal creatures. Introducing us to night’s wild inhabitants, she reveals what life for them is like in this parallel world—how it looks, feels, and smells—and the ingenious ways some creatures thrive after sunset. Living Night: On the Secret Wonders of Wildlife After Dark (Experiment, 2025) helps us appreciate how essential darkness is: not just a time but a diverse habitat all to itself—one that we still know too little about, and that we must urgently protect for the benefit of the world’s flora and fauna that depend on the day–night cycle.

Our guest is: Dr. Sophia Kimmig, who researches how wild animals adapt to changing habitat conditions at an institute of the Leibniz Society in Berlin. In lectures, journalism, and books, she pursues her goal of bringing people closer to the diversity and value of nature and creating acceptance for nature and species protection. She lives in Berlin.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an experienced writing coach and developmental editor for academics. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

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Black Girls and How We Fail Them

Thu, 04 Dec 2025 09:00:00 -0000

From hip-hop moguls and political candidates to talk radio and critically acclaimed films, society communicates that Black girls don’t matter and their girlhood is not safe. Alarming statistics on physical and sexual abuse, for instance, reveal the harm Black girls face, yet Black girls’ representation in media still heavily relies on our seeing their abuse as an important factor in others’ development. In this provocative new book, Aria S. Halliday asserts that the growth of diverse representation in media since 2008 has coincided with an increase in the hatred of Black girls.
Dr. Halliday uses her astute expertise as a scholar of popular culture, feminist theory, and Black girlhood to expose how we have been complicit in the depiction of Black girls as unwanted and disposable while letting Black girls fend for themselves. She indicts the way media mistreats celebrity Black girls like Malia and Sasha Obama as well as fictional Black girls in popular shows and films like A Wrinkle in Time. Our society’s inability to see or understand Black girls as girls makes us culpable in their abuse. In Black Girls and How We Fail Them (UNC Press, 2025), a revelatory book for political analysts, hip-hop lovers, pop culture junkies, and parents, Dr. Halliday provides the critical perspective we need to create a world that supports, affirms, and loves Black girls. Our future depends on it.

Our guest is: Dr. Aria S. Halliday, who is the Marie Rich Endowed Professor in Arts and Sciences and Associate Professor in the Department of Gender and Women’s Studies and program in African American and Africana Studies at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Halliday specializes in cultural constructions of black girlhood and womanhood in material, visual, and digital cultures in the 20th and 21st centuries. She has won numerous awards and fellowships, and her articles and chapters have been published in The Black Scholar, Cultural Studies, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, Girlhood Studies, Palimpsest, and SOULS, as well as in edited volumes. She is the author of Buy Black: How Black Women Transformed US Pop Culture, and Black Girls and How We Fail Them. She is co-founder of Digital Black Girls, a digital humanities archive celebrating Black girls' cultural production and innovation.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a writing coach, grad student coach, and developmental editor. She is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast.

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The Library of Lost Maps: An Archive of a World in Progress

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0000

At the heart of University College London lies a long-forgotten map library packed with thousands of maps and atlases. Professor James Cheshire stumbled upon it, and spent three years sifting through hundreds of dusty drawers to see what was there. He was stunned to uncover some of the most significant maps and atlases from the last two centuries - many of which had not seen the light of day for decades. In The Library of Lost Maps: An Archive of a World in Progress (Bloomsbury, 2025) we discover atlases for the masses that expanded nineteenth-century horizons, and maps that were wielded by those in power to wage war and negotiate peace; charts that trace the icy peaks of the Himalayas and the deepest depths of the ocean; and pioneering maps produced to settle borders in central Europe or the wealth of those in inner-city London.

Maps have played a vital role in shaping our scientific knowledge of the world, showing the impact of climate change and inspiring the theory of plate tectonics. They have also guided politicians, encouraging both beneficial reforms and horrific conquests, the consequences of which we continue to live with today. Brimming with astonishing discoveries, The Library of Lost Maps reveals why cartography really matters and how map-making has helped transform our understanding of the world around us.

Our guest is: Professor James Cheshire, who is Britain’s only Professor of Geographic Information and Cartography. A world-leading map maker, he is an elected fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and has been recognized with awards from the Royal Geographical Society and the British Cartographic Society. When he is not making, writing about, or teaching with maps, he spends his time scouring eBay for them in the hope that one day he’ll have a map library of his own.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an experienced writing coach and developmental editor for academics. She is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a Ph.D. in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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Conversations with Birds

Thu, 27 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Growing up at the feet of the Himalayas in northern India, Kumar took for granted her immersion in a lush natural world. After moving to North America as a teenager, she found herself increasingly distanced from more than human life and discouraged by the civilization she saw contributing to its destruction. It was only in her twenties, living in Los Angeles and working on films, that she began to rediscover her place in the landscape—and in the cosmos—by way of watching birds.

Tracing her movements across the American West, this stirring collection of essays Conversations with Birds (Milkweed Editions, 2023) brings the avian world richly to life. Kumar’s perspective is not that of a list keeper, counting and cataloguing species. Rather, from the mango-colored western tanager that rescues her from a bout of altitude sickness in Sequoia National Park to ancient sandhill cranes in the Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, and from the snowy plovers building shallow nests with bits of shell and grass to the white-breasted nuthatch that regularly visits the apricot tree behind her family’s casita in Santa Fe, for Kumar, birds “become a portal to a more vivid, enchanted world.” At a time when climate change, habitat loss, and the reckless use of pesticides are causing widespread extinction of species, Kumar’s reflections on these messengers from our distant past and harbingers of our future offer luminous evidence of her suggestion that “seeds of transformation lie dormant in all of our hearts. Sometimes it just takes the right bird to awaken us.”

Our guest is: Priyanka Kumar, who is a nationally-acclaimed naturalist and award-winning writer. She is the author of Conversations with Birds, The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit, and her essays have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Orion, and Sierra magazine. She holds an MFA from the University of Southern California’s School of Cinematic Arts and is an alumna of the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an experienced writing coach and developmental editor for academics. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

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Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0000

In Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change, scholars and practitioners who have worked together in various capacities across different school systems examine systemic equity leadership in U.S. public schools over the course of nearly a decade and across a time of profound racial and historical change.

This volume weaves together real-world insights, research-based strategies, and practical tools for transforming P–12 education systems into more equitable and just learning spaces. Contributors explore the early days of district equity leadership sparked by the Obama administration's focus on civil rights in education; Black Lives Matter (beginning with the Million Hoodies Movement for Justice); the proliferation of formal equity director roles, policies, and priorities; and the recent politically driven anti-DEI backlash. In doing so, it reveals the complex and crucial work of sustaining justice-focused educational systems change in the face of subtle resistance and outright attacks. This book is important reading for school leaders, district personnel, policymakers, and everyone who cares about a public education that works for all students.

Our guest is: Dr. Decoteau J. Irby, who is professor of educational policy studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, codirector of the Center for Urban Education Leadership, and coeditor of Dignity-Affirming Education. He co-edited Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change with Dr. Ann M. Ishimaru.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who produces the Academic Life podcast. She is a dissertation and grad student coach, and a developmental editor for humanities scholars at all stages of their careers. She writes the Academic Life Newsletter at her Substack.

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And get bonus content HERE.

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Facing Infinity: Black Holes and Our Place on Earth

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Humanity’s relationship with black holes began in 1783 in a small English village, when clergyman John Michell posed a startling question: What if there are objects in space that are so large and heavy that not even light can escape them? Almost 250 years later, in April 2019, scientists presented the first picture of a black hole. Profoundly inspired by that image, physicist Jonas Enander has traveled the world to investigate how our understanding of these elusive celestial objects has evolved since the days of Michell. With the particular goal of discovering our human connection to black holes, Enander visits telescopes and observatories, delves deeply into archives, and interviews over 20 world-leading experts, including several Nobel laureates.

In Facing Infinity: Black Holes and Our Place on Earth (The Experiment, 2025), Dr. Enander takes us on a spellbinding journey into the universe’s greatest mystery, deciphers the most mind-bending science, and answers questions surrounding how black holes work, where they come from, and what role they play in the universe. Along the way, he discovers how our desire to understand black holes inadvertently paved the way for the invention of Wi-Fi and the calibration of our global navigation satellites, how astronomical discovery became entangled with colonial conflicts, and how our looking outward gave us critical evidence of the impact of climate change. Facing Infinity helps us appreciate and understand as never before these mysterious celestial objects and our surprising connections to them.

Our guest is: Dr. Jonas Enander, who is a science communicator with a background in cosmology and astrophysics. His previous research focused on dark matter and Einstein’s theory of general relativity. He has worked as a physics teacher at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, and participated in the construction of the IceCube Neutrino Observatory at the South Pole. He hosts the podcasts Spacetime Fika and Rumtiden.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a freelance editor. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show’s newsletter at ChristinaGessler.Substack.Com.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr.

Thu, 06 Nov 2025 09:00:00 -0000

At the height of the civil rights movement, Charles C. Diggs Jr. (1922–1998) was the consummate power broker. In a political career spanning 1951 to 1980, Diggs, Michigan’s first Black member of Congress, was the only federal official to attend the trial of Emmett Till’s killers, worked behind the scenes with Martin Luther King Jr., and founded the Congressional Black Caucus. He was also the chief architect of legislation that restored home rule to Washington, DC, and almost single-handedly ignited the American anti-apartheid movement in the 1960s.

Drawing on extensive archival research, including Diggs’s rarely seen personal papers, FBI documents, and original interviews with family members and political associates, political scientist Dr. Marion Orr reveals that Diggs practiced a politics of strategic moderation. Dr. Orr argues that this quiet approach was more effective than the militant race politics practiced by Adam Clayton Powell and more appealing than the conservative Chicago-style approach of William Dawson—two of Diggs’s better-known Black contemporaries. Vividly written and deeply researched, House of Diggs is the first biography of Congressman Charles C. Diggs Jr., one of the most consequential Black federal legislators in US history. Congressman Diggs was a legislative lion whose unfortunate downfall punctuated his distinguished career and pushed him and his historic accomplishments out of sight. Now, for the first time, House of Diggs restores him to his much-deserved place in the history of American politics.

Our guest is: Dr. Marion Orr, who is the inaugural Frederick Lippitt Professor of Public Policy and Professor of Political Science and Urban Studies at Brown University. He specializes in urban politics, race and ethnic politics, and African-American politics.

Playlist for listeners:

The End of White Politics

The Vice-President's Black Wife

No Common Ground

The Social Constructions of Race

Smithsonian American Women

The First and Last King of Haiti

Of Bears and Ballots

Never Caught

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And get free bonus content HERE.

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Eram Alam, "The Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare" (JHU Press, 2025)

Thu, 30 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0000

For more than 60 years, the United States has trained fewer physicians than it needs, relying instead on the economically expedient option of soliciting immigrant physicians trained at the expense of other countries. The passage of the Hart–Celler Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 expedited the entry of foreign medical graduates (FMGs) from postcolonial South Asia and sent them to provide care in shortage areas throughout the United States. Although this arrangement was conceived as temporary, over the decades it has become a permanent fixture of the medical system, with FMGs comprising at least a quarter of the physician labor force since the act became law.

This cohort of practitioners has not been extensively studied, rendering the impacts of immigration and foreign policy on the everyday mechanics of US health care obscure. In The Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare, Dr. Alam foregrounds global dynamics embedded in the medical system to ask how and why Asian physicians—and especially practitioners from South Asia—have become integral to US medical practice and ubiquitous in the US public imaginary. Drawing on transcripts of congressional hearings; medical, scientific, and social scientific literature; ethnographies; oral histories; and popular media, Dr. Alam explores the enduring consequences of postcolonial physician migration. Combining theoretical and methodological insights from a range of disciplines, this book analyzes both the care provided by immigrant physicians as well as the care extended to them as foreigners.

Our guest is: Dr. Eram Alam, who specializes in the history of medicine, with a particular emphasis on globalization, race, migration, and health during the twentieth century. She is an assistant professor in the Department of the History of Science at Harvard University. She received her PhD in History and Sociology of Science from the University of Pennsylvania, and holds a BA and BS from Northwestern University and a MA from the University of Chicago.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a developmental editor, and the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She writes the show’s newsletter at ChristinaGessler.Substack.com

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Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by sharing episodes, or by donating here. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters

Thu, 23 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0000

What do you want out of life? To make a lot of money, work for justice, run marathons, sing in a choir, have children, travel the world? The things we care about in life—family, friendship, leisure activities, work, our moral ideals—often conflict, preventing us from doing what matters most to us. Even worse, we don’t always know what we really want, or how to define success. Blending personal stories, philosophy, and psychology, this insightful and entertaining book offers invaluable advice about living well by understanding your values and resolving the conflicts that frustrate their fulfillment.
Dr. Valerie Tiberius introduces you to a way of thinking about your goals that enables you to reflect on them effectively throughout your life. She illustrates her approach with vivid examples, many of which are drawn from her own life, ranging from the silly to the serious, from shopping to navigating prejudice. Throughout, the book emphasizes the importance of interconnectedness, reminding us of the profound influence other people have on our lives, our goals, and how we should pursue them. At the same time, the book offers strategies for coping with obstacles to realizing your goals, including gender bias and other kinds of discrimination. Whether you are changing jobs, rethinking your priorities, or reconsidering your whole life path, What Do You Want Out of Life?: A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters (Princeton UP, 2024) is an essential guide to helping you understand what really matters to you and how you can thoughtfully pursue it.

Our guest is: Valerie Tiberius, who is the Paul W. Frenzel Chair in Liberal Arts and professor of philosophy at the University of Minnesota. Her books include Well-Being as Value Fulfillment: How We Can Help Each Other to Live Well and The Reflective Life: Living Wisely with Our Limits. She lives in Minneapolis.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a dissertation and grad student coach, and a developmental editor for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show’s newsletter at christinagessler.substack.com.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can help to support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 280+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. Thank you for listening!

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The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit

Thu, 16 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0000

As a child in the foothills of the Himalayas, Priyanka Kumar was entranced by forest-like orchards of diverse and luscious fruit—especially apples. These biodiverse orchards seemed worlds away from the cardboard apples that lined supermarket shelves in the United States. Yet on a small patch of woods near her home in Santa Fe, Kumar discovered a wild apple tree—and the seeds of an odyssey were planted. Could the taste of a feral apple offer a doorway to the wild? In The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit, Kumar takes us on a dazzling and transformative journey to rediscover apples, unearthing a rich and complex history while illuminating how we can reimagine our relationship with nature.
Apples are popular, but in our everyday lives we rarely encounter more than a handful of varieties: of the sixteen thousand apple varieties once celebrated in America, scarcely a fifth remain accessible. Kumar reveals the richness of a hidden world, bringing readers to the vibrant forests and orchards where historic trees still survive. These mature and wild orchards offer more than just fruit: they are havens for creatures from hummingbirds to bears and a living connection to generations past. She brilliantly weaves together science and childhood memories with the apple’s storied history, from its roots in Kazakhstan to Spanish orchards in the Southwest and Thomas Jefferson’s beloved Monticello fruitery. Kumar shows how—if we follow untamed paths—the tang and texture of an apple can lead us back to the wild.

Our guest is: Priyanka Kumar, who is the author of Conversations with Birds, and The Light Between Apple Trees. Her essays appear in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Review of Books, Orion, and Sierra magazine. She holds an MFA, and has taught at the University of California Santa Cruz and the University of Southern California. Her feature documentary, The Song of the Little Road, is in the permanent collection of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, and her awards include an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation Award, a New Mexico/New Visions Governor’s Award, an International Center for Jefferson Studies Fellowship, and an Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Fellowship.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a writing coach and freelance editor. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show's newsletter.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Make Your Manuscript Work: A Guide to Developmental Editing for Scholarly Writers

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Developmental editing holds the power to make a manuscript connect with publishers and readers, yet few scholarly writers have the training to do it well. Make Your Manuscript Work: A Guide to Developmental Editing for Scholarly Writers (Princeton UP, 2025) offers scholars a practical method for assessing and refining the features of their texts that matter most—argument, evidence, structure, and style. Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer, a writer, editor, and consultant for academic authors, explains how manuscripts move through the publication process and identifies the key stages for authors to improve their texts. Her guide shows scholarly writers how to identify what’s been holding their writing back and fix it so they can accomplish their publication goals. It includes a checklist of assessment questions, examples from real scholarly manuscripts, tips on seeking additional help, and advice on offering developmental editing assistance to other writers. Written with candor, empathy, and a deep awareness of the challenges faced by academic writers who want to publish, Make Your Manuscript Work is an indispensable how-to guide for scholars at all career stages.

Our guest is: Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer, who is a developmental editor and founder of Manuscript Works, a consultancy serving academic authors around the world. She is also the author of The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors, and Lifestyle Politics and Radical Activism. She previously taught media and cultural studies at NYU and USC.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a writing coach and a developmental editor working with scholars in the humanities and social sciences at all stages of their writing journey—from grad student to alt-ac, and from the idea-stage to final draft. She is the executive producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show’s newsletter at christinagessler.substack.com.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 280+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Leading Toward Liberation: How to Build Cultures of Thriving in Higher Education

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In Leading Toward Liberation: How to Build Cultures of Thriving in Higher Education (JHU Press, 2025), Dr. Annmarie Caño reimagines academic leadership as a practice rooted in liberation and equity. Drawing on her experiences as a Latina, first-generation college student, clinical psychologist, and higher education administrator, Caño shows how leaders can foster inclusive cultures where everyone thrives.

Through a lens of liberation psychology, Caño outlines actionable strategies for transforming institutions into spaces of freedom and growth. From crafting a values-driven vision to navigating institutional obstacles, accompanying others in solidarity, and leading with courage, this book offers practical insights to create systemic change. In this guide to navigating and disrupting the status quo to promote freedom and growth, Caño explains how to lead courageously, grow liberatory leadership skills, and plan career steps. Each chapter concludes with reflective self-coaching questions that empower readers to assess and refine their leadership journeys.

Leading Toward Liberation offers an antidote to toxic and unhealthy academic cultures that silence or force out talented colleagues and stifle creativity. Addressing challenges like hierarchical norms, burnout, and the marginalization of underrepresented voices, Caño inspires readers to rethink leadership as a shared endeavor of transformation. With a keen focus on the intersections of identity and power, this is an essential resource for leaders seeking to dismantle oppressive systems and co-create healthier academic environments.

Our guest is: Dr. Annemarie Caño, who is a professor of psychology at Gonzaga University and a two-time Fellow of the American Psychological Association who has held leadership positions at public and private universities.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is an editor and a writing coach. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show’s newsletter at christinagessler.stubstack.com.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 280+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Jonn Elledge, "A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders: Surprising Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps" (Experiment, 2024)

Thu, 25 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In this eye-opening investigation into the most remarkable points on the map, a single boundary might, upon closer inspection, reveal eons of history—from epic tales of conquest, treaties, and alliances to intimate, all-too-human stories of love, greed, and folly. Sometimes rooted in physical geography, sometimes entirely arbitrary, none of the lines we know today were inevitable, and all might have looked quite different if not for the intricate interplay of chance and ambition.

By listening to the stories these borders have to tell, we can learn how political identities are shaped, why the world’s boundaries look the way they do—and what they tell us about our world and ourselves. From the very first maps in Egypt to the Roman attempts to define the boundaries of civilization, from the profound shift in meaning of the Mason–Dixon line to the secret British-French agreement to carve up the Ottoman Empire during the First World War, and from the dark consequences of Detroit’s city limits to the intriguing reason why landlocked Bolivia still maintains a navy, this is a singular look at human history—told through its most spellbinding border stories.

Our guest is: Jonn Elledge, who is the author of the international bestseller A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders: Surprising Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps (Experiment, 2024). His previous books include The Compendium of (Not Quite) Everything and Conspiracy: A History of Boll*cks Theories, and How Not to Fall for Them. At the New Statesman he created and ran its urbanism-focused CityMetric site, spending six happy years writing about cities, maps, and borders. He lives in London.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a writing coach and a developmental editor. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show’s newsletter found at christinagessler.substack.com

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom

Thu, 18 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0000

“My name has become a horror to all those who want slavery,” declared Jean‑Jacques Dessalines as he announced the independence of Haiti, the most radical nation‑state during the Age of Revolution and the first country ever to permanently outlaw slavery. Enslaved for the first thirty years of his life, Dessalines (c. 1758–1806) joined the revolution that abolished slavery within the French colony. Then he became a general in the colonial army of the new French Republic. When it was discovered that France once again supported slavery, Dessalines declared war on his former allies. Fighting under the slogan “Liberty or Death,” his army forced the French to evacuate in late 1803. At the start of the new year, Dessalines declared independence from France and became the leader of a free Haiti.
A hero to Haitians for centuries, Dessalines is portrayed abroad as barbarous and violent. Yet this caricature derives not from facts—as Dr. Julia Gaffield demonstrates with extensive new research—but from the fears of contemporary enslavers. Showcasing the man behind the myths, Dr. Gaffield reveals Dessalines’s deep suffering, warm friendships, and unwavering commitment to destroying slavery, racism, and colonialism, and his bold insistence on his people’s right to liberty and equality.

Our guest is: Dr. Julia Gaffield, who is associate professor of history at William & Mary. She is the author of Haitian Connections in the Atlantic World: Recognition after Revolution; and of I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom (Yale UP, 2025). She lives in Williamsburg, VA.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a writing coach and a developmental editor. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show’s newsletter here

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Designing and Facilitating Workshops with Intentionality

Thu, 11 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Designing and Facilitating Workshops with Intentionality offers practical guidance, tools, and resources to assist practitioners in creating effective, engaging workshops for adult learners. Drawing from three key learning frameworks and the author’s considerable expertise in facilitating workshops across both educational and corporate settings, this book focuses on ten essential principles to consider when developing professional learning experiences.

Whether facilitating on-site or virtually, readers will gain a deeper understanding of how to design and facilitate workshops with an inclusive mindset, thus creating meaningful, active learning opportunities that result in greater involvement among participants and better feedback. Guiding questions, chapter takeaways, and a compendium of additional online resources supply plentiful opportunities to further build and fine-tune these skills. Within these pages, both new and seasoned facilitators will find inspiration, encouragement, and support, as they craft professional learning experiences that ignite curiosity and spark growth in all learners.

Our guest is: Dr. Tolu Noah, who is an educational developer at California State University, Long Beach, USA, where she designs and facilitates professional learning programs for instructors. She has 16 years of teaching experience, and she enjoys facilitating engaging workshops and keynotes about a variety of teaching, learning, and technology topics.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a dissertation and writing coach, and a developmental editor. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and author of the show’s newsletter found at ChristinaGessler.Substack.Com.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Jumping Through Hoops: Performing Gender in the 19th Century Circus

Tue, 09 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Jumping Through Hoops: Performing Gender in the 19th Century Circus, by Betsy Golden Kellem, reveals the hidden history of early female circus performers: boundary-breaking women like Lavinia Warren, known as the Queen of Beauty; to Millie-Christine McKoy, the Two-Headed Nightingale; to Patty Astley, the mother of the modern circus. These astounding female and gender-nonconforming artists wrestled snakes, performed magic tricks with electricity, and walked across waterfalls on tightropes, shattering taboos by performing in public. Betsy deftly explores how major forces in the long nineteenth century combined to create the uniquely American spectacle of the traveling circus. During the transformation of the circus from scrappy “mud shows” to a major international business, these extraordinary women challenged contemporary ideas of femininity, creating new possibilities for women far beyond the big top.

Our guest is: Betsy Golden Kellem, who is a scholar of the unusual. She has served on the boards of the Barnum Museum and the Circus Historical Society, is the Emmy-winning host and writer of the Showman’s Shorts video series on P.T. Barnum, and writes for JSTOR Daily. An expert media and intellectual property attorney, she has taught at Yale and the University of Connecticut, and regularly speaks on the weirder corners of history and law.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a dissertation and writing coach, and a developmental editor for scholars in the humanities. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Women’s History playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Who Needs College Anymore: Imagining A Future Where Degrees Don’t Matter

Thu, 04 Sep 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In this optimistic yet practical assessment of how postsecondary education can evolve to meet the needs of next-generation learners, Kathleen deLaski reimagines what higher education might offer and whom it should serve. In the wake of declining enrollment and declining confidence in the value of a college degree, she urges a mindset shift regarding the learning routes and credentials that best prepare students for post-high-school success. Who Needs College Anymore draws on a decade of research from the Education Design Lab, and interviews of educational experts, college and career counselors, teachers, employers, and learners.

Kathleen deLaski applies human-centered design to higher education reform. She highlights ten top principles based on user feedback and considers how well they are being enacted by colleges. She urges institutions to better attend to the needs of new-majority learners, including people from low- or moderate-income backgrounds, people of color, first-generation students, veterans, single mothers, rural students, part-time attendees, and neurodivergent students. She finds ample opportunity for colleges to support learners via alternative pathways to marketable knowledge, including skills-based learning, apprenticeships, career training, and other types of workplace learning.

Our guest is: Kathleen deLaski, who spent twenty years as a journalist, including time as ABC News White House correspondent. In the second half of her career, she has focused on education reform, cofounding or founding nonprofits including the Education Design Lab. She is a senior advisor to the Project on Workforce at Harvard University, and is an adjunct professor at George Mason University.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a developmental editor for humanities scholars and social scientists at all stages of their careers. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the Academic Life newsletter, found here

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Please join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Big-time college football promises prestige, drama, media attention, and money. Yet most athletes in this unpaid, amateur system encounter a different reality, facing dangerous injuries, few pro-career opportunities, a free but devalued college education, and future financial instability. In one of the first ethnographies about Black college football players, anthropologist Dr. Tracie Canada reveals the ways young athletes strategically resist the exploitative systems that structure their everyday lives.
Tackling the Everyday shows how college football particularly harms the young Black men who are overrepresented on gridirons across the country. Although coaches and universities constantly invoke the misleading "football family" narrative, this book describes how a brotherhood among Black players operates alongside their caring mothers, who support them on and off the field. With a Black feminist approach—one that highlights often-overlooked voices—Dr. Canada exposes how race, gender, kinship, and care shape the lives of the young athletes who shoulder America's favorite game.

Our guest is: Dr. Tracie Canada, who is a socio-cultural anthropologist whose ethnographic research uses sport to theorize race, kinship and care, gender, and the performing body. She is the Andrew W. Mellon Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology & Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. She is the founder and director of the HEARTS Lab, and is affiliated with the Duke Sports and Race Project. Her work has been featured in public venues and outlets such as the Museum of Modern Art, The Guardian, and Scientific American.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator of the Academic Life podcast. She works as a dissertation and grad student coach, and as a developmental editor for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. She also writes the Academic Life newsletter, found at christinagessler.substack.com.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You help support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Citizenship Stripping: You Are Not American

Thu, 21 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Over the last two centuries, the US government has revoked citizenship to cast out its unwanted, suppress dissent, and deny civil rights to all considered “un-American”—whether due to their race, ethnicity, marriage partner, or beliefs. Drawing on the narratives of those who have struggled to be treated as full members of “We the People,” law professor Amanda Frost exposes a hidden history of discrimination and xenophobia that continues to this day.
The Supreme Court’s rejection of Black citizenship in Dred Scott was among the first and most notorious examples of citizenship stripping, but the phenomenon did not end there. Women who married noncitizens, persecuted racial groups, labor leaders, and political activists were all denied their citizenship, and sometimes deported, by a government that wanted to redefine the meaning of “American.” You Are Not American: Citizenship Stripping from Dred Scott to the Dreamers (Beacon Press, 2021) grapples with what it means to be American and the issues surrounding membership, identity, belonging, and exclusion that still occupy and divide the nation in the twenty-first century.

Our guest is: Professor Amanda Frost, who writes and teaches in the fields of immigration and citizenship law, federal courts and jurisdiction, and judicial ethics. Her scholarship has been cited by dozens of state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, and she has been invited to testify on the topics of her articles before both the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. You Are Not American was named a “New & Noteworthy” book by The New York Times Book Review, and shortlisted for the Mark Lynton History Prize. She is writing a book on birthright citizenship, publishing in 2026.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor, dissertation and writing coach for scholars in the humanities. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and writes the show’s newsletter with weekly bonus material on her Substack found here.

Playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Please join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life

Thu, 14 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In an overloaded, superficial, technological world, in which almost everything and everybody is judged by its usefulness, where can we turn for escape, lasting pleasure, contemplation, or connection to others? While many forms of leisure meet these needs, Zena Hitz writes, few experiences are so fulfilling as the inner life, whether that of a bookworm, an amateur astronomer, a birdwatcher, or someone who takes a deep interest in one of countless other subjects. Drawing on inspiring examples, from Socrates and Augustine to Malcolm X and Elena Ferrante, and from films to Dr. Hitz’s own experiences as someone who walked away from elite university life in search of greater fulfillment, Lost in Thought is a passionate and timely reminder that a rich life is a life rich in thought.
Today, when even the humanities are often defended only for their economic or political usefulness, Dr. Hitz says our intellectual lives are valuable not despite but because of their practical uselessness. And while anyone can have an intellectual life, she encourages academics in particular to get back in touch with the desire to learn for its own sake, and calls on universities to return to the person-to-person transmission of the habits of mind and heart that bring out the best in us. Reminding us of who we once were and who we might become, Lost in Thought is a moving account of why renewing our inner lives is fundamental to preserving our humanity.

Our guest is: Dr. Zena Hitz, who is a Tutor in the great books program at St. John's College. She has a PhD in ancient philosophy from Princeton University and studies and teaches across the liberal arts. She is the founder of the Catherine Project, and the author of Lost in Thought.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor and grad student coach. She is the founder of the Academic Life project including this podcast, and writes the Academic Life Newsletter at ChristinaGessler.Substack.Com.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Please join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Every Purchase Matters: How Fair Trade Farmers, Companies, and Consumers are Changing the World

Tue, 12 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0000

We all have the power to change the world through the products we buy. This simple premise has driven the growth of the conscious consumer movement for decades. Indeed, what started with a handful of niche sustainability brands has exploded into the mainstream with labels like Organic, Non-GMO, and Fair Trade Certified now adorning products in major retailers across the country. Yet the true promise of ethical sourcing and conscious consumerism has not been fully realized. Paul Rice has dedicated his career to helping consumers and businesses embrace the power they have to protect the environment and improve the lives of farmers and workers on the far side of our global supply chains.
In Every Purchase Matters, Mr. Rice reveals the untold story of the Fair Trade movement and its significance for us all. Calling on the close relationships he cultivated over the last forty years with the pioneers of ethical sourcing—CEOs, activists, grassroots farmer leaders, and consumer advocates—Mr. Rice gives voice to the visionaries and practitioners who are making sustainable business the new normal. These protagonists share successes and failures, lessons learned, and their extraordinary impact in communities around the world. Their stories illuminate how sustainability is good not only for people and planet but also for business.

Our guest is: Paul Rice, who is the founder of Fair Trade USA and a pioneering figure in the conscious capitalism movement. He is the author of the national bestseller Every Purchase Matters.

Audio content correction: Dr. Gessler incorrectly stated that Mr. Rice worked in South America. He worked in Central America.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and the author of the show’s Substack newsletter. She is a developmental editor and writing coach for humanities scholars at all stages of their careers.

Playlist for listeners:

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Teacher by Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives

Thu, 07 Aug 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Teacher By Teacher traces the journey of the tenth U.S. Secretary of Education and is a deeply personal love letter to all the teachers in our lives. The story of John B. King Jr.’s inspiring path to President Obama’s Cabinet begins the day that his mother died. He insisted on going to school that day, knowing he would find comfort in his classroom. As he navigated living alone with a father dying from undiagnosed Alzheimer’s, it was public school teachers who saved his life, believed in him and saw his potential. They made school a safe, supportive, and engaging place where he could be a kid despite the challenges at home. While some might have dismissed a rebellious young Black and Puerto Rican teen whose life was in crisis, King’s teachers and counselors gave him a second chance. He went on to earn degrees from Harvard, Columbia, and Yale and committed his career to trying to do for other young people what educators did for him.

Teacher By Teacher shows how dedicated educators—both Dr. King’s own teachers and the phenomenal teachers who he has encountered throughout his career as a teacher, principal, and education policymaker—can profoundly shape the lives of their students.

Our guest is: Dr. John B. King Jr., who served in President Barack Obama’s cabinet as the tenth U.S. Secretary of Education. Over the course of his influential career in public education, he has been a high school teacher, a middle school principal, the first African American and Puerto Rican to serve as New York State Education Commissioner, a college professor, the president and CEO of the Education Trust, and the chancellor of the State University of New York (SUNY). His parents were career New York City public school educators. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife, an education researcher and former teacher, and his two daughters.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a writing coach and developmental editor. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast, and the author of the Academic Life newsletter found at christinagessler.substack.com.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Rehearsals for Dying

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Deena stepped out of the shower and opened her towel in the steam. “Does my breast look weird?” These words irrevocably change the lives of writer Ariel Gore and her wife. As they descend into a world of doctors and tests, medications and insurance, sickness and treatments and hope and pain and more, they discover just how little they truly knew—despite the awareness campaigns and hyper-visible pink ribbons—about the reality of breast cancer. Over the four years following Deena’s terminal diagnosis, Ariel Gore does what she always does, no matter how difficult or personal the subject: she writes about it.

Written with keen insights, empathy, and humor, Rehearsals for Dying braids together the story of Deena’s experience, her own role as a caretaker, narratives from others living with breast cancer, literary reflections on illness, and reportage on the history of breast cancer and the $200 billion industry that capitalizes on and profits from breast cancer screenings and treatments. Rehearsals for Dying investigates and challenges everything we think we know about breast cancer. It goes beyond awareness to knowledge, presenting a rich, nuanced, heartbreaking, and hopeful portrait of what it is to be diagnosed with, treat, and live with breast cancer in the twenty-first century.

Our guest is: Ariel Gore, who is the founding editor and publisher of the Alternative Press Award–winning magazine Hip Mama and the author of ten books of fiction and nonfiction, including Rehearsals for Dying. She teaches writing online at Ariel Gore’s School for Wayward Writers at the Literary Kitchen.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a writing coach and developmental editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Memoir playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Religion in the Lands That Became America

Tue, 29 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Until now, the standard narrative of American religious history has begun with English settlers in Jamestown or Plymouth and remained predominantly Protestant and Atlantic. Driven by his strong sense of the historical and moral shortcomings of the usual story, Thomas A. Tweed offers a very different narrative in this ambitious new history. He begins the story much earlier—11,000 years ago—at a rock shelter in present-day Texas and follows Indigenous Peoples, African Americans, transnational migrants, and people of many faiths as they transform the landscape and confront the big lifeway transitions, from foraging to farming and from factories to fiber optics.

Setting aside the familiar narrative themes, Dr. Tweed highlights sustainability, showing how religion both promoted and inhibited individual, communal, and environmental flourishing during three sustainability crises: the medieval Cornfield Crisis, which destabilized Indigenous ceremonial centers; the Colonial Crisis, which began with the displacement of Indigenous Peoples and the enslavement of Africans; and the Industrial Crisis, which brought social inequity and environmental degradation. The unresolved Colonial and Industrial Crises continue to haunt the nation, Dr. Tweed suggests, but he recovers historical sources of hope as he retells the rich story of America’s religious past.

Our guest is: Dr. Thomas A. Tweed, who is professor emeritus of American Studies and history at the University of Notre Dame. A past president of the American Academy of Religion, he is the editor of Retelling U.S. Religious History and the author numerous books including Religion: A Very Short Introduction, and Religion in the Lands That Became America.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in American history. She works as a grad student and dissertation coach, and is a developmental editor for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast and the author of the Academic Life newsletter, found at christinagessler.substack.com

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Entrepreneurial Scholar: A New Mindset for Success in Academia and Beyond

Thu, 24 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In the increasingly competitive world of academia, simply mastering your discipline is no longer enough to guarantee career success or personal fulfillment. The Entrepreneurial Scholar: A New Mindset for Success in Academia and Beyond (Princeton UP, 2025) challenges scholars at all stages—from doctoral students to tenured professors—to break free from conventional academic pathways by adopting an entrepreneurial mindset. What opportunities can you create based on who you are, what you know, and who you know?
Drawing on her experiences in higher education, start-ups, and management consulting, as well as interviews with a range of academics and entrepreneurs, Professor Ilana Horwitz provides a road map for those stifled by traditional academic norms and expectations. This book calls on scholars to create ideas—not just consume them. It offers strategies to thrive in academia with limited resources and in the face of uncertainty. Embracing an entrepreneurial mindset entails viewing yourself as a knowledge producer, enhancing collaboration, creatively identifying resources, and effectively sharing your ideas. Dr. Horwitz empowers all scholars—particularly women and first-generation, low-income, and BIPOC individuals—to see themselves as proactive agents in their educational and career trajectories, despite structural constraints, unclear expectations, or unresponsive advisors. With actionable advice, real-world applications, and inspiring success stories, this guide is vital for anyone aspiring to excel within and beyond the ivory tower.

Our guest is: Dr. Ilana M. Horwitz, who is assistant professor of Jewish studies and sociology and the Fields-Rayant Chair in Contemporary Jewish Life at Tulane University. She is also the author of God, Grades, and Graduation: Religion’s Surprising Impact on Academic Success.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator of the Academic Life podcast. She works as grad student coach and developmental editor for scholars in the humanities and social sciences. She writes the Academic Life newsletter, now available at christinagessler.substack.com.

Playlist:

The Connected PhD Part One

Leading from the Margins

My What-If Year: Internships As Career Exploration

Hope for the Humanities PhD

Making a "Junk Drawer" CV

Lessons in Launching An Online Conference

Before And After The Book Deal

Make Your Art No Matter What

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can help support the show by sharing episodes, and by following the Academic Life newsletter at christinagessler.substack.com. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Overcoming ABD Pitfalls: Tips for Getting Unstuck

Thu, 17 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0000

The ABD [All But Dissertation] phase can either feel liberating—no more coursework or comps!—or like the floor has dropped out. The scaffolding that prepared you for being a graduate assistant, passing comps or conducting your research gives way to a new, wide open space where you are just supposed to write. While some people will flourish in this unstructured writing space, others are left playing detective—how do you know when to approach advisors for feedback? How many times can you ask them to read something—and how far in advance should you ask? How long is the finished dissertation supposed to be?

The writing and revisions phase can become a path paved with uncertainty—and an unhealthy desire to overperform. If a good dissertation is just a done dissertation, what can students who can’t find [or afford] a dissertation coach do? In this episode, Dr. Ramon Goings joins Dr. Christina Gessler to share practical strategies they each use when coaching students from ABD to PhD. These actionable tips can help whether you want to create a dissertation-writing support group, seek a writing partner, or go it alone.

Our guest is: Dr. Ramon Goings, who is associate professor and Acting Director of the Language, Literacy, and Culture doctoral program. Dr. Goings is the author of over 50 scholarly publications including four books. He served as the Editor-In-Chief of the Journal of African American Males in Education from 2017-2020, was named a 2017 Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education, received the 2016 College Board Professional Fellowship, and was a fellow with the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for African Americans. He holds a Doctor of Education degree.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a dissertation and grad student coach, and a developmental editor for humanities scholars at all stages of their careers.

Playlist for listeners:

Your PhD Survival Guide

Get PhDone: Strategies for tackling your writing roadblocks

PhDing While Parenting

The Good Enough Life

Graduate Employability

Field Guide to Grad School

Graduate School Myths and Misconceptions

Managing Your Mental Health During Your PhD

Becoming the Writer You Already Are

Being Well in Academia: A Conversation About Challenges and Connections

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 275+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And get free bonus content on Christina Gessler PhD’s Substack.

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Decolonizing Ukraine: The Indigenous People of Crimea and Pathways to Freedom

Thu, 10 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Decolonizing Ukraine, by Dr. Greta Lynn Uehling, illuminates the untold stories of Russia's occupation of Crimea from 2014 to the present, revealing the traumas of colonization, foreign occupation, and population displacement. Drawing upon extensive fieldwork in Ukraine, including over 90 personal interviews, Dr. Uehling brings her readers into the lives of people who opposed Russia's Crimean operation, many of whom fled for government-controlled Ukraine. Via the narratives of people who traversed perilous geographies and world-altering events, Dr. Uehling traces the development of a new sense of social cohesion that encompasses diverse ethnic and religious groups. The result is a compelling story—one of resilience, transformation, and ultimately, the unwavering pursuit of freedom and autonomy for Ukraine, regardless of ethnicity or race. Decolonizing Ukraine: Indigenous People, Race, and the Pathway to Freedom demonstrates how understanding Crimea is essential to understanding Ukraine – and the war with Russia – today.

Our guest is: Dr. Greta Uehling, who is an anthropologist specializing in the study of war, conflict, and population displacement. A Professor at the University of Michigan, she teaches seminars on human rights and humanitarianism for the Program in International and Comparative Studies.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a writing coach and developmental editor. She is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

The First and Last King of Haiti

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance

Living Resistance

How We Show Up

Reunited

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Secrets of the Killing State

Thu, 03 Jul 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In the popular imagination, lethal injection is a slight pinch and a swift nodding off to forever-sleep. It is performed by well-qualified medical professionals. It is regulated and carefully conducted. And it provides a “humane” death. In reality, however, not one of those things is true. Secrets of the Killing State: The Untold Story of Lethal Injection (NYU Press, 2025) presents the view of lethal injection that states have worked hard to hide. The story told here is bigger than the executions themselves. Fake science, torturous drugs, inept executioners, prison problems, and decades of state secrecy have created an execution method hard-wired to go wrong in countless ways.
The story of lethal injection is a story of gross incompetence, law breaking, torturous deaths, and a stunning indifference to the way in which human beings die at the hands of the state. These are the secrets of the killing state—all that we know from litigation files, scientific studies, investigative journalism, autopsy reports, interviews, and scholarship across a number of fields. Death penalty expert Corinna Barrett Lain uses this groundbreaking journey into the dark reality of lethal injection to shine a light on the American death penalty more broadly and show that the state at its most powerful moment is also the state at its worst.

Our guest is: Professor Corinna Barrett Lain, who is S. D. Roberts & Sandra Moore Professor of Law at University of Richmond School of Law.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

The Journal of Higher Education in Prison

Hands Up, Don't Shoot

Freemans Challenge

Carceral Apartheid

Stitching Freedom

Education Behind The Wall

A Conversation About The Emerson Prison Initiative

Teaching About Race and Racism in the College Classroom

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Considering Leaving Academia?

Mon, 30 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Today we again explore what it means to leave academia, as Dr. Sophia Basaldua-Sun shares how an informational interview was key to her success in landing a job outside academia, and what her life in the world of publishing is like.

Leaving Academia is an ongoing sub-series with the Academic Life, with guests candidly sharing their decisions to stay in or leave academia – and where those decisions took them. We consider what going alt-ac means, whether going into admin keeps the academic spark alive, and how far afield people really go. Their decisions are personal, yet universal – how do you build the life you want to build? And how do you know if academia will allow you to do that?

Our guest is: Dr. Sophia Basaldua-Sun, who is the Associate Director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at Penguin Random House, in New York.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor for scholars, and is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide

PhD Employability: Struggles and Solutions

Making A "Junk Drawer" CV

Rejection Skills: How to Win or Learn

Decoding the admin job market

Hope for the Humanities PhD

When Life After Higher Education Doesn't Go As Planned

Leaving Academia: Pursuing Life Abroad

Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education

Should I Quit My PhD Program

The rejection that changed my life

Considering Whether To Stay Or Drop Out

The Connected PhD: Part One

The Connected PhD: Part Two

The Connected PhD: Part Three

Navigating the Community College Job Market

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America

Thu, 26 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America, (Harvard Education PR, 2024) Laura C. Chávez-Moreno uncovers the process through which schools implicitly and explicitly shape their students’ concept of race and the often unintentional consequences of this on educational equity. Dr. Chávez-Moreno sheds light on how the complex interactions among educational practices, policies, pedagogy, language, and societal ideas interplay to form, reinforce, and blur the boundaries of racialized groups, a dynamic which creates contradictions in classrooms and communities committed to antiracism. Dr. Chávez-Moreno urges readers to rethink race, to reconceptualize Latinx as a racialized group, and to pay attention to how schools construct Latinidad (a concept about Latinx experience and identity) in relation to Blackness, Indigeneity, Asianness, and Whiteness.

The work explores, as an example, how Spanish-English bilingual education programs engage in race-making work. It also illuminates how schools can offer ambitious teachings to raise their students’ critical consciousness about race and racialization. Ultimately, Dr. Chávez-Moreno’s groundbreaking work makes clear that understanding how our schools teach about racialized groups is crucial to understanding how our society thinks about race and offers solutions to racial inequities. The book invites educators and scholars to embrace ambitious teaching about the ambivalence of race so that teachers and students are prepared to interrogate racist ideas and act toward just outcomes.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Teaching About Race and Racism in the College Classroom

Transforming Hispanic Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice

We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States

Presumed Incompetent

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

Our guest is: Dr. Laura C. Chávez-Moreno, who is assistant professor in the César E. Chávez Department of Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the University of California Los Angeles. Her research has been recognized with multiple awards, including from the American Educational Research Association and the National Academy of Education/Spencer Foundation. She is the author of How Schools Make Race, winner of a 2025 AAHHE Book of the Year Award, and a 2025 Nautilus Silver Book Award.

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Trans Technologies

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0000

How can technology creates new possibilities for transgender people? How do trans experiences, in turn, create new possibilities for technology?

Trans Technologies, (MIT Press, 2025) by Dr. Oliver L. Haimson, explores how and why mainstream technologies often exclude or marginalize transgender users. Trans Technologies describes what happens when trans people take technology design into their own hands. Dr. Haimson, whose research into gender transition and technology has defined this area of study, draws on transgender studies and his own in-depth interviews with more than 100 creators of technology—including apps, games, health resources, extended reality systems, and supplies designed to address challenges trans people face—to explain what trans technology is and to explore its present possibilities and limitations, as well as its future prospects.
Dr. Haimson surveys the landscape of trans technologies to reveal the design processes that brought these technologies to life, and to show how trans people often must rely on community, technology, and the combination of the two to meet their basic needs and challenges. His work not only identifies the role of trans technology in caring for individuals within the trans community but also shows how trans technology creation empowers some trans people to create their own tools for navigating the world. Articulating which trans needs and challenges are currently being addressed by technology and which still need to be addressed; describing how trans technology creators are accomplishing this work; examining how privilege, race, and access to resources impact which trans technologies are built and who may be left out; and highlighting new areas of innovation to be explored, Trans Technologies opens the way to meaningful social change.

Our guest is: Dr. Oliver Haimson, who is an Assistant Professor at University of Michigan School of Information (UMSI) where he directs the Community Research on Identity and Technology (CRIT) Lab, and is affiliate faculty with the Digital Studies Institute (DSI) and a Senior Fellow at the Center for Applied Transgender Studies (CATS). He is a recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER award, and a Henry Russel Award.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

More Than A Glitch

Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World

He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters

Raising Them

Public Scholarship and Feminist Communications

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In our fast-changing world, leaders are increasingly confronted by messy, multifaceted challenges that require collaboration to resolve. But the standard methods for tackling these challenges—meetings packed with data-drenched presentations or brainstorming sessions that circle back to nowhere—just don’t deliver. Great strategic conversations generate breakthrough insights by combining the best ideas of people with different backgrounds and perspectives. In Moments of Impact, two experts “crack the code” on what it takes to design creative, collaborative problem-solving sessions that soar rather than sink. Drawing on decades of experience as innovation strategists—and supported by cutting-edge social science research, dozens of real-life examples, and interviews with well over 100 thought leaders, executives, and fellow practitioners— they unveil a simple, creative process that leaders and their teams can use to unlock solutions to their most vexing issues. The book also includes a 60 page “Starter Kit” full of tools and tips for putting the book’s core principles into practice.

Our guest is: Lisa Kay Solomon, who is a bestselling author, strategic foresight designer, speaker, and award winning innovator. She is a Designer in Residence and Lecturer at the Stanford d.school, where she leads their futures work and teaches popular classes like “Inventing the future” and “View from the future,” that help leaders and learners learn skills to build agency and navigate ambiguity amid increasingly complex futures. She is the co-founder of award-winning civic initiatives like “Vote by Design: Presidential Edition,” The Team’s “All Vote No Play” civic programming for student athletes, and, “The Futures Happening: Democracy Edition.” She co-authored the bestselling books Moments of Impact, and Design A Better Business which has been translated into over a dozen languages.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor for scholars, and is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Imposter Syndrome

Belonging

Transforming Hispanic Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice

Black Woman on Board

We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States

Leading from the Margins

Presumed Incompetent

Working Toward Diversity and Inclusion

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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The Freedom Academy

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0000

When Professor Asha Rangappa began posting online about the lessons she was teaching in the Yale University course on Russian intelligence and information warfare, the public took notice. Many reached out for a copy of the syllabus, and began lamenting that they couldn’t take her course. This led to the creation of a series of free lessons and presentations for the public through The Freedom Academy – which is Professor Rangappa’s popular Substack.

In this episode, we unpack key concepts taught by The Freedom Academy, including: how propaganda reaches us; the Alien Enemies Act of 1798; due process; civic literacy; the characteristics of truth tellers; transparency and accountability as pillars of democracy; and what happens when public trust erodes.

Our guest is: Asha Rangappa, who is assistant dean and a senior lecturer at Yale University’s Jackson School of Global Affairs and a former Associate Dean at Yale Law School. Prior to her current position, Asha served as a Special Agent in the New York Division of the FBI, specializing in counterintelligence investigations. Her work involved assessing threats to national security, conducting classified investigations on suspected foreign agents and performing undercover work. While in the FBI, Asha gained experience in electronic surveillance, interview and interrogation techniques, firearms and the use of deadly force. She received her law degree from Yale Law School where she was a Coker Fellow in Constitutional Law, and served as a law clerk to the Honorable Juan R. Torruella on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She is admitted to the State Bar of New York (2003) and Connecticut (2003). Asha has published op-eds in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post among others and is currently a legal contributor for ABC News. She is on the board of editors of Just Security and a member of the Council of Foreign Relations. She created the popular Substack called The Freedom Academy.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. She works as a developmental editor for scholarly projects.

Playlist for listeners:

Immigration Realities

Understanding Disinformation

The Ungrateful Refugee

Where is home?

Who gets believed?

Belonging

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Brittany Friedman, "Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons" (UNC Press, 2025)

Thu, 05 Jun 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons, Dr. Brittany Friedman delves into how the California Department of Corrections deployed various official, clandestine, and at times extralegal control techniques—including officer alliances with imprisoned white supremacists—to suppress Black political movements, revealing the broader themes of deception, empire, corruption, and white supremacy in American mass incarceration. Drawing from original interviews with founders of Black political movements such as the Black Guerilla Family, white supremacists, and a swath of little-known archival data, Dr. Friedman uncovers how the US domestic war against imprisoned Black people models and perpetuates genocide, imprisonment, and torture abroad.

This episode considers: what the official records omit, how the questions we ask guide the answers we find, pattern mapping, racial categorization systems, surveillance mechanisms, the importance of outsider archives, protecting your sources, and why we need to awaken.

Our guest is: Dr. Brittany Friedman, who is assistant professor of sociology at the University of Southern California.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor for scholars, and is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

The Social Constructions of Race

Hands Up, Don't Shoot

The Names of All the Flowers

Freemans Challenge

Stitching Freedom

The Emerson Prison Initiative

The Journal of Higher Education in Prison

Education Behind The Wall

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can help to support the show by posting about, downloading, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio

Thu, 29 May 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Bands like R.E.M., U2, Public Enemy, and Nirvana found success as darlings of college radio, but the extraordinary influence of these stations and their DJs on musical culture since the 1970s was anything but inevitable. As media deregulation and political conflict over obscenity and censorship transformed the business and politics of culture, students and community DJs turned to college radio to defy the mainstream—and they ended up disrupting popular music and commercial radio in the process. In this first history of US college radio, Katherine Rye Jewell reveals that these eclectic stations in major cities and college towns across the United States owed their collective cultural power to the politics of higher education as much as they did to upstart bohemian music scenes coast to coast. Dr. Jewell uncovers how battles to control college radio were about more than music—they were an influential, if unexpected, front in the nation’s culture wars. These battles created unintended consequences and overlooked contributions to popular culture that students, DJs, and listeners never anticipated. More than an ode to beloved stations, this book will resonate with both music fans and observers of the politics of culture.

Our guest is: Dr. Katherine Rye Jewell, who is a historian and a professor at Fitchburg State University. She writes about the intersection of business, politics, and culture, and is the author of Live From the Underground: A History of College Radio (University of North Carolina Press, 2023).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a freelance book editor and dissertation coach. She is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

100 Years of Radio in South Africa

Interview with NPR host Celeste Headlee

A Conversation with Marshall Poe about founding the NBN

A conversation with tuba professor Richard A. White

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Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine

Thu, 22 May 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In 1845, European potato fields from Spain to Scandinavia were attacked by a novel pathogen. But it was only in Ireland, then part of the United Kingdom, that the blight’s devastation reached apocalyptic levels, leaving more than a million people dead and forcing millions more to emigrate.

In Rot, historian Padraic X. Scanlan offers the definitive account of the Great Famine, showing how Ireland’s place in the United Kingdom and the British Empire made it uniquely vulnerable to starvation. Ireland’s overreliance on the potato was a desperate adaptation to an unstable and unequal marketplace created by British colonialism. The empire’s laissez-faire economic policies saw Ireland exporting livestock and grain even as its people starved. When famine struck, relief efforts were premised on the idea that only free markets and wage labor could save the Irish. Ireland’s wretchedness, before and during the Great Famine, was often blamed on Irish backwardness, but in fact, it resulted from the British Empire’s embrace of modern capitalism. Uncovering the disaster’s roots in Britain’s deep imperial faith in markets, commerce, and capitalism, Rot reshapes our understanding of the Great Famine and its tragic legacy.

Our guest is: Dr. Padraic X. Scanlan, who is an associate professor at the Centre for Industrial Relations and Human Resources and the Centre for Diaspora & Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Guardian, the Times Literary Supplement, and the New Inquiry. The author of two previous books, he lives in Toronto.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a freelance editor. She the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Academic Librarians: A Discussion with Karen McCoy

Thu, 15 May 2025 08:00:00 -0000

The library is an important partner in academic success for students and professors. So why do so many people overlook this key resource? Karen McCoy takes us inside her job on two college campuses, unpacking what librarians do, and why she’s so happy to help everyone find exactly what they need.

Our guest is: Karen B. McCoy, who is a librarian currently living in Northern California. Most days, she can be found answering reference questions or conducting information literacy sessions in both the Sierra College Library and American River College Library. Outside of her librarian career, she maintains a blog where she interviews other authors. She has reviewed books for Library Journal and Children’s Literature, and she sold a feature article to School Library Journal entitled, “What Teens are Really Reading.” She also contributed a chapter to Now Write! Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Horror. Her debut novel, The Etiquette of Voles, releases in June 2025 through Artemesia Publishing/Kinkajou Press.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a freelance editor for scholarly projects. She is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Living Right: Far Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe

Thu, 08 May 2025 08:00:00 -0000

What is the growing appeal of fascist idealism for young people? Why is radical nationalism on the rise in Europe and throughout the world? In Living Right: Far Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe (Princeton UP, 2024), Dr. Agnieszka Pasieka provides an in-depth account of the ideas and practices that are driving the varied forms of far-right activism by young people from all walks of life, revealing how these social movements offer the promise of comradery, purpose, and a moral calling to self-sacrifice, and demonstrating how far-right ideas are understood and lived in ways that speak to a variety of experiences. Dr. Agnieszka Pasieka draws on her own sometimes harrowing fieldwork among Italian, Polish, and Hungarian militant youths, painting unforgettable portraits of students, laborers, entrepreneurs, musicians, and activists from well-off middle class backgrounds who have all found a nurturing home in the far right. With a focus on far-right morality that challenges commonly held ideas about the right, Dr. Pasieka describes how far-right movements afford opportunities to the young to be active members of tightly bonded comradeships while sharing in a broader project with global ramifications.

In this episode we consider: the power of listening, locating and unpacking complexities, navigating field work, and handling difficult situations.

Our guest is: Dr. Agnieszka Pasieka, who is a sociocultural anthropologist. Before joining the University of Montreal, she was a senior research fellow at the University of Vienna and held guest lecturer and guest professor positions at various universities: Central European University, University of Bayreuth, Dartmouth College, and Yale University. She is the author of Living right: far-right youth activists in contemporary Europe, published by Princeton University Press in 2024.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor for scholars, and is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can help support the show by downloading, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

You Have More Influence Than You Think

Thu, 01 May 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In Y ou Have More Influence Than You Think (Norton, 2023) social psychologist Vanessa Bohns draws from her original research to illustrate why we fail to recognize the influence we have, and how that lack of awareness can lead us to miss opportunities or accidentally misuse our power. Weaving together compelling stories with cutting edge science, Dr. Bohns answers the questions we all want to know (but may be afraid to ask): How much did she take to heart what I said earlier? Do they know they can push back on my suggestions? Did he notice whether I was there today? Will they agree to help me if I ask?

Whether attending a meeting, sharing a post online, or mustering the nerve to ask for a favor, we often assume our actions, input, and requests will be overlooked or rejected. Bohns and her work demonstrate that people see us, listen to us, and agree to do things for us much more than we realize—for better, and worse. You Have More Influence Than You Think offers science-based strategies for observing the effect we have on others, reconsidering our fear of rejection, and even, sometimes, pulling back to use our influence less. It is a call to stop searching for ways to gain influence you don’t have and to start recognizing the influence you don’t realize you already have.

Our guest is: Dr. Vanessa Bohns, who is the Braunstein Family Professor and Chair of Organizational Behavior at Cornell University’s ILR School. Professor Bohns holds a PhD in Psychology from Columbia University and an AB from Brown University. Her research has been published in top academic journals in psychology, management, and law, and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic and The Economist, among others. She is the author of You Have More Influence Than You Think.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor. She is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0000

When it comes to Confederate monuments, there is no common ground. Polarizing debates over their meaning have intensified into legislative maneuvering to preserve the statues, legal battles to remove them, and rowdy crowds taking matters into their own hands. These conflicts have raged for well over a century—but they've never been as intense as they are today.

In No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice (UNC Press, 2021), Dr. Karen L. Cox offers an eye-opening narrative of the efforts to raise, preserve, protest, and remove Confederate monuments. Dr. Cox depicts what these statues meant to those who erected them and how a movement arose to force a reckoning. She shows the forces that drove white southerners to construct beacons of white supremacy, as well as the ways that anti-monument sentiment, largely stifled during the Jim Crow era, returned with the civil rights movement and gathered momentum in the decades after the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Monument defenders responded with gerrymandering and "heritage" laws intended to block efforts to remove these statues, but hard as they worked to preserve the Lost Cause vision of southern history, civil rights activists, Black elected officials, and movements of ordinary people fought harder to take the story back. Timely, accessible, and essential, No Common Ground is the story of the seemingly invincible stone sentinels that are just beginning to fall from their pedestals.

Our guest is: Dr. Karen L. Cox, who is professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her other books include Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture and Dixie's Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor for scholars, and is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can help support the show by downloading, assigning and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves

Thu, 24 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Ages before the dawn of modern medicine, wild animals were harnessing the power of nature’s pharmacy to heal themselves. In Doctors by Nature (Princeton UP, 2025), Dr. Jaap de Roode argues that we have underestimated the healing potential of nature for too long and shows how the study of self-medicating animals could impact the practice of human medicine. Drawing on illuminating interviews with leading scientists from around the globe as well as his own pioneering research on monarch butterflies, Dr. de Roode demonstrates how animals of all kinds—from ants to apes, from bees to bears, and from cats to caterpillars—use various forms of medicine to treat their own ailments and those of their relatives. We meet apes that swallow leaves to dislodge worms, sparrows that use cigarette butts to repel parasites, and bees that incorporate sticky resin into their hives to combat pathogens.

Dr. De Roode asks whether these astonishing behaviors are learned or innate and explains why, now more than ever, we need to apply the lessons from medicating animals—it can pave the way for healthier livestock, more sustainable habitats for wild pollinators, and a host of other benefits. Doctors by Nature takes readers into a realm often thought to be the exclusive domain of humans, exploring how scientists are turning to the medical knowledge of the animal kingdom to improve agriculture, create better lives for our pets, and develop new pharmaceutical drugs.

Our guest is: Dr. Jaap de Roode, who is the Samuel Candler Dobbs Professor of Biology at Emory University, where he is director of the Infectious Diseases across Scales Training Program, which trains graduate students in interdisciplinary science to study and control infectious disease.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor for scholars, and is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

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Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0000

In 2012, Steve Green, billionaire and president of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores, announced a recent purchase of a Biblical artefact—a fragment of papyrus, just discovered, carrying lines from Paul's letter to the Romans, and dated to the second century CE. Noted scholar Roberta Mazza was stunned. When was this piece discovered, and how could Green acquire such a rare item? The answers, which Mazza spent the next ten years uncovering, came as a shock: the fragment had come from a famous collection held at Oxford University, and its rightful owners had no idea it had been sold. The letter to the Romans was not the only extraordinary piece in the Green collection. They soon announced newly recovered fragments from the Gospels and writings of Sappho. Dr. Mazza's quest to confirm the provenance of these priceless fragments revealed shadowy global networks that make big business of ancient manuscripts, from the Greens' Museum of the Bible and world-famous auction houses like Sotheby's and Christie's, to antique shops in Jerusalem and Istanbul, dealers on eBay, and into the collections of renowned museums and universities.

Dr. Mazza's investigation informs her book, Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts (Redwood Press, 2024), and forces us to ask what happens when the supposed custodians of our ancient heritage act in ways that threaten to destroy it. Stolen Fragments illuminates how these recent dealings are not isolated events, but the inevitable result of longstanding colonial practices and the outcome of generations of scholars who have profited from extracting the cultural heritage of places they claim they wish to preserve. Where is the boundary between protection and exploitation, between scholarship and larceny?

Our guest is: Dr. Roberta Mazza, who is Associate Professor of Papyrology at the University of Bologna. She previously held positions at the University of Manchester, where she was honorary curator of the Manchester Museum, and at the University of California, Berkeley.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor for scholars, and is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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What Might Be: Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions

Thu, 10 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Leaders who introduce anti-racist approaches to their organizations often face backlash. In What Might Be: Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions (Princeton UP, 2025), Susan Sturm explores how to navigate the contradictions built into our racialized history, relationships, and institutions. She offers strategies and stories for confronting racism within predominantly white institutions, describing how change agents can move beyond talk to build the architecture of full participation. Professor Sturm argues that although we cannot avoid the contradictions built into efforts to confront racism, we can make them into engines of cross-racial reflection, bridge building, and institutional reimagination, rather than falling into a Groundhog Day–like trap of repeated failures.

Drawing on her decades of experience researching and working with institutions to help them become more equitable and inclusive, she identifies three persistent paradoxes inherent in anti-racism work. These are the paradox of racialized power, whereby anti-racism requires white people to lean into and yet step back from exercising power; the paradox of racial salience, which means that effective efforts must explicitly name and address race while also framing their goals in universal terms other than race; and the paradox of racialized institutions, which must drive anti-racism work while simultaneously being the target of it. Sturm shows how people and institutions can cultivate the capacity to straddle these contradictions, enabling those in different racial positions to discover their linked fate and become the catalysts for long-term change. The book includes thoughtful and critical responses from Goodwin Liu, Freeman Hrabowski, and Anurima Bhargava.

Our guest is: Professor Susan Sturm, who is the George M. Jaffin Professor of Law and Social Responsibility and the Founding Director of the Center for Institutional and Social Change at Columbia Law School. She is the coauthor with Lani Guinier, of Who's Qualified? A New Democracy Forum on the Future of Affirmative Action.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor for scholars, and is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Playlist for listeners:

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Womanist Bioethics: Social Justice, Spirituality, and Black Women's Health

Thu, 03 Apr 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Black people, and especially Black women, suffer and die from diseases at much higher rates than their white counterparts. The vast majority of these health disparities are not attributed to behavioral differences or biology, but to the pervasive devaluation of Black bodies. Womanist Bioethics: Social Justice, Spirituality, and Black Women’s Health (NYU Press, 2025), by Dr. Wylin D. Wilson, addresses this crisis from a bioethical standpoint. It offers a critique of mainstream bioethics as having embraced the perspective of its mainly white, male progenitors, limiting the extent to which it is positioned to engage the issues that particularly affect vulnerable populations. This book makes the provocative but essential case that because African American women—across almost every health indicator—fare worse than others, we must not only include, but center, Black women’s experiences and voices in bioethics discourse and practice.

Womanist Bioethics develops the first specifically womanist form of bioethics, focused on the diverse vulnerabilities and multiple oppressions that women of color face. This innovative womanist bioethics is grounded in the Black Christian prophetic tradition, based on the ideas that God does not condone oppression and that it is imperative to defend those who are vulnerable. It also draws on womanist theology and Black liberation theology, which take similar stances. At its core, the volume offers a new, broad-based approach to bioethics that is meant as a corrective to mainstream bioethics’ privileging of white, particularly male, experiences, and it outlines ways in which hospitals, churches, and the larger community can better respond to the healthcare needs of Black women.

Our guest is: Dr. Wylin D. Wilson, who is associate professor of theological ethics at Duke Divinity School. Her work lies at the intersection of religion, gender, and bioethics. Her academic interests also include rural bioethics and Black church studies. Prior to joining Duke Divinity School in 2020, she was a teaching faculty member at the Harvard Medical School Center for Bioethics and a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard Divinity School. She is the theologian-in-residence for the Children's Defense Fund and is a member of the American Academy of Religion’s Bioethics and Religion Program Unit Steering Committee. Among her publications is her book, Economic Ethics and the Black Church.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator and producer of the Academic

Life podcast.

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0000

For many, technology offers hope for the future―that promise of shared human flourishing and liberation that always seems to elude our species. Artificial intelligence (AI) technologies spark this hope in a particular way. They promise a future in which human limits and frailties are finally overcome―not by us, but by our machines. Yet rather than open new futures, today's powerful AI technologies reproduce the past. Forged from oceans of our data into immensely powerful but flawed mirrors, they reflect the same errors, biases, and failures of wisdom that we strive to escape. Our new digital mirrors point backward. They show only where the data say that we have already been, never where we might venture together for the first time. To meet today's grave challenges to our species and our planet, we will need something new from AI, and from ourselves.

In The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking (Oxford UP, 2024), Shannon Vallor makes a wide-ranging, prophetic, and philosophical case for what AI could be: a way to reclaim our human potential for moral and intellectual growth, rather than lose ourselves in mirrors of the past. Rejecting prophecies of doom, she encourages us to pursue technology that helps us recover our sense of the possible, and with it the confidence and courage to repair a broken world. Professor Vallor calls us to rethink what AI is and can be, and what we want to be with it.

Our guest is: Professor Shannon Vallor, who is the Baillie Gifford Professor in the Ethics of Data and AI at the University of Edinburgh, where she directs the Centre for Technomoral Futures in the Edinburgh Futures Institute. She is a standing member of Stanford's One Hundred Year Study of Artificial Intelligence (AI100) and member of the Oversight Board of the Ada Lovelace Institute. Professor Vallor joined the Futures Institute in 2020 following a career in the United States as a leader in the ethics of emerging technologies, including a post as a visiting AI Ethicist at Google from 2018-2020. She is the author of The AI Mirror: Reclaiming Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking; and Technology and the Virtues: A Philosophical Guide to a Future Worth Wanting; and is the editor of The Oxford Handbook of Philosophy of Technology. She serves as advisor to government and industry bodies on responsible AI and data ethics, and is Principal Investigator and Co-Director of the UKRI research programme BRAID (Bridging Responsible AI Divides), funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator and producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Project Management for Researchers

Thu, 20 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Our book is: Project Management for Researchers: A Practical, Stress-Free Guide to Getting Organized (U Michigan Press, 2025), by Dr. Shiri Noy, which tackles the how, what, and why of project management. It offers step-by-step guidance on choosing tools and developing a personalized system that will help the reader manage and organize their research so that steps and decisions are documented for accountability and reproducibility. Readers will find worksheets they can adapt to their own needs, priorities, and research as well as practical tips on issues ranging from emails to scheduling. Suitable for work across methods, experience levels, and disciplines and adaptable for those working alone, with others, or as team managers, this book will guide readers between various research stages–from planning, to execution, to adjustment of research projects big and small.

The worksheets discussed in the episode can be found here.

Our guest is: Dr. Shiri Noy, who is Associate Professor of Sociology at Denison University. Her research and teaching interests are primarily in political sociology, and centered on development, science and religion, and mixed methods. She is the author of Banking on Health: The World Bank and Health Sector Reform in Latin America, and Project Management for Researchers: A Practical, Stress-Free Guide to Getting Organized.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator and executive producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 250+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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The Burnout Workbook

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 08:00:00 -0000

Our book is: The Burnout Workbook, by Drs. Amelia Nagoski and Emily Nagoski, the experts behind the New York Times bestselling book Burnout. This interactive workbook is designed to help you solve the cycle of overwhelm and exhaustion and empower yourself to create positive change. We all want to achieve wellness. But wellness is not a state of mind or a state of being—it’s a state of action. It’s the freedom to oscillate through all the cycles of being human: from effort to rest, sleeping to waking, autonomy to connection. Burnout, on the other hand, happens when we get stuck. The Burnout Workbook will help you notice when you get stuck and show you how to get unstuck. Inside it you’ll find engaging questions, exercises to practice skills, visual guides, stories, and more! Feel better, minimize stress, manage your emotions, and live a more joyful life. Whether or not you've read Burnout, this workbook will help you learn what true wellness can look like in your life.

You can find a worksheet from the book here.

Our guest is: Dr. Amelia Nagoski. She holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts, and was an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Music at Western New England University. Her job is to run around waving her arms and making funny noises and generally doing whatever it takes to help singers get in touch with their internal experience.

The co-author is: Dr. Emily Nagoski, who is the award-winning author of Come as You Are; and Come Together; and co-author of Burnout, and The Burnout Workbook. She earned an MS in counseling and a PhD in health behavior, both from Indiana University, with clinical and research training at the Kinsey Institute. Her job is to travel all over the world, training therapists, medical professionals, college students, and the general public about the science of women’s sexual wellbeing.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator and producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

How Can Mindfulness Help

Meditation For Beginners

Getting From To-Do to Done!

Attention Skills

You Will Get Through This

Imposter Syndrome

Leaving Academia: Pursuing Life Abroad

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Teaching With Positive Psychology Skills

Thu, 06 Mar 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Studies show that students who have a positive outlook on their lives outperform students who don’t. Is positive thinking a skill? Can it be taught?

Our article is: “Teaching Positive Psychology Skills at school may be one way to help student mental health and happiness,” by Dr. Kai Zhuang Shum, published in The Conversation, which explores how the components of happiness and connection can be applied to classroom settings around the world. Amid the reduced access to mental health services for many students, and the rising rates of student stress and depression, researchers are finding that positive psychology interventions make a real difference. “Students who’ve been introduced to science-based ideas about happiness,” Dr. Shum writes, “feel more satisfied with life.” She joins us for this episode to explain more.

Our guest is: Dr. Kai Zhuang Shum, who is a Nationally Certified School Psychologist (NCSP) and a Licensed Psychologist. She serves as an assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Knoxville School Psychology Program. She specializes in positive psychology, motivation, anxiety (including OCD), attention, time management, and well-being (happiness).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator, producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 240+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Big Box USA: The Environmental Impact of America's Biggest Retail Stores

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Our book is: Big Box USA: The Environmental Impact of America’s Biggest Retail Stores (UP of Colorado, 2024) which presents a new look at how the big box retail store has dramatically reshaped the US economy and its ecosystems in the last half century. From the rural South to the frigid North, from inside stores to ecologies far beyond, this book examines the relationships that make up one of the most visible features of late twentieth-century and early twenty-first-century American life. The rise of big box retail since the 1960s has transformed environments on both local and global scales. Almost everyone has explored the aisles of big box stores. The allure of “everyday low prices” and brightly colored products of every kind connect shoppers with a global marketplace. Contributors join a growing conversation between business and environmental history, addressing the ways American retail institutions have affected physical and cultural ecologies around the world. Essays on Walmart, Target, Cabela’s, REI, and Bass Pro Shops assess the “bigness” of these superstores from “smokestacks to coat racks” and contend that their ecological impacts are not limited to the footprints of parking lots and manufacturing but also play a didactic role in educating consumers about their relationships with the environment. A model for historians seeking to bring business and environmental histories together in their analyses of merchant capital’s role in the landscapes of everyday life and how it has remade human relationships with nature, Big Box USA is a must-read for students and scholars of the environment, business, sustainability, retail professionals, and a general audience.

Our guest is: Dr. Rachel Gross, who is assistant professor of history at the University of Colorado Denver, where she teaches US environmental, business, and public history. She works with university and community partners to bring history into the public realm. She is the author of Shopping All the Way to the Woods: How the Outdoor Industry Sold Nature to America, and the co-editor of Big Box USA: The Environmental Impact of America’s Biggest Retail Stores.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator, producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast. She uses her PhD in history to explore what stories we tell, and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 240+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at the New Yorker

Wed, 19 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Our book is: The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at the New Yorker (Mariner Books, 2024) by Dr. Amy Reading, which is a lively and intimate biography of trailblazing and era-defining New Yorker editor Katharine S. White. White helped build the magazine’s prestigious legacy and transform the 20th century literary landscape for women. In the summer of 1925, Katharine Sergeant Angell White walked into The New Yorker’s midtown office and left with a job as an editor. The magazine was only a few months old. Over the next thirty-six years, White would transform the publication into a literary powerhouse.

This exquisite biography brings to life the remarkable relationships White fostered with her writers and how these relationships nurtured an astonishing array of literary talent. She edited a young John Updike, to whom she sent seventeen rejections before a single acceptance, as well as Vladimir Nabokov, with whom she fought incessantly, urging that he drop needlessly obscure, confusing words. White’s biggest contribution, however, was her cultivation of women writers whose careers were made at The New Yorker—Janet Flanner, Mary McCarthy, Elizabeth Bishop, Jean Stafford, Nadine Gordimer, Elizabeth Taylor, Emily Hahn, Kay Boyle, and more. She cleared their mental and financial obstacles, introduced them to each other, and helped them create now classic stories and essays. She propelled these women to great literary heights and, in the process, reinvented the role of the editor, transforming the relationship to be not just a way to improve a writer’s work but also their life. Based on years of scrupulous research, acclaimed author Amy Reading creates a rare and deeply intimate portrait of a prolific editor—through both her incredible tenure at The New Yorker, and her famous marriage to E.B. White—and reveals how she transformed our understanding of literary culture and community.

Our guest is: Dr. Amy Reading. Her book, The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at The New Yorker, is a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography. She is also the author of The Mark Inside: A Perfect Swindle, a Cunning Revenge, and a Small History of the Big Con. Her work has been supported by fellowships from the National Endowment of the Humanities and the New York Public Library, among others. She lives in upstate New York, where she serves on the board of her local independent bookstore, Buffalo Street Books.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 240+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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The Vice President's Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn

Thu, 13 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Our book is: The Vice President's Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn (University of North Carolina Press, 2023) by award-winning historian Dr. Amrita Chakrabarti Myers. Dr. Myers has recovered the riveting, troubling, and complicated story of Julia Ann Chinn (ca. 1796–1833), the enslaved wife of Richard Mentor Johnson. Johnson was the owner of Blue Spring Farm, a veteran of the War of 1812, and the US vice president under Martin Van Buren. Johnson never freed Chinn, but during his frequent absences from his estate, he delegated to her the management of his property, including Choctaw Academy, a boarding school for Indigenous men and boys on the grounds of the estate. This meant that Chinn, although enslaved herself, oversaw Blue Spring's slave labor force and had substantial control over economic, social, financial, and personal affairs within the couple's world. Chinn's relationship with Johnson was unlikely to have been consensual since she was never manumitted. What makes Chinn's life exceptional is the power that Johnson invested in her, the opportunities the couple's relationship afforded her and her daughters, and their community's tacit acceptance of the family—up to a point. When the family left their farm, they faced steep limits: pews at the rear of the church, burial in separate graveyards, exclusion from town dances, and more. Johnson’s relationship with Chinn ruined his political career but as Dr. Myers compellingly demonstrates, it wasn't interracial sex that led to his downfall but his refusal to keep it—and Julia Chinn—behind closed doors.

Our guest is: Dr. Amrita Chakrabarti Myers, who is the Ruth N. Halls Professor of History and Director of Graduate Studies at Indiana University, Bloomington. She is the author of Forging Freedom: Black Women and the Pursuit of Liberty in Antebellum Charleston, and The Vice President's Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator, producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by sharing episodes. Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 240+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Thanks to Life: A Biography of Violeta Parra

Thu, 06 Feb 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Our book is: Thanks to Life: A Biography of Violeta Parra (UNC Press, 2025), by Ericka Verba, which explores the life of Chilean musician and artist Violeta Parra (1917–1967). Parra is an inspiration to generations of artists and activists across the globe. Her music is synonymous with resistance, and it animated both the Chilean folk revival and the protest music movement Nueva Canción (New Song). Her renowned song "Gracias a la vida" has been covered countless times, including by Joan Baez, Mercedes Sosa, and Kacey Musgraves. A self-taught visual artist, Parra was the first Latin American to have a solo exhibition at the Museum of Decorative Arts in the Louvre. In this remarkable biography, Dr. Ericka Verba traces Parra's radical life and multifaceted artistic trajectory across Latin America and Europe and on both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Drawing on decades of research, Dr. Verba paints a vivid and nuanced picture of Parra's life. From her modest beginnings in southern Chile to her untimely death, Parra was an exceptionally complex and talented woman who exposed social injustice in Latin America to the world through her powerful and poignant songwriting. This examination of her creative, political, and personal life, flaws and all, illuminates the depth and agency of Parra's journey as she invented and reinvented herself in her struggle to be recognized as an artist on her own terms.

CW: suicide

Our guest is: Dr. Ericka Verba, who is Director and Professor of Latin American Studies at California State University, Los Angeles. She has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mellon Foundation, the Social Science Research Council, the Fulbright, and the Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. She is a founding member of SCALAS (Southern California Association of Latin American Studies) and the recipient of the E. Bradford Burns Award for service to the Pacific Coast Council on Latin American Studies. She is the author of the book Thanks to Life: A Biography of Violeta Parra.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator, producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 240+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Understanding Disinformation

Thu, 30 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0000

How do we discern what is factual from what isn’t? In this episode, Dr. Colleen Sinclair joins us to discuss the functions of disinformation, and to unpack how our own biases, emotions and vulnerabilities influence what we are willing to believe.

Our guest is: Dr. H. Colleen Sinclair, Associate Research Professor of Social Psychology at Louisiana State University. She takes a theory-grounded, multi-method approach to tackling social issues. She works on: understanding the hazards of the information highway, including dis/misinformation; investigating means to improve equity and access in educational, policy, and correctional settings; and examining challenges within intergroup and interpersonal relations. She is the author of “Seven Ways to Avoid Becoming a Misinformation Superspreader,” and “Disinformation Is Rampant On Social Media,” both published in The Conversation, as well as book chapters, and other publications.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator, producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by downloading or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 240+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe

Thu, 23 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Henry Christophe was born to an enslaved mother on the Caribbean island of Grenada, and fought to overthrow the British in North America before helping his fellow enslaved Africans in Saint-Domingue—as Haiti was then called—to end slavery. He rose to power and became their king. In his time, he was popular and famous the world over. So how did he become an enigma?

In The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe, Dr. Marlene L. Daut reclaims the life story of this controversial revolutionary and only king of Haiti, drawing from a trove of previously overlooked sources to paint a captivating history of his life and the awe-inspiring kingdom he built. Peeling back the layers of myth and misconception reveals a man driven by both noble ideals and profound flaws, as unforgettable as he is enigmatic. More than just a biography, The First and Last King of Haiti is an exploration of power, ambition, and the human spirit. From his pivotal role in the Haitian Revolution to his coronation as king and eventual demise, this book is testament to the enduring allure of those who dare to defy the odds and shape the course of nations. The First and Last King of Haiti is a story of not only geopolitical clashes on a grand scale but also of friendship and loyalty, treachery and betrayal, heroism and strife in an era of revolutionary upheaval.

Our guest is: Dr. Marlene Daut, who is Professor of French and African Diaspora Studies at Yale University. Her books include Baron de Vastey and the Origins of Black Atlantic Humanism; Tropics of Haiti: Race and the Literary History of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, 1789–1865; Awakening the Ashes: An Intellectual History of the Haitian Revolution; and The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe. She is co-editor of the Haitian Revolutionary Fictions: An Anthology, and her articles have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Nation, Essence Magazine, Harper’s Bazaar, The Conversation, New Literary History, Nineteenth-Century Literature, and Comparative Literature, among others. She is the co-creator and co-editor of H-Net Commons’ digital platform, H-Haiti.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator and producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners might also enjoy:

We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance
Never Caught, with Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Selling Anti-Slavery
Running From Bondage
Leading from the Margins
Shoutin in the Fire
Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by sharing episodes. Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 240+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Tara Dorabji, "Call Her Freedom" (Simon and Schuster, 2025)

Thu, 16 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0000

In this episode, we explore one woman’s struggle to protect her culture and her family amidst the backdrop of a military occupation.

Our book is: Call Her Freedom (Simon and Schuster, 2025), by Tara Dorabji, which is set in the foothills of the Himalayas, where the picturesque mountain village of Poshkarbal is home to lush cherry and apple orchards and a thriving community—one divided by a patrolled border. Aisha and her mother Noorjahan live on the outskirts—two women alone in a world dominated by men. As the village midwife, Noorjahan teaches Aisha how to heal using local herbs and remedies. Isolated but content, Aisha is shocked when Noorjahan decides it is time for her to attend the village school as few girls do. Despite the taunting of her classmates and the teacher’s initial resistance to having her in the class, Aisha becomes a star student, destined for college. When Aisha becomes engaged to a local boy, she is forced to abandon her dreams of college. She comforts herself by staying on her ancestral land, creating a nourishing life with her children and husband. But her mother’s secrets haunt her, and the growing military presence in Poshkarbal forces Aisha to make impossible choices. Call Her Freedom is also an investigation of colonialism, militarization, sacrifice, honor, and fighting for your home.

Our guest is: Tara Dorabji, who is the author of Call Her Freedom, winner of the Simon & Schuster Books Like Us contest. She is the daughter of Parsi-Indian and German-Italian migrants. Her documentary film series on human rights defenders in Kashmir won awards at over a dozen film festivals throughout Asia and the USA. Tara’s publications include Al Jazeera, The Chicago Quarterly, Huizache, and acclaimed anthologies: Good Girls Marry Doctors and All the Women in My Family Sing. She lives in Northern California with her family and rabbit.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator, producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

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Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by our sharing episodes. Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 240+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins's Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany

Thu, 09 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0000

Our book is: Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins’s Efforts To Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany (Citadel Press, 2025) by Dr. Rebecca Brenner Graham, which is an inspiring new narrative of the first woman to serve in a president’s cabinet, the longest-serving Labor Secretary, and an architect of the New Deal. In March 1933, at the height of the Great Depression, Frances Perkins was appointed Secretary of Labor by FDR. As Hitler rose to power, thousands of German-Jewish refugees and their loved ones reached out to the INS—then part of the Department of Labor—applying for immigration to the United States, writing letters that began “Dear Miss Perkins . . .” Perkins’s early experiences working in Chicago’s famed Hull House and as a firsthand witness to the horrific Triangle Shirtwaist fire shaped her determination to advocate for immigrants and refugees. As Secretary of Labor, she wrestled widespread antisemitism and isolationism, finding creative ways to work around quotas and restrictive immigration laws. Diligent, resilient, empathetic, yet steadfast, she persisted on behalf of the desperate when others refused to act.

Our guest is: Dr Rebecca Brenner Graham who is a postdoctoral research associate at Brown University. Previously, she taught at the Madeira School and American University. She has a PhD in history and an MA in public history from American University, and a BA in history and philosophy from Mount Holyoke College. In 2023, she was awarded a Cokie Roberts Fellowship from the National Archives Foundation and a Rubenstein Center Research Fellowship from the White House Historical Association. Her writing has been published in The Washington Post, Time, Slate, the Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator, producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

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Graduate School Myths and Misconceptions

Fri, 03 Jan 2025 09:00:00 -0000

It’s daunting when you don’t know what to expect about graduate school…or you’re worried you won’t measure up. This episode helps dispel the myths and addresses some of the common misconceptions. We unpack the realities, including: how to determine if graduate school is the right next step for you; when to apply; the time and financial investment of a graduate education; what life is like after getting in; the need for work-life balance; and the importance of finding the right mentor.

Our guest is: Dr. Miroslava Chávez-García, who is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and holds affiliations in the Departments of Chicana/o Studies and Feminist Studies as well as Iberian and Latin American Studies. She also serves as the Faculty Director of the McNair Scholars Program. She is the coauthor of Is Grad School for Me? Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students, with Yvette Martínez-Vu.

Our co-guest is: Dr. Yvette Martínez-Vu, who is a coach, consultant, author, speaker, and the

founder of Grad School Femtoring LLC. She is the coauthor of Is Grad School for Me? Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show host of the Academic Life podcast.

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Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller

Thu, 26 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to Sotheran’s, one of the oldest bookshops in the world, with its weird and wonderful clientele, suspicious cupboards, unlabeled keys, poisoned books, and some things that aren’t even books, presided over by one deeply eccentric apprentice.

Today’s book is: Once Upon A Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller (Norton, 2024), by Oliver Darkshire, a memoir which recounts how some years ago he stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd (est. 1761) to apply for a job. Allured by the smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap, Oliver was soon unteetering stacks of first editions and placating the store’s resident ghost (the late Mr. Sotheran, hit by a tram). A novice in this ancient and potentially haunted establishment, Oliver describes Sotheran’s brushes with history (Dickens, the Titanic), its joyous disorganization, and the unspoken rules of its gleefully old-fashioned staff. As Oliver gains confidence and experience, he explores the strange space that books occupy in our lives—where old books often have strong sentimental value, but rarely a commercial one. Once Upon a Tome is the colorful story of life in one of the world’s oldest bookshops and a love letter to the benign, unruly world of antiquarian bookselling, where to be uncommon or strange is the best possible compliment.

Our guest is: Oliver Darkshire, who is the author of Once Upon a Tome, his memoir about being an antiquarian bookseller at Henry Sotheran Ltd. He lives in Manchester, England, with his husband and his neglectfully curated collection of books.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by posting, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 225+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names: Why You Should, Why It’s Hard, How You Can (University of Oklahoma Press, 2024), by Michelle D. Miller, which asserts that if teachers want an inclusive, engaging classroom, they must learn students’ names. Eschewing the random tips and mnemonic tricks that invariably fall short, Dr. Miller offers a clear explanation of what is really going on when we learn a name, and a science-based approach for using this knowledge to pedagogical advantage. Drawing on a deep background in the psychology of language and memory, Dr. Miller gives a lively overview of the surprising science of learning proper names, along with an account of why the practice is at once so difficult and yet so critical to effective teaching. She then sets out practical techniques for learning names, with examples of activities and practices tailored to a variety of different teaching styles and classroom configurations. In her discussion of certain factors that can make learning names especially challenging, Dr. Miller pays particular attention to neurodivergence and the effects of aging on this special form of memory.

A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names lays out strategies for putting these techniques into practice, suggests technological aids and other useful resources, and explains how to make name learning a core aspect of one’s teaching practice. With its research-based strategies and concrete advice, this concise and highly readable guide provides teachers of all disciplines and levels an invaluable tool for creating a welcoming and productive learning environment.

Our guest is: Dr. Michelle Miller, who is a cognitive psychologist, researcher, and speaker focused on supporting higher education faculty in creating effective and engaging learning experiences for students. She is the author of Minds Online: Teaching Effectively with Technology (Harvard University Press, 2014), Remembering and Forgetting in the Age of Technology: Teaching, Learning, and the Science of Memory in a Wired World (West Virginia University Press, 2022), and A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names: Why You Should, Why It’s Hard, How You Can (University of Oklahoma Press, 2024). Dr. Miller is a Professor of Psychological Sciences and President’s Distinguished Teaching Fellow at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

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Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials

Thu, 12 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Witchcraft: A History in 13 Trials (Scribner, 2024), by Dr. Marion Gibson, which explores the global history of witch trials across Europe, Africa, and the Americas, told through thirteen distinct trials that illuminate a pattern of demonization and conspiratorial thinking that has profoundly shaped human history. Some of them are famous like the Salem witch trials, and some lesser-known, like the 1620s witch trial on Vardø island, Norway, where an indigenous Sami woman was accused of murder; the last witch trial in France in 1731, where a young woman was pitted against her confessor and cult leader; and a trial in Lesotho in 1948, where British colonial authorities executed local leaders. Exploring how witchcraft was feared, then decriminalized, and then reimagined as gendered persecution, Witchcraft takes on the intersections between gender and power, indigenous spirituality and colonial rule, political conspiracy and individual resistance. Offering a striking, dramatic journey unspooling over centuries and across continents, Witchcraft offers insights into some of the cruelest moments in history, reclaims voices that have been silenced, and asks us to seriously consider how we will create a future without further witch trials.

Our guest is: Dr. Marion Gibson, who is Professor of Renaissance and Magical Literatures at the University of Exeter, UK. She is the author of numerous scholarly articles, and seven academic books on witches in history and literature. She is General Editor of the series Elements in Magic for Cambridge University Press. Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials is her most recent book.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who works as a developmental editor for scholars, and is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

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That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: That Librarian: The Fight Against Book Banning in America (Bloomsbury, 2024) by Amanda Jones, which offers her story of life as a small-town librarian. One of the things she values most about books is how they can affirm a young person's sense of self. So in 2022, when she caught wind of a local public hearing that would discuss “book content,” she knew what was at stake. Schools and libraries nationwide have been bombarded by demands for books with LGTBQ+ references, discussions of racism, and more to be purged from the shelves. She spoke out that night at the meeting. Days later, she woke up to a nightmare that is still ongoing. Her decision to support a collection of books with diverse perspectives made her a target for extremists using book banning campaigns-funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians-in a crusade to make America more white, straight, and "Christian." But she wouldn't give up without a fight: she sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance. Mapping the book banning crisis occurring all across the nation, That Librarian draws the battle lines in the war against equity and inclusion, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers.

Our guest is: Amanda Jones, who is the school librarian at the same school she attended as a child. She is the author of That Librarian: Fighting Book Banners in Today’s America. She was the 2021 School Library Journal Co-Librarian of the Year, a 2021 Library Journal Mover and Shaker, and the 2020 Louisiana Librarian of the Year. She presents nationally and internationally on the importance of certified school librarians, book joy, and why every child deserves to see themselves reflected in the books on library shelves. Amanda has received intellectual freedom awards from the American Library Association, American Association of School Librarians, and Louisiana Library Association. She is the Executive Director of the Livingston Parish Library Alliance, and a co-founding member of Louisiana Citizens Against Censorship. She lives in Louisiana with her husband, daughter, and their cat.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

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Disabled Ecologies: Lessons From a Wounded Desert

Wed, 27 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Deep below the ground in Tucson, Arizona, lies an aquifer forever altered by the detritus of a postwar Superfund site. Disabled Ecologies: Lessons From a Wounded Desert (U California Press, 2024) by Dr. Sunaura Taylor, tells the story of this contamination and its ripple effects through the largely Mexican-American community living above. Drawing on her own complex relationship to this long-ago injured landscape, Dr. Taylor takes us with her to follow the site's disabled ecology—the networks of disability, both human and wild, that are created when ecosystems are corrupted and profoundly altered. What Taylor finds is a story of entanglements that reach far beyond the Sonoran Desert. These stories tell of debilitating and sometimes life-ending injuries, but they also map out alternative modes of connection, solidarity, and resistance—an environmentalism of the injured. An original and deeply personal reflection on what disability means in an era of increasing multispecies disablement, Disabled Ecologies is a powerful call to reflect on the kinds of care, treatment, and assistance this age of disability requires.

Our guest is: Dr. Sunaura Taylor, who is Assistant Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the American Book Award–winning Beasts of Burden: Animal and Disability Liberation.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by posting, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 225+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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Without Parents or Papers: A Discussion with Stephanie L. Canizales

Thu, 21 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Sin Padres, Ni Papeles: Unaccompanied Migrant Youth Coming of Age in the United States (U California Press, 2024), a which explores how each year, thousands of youth endure harrowing unaccompanied and undocumented migrations across Central America and Mexico to the United States in pursuit of a better future. Drawing on the firsthand narratives of migrant youth in Los Angeles, California, Dr. Stephanie L. Canizales shows that while a lucky few do find reprieve, many are met by resource-impoverished relatives who are unable to support them, exploitative jobs that are no match for the high cost of living, and individualistic social norms that render them independent and alone. Sin Padres, Ni Papeles illuminates how unaccompanied teens who grow up as undocumented low-wage workers navigate unthinkable material and emotional hardship, find the agency and hope that is required to survive, and discover what it means to be successful during the transition to adulthood in the United States.

Our guest is: Dr. Stephanie L. Canizales, who is a researcher, author, and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, and the Faculty Director of the Berkeley Interdisciplinary Migration Initiative. She specializes in the study of international migration and immigrant integration, with particular interest in the experiences of Latin American migrants in the United States. Throughout her research and writing, Stephanie explores the role of immigration policy in shaping the everyday lives of migrant children and their families, how immigrants and the communities they arrive to (re)make one another mutually, and the meanings immigrants make of success and wellbeing within an increasingly unequal US society. She is the author of Sin Padres, Ni Papeles.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Playlist for listeners:

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We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance

Thu, 14 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: We Refuse: A Forceful History of Black Resistance (Seal Press, 2024) by Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson.

Black resistance to white supremacy is often reduced to a simple binary, between Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s nonviolence and Malcolm X’s “by any means necessary.” In We Refuse, historian Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson urges us to move past this false choice, offering an unflinching examination of the breadth of Black responses to white oppression, particularly those pioneered by Black women. The dismissal of “Black violence” as an illegitimate form of resistance is itself a manifestation of white supremacy, a distraction from the insidious, unrelenting violence of structural racism. Force—from work stoppages and property destruction to armed revolt—has played a pivotal part in securing freedom and justice for Black people since the days of the American and Haitian Revolutions. But violence is only one tool among many. Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson examines other, no less vital tactics that have shaped the Black struggle, from the restorative power of finding joy in the face of suffering to the quiet strength of simply walking away. Clear-eyed, impassioned, and ultimately hopeful, We Refuse offers a fundamental corrective to the historical record, a love letter to Black resilience, and a path toward liberation.

Our guest is: Dr. Kellie Carter Jackson, who is the Michael and Denise Kellen ’68 Associate Professor and Chair of Africana Studies at Wellesley College. Her book Force and Freedom was a finalist for the Frederick Douglass Book Prize and the Museum of African American History Stone Book Award. She is the cohost of the Radiotopia podcast “This Day in Esoteric Political History.” She lives outside of Boston with her husband and three children.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Playlist for listeners:

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Why Not Be Kind?: A Discussion with Catherine J. Denial

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: A Pedagogy of Kindness (University of Oklahoma Press, 2024), by Dr. Catherine Denial, which explores why academia is not, by and large, a kind place. Without kindness at its core, Catherine Denial suggests, higher education fails students and instructors—and its mission—in critical ways. Part manifesto, part teaching memoir, part how-to guide, A Pedagogy of Kindness urges higher education to get aggressive about instituting kindness, which Dr. Denial distinguishes from niceness. Having suffered beneath the weight of just “getting along,” instructors need to shift every part of what they do to prioritizing care and compassion—for students as well as for themselves. A Pedagogy of Kindness articulates a fresh vision for teaching, one that focuses on ensuring justice, believing people, and believing in people. Offering evidence-based insights and drawing from her own rich experiences as a professor, Dr. Denial offers practical tips for reshaping syllabi, assessing student performance, and creating trust and belonging in the classroom. Her suggestions for concrete, scalable actions outline nothing less than a transformational discipline—one in which, together, we create bright new spaces, rooted in compassion, in which all engaged in teaching and learning might thrive.

Our guest is: Dr. Catherine J. Denial, who is the Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College. A regular speaker and consultant on teaching and learning, she is also the author of Making Marriage: Husbands, Wives, and the American State in Dakota and Ojibwe Country.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Playlist for listeners:

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When We Prioritize Data and Metrics, What Happens to Human Connections?

Thu, 31 Oct 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: The Last Human Job: The Work of Connecting in a Disconnected World (Princeton University Press, 2024), by Dr. Allison Pugh, which explores the human connections that underlie our work, arguing that what people do for each other is valuable and worth preserving. Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations with people in a broad range of professions—from physicians, teachers, and coaches to chaplains, therapists, caregivers, and hairdressers—Dr. Pugh develops the concept of “connective labor,” a kind of work that relies on empathy, the spontaneity of human contact, and a mutual recognition of each other’s humanity. The threats to connective labor are not only those posed by advances in AI or apps; Dr. Pugh demonstrates how profit-driven campaigns imposing industrial logic shrink the time for workers to connect, enforce new priorities of data and metrics, and introduce standardized practices that hinder our ability to truly see each other. She concludes with profiles of organizations where connective labor thrives, offering practical steps for building a social architecture that works. Vividly illustrating how connective labor enriches the lives of individuals and binds our communities together, The Last Human Job is a compelling argument for us to recognize, value, and protect humane work in an increasingly automated and disconnected world.

Our guest is: Dr. Allison Pugh, who is Professor of Sociology at Johns Hopkins University, and the 2024-25 Vice President of the American Sociological Association. She writes about how people forge connections and find meaning and dignity at work and at home. She is the author of The Tumbleweed Society: Working and Caring in an Age of Insecurity and Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children, and Consumer Culture. Her writing has appeared in leading publications such as The New Yorker, the New York Times, and the New Republic.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Playlist for listeners:

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The End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide

Thu, 24 Oct 2024 08:00:00 -0000

In early June 2020, Christina Gessler and Zerlina Maxwell met remotely to discuss Maxwell’s soon-to-be-released book. This episode is an encore presentation of that discussion. As we watch the race to the 2024 United States presidential election, we revisit this conversation from four years ago to reconsider lessons learned and those ignored in the race to the 2020 presidential election.

Today’s book is: The End of White Politics: How to Heal Our Liberal Divide (Legacy Lit, 2020), by Zerlina Maxwell, which examines the past and present problems of the Left. After working on presidential campaigns for Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, Maxwell gained first-hand knowledge of what liberals have and have not been doing right over the past few elections. Ultimately, these errors worked in President Donald Trump's favor in 2016; he ran a campaign on white identity politics, successfully tapping into white male angst and resistance. In 2020, after the Democratic Party's most historically diverse pool of presidential candidates dwindled down to Joe Biden, once again an older white man, Maxwell asked: what now, liberals? Fueled by Maxwell's trademark wit and candor, The End of White Politics dismantles the problems of the Left, challenging everyone from young "Bernie Bros" to power players in the "Billionaire Boys' Club." Whether tackling the white privilege that enabled Mayor Pete Buttigieg's presidential run, the controversial #HashtagActivism of the Millennial generation, the massive individual donations that sway politicians toward maintaining the status quo of income inequality, or the lingering racism that debilitated some Democratic presidential contenders and cut their promising campaigns short, Maxwell pulls no punches in her critique. Underlying all of these individual issues, Maxwell argues, is the "liberal-minded" party's struggle to engage women and communities of color, and its preoccupation with catering to the white, male working class that threatens to be its most lethal shortfall.

Our guest is: Zerlina Maxwell, the host of Mornings with Zerlina on Sirius XM, and the Director of Progressive Programming for SiriusXM. She was the Director of Progressive Media for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, and acted as a campaign spokesperson for the Presidential Debates. She writes for a variety of national media outlets, is a frequent college campus speaker, and is the author of The End Of White Politics: How To Heal Our Liberal Divide. She has a law degree from Rutgers Law School Newark and a B.A. in International Relations from Tufts University.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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Reunited: Family Separation and Central American Youth Migration

Thu, 17 Oct 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Reunited: Family Separation and Central American Youth Migration (Russell Sage Foundation, 2024), by Dr. Ernesto Castañeda and Daniel Jenks, which explains the reasons for Central American youth migration, describes the journey, and documents how minors experienced separation from their families and their subsequent reunification. Castañeda and Jenks find that these minors migrate on their own for three main reasons: gang violence, lack of educational and economic opportunity, and a longing for family reunification.

The authors recount these young migrants’ journey to the U.S. border, detailing the difficulties passing through Mexico, their encounters with U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, and staying in shelters while their sponsorship, placement, and departure are arranged. The authors also describe the tensions the youth face when they reunite with family members they may view as strangers. Despite their biological, emotional, and financial bonds to these relatives, the youth must learn how to relate to new authority figures and decide whether or how to follow their rules. They are likely to have lived through traumatizing experiences that inhibit their integration. Consequently, schools and social service organizations are crucial, the authors argue, for enhancing youth migrants’ sense of belonging and their integration into their new communities. Bilingual programs, Spanish-speaking PTA groups, message boards, mentoring of immigrant children, and after-school programs for members of reunited families are all helpful in supporting immigrant youth as they learn English, finish high school, apply to college, and find jobs. Offering a complex exploration of youth migration and family reunification, Reunited provides a moving account of how young Central American migrants make the journey north and ultimately reintegrate with their families in the United States.

Our guest is: Dr. Ernesto Castañeda, who is director of the Center for Latin American and Latino studies at American University.

The co-author is: Daniel Jenks, who is a doctoral student at the University of Pennsylvania.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Playlist for listeners:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by posting, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Subatomic Writing: Six Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023), by Johns Hopkins University instructor Jamie Zvirzdin, is a guide for writing about science—from the subatomic level up!

Subatomic Writing teaches that the building blocks of language are like particles in physics. These particles, combined and arranged, form something greater than their parts: all matter in the literary universe. This interdisciplinary approach helps scientists, science writers, and editors improve their writing in fundamental areas as they build from the sounds in a word to the pacing of a paragraph. These areas include: sound and sense; word classes; grammar and syntax; punctuation; rhythm and emphasis; and pacing and coherence. Equally helpful for students needing to learn to write clearly about science and for scientists hoping to create more effective course material, papers, and grant applications, this guide builds confidence in writing abilities. Each lesson provides exercises that build on each other, strengthening readers’ capacity to communicate ideas and data, all while learning basic particle physics along the way.

Our guest is: Jamie Zvirzdin, who teaches science writing at Johns Hopkins University and researches ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays for the University of Utah. Her writing has been featured in The Atlantic, Kenyon Review, and Issues in Science and Technology.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Playlist about unpacking hidden curriculum of writing books:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by posting, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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Black Woman on Board: Claudia Hampton, the California State University, and the Fight to Save Affirmative Action

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Black Woman on Board: Claudia Hampton, the California State University, and the Fight to Save Affirmative Action (University of Rochester Press, 2024) by Dr. Donna J. Nicol, which examines the leadership strategies that Black women educators have employed as influential power brokers in predominantly white colleges and universities in the United States. Black Woman on Board tells the extraordinary story of Dr. Claudia H. Hampton, the California State University (CSU) system's first Black woman trustee, who later became the board's first woman chair, and her twenty-year fight (1974–94) to increase access within the CSU for historically marginalized and underrepresented groups. Amid a growing white backlash against changes brought on by the 1960s Civil Rights and Black Power Movements, Dr. Nicol argues that Hampton enacted "sly civility" to persuade fellow trustees, CSU system officials, and state lawmakers to enforce federal and state affirmative action mandates. Black Woman on Board explores how Hampton methodically "played the game of boardsmanship," using the soft power she cultivated amongst her peers to remove barriers that might have impeded the implementation and expansion of affirmative action policies and programs. In illuminating the ways that Hampton transformed the CSU as the "affirmative action trustee," this remarkable book makes an important contribution to the history of higher education and to the historiography of Black women's educational leadership in the post-Civil Rights era.

Our guest is: Dr. Donna J. Nicol, who is the Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts at California State University, Long Beach, CA.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

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Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World

Thu, 26 Sep 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Why do we assume that computers always get it right?

Today’s book is: Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World (MIT Press, 2019), in which Professor Meredith Broussard argues that our collective enthusiasm for applying computer technology to every aspect of life has resulted in a tremendous amount of poorly designed systems. We are so eager to do everything digitally—hiring, driving, paying bills, even choosing romantic partners—that we have stopped demanding that our technology actually work. Broussard, a software developer and journalist, reminds us that there are fundamental limits to what we can (and should) do with technology. With this book, she offers a guide to understanding the inner workings and outer limits of technology—and issues a warning that we should never assume that computers always get things right. Making a case against technochauvinism—the belief that technology is always the solution—Broussard argues that it's just not true that social problems would inevitably retreat before a digitally enabled Utopia. To prove her point, she undertakes a series of adventures in computer programming. She goes for an alarming ride in a driverless car, concluding “the cyborg future is not coming any time soon”; uses artificial intelligence to investigate why students can't pass standardized tests; deploys machine learning to predict which passengers survived the Titanic disaster; and attempts to repair the U.S. campaign finance system by building AI software. If we understand the limits of what we can do with technology, Broussard tells us, we can make better choices about what we should do with it to make the world better for everyone.

Our guest is: Professor Meredith Broussard, who is Associate Professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University and Research Director at the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology. She is the author of Artificial Unintelligence, and of More Than A Glitch. Her work has been featured in the New Yorker, the New York Times, the Atlantic, the Economist, and more. She appears in the 2020 documentary Coded Bias and serves on the advisory board for the Center for

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell (and why) and what happens to those we never tell.

For listeners who want to learn more:

More Than A Glitch

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Immigration Realities: Challenging Common Misperceptions

Thu, 19 Sep 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Immigration Realities: Challenging Common Misperceptions (Columbia UP, 2024), by Ernesto Castaneda and Carina Cione, which is a practical, evidence-based primer on immigrants and immigration. Each chapter debunks a frequently encountered claim and answers common questions. Presenting the latest findings and decades of interdisciplinary research in an accessible way, Dr. Castañeda and Carina Cione emphasize the expert consensus that immigration is vital to the United States and many other countries around the world. Featuring original insights from research conducted in El Paso, Texas, Immigration Realities considers a wide range of places, ethnic groups, and historical eras. It provides the key data and context to understand how immigration affects economies, crime rates, and social welfare systems, and it sheds light on contentious issues such as the safety of the U.S.-Mexico border and the consequences of Brexit. This book is an indispensable guide for all readers who want to counter false claims about immigration and are interested in what the research shows.

Our guest is: Dr. Ernesto Castañeda, who is the director of the Immigration Lab and the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University. His books include A Place to Call Home: Immigrant Exclusion and Urban Belonging in New York, Paris, and Barcelona (2018); Building Walls: Excluding Latin People in the United States (2019); and Reunited: Family Separation and Central American Youth Migration (2024).

The Immigration Realities co-author is: Carina Cione, who is a sociologist and writer based out of Baltimore. Their work has been featured by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Trauma Care, El Paso News, and American University’s Center for Latin American & Latino Studies Working Paper Series.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by posting, assigning and sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 225+ Academic Life episodes? Find them here. And thank you for listening!

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Before and After the Book Deal

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about publishing but were too afraid to ask.

Before and After the Book Deal: A Writer’s Guide to Finishing, Publishing, Promoting, and Surviving Your First Book (Catapult, 2020) by Courtney Maum is a funny, candid guide about breaking into the marketplace. Cutting through the noise, dispelling rumors and remaining positive, Before and After the Book Deal answers questions like: are MFA programs worth the time and money, and how do people actually sit down and finish a novel? Should you expect a good advance, and why aren’t your friends saying anything about your book? Before and After the Book Deal has over 150 contributors from all walks of the industry, including international bestselling authors, agents, editors, film scouts, translators, disability and minority activists, offering advice and sharing anecdotes about even the most taboo topics in the industry. Their wisdom will help aspiring authors find a foothold in the publishing world and navigate the challenges of life before and after publication with sanity and grace. Covering questions ranging from the logistical to the existential, Before and After the Book Deal is the definitive guide for anyone who has ever wanted to know what it’s really like to be an author.

Our guest is: Courtney Maum, who is the author of five books, including Before and After the Book Deal, which Vanity Fair named one of the ten best books for writers, and The Year of the Horses, chosen by The Today Show as the best read for mental health awareness. A writing coach, director of the writing workshop “Turning Points,” and educator, her mission is to help people hold on to the joy of art-making in a culture obsessed with turning artists into brands. Passionate about literary citizenship, she sits on the advisory councils of The Authors Guild and The Rumpus.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may also enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can help support the show by posting, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? Find them all here.

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In the Garden Behind the Moon: A Memoir of Loss, Myth, and Magic

Thu, 05 Sep 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Alexandra Chan thinks she has life figured out until, in the Year of the Ram, the death of her father—her last parent—brings her to her knees, an event seemingly foretold in Chinese mythology.

Today’s book is: In The Garden Behind the Moon: A Memoir of Loss, Myth, and Magic (Flashpoint Books, 2024), by Dr. Alexandra Chan, who is a left-brained archaeologist and successful tiger daughter. But she finds her logical approach to life fails her in the face of profound grief. Slowly, painfully, wondrously, she discovers that her father and ancestors have left threads of renewal in the artifacts and stories of their lives. Through a long-lost interview conducted by Roosevelt’s Federal Writers’ Project, a basket of war letters written from the Burmese jungle, a box of photographs, her world travels, and a deepening relationship to her art, this archaeologist makes her greatest discovery to date: the healing power of enchantment. In an epic story that travels from prerevolution China to the South under Jim Crow, from the Pacific theater of WWII to Iceland, and beyond, Alexandra Chan takes us on a journey to meaning in the wake of devastating loss, sharing the insights and tools that allow her to rebuild her life and resurrect her spirit. In the Garden Behind the Moon is a captivating family portrait and an urgent call to awaken to the magic and wonder of daily life.

Our guest is: Dr. Alexandra A. Chan, who is a mom, archaeologist, photographer, painter and writer. She is the author of Slavery in the Age of Reason: Archaeology at a New England Farm, and In The Garden Behind the Moon: A Memoir of Loss, Myth, and Magic, as well as journal articles and book chapters about the archaeology of northern slavery, early African America, and questions of race, place, identity, and becoming. She lives with her husband, her two sons, and their menagerie of animals in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may enjoy this memoir playlist:

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You Will Get Through This: A Mental Health First-Aid Kit- Help for Depression, Anxiety, Grief, and More

Thu, 29 Aug 2024 08:00:00 -0000

You Will Get Through This: A Mental Health First-Aid Kit- Help for Depression, Anxiety, Grief, and More (Experiment, 2024) was written by three practicing therapists to serve as a tool kit. Drawing on the techniques the book’s authors Julie Radico, Nicole Halverson and Charity O’Reilly use with their own clients, You Will Get Through This offers a holistic understanding of more than twenty common life challenges, plus compassionate and evidence-based strategies for when you’re struggling. In each chapter, you’ll find what the research says about the issue, coping mechanisms that are used in actual therapy rooms, step-by-step guidance on using these strategies in real life and overcoming common obstacles, and tips for communicating with your loved ones. You will also find practical advice on accessing professional help, deciding if a therapist is the right fit for you (and breaking up with them if they’re not), and paying for therapy.

Our guest is: Dr. Julie Radico, a board-certified clinical health psychologist with ten years of experience working in primary care settings. In 2023, she opened an independent consulting, coaching, and therapy practice. She holds a doctoral degree in clinical psychology and master’s degrees in clinical psychology & counseling and clinical health psychology. She is the co-author—with Charity O’Reilly and Dr. Nicole Helverson—of You Will Get Through This: A Mental Health First-Aid Kit.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may also enjoy this playlist:

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Find Your Argument

Thu, 22 Aug 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Have you been told your draft isn’t ready yet, because you still need to find your argument? We have all gotten that feedback at some point. But what we haven’t been told is how to find our argument. Today we return to The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook: Exercises for Developing and Revising Your Book Manuscript (U Chicago Press, 2023), with Dr. Katelyn E. Knox and Dr. Allison Van Deventer, to learn how to find and assemble an argument. Whether you are writing an article, dissertation or a book, this episode is the skills workshop you need!

Our guest is: Dr. Allison Van Deventer, who is a freelance developmental editor for academic authors in the humanities and qualitative social sciences. She is the co-author of The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook: Exercises for Developing and Revising Your Book Manuscript.

Our co-guest is: Dr. Katelyn Knox, who is an associate professor of French at the University of Central Arkansas. She is the author of Race on Display in 20th- and 21st-Century France. She is the co-author of The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook: Exercises for Developing and Revising Your Book Manuscript.

Listeners may also enjoy:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by posting, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us here again to learn from even more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why It Matters

Thu, 15 Aug 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Schuyler Bailar didn’t set out to be an activist, but his very public transition to the Harvard men’s swim team put him in the spotlight. His choice to be open about his journey and share his experience has evolved into tireless advocacy for inclusion and collective liberation.

Today’s book is: He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why it Matters (Hachette, 2023), by Schuyler Bailar, which gives readers the essential language and context of gender, paving the way for understanding, acceptance and connection. He/She/They compassionately addresses fundamental topics, from why being transgender is not a choice and why pronouns are important, to complex issues including how gender-affirming healthcare can be lifesaving. With a narrative rooted in science and history, Schuyler helps restore common sense and humanity to a discussion that continues to be divisively and deceptively politicized. In chapters both myth-busting and affirming, compassionate and fierce, Schulyer offers readers an urgent and lifesaving book to change the conversation about gender.

Our guest is: Schuyler Bailar (he/him), who is an educator, author, and advocate. He is the first transgender athlete to compete in any sport on an NCAA Division 1 men’s team, and has earned numerous honors including the Harvard Varsity Director’s Award. He is one of the top LGBTQ+ educators and advocates, a leading DEI speaker and advisor, the creator of the LaneChanger.com gender literacy online learning series, and the author of the award-winning book He/She/They: How We Talk About Gender and Why it Matters. Schuyler holds a degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and Evolutionary Psychology from Harvard, and works in four research labs focusing in clinical psychology and public health.

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Decoding the Academic Job Market

Thu, 08 Aug 2024 08:00:00 -0000

When professor jobs are scarce and most academic jobs are temporary, what do you do if you still want to work on a campus? Can you make the leap to admin? How do you make the leap?

Dr. Jacquelyn Ardam joins us to explain the hidden curriculum of the academic job market. She shares what helped her pivot roles from visiting professor to campus administrator, how research and writing are still a meaningful part of her life, and why she is happier now running a campus research center than she was in her previous jobs.

Our guest is: Dr. Jacquelyn Ardam, who is the Director of the Undergraduate Research Center for the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UCLA. She has founded several undergraduate research programs and co-directs UCLA’s Mellon Mays University Fellowship program. Jacquelyn holds a PhD in English from UCLA and is a specialist in modern and contemporary poetry. She has written about art, literature, culture, and higher education for peer-reviewed journals and public venues, and is the author of Avidly Reads Poetry.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may enjoy this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can help support the show by posting, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us here to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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Everyday Architecture in Context: Public Markets in Hong Kong (1842-1981) (Chinese U of Hong Kong Press, 2023)

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 08:00:00 -0000

How do public markets, as ordinary as they seem, carry the weight of a city’s history? How do such everyday buildings reflect a city’s changing political, social, and economic needs, through their yearslong transformations in forms, functions, and management?

Today’s book is: Everyday Architecture in Context: Public Markets in Hong Kong, 1842-1981 (Chinese University of Hong Kong Press, 2023), by Dr. Carmen C. M. Tsui. Integrating architecture and history, the book invites readers to go through the growth and governance of colonial Hong Kong by tracing the past and present of public markets as a study of extensive first-hand historical materials. Readers witness the changes in Hong Kong markets from hawker pitches to classical market halls to clean modernist municipal complexes. This book offers a new perspective of understanding the familiar everyday markets with historical contexts possibly unfamiliar to most, studying markets as a microcosm of the city and a capsule of its history.

Our guest is: Dr. Carmen C. M. Tsui, who is an architect and urban historian. She is an associate professor in the Department of History at Lingnan University, HKSAR. She obtained her Ph.D. in Architecture from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialization in the history of architecture and urbanism.

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The Dissertation-To-Book Workbook: Exercises for Developing and Revising Your Book Manuscript (U Chicago Press, 2023)

Thu, 25 Jul 2024 08:00:00 -0000

How do you turn a dissertation into a book?

Today’s book is: The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook: Exercises for Developing and Revising Your Book Manuscript (U Chicago Press, 2023), by Dr. Katelyn E. Knox and Dr. Allison Van Deventer, which offers a series of manageable, concrete steps and exercises to help you revise your academic manuscript into a book. The Dissertation-to-Book Workbook offers clear examples, as well as targeted exercises, checklists and prompts to take all the guesswork out of writing a book. You will learn how to clarify your book’s core priorities, pinpoint your organizing principle, polish your narrative arc, evaluate your evidence, and much more. Using what this workbook calls “book questions and chapter answers,” you will learn how to thread your book’s main ideas through its chapters, assemble an argument, and revise the manuscript. By the time you complete the workbook, you will have confidence that your book is a cohesive, focused manuscript that tells the story you want to tell.

Our guest is: Dr. Katelyn Knox, who is an associate professor of French at the University of Central Arkansas. She is the author of Race on Display in 20th- and 21st-Century France.

Our co-guest is: Dr. Allison Van Deventer, who is a freelance developmental editor for academic authors in the humanities and qualitative social sciences.

Listeners may also enjoy:

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Freeman's Challenge: The Murder That Shook America's Original Prison for Profit

Thu, 18 Jul 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Freeman’s Challenge: The Murder That Shook America’s Original Prison for Profit (U Chicago Press, 2024), by Dr. Robin Bernstein, which tells the story of a teenager named William Freeman. Convicted of a horse theft he insisted he did not commit, he was sentenced to five years of hard labor in Auburn’s new prison. Uniting incarceration and capitalism, the facility included industrial factories where prisoners worked as “slaves of the state.” They earned no wages, yet they manufactured furniture, animal harnesses, carpets, and combs, which consumers bought throughout the North. Then one young man challenged the system. Incensed at being forced to work without pay, William Freeman demanded wages. His challenge triggered violence: first against him, then by him. Freeman committed a murder that terrified and bewildered white America. And white America struck back—with aftereffects that reverberate into our lives today in the persistent myth of inherent Black criminality. William Freeman’s story reveals how the North invented prison for profit half a century before the Thirteenth Amendment outlawed slavery “except as a punishment for crime”—and how Frederick Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and other African Americans invented strategies of resilience and resistance in a city dominated by a citadel of unfreedom. Through one Black man, his family, and his city, Dr. Bernstein tells an explosive, moving story about the entangled origins of prison for profit and anti-Black racism.

Our guest is: Dr. Robin Bernstein, who is an award-winning cultural historian specializing in race and racism from the nineteenth century to the present. She teaches at Harvard University, where she is the Dillon Professor of American History and Professor of African and African American Studies and Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality.

Playlist for listeners who wish to learn more:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! You can support the show by posting, assigning or sharing episodes. Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—and What Comes Next

Thu, 11 Jul 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Watching the footage of the January 6 insurrection, Professor Bradley Onishi wondered: If I hadn't left evangelicalism, would I have been there?

Today’s book is: Preparing for War: The Extremist History of White Christian Nationalism—and What Comes Next (Broadleaf Books, 2023), by Dr. Bradley Onishi, which unpacks recent U.S. history to show how the insurrection at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021 was not a blip or an aberration. It was the logical outcome of years of a White evangelical subculture's preparation for war. Religion scholar and former insider Bradley Onishi maps the origins of White Christian nationalism and traces its offshoots. Combining his own experiences in the youth groups and prayer meetings of the 1990s with an immersive look at the steady blending of White grievance politics with evangelicalism, Dr. Onishi crafts an engrossing account of the years-long campaign of White Christian nationalism that led to January 6. How did the rise of what Onishi calls the New Religious Right, between 1960 and 2015, give birth to violent White Christian nationalism during the Trump presidency and beyond? What propelled some of the most conservative religious communities in the country—communities of which Dr. Onishi was once a part—to ignite a cold civil war? Through chapters on White supremacy and segregationist theologies, conspiracy theories, the Christian-school movement, purity culture, and the right-wing media ecosystem, Professor Onishi pulls back the curtain on a subculture.

Our guest is: Dr. Brad Onishi, who is a scholar of religion and cohost of the Straight White American Jesus podcast. His writing has been published in the New York Times, LA Review of Books, and Religion & Politics, among other outlets. He holds degrees from Azusa Pacific University, Oxford University, and L'institut catholique de Paris, and received his PhD from the University of California at Santa Barbara. A TEDx speaker and the author, editor, or translator of four previous books, Dr. Onishi teaches at the University of San Francisco. He lives in the Bay Area with his wife and daughter.

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Leaving Academia: Pursing Life Abroad

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Have you had that dream—the one where you just leave academia? You quit your job, sell all your stuff, and board a plane for somewhere far, far away. But what happens once you land? Dr. Anne Boyd Rioux shares how she left her job in Louisiana and landed in Paris. She explains the steps of establishing a life abroad: working online; exploring new landscapes; frequently repacking suitcases; finding a new feeling of home; and navigating complex visa and residency requirements. As she candidly explores the benefits and downsides of being so mobile, she invites us all to wonder what comes next—when one path stops, and a new one begins.

Our guest is: Dr. Anne Boyd Rioux, who is the recipient of four NEH awards, holds a Ph.D. in American Studies, and was an English professor for twenty-three years. She recently sold her house in New Orleans and bought a one-way ticket to Paris. She chronicles her journeys in her newsletter “Letters from Anne,” and is currently writing a memoir. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Biographers International Organization, and her essays and reviews have appeared in the Washington Post, Salon, Lit Hub, Lapham’s Quarterly, and elsewhere. Anne has published seven books, and is passionate about reclaiming women writers who created fascinating, sometimes provocative, and often daring works that have been unavailable and unread for generations.

Academic Life playlist about academics abroad:

Academic Life playlist about life after graduation:

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Sorayya Khan, "We Take Our Cities with Us: A Memoir" (Ohio State UP, 2022)

Thu, 27 Jun 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: We Take Our Cities With Us (Ohio State UP, 2022), by Sorayya Khan. After her mother’s death, Sorayya Khan confronts her grief by revisiting their relationship, her parents’ lives, and her own Pakistani-Dutch heritage in a multicultural memoir that unfolds over seven cities and three continents. We Take Our Cities with Us ushers us from Khan’s childhood independence forged at her grandparents’ home in Lahore; to her adolescence in Pakistan’s new capital, Islamabad; to Syracuse and Ithaca, New York, where she finds her footing as the mother of young, brown sons in post-9/11 America; to her birthplace, Vienna, where her parents die; and finally to Amsterdam and Maastricht, the cities of her mother’s conflicted youth. In Khan’s gripping telling of her immigrant experience, she shows us what it is to raise children and lose parents in worlds other than your own. Drawing on family history, geopolitics, and art in this stunning story of loss, identity, and rediscovery, Khan illuminates the complexities of our evolving global world and its most important constant: love.

Our guest is: Sorayya Khan, who is the author of the novels City of Spies, Five Queen’s Road, and Noor. The daughter of a Pakistani father and a Dutch mother, she was born in Europe, grew up in Pakistan, and now lives in Ithaca, New York, with her family. She is a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University. Find her at sorayyakhan.com.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history which she uses to explore which stories we tell (and why), and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may also enjoy discussions of these memoirs:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. You can help support our show by sharing episodes of the Academic Life.

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PhDing While Parenting

Thu, 20 Jun 2024 08:00:00 -0000

An increasing number of students worldwide attend graduate school while simultaneously navigating a variety of competing responsibilities in their personal lives. For many students, this includes both parenting and working full-time, while maintaining a rigorous graduate course-load. Because academia overwhelmingly defaults to assuming all graduate students’ needs are similar to those of middle-class single white males, PhDing while parenting remains under-explored in the literature, and hidden in plain sight on campus. Graduate students are often reluctant to talk to their supervisors about the strains of juggling a demanding private life while attending school…until they hit a personal crisis or they burn out. But what if supervisors were trained to mentor holistically? What if they tailored support, checking in with students not just about their academic progress, but about their off-campus priorities and problems as well?

In today’s episode, we explore why graduate supervisors need to be trained to connect their students to a variety of necessary resources, to help their student-parents get to PhDone. We explore the new case-study documenting experiences of doctoral students in South Africa juggling both parental and professional roles. And we dive into the findings of the new article “Balanced-Integration: A Dimension of Supervision to Support Students Navigating Parenthood in Pursuit of a PHD,” by Dr. S. Nkoala, which was published in South African Journal of Higher Education Volume 38, Number 1, in March 2024.

Our guest is: Dr. Sisanda Nkoala who is an Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of the Western Cape. She has won numerous awards, and serves as vice-chair of the IAMCR’s media education research section, the African Journalism Educators Network secretary-general, as an associate editor for the Journal of Communication Technology, a public representative on the South African Press Council, a member of the Film & Publication Board’s Appeals Tribunal, and as the vice-president of the South African Communication Association. She is published in many journals, and is the editor of 100 Years of Radio in South Africa, Volume 1: South African Radio Stations and Broadcasters Then & Now, and Community Radio, Digital Radio and the Future of Radio in South Africa.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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More Than A Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech

Thu, 13 Jun 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: More Than A Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech (MIT Press, 2024), by Meredith Broussard. When technology reinforces inequality, it's not just a glitch—it's a signal that we need to redesign our systems to create a more equitable world. The word “glitch” implies an incidental error, as easy to patch up as it is to identify. But what if racism, sexism, and ableism aren't just bugs in mostly functional machinery? What if they're coded into the system itself?

Meredith Broussard demonstrates in More Than a Glitch how neutrality in tech is a myth and why algorithms need to be held accountable. Broussard, a data scientist and one of the few Black female researchers in artificial intelligence, masterfully synthesizes concepts from computer science and sociology. She explores a range of examples: from facial recognition technology trained only to recognize lighter skin tones, to mortgage-approval algorithms that encourage discriminatory lending, to the dangerous feedback loops that arise when medical diagnostic algorithms are trained on insufficiently diverse data. Even when such technologies are designed with good intentions, Broussard shows, fallible humans develop programs that can result in devastating consequences. Broussard argues that the solution isn't to make omnipresent tech more inclusive, but to root out the algorithms that target certain demographics as “other” to begin with. With sweeping implications for fields ranging from jurisprudence to medicine, the ground-breaking insights of More Than a Glitch are essential reading for anyone invested in building a more equitable future.

Our guest is: Meredith Broussard, who is an associate professor at the Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute of New York University, research director at the NYU Alliance for Public Interest Technology, and the author of several books, including More Than a Glitch: Confronting Race, Gender, and Ability Bias in Tech, and Artificial Unintelligence: How Computers Misunderstand the World. Her academic research focuses on artificial intelligence in investigative reporting and ethical AI, with a particular interest in using data analysis for social good.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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The Artist’s Joy: A Guide to Getting Unstuck

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: The Artist’s Joy: A Guide to Getting Unstuck, Embracing Imperfection, and Loving Your Creative Life (Broadleaf Books, 2024), by Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez, which is the ultimate guide for creatives. Whether you are a dabbler, a career creative, or a long-time self-proclaimed "tortured artist," The Artist’s Joy is here to help. As a professional oboist, teacher, and creative coach, Dr. Estevez knows the world of creatives and what they truly need to cultivate a life-giving practice. The Artist's Joy offers not only tools for the journey but a deeper understanding of the ways creativity works in our lives. It includes self-coaching questions, a group discussion guide, and a companion playlist with tracks for musical meditation and creative engagement. The Artist’s Joy can help you get unstuck, recover your creativity, and cultivate a practice that is joyful and sustainable.

Content Warning: from minute ten to minute fifteen, Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez discusses ED and addiction.

Our guest is: Dr. Merideth Hite Estevez, who has performed with top orchestras in the US and abroad, including the Met Opera and PhillyPops, and is currently the English hornist/Second Oboe of the Chamber Orchestra of New York. She has served on faculties of numerous universities and schools of music, most recently as Associate Professor of Oboe at the University of Delaware. She has helped thousands of artists overcome creative block through her online creative recovery clusters, and has served as an executive coach for arts leaders, from major museum directors to deans of conservatories and art schools. Her podcast is Artists for Joy, and she is the author of The Artist’s Joy: A Guide to Getting Unstuck, Embracing Imperfection, and Loving Your Creative Life.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast.

Listeners may also like:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes.

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Transforming Hispanic-Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice

Thu, 30 May 2024 08:00:00 -0000

What makes Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSIs) uniquely Latinx? And how can university leaders, staff, and faculty transform these institutions into spaces that promote racial equity, social justice, and collective liberation?

Today’s book is: Transforming Hispanic-Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice (Johns Hopkins UP, 2023), by Dr. Gina Ann Garcia. In it, Dr. Garcia argues that in order to serve Latinx students and other students of color, these institutions must acknowledge how whiteness operates across the organization, from the ways that it is governed and how decisions are made to how education and knowledge are delivered. Diversity alone is insufficient for achieving a dynamic learning environment within higher education institutions. Dr. Garcia's framework for transforming HSIs into truly Latinx institutions is grounded in critical theories, yet it advances new ways of thinking about how to organize colleges and universities that are actively serving students of color, low-income students, and students from other minoritized backgrounds. This framework connects multiple important dimensions, including mission, identity, strategic purpose, membership, curriculum, student services, physical infrastructure, governance, leadership, external partnerships, and external influences. Drawing on over 25 years of HSI research, Dr. Garcia offers unique solutions for colleges and universities that want to better serve their students.

Our guest is: Dr. Gina Ann Garcia, who is a professor in the School of Education at UC Berkeley. Her research centers on issues of equity and justice in higher education with an emphasis on understanding how Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) embrace and enact an organizational identity for serving minoritized populations. She explores the experiences of administrators, faculty, and staff at HSIs and the outcomes of students attending these institutions. As an equity-minded scholar, she tends to the ways that race and racism have shaped institutions of higher education. She is the author of Becoming Hispanic-Serving Institutions: Opportunities for Colleges & Universities, the editor of Hispanic-Serving Institutions in Practice: Defining “Servingness” at HSIs, and the author of Transforming Hispanic Serving Institutions for Equity and Justice. She consults directly with HSIs to work towards organizational transformation; is a proud alumna of an HSI; and was a Title V Coordinator at Cal State University, Fullerton which drives and motivates her research and praxis.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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The Translator's Daughter: A Discussion with Grace Loh Prasad

Thu, 23 May 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: The Translator’s Daughter: A Memoir (Mad Creek Books, 2024), by Grace Loh Prasad, which is a unique immigration story about the loneliness of living in a diaspora, the search for belonging, and the meaning of home. Born in Taiwan, Grace Loh Prasad was two years old when the threat of political persecution under Chiang Kai-shek’s dictatorship drove her family to the United States, setting her up to become an “accidental immigrant.” The family did not know when they would be able to go home again. This exile lasted long enough for Prasad to forget her native Taiwanese language and grow up American. Having multilingual parents—including a father who worked as a translator—meant she never had to develop the fluency to navigate Taiwan on visits. But when her parents moved back to Taiwan permanently when she was in college and her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, she recognized the urgency of forging a stronger connection with her birthplace before it was too late. As she recounts her journey to reclaim her heritage in The Translator’s Daughter, Prasad unfurls themes of memory, dislocation, and loss in all their rich complexity.

Our guest is: Grace Loh Prasad, a finalist for the Louise Meriwether First Book prize. Grace writes frequently on the topics of diaspora and belonging. You can find her work in many publications including The New York Times, Longreads, Catapult, Jellyfish Review, Blood Orange Review, KHÔRA, and Cha: An Asian Literary Journal. Grace received her MFA in Creative Writing from Mills College, and has attended workshops at Tin House and VONA, and residencies at Hedgebrook and Ragdale. She is a member of The Writers Grotto and Seventeen Syllables, an Asian American Pacific Islander writers collective. She is the author of The Translator’s Daughter: A Memoir.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may also enjoy these Academic Life episodes:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world.

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At Every Depth: Our Growing Knowledge of the Changing Oceans

Thu, 16 May 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: At Every Depth: Our Growing Knowledge of the Changing Oceans (Columbia UP, 2024), by Tessa Hill and Eric Simons, which takes readers beneath the waves and along the coasts, to explore how climate change and environmental degradation have spurred the most radical transformations in human history. The world’s oceans are changing at a drastic pace. In response, the people who know the ocean most intimately are taking action for the sake of our shared future. Community scientists track species in California tidepools. Researchers dive into the waters around Sydney to replant kelp forests. Scientists and First Nations communities collaborate to restore clam gardens in the Pacific Northwest. In At Every Depth, the oceanographer Dr. Tessa Hill and the science journalist Eric Simons profile these and other efforts to understand and protect marine environments, taking readers to habitats from shallow tidepools to the deep sea. By sharing the stories of scientists, coastal community members, Indigenous people, shellfish farmers, and fisheries workers, At Every Depth brings together varied viewpoints, showing how scientists’ research and local and Indigenous knowledge can all complement each other to inform a more sustainable future.

Our guest is: Dr. Tessa Hill, who is a professor in the Earth and Planetary Sciences Department at the University of California, Davis. She teaches and researches oceanography and climate change. She is a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and she was awarded the Rachel Carson Lecture by the American Geophysical Union.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may also enjoy these episodes with women in science:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world.

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Book Banning: A Discussion with Christine Emeran of the National Coalition Against Censorship

Thu, 09 May 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Book bans and book challenges are both on the rise. And they are increasing at unprecedented rates. But why is this happening? Dr. Christine Emeran of the National Coalition Against Censorship joins us to explore what’s driving censorship movements nationwide. In today’s episode, she takes us through politically organized efforts to ban books, and shares the statistics of book challenges and bans. She explores the new strategies used by groups to challenge books (strategies which differ from the past), and talks about groups fighting back to keep books on shelves.

Our guest is: Dr. Christine Emeran, who is the Youth Free Expression Program Director at the NCAC (National Coalition Against Censorship). In previous roles, she served as a research consultant at UNESCO and UNESCO-International Institute for Education Planning in Paris, France, including initiatives on knowledge societies, primary education decentralization policies, youth program on climate change, and lifelong learning. Dr. Emeran is the author of the book New Generation Political Activism in Ukraine 2000–2014 and contributed the book chapter “The March for Our Lives Movement in the USA: Generational Change and the Personalization of Protest,” to When Students Protest: Secondary and High Schools. In her academic career, Dr. Emeran taught sociology and political science courses, both in the US and abroad. Dr. Emeran is glad to be contributing her knowledge to support students’ rights to free expression.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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Leading from the Margins: College Leadership from Unexpected Places

Thu, 02 May 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Leading From the Margins: College Leadership from Unexpected Places (Johns Hopkins UP, 2024), by Dr. Mary Dana Hinton, which is a guide to why people from marginalized backgrounds may be uniquely qualified to become effective higher education leaders―and how they can get there. Students and faculty in higher education increasingly reflect more diverse backgrounds, but this diversity remains rare in many leadership roles. In Leading from the Margins, Dr. Hinton celebrates the unique strengths of marginalized individuals, inviting them to embrace their leadership potential and make a difference. Drawing from Dr. Hinton's own journey to becoming a university president, this book challenges conventional leadership theories and highlights the value of diverse voices. This book is a vital resource for people in higher education aspiring to senior leadership positions who feel unheard or unrepresented in traditional leadership roles. Leading from the Margins is an essential read for anyone seeking to foster inclusive and effective leadership, bridging the gap between theory and lived experiences. Whether you're an emerging or established leader, Leading from the Margins will empower you to find your own leadership style and discover strength in unexpected places.

Our guest is: Dr. Mary Dana Hinton, who is the 13th president of Hollins University. An active and respected proponent of the liberal arts and inclusion, her leadership reflects a deep and abiding commitment to educational equity and the education of women. Dr. Hinton was elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, an organization established more than 240 years ago by the nation’s founders to honor exceptionally accomplished individuals and engage them in advancing the public good. Her scholarship focuses on higher education leadership, strategic planning, the role of education in peace building, African American religious history, and inclusion in higher education. She is the author of The Commercial Church: Black Churches and the New Religious Marketplace in America, and of Leading from the Margins: College Leadership from Unexpected Places.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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Stitching Freedom: Embroidery and Incarceration

Thu, 25 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Stitching Freedom: Embroidery and Incarceration (Common Threads Press, 2024), by Dr. Isabella Rosner, which considers how for centuries, people have stitched in good times and in bad, finding strength in the needle moving in and out of fabric. Stitching Freedom explores the embroidery made in prisons and mental health hospitals — those who have embroidered to distract, to reflect or to calm. From Mary, Queen of Scots to Lorina Bulwer to “Unfortunate Annie” Parker, embroidery historian and curator Isabella Rosner unpicks embroidered histories to discover what can be created when freedom is out of reach.

Our guest is: Dr. Isabella Rosner, who is curator of the Royal School of Needlework and a research consultant at Witney Antiques. She hosts the “Sew What?” podcast about historic needlework and those who stitched it. She is a 2023 BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker, and the author of the History Today article “With Her Own Hair: A Victorian Prisoner’s Art,” and the new book Stitching Freedom: Embroidery and Incarceration.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator and show host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may also be interested in:

The Royal School of Needlework
Rozsika Parker's The Subversive Stitch.
Betty Ring's Girlhood Embroidery: American Samplers & Pictorial Needlework 1650-1850.
Maureen Daly Goggin and Beth Fowkes Tobin's Women and the Material Culture of Needlework and Textiles, 1750-1950.
A conversation with the director of the Emerson Prison Initiative
A conversation about The Journal of Higher Education in Prison
Education Behind the Wall

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Please help support the show by downloading and sharing episodes.

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The Things We Didn't Know: A Conversation with Elba Iris Pérez

Thu, 18 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: The Things We Didn’t Know (Gallery Books, 2024), by Dr. Elba Iris Pérez’s. A cross-cultural coming-of-age story, The Things We Didn’t Know is inspired by the author’s own experiences growing up between Woronoco, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico. It explores Andrea Rodríguez’s childhood between Puerto Rico and a small Massachusetts factory town. Andrea Rodríguez is nine years old when her mother whisks her and her brother, Pablo, away from Woronoco, the tiny Massachusetts factory town that is the only home they’ve known. With no plan and no money, she leaves them with family in the mountainside villages of Puerto Rico and promises to return. Months later, when Andrea and Pablo are brought back to Massachusetts, they find their hometown significantly changed. As they navigate the rifts between their family’s values and all-American culture, and face the harsh realities of growing up, they must embrace both the triumphs and heartache that mark the journey to adulthood. An evocative portrait of another side of life in 1950s and 1960s America, The Things We Didn’t Know is Dr. Elba Iris Pérez debut novel.

Our guest is: Dr. Elba Iris Pérez, who is from Aguas Buenas, Puerto Rico, and spent her early childhood in Woronoco, Massachusetts. She taught theatre and history at the University of Puerto Rico in Arecibo, and now lives in Houston. Her semi-autobiographical debut novel, The Things We Didn’t Know, was an instant USA TODAY bestseller and the inaugural winner of Simon & Schuster’s Books Like Us First Novel Contest. She is also the author of El teatro como bandera, a history of street theater in Puerto Rico.

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Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Please support the show by downloading and sharing episodes.

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100 Years of Radio in South Africa: Then and Now

Thu, 11 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: 100 Years of Radio in South Africa, Volume 1: South African Radio Stations and Broadcasters Then & Now (Palgrave MacMillan, 2023), edited by Dr. Sisanda Nkoala (with Gilbert Motsaathebe). The book focuses on South African radio stations and broadcasters in the past and present. It brings together media scholars and practitioners to deliberate on the role and influence of radio broadcasting in South Africa over the past 100 years. One of few books to consider radio broadcasting in South Africa, this volume provides a historical account of the development of the sector, theoretical frameworks, an in-depth look at key people and institutions that have shaped the sector, a critique of the medium’s role in community-building and culture making, and includes the voices of media practitioners reflecting on the importance of this medium.

Our guest is: Dr. Sisanda Nkoala who is an Associate Professor in the Linguistics Department at the University of the Western Cape. She won the NIHSS Digital Humanities: Best Visualisation or Infographic award; the Western Cape Cultural Affairs Award for Best Researcher Contributing to Archival Heritage; the HERS-SA Young Women Leader in Higher Education award; and Vodacom Journalist of the Year: Western Cape Radio Features category. She serves as vice-chair of the IAMCR’s media education research section, the African Journalism Educators Network secretary-general, as an associate editor for the Journal of Communication Technology, a public representative on the South African Press Council, a member of the Film & Publication Board’s Appeals Tribunal, and as the vice-president of the South African Communication Association. She is published in journals and in The Conversation. She is the editor of 100 Years of Radio in South Africa, Volume 1: South African Radio Stations and Broadcasters Then & Now, and Community Radio, Digital Radio and the Future of Radio in South Africa. Before joining academia, she was a radio journalist.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may also like:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Please help support the show by downloading and sharing episodes.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Stylish Academic Writing: A Discussion with Helen Sword

Thu, 04 Apr 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Stylish Academic Writing (Harvard UP, 2012), by Helen Sword, which dispels the myth that you only get published by writing wordy, impersonal prose. Dr. Sword reveals that journal editors and readers alike welcome work that avoids excessive jargon and abstraction. Her analysis of more than a thousand peer-reviewed articles across a range of fields documents the startling gap between how academics describe good writing, and the prose they actually produce. Too few scholars were taught how to create accessible prose, a problem Stylish Academic Writing addresses by showcasing works from the sciences, humanities, and social sciences written with both vividness and panache. Individual chapters take up specific elements of style, such as titles and headings, chapter openings, and structure. Stylish Academic Writing also offers examples of transferable techniques that any writer can master.

Our guest is: Dr. Helen Sword who is an international expert on academic, professional, and creative writing across the disciplines. She received her PhD in comparative literature from Princeton University, and is a former Professor of Humanities at the University of Auckland. She now specializes in facilitating retreats, workshops, and masterclasses. She is the author of The Writer’s Diet; Air and Light, Space and Time: How Successful Academics Write; Writing With Pleasure; and Stylish Academic Writing.

Listeners may also like this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Please support the show by downloading and sharing episodes.

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Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education

Thu, 28 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education: A Labor History (University of Illinois Press, 2024), which is an essay collection co-edited by Eric Fure-Slocum and Claire Goldstene. It explores why in the United States more than three-quarters of the people teaching in colleges and universities work as contingent faculty. This “gig” economy includes lack of job security and health care, professional disrespect, and poverty wages that can require some faculty to juggle multiple jobs. The included essays draw on a wide range of perspectives, investigate structural changes that have caused the use of contingent faculty to skyrocket, illuminate how precarity shapes day-to-day experiences in the academic workplace, and delve into the ways contingent faculty engage in collective action and other means to resist austerity measures, improve their working conditions, and instigate reforms in higher education. By challenging contingency, this volume issues a call to reclaim higher education’s public purpose.

Our guest is: Dr. Claire Goldstene, who taught as contingent faculty at the University of Maryland, the University of North Florida, and American University. She has published extensively on contingent faculty issues and served on the board of New Faculty Majority Foundation. She is also the author of The Struggle for America's Promise: Equal Opportunity at the Dawn of Corporate Capital and is currently working on a book about free speech in the early-twentieth century United States. She is the co-editor of Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education.

Our co-guest is: Maria Maisto, who taught as a contingent faculty member for over fifteen years in Maryland and Ohio. She has published and spoken widely on the topic of contingent faculty equity, advocacy, and coalition building. In 2009, she co-founded New Faculty Majority: The National Coalition for Adjunct and Contingent Equity, a 501(c)6 membership and advocacy organization, and served as its president. She is a featured essayist in Contingent Faculty and the Remaking of Higher Education.

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Is Grad School for Me?: Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students

Thu, 21 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Is Grad School for Me? Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students (U California Press, 2024), by Dr. Yvette Martínez-Vu and Dr. Miroslava Chávez-García. It is the first book to provide first-generation, low-income, and nontraditional students of color with insider knowledge on how to consider and navigate graduate school. Is Grad School for Me? is a calling card and a corrective to the lack of clear guidance for historically excluded students navigating the onerous undertaking of graduate school—starting with asking if grad school is even a good fit. This essential resource offers step-by-step instructions on how to maneuver the admissions process before, during, and after applying. Unlike other guides, Is Grad School for Me? takes an approach that is both culturally relevant and community based. The book is packed with relatable scenarios, memorable tips, common myths and mistakes, sample essays, and templates to engage a variety of learners. With a strong focus on demystifying higher education and revealing the hidden curriculum, this guide aims to diversify a wide range of professions in academia, nonprofits, government, industry, entrepreneurship, and beyond.

Our guest is: Dr. Yvette Martínez-Vu is a grad school and productivity coach and host of the globally top-rated Grad School Femtoring Podcast. She is also the co-editor of the best-selling Chicana M(other)work Anthology and founder of Grad School Femtoring, LLC, where she supports first-gen BIPOC folks in reaching their academic and personal goals. She is the co-author of Is Grad School for Me? Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students.

Our co-guest is: Dr. Miroslava Chávez-García is Professor of History at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and is currently the Faculty Director of the UCSB McNair Scholars Program. She is author of Migrant Longing, States of Delinquency, and Negotiating Conquest. She is the co-author of Is Grad School for Me? Demystifying the Application Process for First-Gen BIPOC Students.

Listeners may also like the episodes on this playlist:

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Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm

Thu, 14 Mar 2024 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Secret Harvests: A Hidden Story of Separation and the Resilience of a Family Farm (Red Hen Press, 2023), by David Mas Masumoto. In his new memoir, Mas discovers his “lost” aunt. She had been taken away in 1942 when all Japanese Americans were considered the enemy and imprisoned. Due to a disability, she became a “ward” of the state; and his family believed she had died. Then came a surprising phone call—she was alive and living a few miles from their family farm. As Mas discovers, every family has secrets, silences, and lives among their unanswered questions. As Mas learns about his aunt, he asks, How did she survive? Why was she kept hidden? The book interrogates how both shame and resilience empowered his family to forge forward in a land that did not want them. Mas shares how he is driven to explore his identity and the meaning of family—especially as farmers tied to the land. In doing so, he uncovers family secrets that bind his family to a sense of history buried in the earth they work and a sense of place that defines them. Secret Harvests is a story of a family separated by racism against Japanese Americans and the discrimination of people with developmental disabilities—reunited seventy years later, returning to their roots on a farm, and bound by family secrets.

Our guest is: David Mas Masumoto is an organic farmer, author, and activist. His book Epitaph for a Peach won the Julia Child Cookbook award and was a finalist for a James Beard award. His writing has been awarded a Commonwealth Club of California silver medal and the Independent Publisher Books bronze medal. He has been honored by Rodale Institute as an "Organic Pioneer." He has served on the boards of the James Irvine Foundation, Public Policy Institute of California, Cal Humanities, and the National Council on the Arts with nomination by President Obama. He farms with his wife Marcy and two adult children, Nikiko and Koro. They reside in a hundred-year-old farmhouse surrounded by their eighty-acre organic peach, nectarine, apricot, and raisin farm outside of Fresno, California.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the creator of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may also be interested in:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. You can support the show by downloading episodes and by telling a friend about them, because knowledge should be shared.

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The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You

Thu, 07 Mar 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: The Ungrateful Refugee: What Immigrants Never Tell You (Catapult, 2020), by Dina Nayeri, a book which asks “what is it like to be a refugee?” There are more than 25 million refugees in the world today. At age eight, Dina Nayeri fled Iran along with her mother and brother, and lived in the crumbling shell of an Italian hotel-turned–refugee camp. Eventually she was granted asylum in America. She settled in Oklahoma, then made her way to Princeton. In this book, Nayeri weaves together her own vivid story with the stories of other refugees and asylum seekers, bringing us inside their daily lives and taking us through the different stages of their journeys, from escape to asylum to resettlement. She shows us that to be a refugee is to grapple with your place in society, attempting to reconcile the life you have known with a new, unfamiliar home. All this while bearing the burden of gratitude in your host nation: the expectation that you should be forever thankful for the space you have been allowed. Nayeri offers a new understanding of refugee life, confronting dangers from the metaphor of the swarm to the notion of “good” immigrants. She calls attention to the harmful way in which Western governments privilege certain dangers over others. The Ungrateful Refugee recalibrates the conversation around the refugee experience, by sharing the real stories of what it is like to be forced to flee your home, and to journey across borders in the hope of starting afresh.

Our guest is: Professor Dina Nayeri, who is the author of The Ungrateful Refugee, winner of numerous prizes including the Geschwister Scholl Preis, the Kirkus Prize, and Elle Grand Prix des Lectrices. Her essay of the same name was one of The Guardian’s most widely read long reads in 2017, and is taught in schools and anthologized around the world. A 2019-2020 Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, and winner of the 2018 UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Prize, Dina has won a National Endowment for the Arts literature grant, the O. Henry Prize, and Best American Short Stories, among other honors. Her work has been published in 20+ countries and in The New York Times, The Guardian, The Washington Post, The New Yorker, Granta, and other publications. She is a graduate of Princeton, Harvard, and the Iowa Writers Workshop. In autumn 2021, she was a Fellow at the American Library in Paris. She recently joined the faculty at the University of St. Andrews.

Listeners may also be interested in:

Who Gets Believed?

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Get PhDone! Proven Strategies for Tackling Your Writing Roadblocks

Thu, 29 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Are you facing writing roadblocks? There are many guides on how to make your writing match academic standards, so why aren’t there any on how to make yourself actually write? How can you get to PhDone if life keeps getting in the way? Can you get there if you are a care-giver? Facing illness, or work responsibilities? Dealing with anxiety? In the midst of a personal or a global crisis? What practical advice exists to help you get to PhDone in the real world? Scholar and author Dr. Briana Barner joins us to share the practical approaches that worked for her, and that can work for you, in this episode that breaks down what it takes to tackle and finish a big writing project in real life.

Our guest is: Dr. Briana Barner, who is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland. She received a doctorate in Radio-Television-Film and a doctoral portfolio in Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of Texas. Briana also earned a Master’s in Women’s and Gender Studies from UT. She is an interdisciplinary critical and cultural communications scholar with research interests in Black podcasts, digital and Black feminism, digital media, Black cultural production and representation. Her work has been published in journals including Radio Journal: International Studies in Broadcast & Audio Media, and Film Quarterly. She is currently working on a manuscript about the cultural production of Black podcasts.

Listeners may also like the episodes on this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. You can support the show by downloading and sharing episodes, because knowledge is for everyone. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There

Thu, 22 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Look Again: The Power of Noticing What Was Always There (Atria/One Signal Publishers, 2024), by Tali Sharot and Cass R. Sunstein, a book that asks why stimulating jobs and breathtaking works of art lose their sparkle after a while. People stop noticing what is most wonderful in their own lives. They also stop noticing what is terrible, due to something called habituation. Because of habituation, people get used to dirty air, become unconcerned by their own misconduct, and become more liable to believe misinformation. But what if you could dishabituate? Could you find a way to see everything anew? What if you could regain sensitivity, not only to the great things in your life, but also to the terrible things you stopped noticing and so don’t try to change?

In Look Again, neuroscience professor Tali Sharot and Harvard law professor Cass R. Sunstein investigate why we stop noticing both the great and not-so-great things around us and how to “dishabituate.” This groundbreaking work, based on decades of research in the psychological and biological sciences, illuminates how we can reignite the sparks of joy, innovate, and recognize where improvements urgently need to be made. The key to this disruption—to seeing, feeling, and noticing again—is change. By temporarily changing your environment, changing the rules, changing the people you interact with—or even just stepping back and imagining change—you regain sensitivity, allowing you to more clearly identify the bad and more deeply appreciate the good.

Our guest is: Cass R. Sunstein, who is the nation’s most-cited legal scholar. For the past fifteen years, he has been at the forefront of behavioral economics. From 2009 to 2012, he served as the administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. Since that time, he has served in the US government in multiple capacities and worked with the United Nations and the World Health Organization, where he chaired the Technical Advisory Group on Behavioral Insights and Sciences for Health during the COVID-19 pandemic. He is the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard Law School. His book Nudge, coauthored with Richard Thaler, was a national bestseller. In 2018, he was the recipient of the Holberg Prize from the government of Norway, sometimes described as equivalent of the Nobel Prize for law and the humanities. He lives in Boston and Washington, DC, with his wife, children, and labrador retrievers. He is the co-author [along with Tali Sharot, who could not join us for this episode] of Look Again.

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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Deborah Taffa, "Whiskey Tender: A Memoir" (Harper, 2024)

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Whiskey Tender: A Memoir (Harper, 2024), by Deborah Jackson Taffa, who was raised to believe that some sacrifices were necessary to achieve a better life. Her grandparents—citizens of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo tribe—were sent to Indian boarding schools run by white missionaries, while her parents were encouraged to take part in governmental job training off the reservation. Assimilation meant relocation, but as Deborah Jackson Taffa matured into adulthood, she began to question the promise handed down by her elders and by American society: that if she gave up her culture, her land, and her traditions, she would not only be accepted, but would be able to achieve the “American Dream.”

Whiskey Tender traces how a mixed tribe native girl—born on the California Quechan (Yuma) reservation and raised in Navajo territory in New Mexico—comes to her own interpretation of identity, despite her parent’s desires for her to transcend the class and “Indian” status of her birth through education, and despite the Quechan tribe’s particular traditions and beliefs regarding oral and recorded histories. Her childhood memories unspool into meditations on tribal identity, the rampant criminalization of Native men, governmental assimilation policies, the Red Power movement, and the negotiation between belonging and resisting systemic oppression. Pan-Indian, as well as specific tribal histories and myths, blend with stories of a 1970s and 1980s childhood spent on and off the reservation. Deborah Jackson Taffa offers a sharp and thought-provoking historical analysis laced with humor and heart. As she reflects on her past and present—the promise of assimilation and the many betrayals her family has suffered, both personal and historical; trauma passed down through generations—she reminds us of how the cultural narratives of her ancestors have been excluded from the central mythologies and structures of the “melting pot” of America, revealing all that is sacrificed for the promise of acceptance.

Our guest is: Deborah Jackson Taffa, who is a citizen of the Quechan (Yuma) Nation and Laguna Pueblo. She earned her MFA at the Iowa Writers Workshop, and is the Director of the MFA in Creative Writing Program at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her writing has appeared in The Rumpus, Boston Review, Los Angeles Review of Books, A Public Space, Salon, the Huffington Post, Prairie Schooner, The Best Travel Writing, and other outlets.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the creator of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore which stories we tell and what happens to those we don’t.

Listeners may also be interested in this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world.

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Where is Home?: A Discussion with Zed Zha

Thu, 08 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0000

When Zed Zha came to the United States for her education, she faced barriers to medical school admission and financial aid, and to establishing a sense of belonging. Then unexpectedly, she found the feeling of “home” in rural New Hampshire. Dr. Zha joins us to share her blog post Where is Home? and to take us through her journey to her life now as a doctor in rural America, focused on underserved patients.

Our guest is: Dr. Zed Zha, who is a writer and a family doctor, a feminist and a fierce patient advocate. Her current work-in-progress is a non-fiction book project on medical misogyny. Dr. Zha is a board-certified family physician. She graduated from the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, where she received the Gold Humanism Honor Society Award and the John F. Radebaugh Community Service Award. She completed her residency at the Mayo Clinic - La Crosse Family Medicine Residency, where she was the recipient of the Residency Research Award. Zed practiced full-scope primary care with obstetrics and hospital medicine in rural Washington state from 2019-2022, where she served as her organization’s COVID-19 Task Force Physician Lead. Currently, she is completing her fellowship in Underserved Dermatology.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the creator of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may also be interested in this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Please join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. The Academic Life podcast is currently listened to in more than 150 countries. You can help support the show’s mission of democratizing education and sharing the hidden curriculum by downloading episodes, and by telling a friend—because knowledge is for everybody.

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Black Women, Ivory Tower: Revealing the Lies of White Supremacy in American Education

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Black Women, Ivory Tower: Revealing the Lies of White Supremacy in American Education (Broadleaf Books, 2024), by Dr. Jasmine L. Harris, which is an exploration of what it means to be a Black woman in higher education. Dr. Jasmine Harris shares her own experiences attempting to be a Vassar girl and reckoning with a lack of legacy and agency, while examining the day-to-day impacts on Black women as individuals, and the longer-term consequences to their professional lives, and the generational costs to entire families. Trial and error has been required of Black students to navigate systems of discrimination and disadvantage. But this book now offers useful support, illuminating the community of Black women dealing with similar issues. The author's story is not unusual, nor are her interactions anomalies. Black Women, Ivory Tower explores why.

Our guest is: Dr. Jasmine L. Harris, who is associate professor of African American Studies and coordinator of the African American Studies Program in the Department of Race, Ethnicity, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Texas, San Antonio. A rising voice in the study of Black lives in the US, Dr. Harris's research and teaching focus on the experiences of Black people in predominantly white schools, specifically the social, physical, and economic impacts of their presence there. She has been published in the Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Women's Studies Quarterly, and the Journal of Economics, Race, and Policy.

Listeners may also be interested in:

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Inside Addiction and Sobriety in Academia

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0000

How do the pressures of academia affect our relationships with ourselves, our work, and with substance use? Dr. Alicia Andrzejewski joins us for a candid conversation about her recent HuffPost article on her struggle to get and stay sober.

Our guest is: Dr. Alicia Andrzejewski, who is an assistant professor in the department of English at William & Mary. She is a scholar of early modern literature and culture; queer, feminist, and critical race theory; and the medical humanities. Her work has appeared in Shakespeare Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, The Chronicle, Literary Hub, The Huffington Post, and other publications. Her current book project is Queer Pregnancy in Shakespeare’s Plays.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the host and producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners may be interested in this playlist:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us again to learn from more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. You can support the podcast by downloading Academic Life episodes, and by sharing the show with a friend—because knowledge is for everybody.

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Black and Queer on Campus

Thu, 18 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Black and Queer on Campus (NYU Press, 2023) by Michael P. Jeffries, which offers an inside look at what life is like for LGBTQ college students on campuses across the United States. Dr. Jeffries shows that Black and queer college students often struggle to find safe spaces and a sense of belonging when they arrive on campus. Drawing on his interviews with students from over a dozen colleges, Dr. Jeffries provides a much-needed perspective on the specific challenges Black LGBTQ students face and the ways they overcome them. We learn through these intimate portraits that many of the most harmful stereotypes and threats to black queer safety continue to haunt this generation of students. We also learn how students build queer identities. Black and Queer on Campus sheds light on the oft-hidden lives of Black LGBTQ students, and how educational institutions can better serve them. It highlights the quiet beauty and joy of Black queer social life, and the bonds of friendship that sustain the students.

Our guest is: Dr. Michael P. Jeffries, who is Dean of Academic Affairs, Class of 1949 Professor in Ethics, and Professor of American Studies at Wellesley College. He is the author of Behind the Laughs: Community and Inequality in Comedy; Paint the White House Black: Barack Obama and the Meaning of Race in America; Thug Life: Race, Gender, and the Meaning of Hip-Hop; and Black and Queer on Campus. He has published dozens of essays and works of criticism in The New York Times, The Atlantic, The Guardian, and The Boston Globe, and has been interviewed by The Washington Post, The New York Times, and NPR.

Listeners may also be interested in:

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Montana Lee, a Journey to Togo, and the Duke Diary Dispatches

Thu, 11 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Does time abroad teach you something about the world, or about yourself? Whether you are a student, staff, or have gone alt-ac, you’ve likely considered what travel might mean for your education and your career goals, and for your relationships. There are real challenges in keeping in touch when your family and friends are suddenly far away—but what if we revived the old-school tradition of sending travel letters? What would that look like in today’s world?

In this episode, we explore the Duke Diary Dispatches and how a handful of students agreed to post diary entries online during their summer trips. Montana Lee joins us talk about her own diary entries, living in Togo, how her previous travel experiences prepared her [and how they didn’t], and the unexpected things that happened to her.

Our guest is: Montana Lee, who is an undergraduate student at Duke University in the class of 2026. Fluent in French, she lived in Paris during part of her gap year and spent May and June 2023 in rural Togo with a university program, where she taught Mandarin, creative writing, and the art of correspondence to local children and adults. She is the author of a popular series of journal reflections recounting her Togo experience on Duke Today. You can read them here.

Listeners may also be interested in:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Please join us again to learn from even more experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. The Academic Life podcast is currently listened to in more than 150 countries. You can help support the show’s mission of democratizing education and sharing the hidden curriculum by downloading episodes, and by telling a friend—because knowledge is for everybody. You’ll find all 190+ Academic Life episodes archived here.

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Claire Myers Owens and the Banned Book

Thu, 04 Jan 2024 09:00:00 -0000

Why did the New York Public Library ban a novel about women’s independence? What was the Human Potential Movement? And who was Claire Myers Owens?

Today’s book is: Rivers of Light: The Life of Claire Myers Owens (Syracuse University Press,, 2019) by Miriam Kalman Friedman, which is a biography of Owens, who grew up in a conservative, middle-class family in Texas, but sought adventure and freedom. At twenty years old, she left home and quickly found a community of like-minded free spirits and intellectuals in New York’s Greenwich Village. There Owens wrote novels and short stories, including the controversial novel The Unpredictable Adventure: A Comedy of Woman’s Independence, which was banned by the New York Public Library for its “risqué” content. Drawn to ideals of self-actualization and creative freedom, Owens became a key figure in the Human Potential Movement along with founder Abraham Maslow and Aldous Huxley. In her later years, Owens devoted her life to the practice of Zen Buddhism, and published her final book, Zen and the Lady, at the age of eighty-three. Dr. Friedman’s rediscovery of Owens brings attention to her little known yet extraordinary life and passionate spirit. Drawing upon autobiographies, letters, journals, and novels, Dr. Friedman chronicles Owens’s robust intellect and her tumultuous private life.

Our guest is: Dr. Miriam Kalman Friedman, who is a writing coach, editor, and lecturer. She has published multiple books on feminism, women, and women's studies. She is the author of Rivers of Light: The Life of Claire Myers Owens.

Listeners may also be interested in:

Exploring the Emotional Arc of Turning a Dissertation into A Book
Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle R. Boyd
This discussion of the book Becoming the Writer You Already Are

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us here to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 200+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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Brown and Gay in LA and the Craft of Writing Nonfiction

Thu, 28 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0000

In this episode, Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo takes us both inside and beyond his new book, Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons (NYU Press, 2022), to talk about the craft of writing nonfiction, the importance of writing communities and fellowships, and about putting your writing out into the world.

Today’s book is: Brown and Gay in LA: The Lives of Immigrant Sons, by Anthony Christian Ocampo. Growing up in the shadow of Hollywood, the gay sons of immigrants featured in Brown and Gay in LA maneuver through family and friendship circles where masculinity dominates, gay sexuality is unspoken, and heterosexuality is strictly enforced. Dr. Ocampo details his story of reconciling his queer Filipino American identity and those of men like him. He shows what it was like to grow up gay in an immigrant family, to be the one gay person in their school and ethnic community, and to be a person of color in predominantly White gay spaces. Brown and Gay in LA is an homage to second-generation gay men and their radical redefinition of what it means to be gay, to be a man, to be a person of color, and, ultimately, what it means to be an American.

Our guest is: Dr. Anthony Christian Ocampo, who is Professor of Sociology at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. He is the author of Brown and Gay in LA, and The Latinos of Asia: How Filipino Americans Break the Rules of Race. He is an Academic Director of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and co-host of the podcast Professor-ing. His writing has appeared in GQ, Catapult, BuzzFeed, Los Angeles Review of Books, Colorlines, Gravy, Life & Thyme, and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He received fellowships from the Ford Foundation, Jack Jones Literary Arts, Tin House, and the VONA/Voices of Our Nations Arts Foundation. He was recently featured in the Netflix documentary “White Hot: The Rise and Fall of Abercrombie & Fitch,” as he was one of the employees involved in suing the company for racial discriminatory hiring practices. He holds a BA in comparative studies in race and ethnicity and MA in modern thought and literature from Stanford University, and an MA and PhD in sociology from UCLA.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

For more author-talks that consider the craft of writing, try:

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Talking to Strangers: A Discussion with Psychotherapist Charlotte Fox Weber

Thu, 21 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Can the kindness of strangers help with the loneliness crisis? Whether you are a student, staff, or have gone alt-ac, you’ve likely had to move at least once recently for your education and career goals. It can get lonely when family and friends are far away or they just don’t understand what you are doing with your life, and you are left wondering who you can talk to, who has your back, and who will be your people. In this episode, a podcaster and a psychotherapist sit down to talk about how their respective jobs regularly place them in conversations with strangers, and the unexpectedly good things that have come of that. As Christina Gessler and Charlotte Fox Weber consider reports of a global loneliness crisis, they offer up the idea that perhaps one of the answers to dealing with loneliness is not in cultivating or stressing big relationships, but in recognizing the value of all of the smaller roles played by the people you encounter, and in re-valuing daily interactions.

Along with consideration for caring for mental wellbeing, having boundaries, making a safety-plan or setting up guardrails, and having realistic expectations for the roles people can fill in our lives, this episode reflects on how we can value the cumulative effect of all the smaller conversations that make up a life, and on the surprising kindness and wisdom that might be offered by strangers.

Our guest is: Charlotte Fox Weber, who is a psychotherapist and writer. She cofounded Examined Life and was the founding head of The School of Life Psychotherapy. She grew up in Connecticut and Paris and now lives in London with her family. She is the author of Tell Me What You Want. Find out more at CharlotteFoxWeber.com.

Listeners may also be interested in:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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How to Build a Career: A Discussion with Ben Wildavsky

Thu, 14 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0000

On this episode of the Academic Life, we dive into the book The Career Arts: Making the Most of College, Credentials, and Connections (Princeton UP, 2023) by Ben Wildavsky, which makes a persuasive case for building career success through broad education, targeted skills, and social capital. People today expect to hold many jobs over the course of their lives, which is why they need a range of essential skills. The Career Arts provides a corrective to the misleading notion that there is a direct trade-off between going to college and acquiring practical job skills. Drawing on evidence-based research, illuminating case studies, and in-depth interviews, Wildavsky shares vital lessons of what he calls the career arts, which include cultivating a mix of broad and targeted skills, taking advantage of employer-funded education benefits, and preparing for the world as it is, not as you wish it could be. He explains why college remains the gold standard of credentials, and presents the most promising supplements and alternatives to college that can help learners combine general and job-specific skills. He shows how building social capital is also critical to success, particularly for disadvantaged students. A guidebook for students, parents, counselors, and educators, The Career Arts reveals why college education and job preparation are not either-or propositions and identifies the blend of education and networking needed to support real-world career aspirations.

Our guest is: Ben Wildavsky, who is a visiting scholar at the University of Virginia's School of Education and Human Development. He is the award-winning author of The Great Brain Race and coeditor of Reinventing Higher Education, and Measuring Success. He is the host and co-producer of the Higher Ed Spotlight podcast.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey--and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here.

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Hidden No More: A Conversation with Space Suit Technician Sharon McDougle

Thu, 07 Dec 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Who dresses the astronauts for flight? Why are the suits orange? And how are they cared for? Sharon Caples McDougle joins us to talk about her work as a modern day hidden figure, a space suit technician responsible for processing the orange launch and re-entry pressure suit assemblies worn by all NASA space shuttle astronauts. She explains how she became one of only two women CEE Suit Technicians, led the first and only all-female suit tech crew, and how she made history when she suited up Dr. Mae Jemison.

Our guest is: Sharon Caples McDougle, who began her aerospace career in the Air Force where she served proudly as an Aerospace Physiology Specialist at Beale Air Force Base, in California. She was the first female and first Black Crew Chief in CEE. As Crew Chief she had the honor of leading the first and only all-female suit tech crew. McDougle went on to become the first, and only female, and Black person, to become the Manager of the CEE Processing Department. She managed the team of more than twenty-five employees responsible for the equipment worn by the astronaut crews aboard the space shuttle. This team suited up the astronauts, tested the equipment, strapped the astronauts into the space shuttle before launch, and recovered the crew upon landing. McDougle is a United States Air Force (USAF) veteran, and the author of Suit Up for Launch with Shay.

Listeners may also be interested in:

Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly
The 100 Year Starship, by Mae Jemison and Dana Meachen Rau
Suit Up for Launch with Shay, by Sharon Caples McDougle
NASA.gov

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Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach College in Prison

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Why are college programs offered in some prisons? How are the students selected? Where do the professors come from? What are the logistics of preparing to teach, and to learn, behind the wall? How does the digital divide affect these students?

Today’s book is: Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach College in Prison (Brandeis UP, 2022) edited by Mneesha Gellman, which is an edited volume reflecting on different aspects of teaching in prison and different points of view. This book seeks to address some of the major issues faced by faculty who are teaching college classes for incarcerated students. Composed of a series of case studies meant to showcase the strengths and challenges of teaching a range of different disciplines in prison, this volume brings together scholars who articulate some of the best practices for teaching their expertise inside alongside honest reflections on the reality of educational implementation in a constrained environment. The book not only provides essential guidance for faculty interested in developing their own courses to teach in prisons, but also places the work of higher education in prisons in philosophical context with regards to racial, economic, social, and gender-based issues. Rather than solely a how-to handbook, this volume also helps readers think through the trade-offs that happen when teaching inside, and about how to ensure the full integrity of college access for incarcerated students.

Our guest is: Dr. Mneesha Gellman, who is the founder and director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which brings an Emerson College bachelor’s degree pathway to incarcerated students at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord. Gellman is an associate professor of political science at the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College.

Listeners may also be interested in:

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Rachel Neff, "Chasing Chickens: When Life After Higher Education Doesn't Go the Way You Planned" (UP of Kansas, 2019)

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0000

The majority of PhDs won’t secure a tenure-track job. So how can you pivot, and find a new opportunity? Dr. Rachel Neff joins us to share her experiences post-grad, and offers her wisdom on how to turn “This wasn’t the plan!” into “Why not?”

Today’s book is: Chasing Chickens: When Life After Higher Education Doesn't Go the Way You Planned (UP of Kansas, 2019), by Dr. Rachel Neff, which retraces the steps that took her from her moment of reckoning—aka “failure”—to a new way of seeing and grasping success. Each chapter takes us along her new, unlikely career path, from revealing how she ended up chasing chickens on New Year’s Eve, to explaining what happens when a PhD becomes an executive assistant. Written with the benefit of hindsight, Dr. Neff offers advice on how to see the bigger picture, find your next career, and ace an interview. She takes the uncertainty and stress out of reinventing yourself, and provides tools for finding and making your own way.

Our guest is: Dr. Rachel Anna Neff, who is the owner of Exceptional Editorial, and has worked as a digital strategist, a copy editor, an adjunct instructor, and a tutor. She has written poetry since elementary school and has notebooks full of half-written novels. She earned her doctorate in Spanish literature, and holds two BAs, an MA, and a MFA. Her work has been published in JuxtaProse Magazine, Crab Fat Magazine and included in several anthologies. Her books include The Haywire Heart and Other Musings on Love, and Chasing Chickens: When Life after Higher Education Doesn't Go the Way You Planned.

Listeners may also be interested in:

Three Things I Wish I Knew When I Went on the Academic Job Market, by Rachel Neff
The Employability Journal, by Babara Bassot
Independent Scholars Meet the World: Expanding Academia Beyond the Academy, edited by Christine Caccipuoti and Elizabeth Keohane-Burbridge
Academic Life episode "Should I Quit My PhD Program?"
How to Leave Academia and Find a Good Job

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I Kick and I Fly

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Professor Ruchira Gupta joins us to share her young adult novel I Kick and I Fly (Scholastic, 2023), which was inspired by her experience making the Emmy-award winning documentary The Selling of Innocents. I Kick and I Fly is set on the outskirts of the Red Light District in Bihar, India, where fourteen year old Heera is living on borrowed time until her father sells her into the sex trade to help feed their family and repay his loans. It is, she’s been told, the fate of the women in her community to end up here. But watching her cousin, Mira Di, live this life day in and out is hard enough. To live it feels like the worst fate imaginable. And after a run-in with a bully leads to her expulsion from school, it feels closer than ever. But when a local hostel owner shows up at Heera’s home with the money to repay her family’s debt, Heera begins to learn that fate can change.

Content note: this episode addresses the subjects of sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, familial and intracommunity violence, anti-indigenous violence, poverty, food insecurity, housing insecurity, and violence against women and girls.

Our guest is: Professor Ruchira Gupta, who is a writer, feminist campaigner, professor at New York University and founder of the anti-sex-trafficking organization, Apne Aap Women Worldwide. She won the Clinton Global Citizen award in 2009, the Sera Bangali Award in 2012 and an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism in 1996. She has helped more than twenty thousand girls and women in India exit prostitution systems. She has edited As If Women Matter: The Essential Gloria Steinem Reader, and has written manuals on human trafficking for the UN Office for Drugs and Crime. Professor Ruchira divides her time between Delhi and New York. I Kick and I Fly is her debut novel.

Listeners also may be interested in:

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Exploring the Emotional Arc of Turning a Dissertation into a Book

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Imposter syndrome. Intellectual fatigue. Feeling like you have nothing interesting to say. Not liking your topic or your research anymore. Wondering if anyone even cares if you write a book. Is a pile of emotional luggage getting in the way of your progress? On this episode of the Academic Life, Dr. Leslie Wang joins us to talk about emotional blocks that arise when turning a dissertation into a book, and what to do about them.

Inside most scholars are the criticisms and judgments we’ve carried since graduate school (and a few we’ve carried longer than that), many of which have made a space inside us as our “inner critics,” and some of which leave us questioning our claim to being a writer at all. Dr. Wang takes us through three key questions we need to ask ourselves, offers suggestions for how to handle our inner critics, helps us imagine a generous reader awaiting our new book, and invites us to interrogate how the grind mentality is affecting our creativity.

Our guest is: Dr. Leslie Wang, who is a former Associate Professor of Sociology, at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She holds a PhD and Master’s Degree in Sociology, from the University of California Berkeley, and an International Coach Federation Certification. She is the author of Outsourced Children, and Chasing the American Dream in China, and the founder of Your Words Unleashed. When she is not working with high-achieving scholars, she enjoys cooking, international travel, and spending time with her husband and son.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Why it’s so hard to turn your dissertation into a book, by Dr. Leslie Wang
Academic Life episode on book proposals
Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle R. Boyd

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Shark Sciences: A Conversation with Carlee Jackson

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is Minorities in Shark Sciences: Diverse Voices in Shark Research (CRC Press, 2022), edited by Jasmin Graham, Camila Caceres and Deborah Santos de Azevedo Menna, which showcases the work done by Black, Indigenous and People of Color around the world in the fields of shark science and conservation. It highlights important research by people who were historically excluded from STEM, and the unique perspectives these scientists bring to their field. The contributors to this book hope to stimulate innovation and transformative change in the field of shark conservation and marine science.

Today’s other book is Sharks (A Day in the Life) (Neon Squid, 2022), by Carlee Jackson, which is set over a 24-hour period, undersea. Marine biologist and shark conservationist Carlee Jackson weaves the story from whale sharks to tiny epaulette sharks in the style of a nature documentary. She also includes shark science facts perfect for future biologists. Readers witness incredible moments including a giant hammerhead hunting stingrays, and a nurse shark asleep in a coral reef. Beautifully illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat and packed with animal facts, Sharks (A Day in the Life) encourages humans to look at sharks as endangered animals who play a key role in the ocean’s ecosystem.

Our guest is Carlee Jackson-Bohannon, who is a marine biologist studying sharks and sea turtles in Florida. She is a co-founder and the Director of Communications for Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), an organization dedicated to increasing diversity and accessibility in shark sciences. Carlee was the recipient of the 2022 Justice in Equity, Diversity & Inclusion award by the Florida Marine Science Educators Association and makes appearances in National Geographic Channel’s Sharkfest. She is the author of Sharks (A Day in the Life), and Green Sea Turtle: A First Field Guide to the Ocean Reptile from the Tropics. Her research interests mainly revolve around the different ways sharks and humans interact and how this affects shark behavior and diversity. She is passionate about her field work and research, and sharing this with marginalized communities. Carlee hopes to inspire more diversity in marine science and spark a passion for sharks in others.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcasts. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Bugs: A Day in the Life by Jessica Ware
This conversation with Dr. Ware about Bugs: A Day in the Life

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The Benefits of New Forms of Assessments for Historical Thinking

Thu, 19 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Considering trying ungrading? Assigning the unessay? What helps, and what hinders student progress? Today’s guest shares her own interrupted journey to her degree, and considers how different assignments and assessment methods helped her connect in the classroom.

Today’s article is: "The Benefits of Nontraditional Assessments for Historical Thinking ," by Haley Armogida, published in 2022 in Teaching History: A Journal of Methods (47)1. In it, Haley Armogida considers which types of assessments benefited her as a student, and why. You can read a pdf of the full article here or find it online in free open access.

Our guest is: Haley Armogida, who was a nontraditional undergrad at Ball State University. She recently graduated with a History Bachelor’s in Science. During her second go at academia from 2020 to 2022, she presented her work at such conferences as the Johns Hopkins Macksey Symposium for undergraduate research and the Student History Conference at Ball State. She was published in Teaching History: A Journal of Methods in an article which discussed the benefits of nontraditional forms of assessment in history classrooms, and hopes that her contributions to the field will be to make the study of history more accessible to people outside the realm of academia. She and her husband Nick (both Ball State alumni) and their dog Luna recently moved to Colorado, where she plans to start a podcast of her own, and search for the perfect grad program.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

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Indigenous DC: A Conversation with Elizabeth Rule

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s First Capital (Georgetown UP, 2023), by Dr. Elizabeth Rule, which is the first and fullest account of the suppressed history and continuing presence of Native Americans in Washington, DC. Washington, DC, is Indian land, but Indigenous peoples are often left out of the national narrative of the United States and erased in the capital city. To redress this myth of invisibility, Indigenous DC shines a light upon the oft-overlooked contributions of tribal leaders and politicians, artists and activists to the rich history of the District of Columbia, and their imprint—at times memorialized in physical representations, and at other times living on only through oral history—upon this place. Inspired by Dr. Elizabeth Rule’s award-winning public history mobile app and decolonial mapping project Guide to Indigenous DC, this book brings together the original inhabitants who call the District their traditional territory, the diverse Indigenous diaspora who has made community here, and the land itself in a narrative arc that makes clear that all land is Native land. The acknowledgment that DC is an Indigenous space inserts the Indigenous perspective into the national narrative and opens the door for future possibilities of Indigenous empowerment and sovereignty. This important book is a valuable and informational resource on both Washington, DC, regional history and Native American history.

Our guest is: Dr. Elizabeth Rule, who is Assistant Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University. She is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Her research on Indigenous issues has been featured in the Washington Post, Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, The Atlantic, Newsy, and NPR. She has published scholarly articles in the American Quarterly and in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal; and is the author of Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s Capital (Georgetown University Press). Beyond the classroom, Dr. Rule continues her work as an educator by presenting her research and delivering invited talks on Native American issues. Dr. Rule has held posts as Director of the Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy and Faculty in Residence at George Washington University, Director of the Native American Political Leadership Program and the INSPIRE PreCollege Program, MIT Indigenous Communities Fellow, Postdoctoral Fellow at American University, and Ford Foundation Fellow. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in American Studies from Brown University, and her B.A. from Yale University.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcasts. She holds a Ph.D. in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.

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Lee Wind, "No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves" (Zest Books, 2021)

Thu, 05 Oct 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Which stories are left out of the history books? What’s in the documents omitted from the “official” record? And what happens when we go in search of people’s hidden lives?

Today’s book is No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves (Zest Books, 2021), by Lee Wind, in which he reminds us that “history” was crafted by the people who recorded it. And sometimes, those historians were biased against, didn’t see, or couldn’t even imagine anyone different from themselves. That means that history has often left out the stories of LGBTQIA+ people: men who loved men, women who loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. Historians have even censored the lives and loves of some of the world’s most famous people, from William Shakespeare and Pharaoh Hatshepsut to Cary Grant and Eleanor Roosevelt. Throughout the text, Lee Wind shares primary sources—poetry, memoir, news clippings, and images of ancient artwork—and explores the hidden (and often surprising) Queer lives and loves of two dozen historical figures. No Way, They Were Gay was honored as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, and was selected for the Chicago Public Library’s 2021 Best of the Best Books list.

Our guest is: Lee Wind, who writes stories that center marginalized kids and teens and celebrate their power to change the world. Closeted until his 20s, Lee writes the books that would have changed his life as a young Gay kid. His Masters Degree from Harvard didn’t include blueprints for a time machine to go back and tell these stories to himself, so Lee pays it forward with a popular blog with over 3 million page views (I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read?) and books for kids and teens. He is the author of No Way, They Were Gay? His day-job is for the Independent Book Publishers Association (as their Chief Content Officer), and for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (as their official blogger).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. She is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcasts.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

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Becoming the Writer You Already Are: A Conversation with Michelle R. Boyd

Thu, 28 Sep 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Procrastination. Writer’s block. Feeling stuck. Are you struggling with the blank page? Today’s guest shares her methods that help writers move past these blocks by turning inward to discover their own writing process, and become the writer they already are.

Today’s book is Becoming the Writer You Already Are (Sage, 2022), by Dr. Michelle R. Boyd, which helps scholars uncover their unique writing process and design a writing practice that fits how they work. In it, Dr. 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 parts of your writing process that need developing. The book includes a number of helpful features: Real Scholars’ Stories provide insights into overcoming writing barriers; Wise Words from other scholars capture the trials of writing as well as avenues through those trials; and Focus Points highlight important ideas, questions, or techniques to consider. The book is ideal for dissertation writing seminars, graduate students struggling with the transition from coursework to dissertation work, scholars who are supporting or participating in writing groups, and marginalized scholars whose write struggles have prompted them to internalize the bias that others have about their ability to do exemplary research.

Our guest is: Michelle Boyd, PhD, who is an award-winning writer, and a former tenured faculty member. Her book Jim Crow Nostalgia: Reconstructing Race in Bronzeville won a Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association. After earning tenure, Michelle focused her research and service on helping scholars better understand their writing process. In 2012 she cofounded and coached a dissertation writing retreat for graduate students studying race and ethnicity. Three years later, she left academia and founded InkWell, where she specializes in helping stuck, scared scholars free themselves from fear and build a satisfying, sustainable writing practice.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle Boyd
Jim Crow Nostalgia: Reconstructing Race in Bronzeville by Michelle Boyd
How We Do It: Black Writers Craft, Practice, and Skill edited by Jericho Brown
This behind the scenes look at writing Shoutin in the Fire, with Dante Stewart
This conversation about researching and writing a book, with Polly E. Bugros McLean

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Chelsea T. Hicks, "A Calm and Normal Heart: Stories" (The Unnamed Press, 2022)

Thu, 21 Sep 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is A Calm and Normal Heart: Stories (The Unnamed Press, 2022) by Chelsea T. Hicks. The heroes of A Calm and Normal Heart are modern-day adventurers—seeking out new places to call their own inside a nation to which they do not entirely belong. A member of the Osage tribe, Hicks’ stories are compelled by an overlooked diaspora happening inside America itself: that of young Native people. In stories like “Superdrunk,” “Tsexope,” and “Wets’a,” iPhone lifestyles co-mingle with ancestral connection, strengthening relationships or pushing people apart, while generational trauma haunts individual paths. Broken partnerships and polyamorous desire signal a fraught era of modern love, even as old ways continue to influence how people assess compatibility. In “By Alcatraz,” a Native student finds herself alone on campus over Thanksgiving break, seeking out new friendships during a national holiday she does not recognize. Leaping back in time, “A Fresh Start Ruined” inhabits the life of Florence, an Osage woman attempting to hide her origins while social climbing in midcentury Oklahoma. And in “House of RGB” a young professional settles into a new home, intent on claiming her independence after a break-up, even if her ancestors can’t seem to get out of her way. Whether in between college semesters or jobs, on the road to tribal dances or escaping troubled homes, characters occupy a complicated and often unreliable terrain.

Our guest is: Chelsea T. Hicks, who is a Wahzhazhe writer and citizen of the Osage Nation. She holds an MA from UC Davis and an MFA from the Institute of American Indian Arts. Her writing has been published in The Paris Review, Poetry, McSweeney’s, and elsewhere. A Calm and Normal Heart is her first book. It was longlisted for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham Prize for Debut Short Story Collection and received a 5 Under 35 award from the National Book Foundation. She lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma on ancestral land.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

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The Other Side of the Desk: A Discussion with "The Conversation" Editor Emily Costello

Thu, 14 Sep 2023 08:00:00 -0000

How can writing for the general public help scholars to democratize education? Today, The Conversation editor Emily Costello takes us behind the scenes of a “typical” day at her editor’s desk, and shares how The Conversation partners with academics to help them communicate their expertise to a general audience.

More about The Conversation: They publish articles written by academic experts for the general public, and edited by a team of journalists. These articles share researchers’ expertise in policy, science, health, economics, education, history, ethics and most every subject studied in colleges and universities. Some articles offer practical advice grounded in research, while others simply provide authoritative answers to questions that spark curiosity. The Conversation U.S. is part of a global group of news organizations founded in Australia in 2011 by a former newspaper editor who wanted to encourage academics to engage with the public. Their main US newsroom is in Boston, with editors working remotely in cities across the country. There are also editions in Africa, Australia, Canada, France, Indonesia, New Zealand, Spain and the United Kingdom. Through a Creative Commons license, all articles are distributed – at no charge – to news organizations across the geographic and ideological spectrum.

More about our guest: Emily Costello is the managing editor of The Conversation US, a non-profit newsroom with the mission of bringing academic expertise to the public. The Conversation's content and newsletters are free to read and free for other media to republish. Emily is responsible for directing coverage by the newsroom's 22 editors, making sure The Conversation's articles are of consistent high quality and working with external media partners. She hosts a weekly Sunday newsletter featuring the most read stories of the week. Emily has a professional interest in nonprofit journalism models, greening of news deserts and brainstorming best practices. She has worked in many types of media, including local newspapers, public television and radio, and childrens' books and magazines. Emily is a graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and Barnard College. She is a member of the first journalism cohort for Take the Lead: 50 Women Can Change the World.

More about our host: Dr. Christina Gessler holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. She is a freelance book editor, and has served as content director and producer of the Academic Life podcast since she launched it in 2020. The Academic Life is proud to be an academic partner of the New Books Network.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle Boyd
Revise, by Pamela Haag
How Writing Works: A Field Guide to Effective Writing, by Roslyn Petelin
Writing with Pleasure, by Helen Sword
Subatomic Writing: Fundamental Lessons to Make Language Matter, by Jamie Zvirdoin

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In-Person Research and Writing: Visiting Archives and "Selling Anti-Slavery"

Thu, 07 Sep 2023 08:00:00 -0000

What does it feel like to hold that diary or broadside or sugar bowl you are writing about? In today’s episode, Dr. Christina Gessler is joined by Dr. Teresa Goddu to talk about research, archives, and the book Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America.

Today’s book is: Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2020), by Teresa A. Goddu, which is a richly illustrated history of the American Anti-Slavery Society and its print, material, and visual artifacts. Beginning with its establishment in the early 1830s, the American Anti-Slavery Society (AASS) recognized the need to reach a diverse and increasingly segmented audience. To do so, it produced a wide array of print, material, and visual media: almanacs and slave narratives, pincushions and gift books, broadsides and panoramas. Building on the practices of British antislavery and evangelical reform movements, the AASS used innovative business strategies to market its productions and circulate them widely. In Selling Antislavery, Teresa A. Goddu shows how the AASS operated at the forefront of a new culture industry and, by framing its media as cultural commodities, made antislavery sentiments an integral part of an emerging middle-class identity. Exploring antislavery's vast archive and explicating its messages, she emphasizes both the discursive and material aspects of antislavery's appeal, providing a richly textured history of the movement through its artifacts and the modes of circulation it put into place.

Today’s guest is: Teresa A. Goddu, who is Associate Professor of English and American Studies at Vanderbilt University, and serves as Faculty Head of E. Bronson Ingram College. She is a specialist in nineteenth-century American literature and culture. She is the author of Gothic America: Narrative, History, and Nation; and Selling Antislavery: Abolition and Mass Media in Antebellum America. Her work has appeared in American Literary History, Book History, Common-Place, and other venues. She is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and a Senior Specialist Fulbright award.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a freelance book editor. She has served as content director and producer of the Academic Life podcast since she launched it in 2020. The Academic Life is proud to be an academic partner of the New Books Network.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

This conversation about Archival Kismet
This discussion of Never Caught
This discussion of Running From Bondage
This conversation about field research and Remembering Lucille
This conversation about Relative Races
This discussion on archival research
This conversation about Where Research Begins

Welcome to the Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life. Missed any of the 150+ Academic Life episodes? You can find them all archived here. And check back soon: we’re in the studio preparing more episodes for your academic journey—and beyond!

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The Power of Play in Higher Education: A Conversation with Alison James

Thu, 31 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Why are academics encouraged to be rigorous and exhausted, instead of innovative and engaged? What learning outcomes are we sacrificing by being so serious? Dr. Alison James joins us to share insights from her research and practice of emphasizing play in higher education. This episode explores:

How having fun can strengthen problem solving skills and learning outcomes.
Why higher education doesn’t take play, creativity, and fun seriously enough.
What led her to prioritize play when other educators weren’t.
A discussion of her books The Value of Play in Higher Education, and The Power of Play in Higher Education.

Our guest is: Dr. Alison James, who is Professor Emerita of the University of Winchester. She is the author of numerous articles and publications on play and creativity in university learning, and of the three year study The Value of Play in HE, supported by the Imagination Lab Foundation and available free here. She is the co-editor, with Chrissi Nerantzi, of The Power of Play in HE: Creativity in Tertiary Learning, and the co-author, with Stephen D. Brookfield, of Engaging Imagination: Helping Students Become Creative and Reflective Thinkers.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Awe: The New Science of Everyday Wonder and How It Can Transform Your Life, by Dacher Keltner
Hanging Out: The Radical Power of Killing Time, by Sheila Liming
Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age, by Katherine May
The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life, by Dr. Mike Rucker
The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature, by Sue Stuart-Smith
This conversation about seeking meaning instead of happiness
This conversation about the importance of spending time in nature
This conversation about the need to take a break from overworking and underliving
This conversation about belonging and the science of creating human connections
This conversation about the value of living a “good-enough” life

Welcome to the Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life. Missed any of the 150+ Academic Life episodes? You can find them all archived here. And check back soon: we’re in the studio creating more episodes for your academic journey—and beyond!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Managing your Mental Health During Your PhD

Thu, 24 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Can your graduate school affect your mental health? Dr. Zoe Ayres joins us to discuss what she wishes she had known before starting graduate school, including:

What happens when you can’t access the hidden curriculum.
The myths we tell ourselves, and the systems that work against us.
How the pressures of graduate school can affect our mental health.
Why you need a to build a network of mentors outside your school.

Today’s book is: Managing Your Mental Health During Your PhD: A Survival Guide, by Dr. Zoe Ayres, which investigates why mental health issues are so common among the student population. Ayres looks honestly at the experiences of PhD students, and explores environmental factors that can impact mental health. These include the PhD student-supervisor relationship, the pressure to publish, and deep systemic problems in academia, such as racism, bullying and harassment. She provides resources students, while offering ideas for improvements that universities can make to ensure that academia is a place for all to thrive.

Our guest is: Dr. Zoë Ayres, who studied for a PhD in chemistry at the University of Warwick, looking at using electrochemical boron doped diamond sensors to monitor environmental contaminants, before transitioning to industry. She worked for several years as a Senior Scientist in the water industry, before becoming Head of Research and Technology for a biotechnology start-up. She has transitioned back into academia, and is Head of Laboratory Facilities at the Open University, working with her team to manage over 180 laboratories. Zoë cares passionately about creating spaces for people to thrive in research. She is the author of Managing Your Mental Health During Your PhD: A Survival Guide, and of articles and peer-reviewed papers on improving research culture. She is co-Founder of Voices of Academia, an international blog designed to share the academic mental health experiences of academics from around the world.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a historian.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from today’s experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life.

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Whisper Networks: A Discussion with Carrie Ann Johnson

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0000

What is a Whisper Network? What can you gain from being in one, and what is expected of the network members? Not everybody is invited is into a Whisper Network—which is part of how they keep members safe. But it’s also how many of the vulnerable are further left out. Today, Dr. Carrie Ann Johnson joins us to share her research on Whisper Networks, and their role in bridging the safety gap for vulnerable people. This episode explores:

Why formal reporting systems fail.
How whisper networks can offer safeguards.
Why some people who need to be in a whisper network aren’t in one.
Who gets left out, and why.
A discussion of the article “Whisper Networks Thrive When Women Lose Faith in Formal Systems of Reporting Sexual Harassment,” which you can access here.

CW: Examples of harassment (including sexual harassment) are included throughout this episode.

Our guest is: Dr. Carrie Ann Johnson, who earned a Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Professional communication from Iowa State University and received the Iowa State Research Excellence Award for her dissertation, "Whisper Networks: Sexual Harassment Protection Through Informal Networks." She earned a master’s degree in American Studies and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and public relations, both from Utah State University. She loves digging into difficult topics and opening doors for deeper contemplation about our lived realities. She is the Research and Outreach Coordinator for the Catt Center for Women in Politics, Iowa State University, and is on the editorial board of BONDS, where you can read more her work on whisper networks in organizations.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in history. She is a freelance book editor. She has served as content director and producer of the Academic Life podcast since she launched it in 2020. The Academic Life is proud to be an academic partner of the New Books Network.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

This conversation on Who Gets Believed
This conversation with Rebekah Tausig on Sitting Pretty
This conversation on feminist communication strategies
This conversation on Black Boy Out of Time
This conversation with Virgie Tovar on The Right to Remain Fat
This conversation with Jessica McCrory Calarco on The Field Guide to Grad School
This conversation on structural inequality and barriers to tenure for women of color
This conversation about quitting a PhD program
This conversation on community-building and How We Show Up

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Academic Aunties: A Conversation with Dr. Ethel Tungohan

Thu, 10 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0000

You’ve probably heard by now that there’s a hidden curriculum in academia. But it’s called hidden for a reason—only some [privileged] people are in the know about what it contains. And when you can’t find the answers you need, earning your degree is much harder than it should be. Today, higher education podcast host Dr. Ethel Tungohan of the Academic Aunties joins Dr. Christina Gessler, the producer and host of the Academic Life, to talk about why they are so passionate about bridging this knowledge gap. This episode explores:

The importance of seeing the structural barriers and gatekeepers.
Why the problem is not you, it’s them.
How being left out of important conversations harms women, first gen students, and people of color in academia.
Some advice that can help you survive and thrive in academia.

Our guest is: Dr. Ethel Tungohan, who is Associate Professor of Politics and Social Science at York University. She received her doctoral degree in Political Science and Women and Gender Studies from the University of Toronto. Her research looks at migrant labor, specifically assessing migrant activism. Her work has been published in academic journals such as the International Feminist Journal of Politics; Politics, Groups, and Identities; and Canadian Ethnic Studies. Dr. Tungohan specializes in socially engaged research and is actively involved in grassroots migrant organizations such as Gabriela-Ontario and Migrante-Canada. She is the host of the Academic Aunties.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Care Activism: Migrant Domestic Workers, Movement-Building, and Communities of Care, by Ethel Tungohan
Containing Diversity: Canada and the Politics of Immigration in the 21st Century, by Yasmeen Abu-Laban, Ethel Tungohan, and Christina Gabriel
Filipinos in Canada: Disturbing Invisibility, by Roland Sintos Coloma, Bonnie McElhinny, Ethel Tungohan, John Paul Catungal and Lisa M. Davidson
The Academic Life podcast on community-building and How We Show Up, with Mia Birdsong
The Academic Life episode on the Field Guide to Grad School
The Academic Life episode on barriers to tenure for women of color
The Academic Life podcast on feminist communication strategies
The Academic Life podcast on how to stop overworking and underliving
The Academic Life podcast about quitting a PhD program
The Academic Life episode on The Grant Writing Guide

Welcome to The Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today’s knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Find us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Share and Share Alike: Researching Sibling Relationships in Eighteenth-Century England

Thu, 03 Aug 2023 08:00:00 -0000

What defines the complicated relationship between brothers and sisters—is it lineage? Love? Obligation? Friendship? Need? And why did so many parents expect their offspring to share and share alike? Historian Amy Harris joins us to talk about:

What led to her interest in researching sibling relationships.
Why her book project seemed to find her in an archive in England.
How the early stresses on sibling relationships plagued them in later life.
Why parents’ behavior affects how sibling relationships function.
A discussion of the book Siblinghood and Social Relations in Georgian England: Share and Share Alike.

Today’s book is: Siblinghood and Social Relations in Georgian England: Share and Share Alike (Manchester University Press, 2016), Dr. Amy Harris, which examines the impact sisters and brothers had on eighteenth-century English families and society. Using evidence from letters, diaries, probate disputes, court transcripts, prescriptive literature and portraiture, Dr. Harris argues that although parents’ wills often recommended their children 'share and share alike', siblings had to constantly negotiate between prescribed equality and practiced inequalities. This is the first monograph-length analysis of early modern siblings in England, and is at the forefront of sibling studies. The book is intended for a broad audience of scholars – particularly those interested in families, women, children and eighteenth-century social and cultural history.

Our guest is: Dr. Amy Harris, who is an associate professor of history and family/history genealogy at BYU, where she also serves as the director for the Family History Program.

She is the author of Siblinghood and Social Relations in Georgian England, and the co-editor of Family Life in England and America, 1690-1820. She is currently working on her new book: A Single View: Family Life and the Unmarried in Georgian England, which analyzes family relations across the lifespan of never-married men and women.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in American history. She has served as content director and producer of the Academic Life since she launched it in 2020. The Academic Life is proud to be an academic partner of the New Books Network.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Welcome to the Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life. Missed any of the 150+ Academic Life episodes? You can find them all archived here. And check back soon: we’re busy in the studio preparing new episodes for your academic journey—and beyond!

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The Other Side of the Desk: A Discussion with Danielle D'Orlando, Princeton UP's Audio Books Editor

Thu, 27 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Does listening to an audio book count as reading? Can audio books help democratize education? Will more academic presses be creating audio versions of their books? Princeton University Press audio books editor Danielle D’Orlando joins us to share about the exciting future of audio books for academia.

More about PUP Audio: In 2018, the Princeton University Press team launched the first university press audiobook program, Princeton Audio. Four years and almost a thousand hours of published audiobooks later, they published their hundredth audiobook. Along the way, they have had the privilege of learning from their trusted partners in audio, from authors and agents to narrators, producers, proof-listeners, directors, and engineers. Their hundredth audio production is “only the tip of the iceberg”, which also includes co-publications with other publishers, audiobooks produced by partners new and old including Audible, Recorded Books, Blackstone, University Press Audio and many others.

More about our guest: Danielle D’Orlando is the Curator of Audio at Princeton University Press, home to the first in-house university press audiobook division: Princeton Audio. She spent much of her career at Yale University Press where she spearheaded their audio program, including the development of Yale Press Audio. She has an M.S. in Publishing and lives in Connecticut with her spouse, two children, and, as featured in today’s episode, her 10-year-old dog, Lacey.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle Boyd
The Grant Writing Guide, by Betty S. Lai
The Book Proposal Book, by Laura Portwood-Stacer
Writing with Pleasure, by Helen Sword
How To Impress an Acquisitions Editor
The libro playlist of African-American studies audio books for AP students

Listeners may be interested in these Academic Life episodes:

This conversation on revising your dissertation for press submission
This conversation on determining if you need a developmental editor
This discussion of the top ten things to fix in your manuscript before submitting it
This conversation on university press submissions and the peer review process
This conversation on marketing your scholarly book
This conversation about how to write a book proposal
This conversation explaining open-access publishing
This discussion about doing archival research
This conversation about Where Research Begins

Welcome to the Academic Life! Join us here to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life. Missed any of the 150+ Academic Life episodes? You can find them all archived here. And check back soon: we’re in the studio preparing more episodes for your academic journey—and beyond!

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Michelle Dowd, "Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult--A Memoir" (Algonquin, 2023)

Wed, 26 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Forager: Field Notes for Surviving a Family Cult, published by Algonquin Books, and written by Michelle Dowd. Forager is a memoir which showcases Michelle’s life growing up on an isolated mountain in California as part of an apocalyptic cult, and how she found her way out of poverty and illness by drawing on the gifts of the wilderness.

Our guest is: Michelle Dowd, who is a journalism professor and contributor to The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The LA Book Review, TIME Magazine, The Alpinist, ORION, LA Parent Mag, Catapult, and other publications. She was 2022 Faculty Lecturer of the Year at Chaffey College, where she founded the award-winning literary journal The Chaffey Review, advises Student Media, and teaches poetry and critical thinking in the California Institutions for Men and Women in Chino. She was a Longreads Top 5 for her article on the relationship between environmentalism and hope in The Alpinist, nominated twice for the Pushcart Prize, and her Modern Love column in The New York Times inspired a book contract. Michelle was raised on a mountain in the Angeles National Forest where she learned to identify flora and fauna, navigate by the stars, forage for edible plants, and care for the earth. She is the author of Forager: Field Notes on Surviving a Family Cult. Learn more about her at https://www.michelledowd.org/

Our show host and producer is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. She has continuously served as the show host and producer of the Academic Life podcast since she launched it in 2020. Academic Life is proud to be an academic partner of the New Books Network.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

This Time magazine article on growing up in a cult and survival skills
Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle Boyd
The Lost Journals of Sacajawea, by Debra Magpie Earling
The Business of Being a Writer, by Jane Friedman
We Are Too Many: A Memoir, by Hannah Pittard
The Killer Whale Journals: Our Love and Fear of Orcas, by Hanne Strager
Writing with Pleasure, by Helen Sword

Welcome to Academic Life: The podcast for your academic journey and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world, and embrace the broad definition of what it means to live an academic life. If you’d like to further support the show, please consider enjoying your morning coffee in an Academic Life mug.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Sharing Lessons From His Working-Class Parents: A Conversation with Dr. Jorge Juan Rodríguez

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Why are students encouraged to move far from home and family, to attend “the best school”? Why aren’t the emotional and physical costs of this disclosed to students and their families? Dr. Jorge Juan Rodríguez joins us to talk about his article, “Lessons From My Working Class Parents,” and the graduate school sacrifices he wouldn’t make. This episode explores:

The personal costs first gen students make when they leave family behind.
How lived experience can influence your field of study.
Why stories from his parents led to his dissertation topic.
What led him to prioritize his family and his home life in graduate school.
Lessons from his parents.

Our guest is: Dr. Jorge Juan Rodriguez, who is the son of two Puerto Rican migrants. He grew up in an affordable housing community outside of Hartford, Connecticut. His lived experiences in that community influenced his academic work, leading him to degrees in biblical studies, liberation theologies, and a Ph.D. in history where he specialized in the intersections of religion and social movements. While engaging public scholarship and teaching courses in U.S. Religious History, Latinx Religious Activism, and 20th Century Social Movements, Dr. Rodríguez also serves as the Associate Director for Strategic Programming at the Hispanic Summer Program. He consults with institutions of higher education across the country on matters of policy development, grant systems, curricular reviews, social media management, and internal operations. In all that he does, he invites people to critically assess the histories that shape them, the communities that ground them, the challenges of our current systems, and the possibilities of dreaming new systems into existence.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community, by Mia Birdsong
How to Human: An Incomplete Manual for Living in a Messed-Up World, by Alice Connor
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, by Nedra Glover Tawwab
Dr. Jorge Juan Rodriguez's blog post entitled Careerism and the Lessons of My Working-Class Parents
The Academic Life podcast on community-building and How We Show Up, with Mia Birdsong
The Academic Life episode on the Field Guide to Grad School
The Academic Life episode with Virgie Tovar on body acceptance and ending fatphobia
The Academic Life episode on barriers to tenure for women of color
The Academic Life podcast on the benefits of living a "good-enough" life
The Academic Life podcast on belonging and the science of creating connection and bridging divides

Welcome to The Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today’s knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Find us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Hannah Pittard, "We Are Too Many: A Memoir [Kind of]" (Henry Holt, 2023)

Fri, 14 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

What happens when you come of age in mid-life? Why is so challenging to figure out your own past? Can you find the permission to be weird? (And can you be happy if you don’t?) Memoirist and English professor Hannah Pittard joins us to explore:

If the personal is ever too personal.
What is a collective memory.
The imperfect way we perceive our own experiences.
Taking risks in writing and in life.
The memoir We Are Too Many.

Today’s book is: We Are Too Many, a memoir about a marriage-ending affair between award-winning author Hannah Pittard’s husband and her best friend. An innovative and genre-bending look at a marriage and friendship gone wrong, Professor Pittard recalls a decade’s worth of conversations that are fast-paced, intimate, and reveal the vulnerabilities inherent in any friendship or marriage. She takes stock not only of her own past and future but also of the larger, more universal experiences they connect with—from the depths of female rage to the ways we outgrow certain people. We Are Too Many examines the unfiltered parts of the female experience, as well as the possibilities in starting life over after a catastrophe.

Our guest is: Professor Hannah Pittard, who is the author Visible Empire, Reunion, Listen to Me, The Fates Will Find Their Way, and the memoir We Are Too Many. She is a professor of English at the University of Kentucky.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a historian.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle R. Boyd
Story Genius, by Lisa Cron
Writing Down the Bones, by Natalie Goldberg
Revise, by Pamela Haag
Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
Academic Life episode with Professor Morgan Talty about Night of the Living Rez
Academic Life episode with novelist Erica Bauermeister, who left academia
Academic Life episode with Nancy Thayer, an English professor who left academia to write full time
Academic Life episode on writing memoir with Dr. Rebekah Tausig
Academic Life episode on Shoutin in the Fire with Dante Stewart

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from today’s experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Dana Rubin, "Speaking While Female: 75 Extraordinary Speeches by American Women" (RealClear, 2023)

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

From Dr. Painter restoring the words of Sojourner Truth’s original speech, to VP-candidate Kamala Harris enduring through repeated interruptions at her debate, to Katie Porter silently reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck at the Speaker of the House election—American women persist in speaking over their censors. While this takes courage, it is neither new or modern. American women have spoken in public spaces for hundreds of years, on myriad subjects, in venues of varying size, through a variety of methods. So why are their speeches consistently omitted from anthologies?

Today’s book is: Speaking While Female: 75 Extraordinary Speeches by American Women, by Dana Rubin. This anthology reexamines the American story as it unfolded through the centuries, revealing that in every time and place and at every critical juncture, women were speaking. Women from all backgrounds—some whose names you already know and others who will be introduced to you here—spoke in every corner of the land, and in a variety of ways. This volume offers a corrective to the story we have been told about whose ideas and which voices shaped the nation.

Today’s guest is: Dana Rubin, who is the author of Speaking While Female: 75 Extraordinary Speeches by American Women. She is the creator of the Speaking While Female Speech Bank,

and the founder of the Leadership Communications Roundtable. Learn more about Dana Rubin and the speech bank here.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Creating Black Americans: African American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present, by Nell Irvin Painter
Learn more about Emma Willard and the Willard School here
This episode on reclaiming lost voices and recovering women’s history
This episode on feminist communication strategies
This episode on overcoming public-speaking anxieties
This episode on underrepresentation in the archive
This episode discussing the anniversary of the 19th amendment with two curators from the Smithsonian

Welcome to the Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life. Missed any of the 150+ Academic Life episodes? You can find them all archived here. And check back soon: we’re busy in the studio preparing new episodes for your academic journey—and beyond!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Studying the Pipeline to Politics for Women

Thu, 06 Jul 2023 08:00:00 -0000

When we teach about how women go into politics, how are we looking for the places and ways that women get involved? Are we giving enough consideration to small towns, and to grassroots work? Heather Lende joins us to share what it was like to run for office in her Alaskan town.

This episode considers:

How she ended up in Alaska.
What led her to run for office.
Why she was subjected to a recall.
How she rebuilt relationships with neighbors who voted against her, and what happened when she couldn’t.
A discussion of the book Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small Town Politics.

Today’s book is: Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small Town Politics, by Heather Lende. Lende was one of the thousands of women inspired to take a more active role in politics during the past few years. But tiny, breathtakingly beautiful Haines—a place accessible from the nearest city, Juneau, only by boat or plane—isn’t the sleepy town that it appears to be. From a bitter debate about the expansion of the fishing boat harbor, to the matter of how to stop bears from rifling through garbage on Main Street, to the recall campaign that targeted three assembly members, Lende’s book reveals that small town politics aren’t so small. In her book, we witness up close the nitty-gritty of passing legislation, trying to uphold the lofty ideals of our republic, and just how the polarizing national politics of our era played out in one small town. Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small-Town Politics considers what living in a community really means, and what we owe one another.

Our guest is: Heather Lende , who has contributed essays and commentary to NPR, the New York Times, and National Geographic Traveler, among other newspapers and magazines, and is a former contributing editor at Woman’s Day. A columnist for the Alaska Dispatch News, she is the obituary writer for the Chilkat Valley News in Haines and the recipient of the Suzan Nightingale McKay Best Columnist Award from the Alaska Press Club. Her previous bestselling books include Find the Good; Take Good Care of the Garden and the Dogs; and If You Lived Here, I'd Know Your Name. Her website is heatherlende.com.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Welcome to the Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life. Missed any of the 150+ Academic Life episodes? You can find them all archived here. And check back soon: we’re busy in the studio preparing new episodes for your academic journey—and beyond!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Killer Whale Journals: Our Love and Fear of Orcas

Thu, 29 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Like wolves, orcas have been loved and loathed throughout history. What created this complicated relationship between humans and whales? And have we changed our attitudes toward them and their habitat needs in time to save them? Science writer and biologist Hanne Strager joins us to share:

How a conversation in a cafeteria led her to remote corners of the world.
Why her sister helped her be in two places at once.
How she learned about whale dialects.
Why the loss of a pod member matters so much.
A discussion of the book The Killer Whale Journals: Our Love and Fear of Orcas (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2023).

Today’s book is: The Killer Whale Journals: Our Love and Fear of Orcas, by Hanne Strager, which opens as intrepid biology student Hanne Strager volunteers to be the cook on a small research vessel in Norway's Lofoten Islands. This trip would inspire a decades-long journey to learn about the lives of killer whales—and an exploration of people's complex relationships with the biggest predators on earth. In The Killer Whale Journals, Strager brings us along with her as she battles the stormy Arctic seas of northern Norway with fellow biologists intent on decoding whale-song and dialects, interviews First Nations conservationists in Vancouver, observes Inuit hunters in Greenland, and witnesses the dismantling of black market "whale jails" in the Russian wilderness of Kamchatka. Featuring photographs from Paul Nicklen, The Killer Whale Journals reveals rare and intimate moments of connection with these fierce, brilliant predators.

Our guest is: Hanne Strager, who is a biologist, whale researcher, and the future Director of Exhibitions and Visitor Experience at The Whale, a museum in Norway set to open in 2025. She cofounded a whale center in Norway and has served as the Director of Exhibitions at the Natural History Museum of Denmark. She is the author of A Modest Genius: The Story of Darwin’s Life and How His Ideas Changed Everything, and The Killer Whale Journals: Our Love and Fear of Orcas.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in American history. She has served as creator and producer of the Academic Life since she launched it in 2020. The Academic Life is proud to be an academic partner of New Books Network.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Welcome to the Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life. Missed any of the 150+ Academic Life episodes? You can find them all archived here. And check back soon: we’re busy in the studio preparing new episodes for your academic journey—and beyond!

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life

Thu, 22 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

When we are tethered to our responsibilities, it can feel like we need someone to give us permission to go have fun. Maybe some of us have begun to forget what “fun” is? And what it feels like to have it? Have we talked ourselves into the idea that fun is just for kids…and that truly responsible people don’t have time for it? Dr. Mike Rucker joins us to explain the value of fun for our personal and our professional life. It turns out, it’s even good for our health.

Today’s book is: The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life, by Dr. Mike Rucker. Fun is an action you can take here and now, practically anywhere, anytime. Through research and science, we know fun is enormously beneficial to our physical and psychological well-being, yet fun’s absence from our modern lives is striking. Grounded in current research, accessible science, and practical recommendations, The Fun Habit explains how you can build having fun into an actionable and effortless habit and why doing so will help you become a healthier, more joyful, more productive person.

Our guest is: Dr. Mike Rucker is an organizational psychologist and charter member of the International Positive Psychology Association whose work has been published in the International Journal of Workplace Health Management and Nutrition Research. His ideas about fun and health have been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Vox, Thrive Global, mindbodygreen, and more. Named one of ten digital changemakers by the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, he currently serves as a senior leader at Active Wellness. Learn more at MichaelRucker.com. He is the author of The Fun Habit: How the Pursuit of Joy and Wonder Can Change Your Life.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Belonging, by Dr. Geoffrey Cohen
It’s a Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence, by Dr. Frank Martela
The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature, by Dr. Sue Stuart Smith
This podcast on the value of spending time outside
Academic Life podcast on how to stop chasing happiness and make a meaningful life instead
Academic Life podcast on belonging and the science of creating connections
Academic Life podcast on navigating difficult conversations
Academic Life episode on a college baseball league that puts fun first

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week, to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Lost Journals of Sacajewea

Thu, 15 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: The Lost Journals of Sacajewea (Milkweed Editions, 2023), by Debra Magpie Earling, which is a devastatingly beautiful novel that challenges prevailing historical narratives of Sacajewea. Among the most memorialized women in American history, Sacajewea served as interpreter and guide for Lewis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery.

In this visionary novel, acclaimed Indigenous author Debra Magpie Earling brings this mythologized figure vividly to life, casting unsparing light on the men who brutalized her and recentering Sacajewea as the arbiter of her own history. Raised among the Lemhi Shoshone, in this telling the young Sacajewea is bright and bold, growing strong from the hard work of “learning all ways to survive”: gathering berries, water, roots, and wood; butchering buffalo, antelope, and deer; catching salmon and snaring rabbits; weaving baskets and listening to the stories of her elders. When her village is raided and her beloved Appe and Bia are killed, Sacajewea is kidnapped and then gambled away to Charbonneau, a French Canadian trapper. Heavy with grief, Sacajewea learns how to survive at the edge of a strange new world teeming with fur trappers and traders. When Lewis and Clark’s expedition party arrives, Sacajewea knows she must cross a vast and brutal terrain with her newborn son, the white man who owns her, and a company of men who wish to conquer and commodify the world she loves. Written in lyrical, dreamlike prose, The Lost Journals of Sacajewea is an astonishing work of art and a powerful tale of perseverance—the Indigenous woman’s story that hasn’t been told.

Keywords from today’s episode include: Sacajewea, Agai River, Appe, Bia, Charbonneau, Lewis and Clark, The Journals of Lewis and Clark, Otter Woman, Pop Pank, MMIW, Lemhi Shoshone, Shoshone, Mandan, Hidasta.

Today’s guest is: Debra Magpie Earling, who is the author of The Lost Journals of Sacajewea. An earlier version of The Lost Journals of Sacajewea was written in verse and produced as an artist book during the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark expedition. She has received both a National Endowment for the Arts grant and a Guggenheim Fellowship. She retired from the University of Montana where she was named professor emeritus in 2021. She is Bitterroot Salish.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Perma Red, by Debra Magpie Earling
Sacred Wilderness, by Susan Power
Grass Dancer, by Susan Power
Night of the Living Rez, by Morgan Talty
Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese
Embers, by Richard Wagamese

Listeners may also be interested in:

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Academic Ghosting

Thu, 08 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Have you ever been ghosted in academia? The mentor who no longer replies when you reach out, the collaborators who mysteriously stopped collaborating with you, the search committee that said you were a top candidate and then stopped communicating with you—these are academic ghosts. They are people who are important to your career and suddenly stop responding to you without warning or explanation. What makes academic ghosting different than romantic ghosting? And why does it seem to hurt so much more? Dr. Andrea Andrzejewski joins us to explain:

The systems in academia that make some forms of ghosting inevitable.
What to do about it.
The lingering pain and shame that being ghosted causes.
Why your ghoster may reappear but they won’t apologize.
The ethical and financial reasons to address the issues that perpetuate ghosting.

Our guest is: Dr. Alicia Andrzejewski, an assistant professor of English at the College of William & Mary. She is a scholar of early modern literature and culture; queer, feminist, and critical race theory; and the medical humanities. Her work has appeared in Shakespeare Studies, Shakespeare Bulletin, The Chronicle, Literary Hub, American Theater, The Boston Globe, Catapult, and others. Her current book project is Rude-Growing Briars: Queer Pregnancy in Shakespeare’s Plays, which argues for the transgressive force of pregnancy in his oeuvre and expansive ways in which modern people thought about the pregnant body.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a historian.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

"The Sad Humiliations of Academic Ghosting," by Alicia Andrzejewski, PhD
The Field Guide to Graduate School, by Jessica McCrory Calarco
Candid Advice for New Faculty Members, by Marybeth Gasman
The Latinx Guide to Graduate School, by Genevieve Negron-Gonzales and Magdalena Barrera
Who Gets Believed, by Dina Nayeri
Academic Life episode on Belonging
Academic Life episode on quitting a PhD program
Academic Life episode on the long road to the dream job in academia
Academic Life episode on mistreatment of women of color in academia
Academic Life episode on dealing with rejection
Academic Life episode on Preparing for Difficult Conversations
Academic Life episode on almost leaving academia

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from today’s experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

My What If Year: A Discussion with Alisha Fernandez Miranda

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Did we miss a fork in the road somewhere? What if our lives are going just fine, but we still want to hunt for the pieces of ourselves we’ve dropped along the way? Is it too late to claim more for ourselves?

CEO and author Alisha Fernandez Miranda joins us to talk about what she gained by loosening her grip on deliverables, deadlines, and external affirmations of success. In this episode we explore the value of internships, mishaps, and what it means to trust in your dreams and in yourself.

Today’s book is: My What If Year (Zibby Books, 2023) a memoir by Alisha Fernandez Miranda, about pausing her career to take four internships in three different countries, and finally explore the “What If” of her once-discarded—but still very real—dreams. With the tentative blessing of her husband, her parents, and her kids, she spent one year asking “What if?” and getting far more answers to that question than she ever expected. In My What If Year, she begins to question if exhaustion is a reasonable price to pay for anything, why she was so afraid of failure, and what success could look like on her own terms. For anyone who’s ever felt stuck, My What If Year proposes that it’s not too late to look for roads untraveled.

Today’s guest is: Alisha Fernandez Miranda, who is a graduate of Harvard, and the London School of Economics. She is the author of My What If Year, and the co-author of 50 Years: Kinloch Lodge. She is the ex-CEO and current Chair at I.G. Advisors, and is the host of Quit Your Day Job, a podcast that takes you behind the scenes of your dream jobs. Alisha is a Cuban-American, born and raised in Miami, and has spent her adult life in New York and London; she is currently based in Scotland. She speaks and writes regularly on women’s empowerment, social impact and sustainability. Her writing has been published in Vogue, Romper, The Good Trade, Insider and more.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Podcast on the benefits of doing less, and stressing less
Podcast on living the "good-enough" life
Podcast on why a DIY retreat might help you
Podcast on difficult conversations
Podcast asking about quitting a PhD program
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community, by Mia Birdsong
Weird: The Power of Being an Outsider in an Insider World, by Olga Khazan
You Could Make This Place Beautiful: A Memoir, by Maggie Smith
What If Year reading guide

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Navigating the Community College Job Market

Thu, 25 May 2023 08:00:00 -0000

What makes a community college job interview different than one at a four-year college or a university? Do you need a PhD to get hired? What are they looking for? Professor Rob Jenkins joins us to explain the hidden curriculum of navigating the community college job market, including:

How long a typical interview lasts.
What it really means when they ask you to do a job talk.
How much of your expertise they want to hear about.
Why your commitment to teaching well matters the most.
Important things not to say or do.

Our guest is: Professor Rob Jenkins, an associate professor of English at Georgia State University Perimeter College. He has spent more than 35 years in higher education, mostly at the two-year college level, where he has served as a faculty member, a department chair, an academic dean, and a program director. He writes the “Two-Year Track” columns in The Chronicle of Higher Education, and is the author of six books, including Welcome to My Classroom, and Think Better Write Better. For the past 15 years, he has led workshops on preparing for two-year college careers at research universities across the country. For more information, visit www.robjenkins.com.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a historian.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Employability Journal, by Barbara Bassot
Candid Advice for New Faculty Members, by Marybeth Gasman
Building a Career in America’s Community Colleges, by Rob Jenkins
Putting the Humanities PhD to Work, by Katina Rogers
Academic Life episode on leaving academia
Academic Life episode on moving far from home for an academic job
Academic Life episode on the long road to the dream job in academia
Academic life episode with the American Association of University Professors
Academic Life episode on the role of community colleges in higher education

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from today’s experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Making a “Junk Drawer” CV

Thu, 18 May 2023 08:00:00 -0000

How can the things you normally leave off of a CV help you navigate the job market? What if you made a list of all of the highs and the lows of your academic journey? Kate Stuart explains the benefits of doing this, including:

The key differences between a CV and a Junk Drawer CV.
How to write your Junk Drawer CV.
Why thinking about what matters to you is important for your career path.
How examining the highs and the lows of your career will help you.
What to do with all that self-knowledge in a job interview.

Our guest is: Kate Stuart, who is the Associate Director for the Office of Career Development ASPIRE Program within the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. She coaches biomedical science PhD graduate students and postdoctoral fellows, coordinates the Beyond the Lab podcast and video series, and teaches seminars specifically on Cover Letters and Professionalism. Kate is a Gallup certified Strengths Coach and enjoys incorporating StrengthsFinder into career and professional development. Kate is also the Director of Strategic Affairs and Events for the BRET Office. Kate has been with the BRET Office of Career Development since 2012 and at Vanderbilt since 2007. Prior to her time with BRET, Kate coordinated undergraduate student-alumni career engagement with the Vanderbilt University Alumni Association. Besides spending time with her husband and children, gardening, and coaching elementary school basketball, Kate loves to carefully craft clever out-of-office messages to make emailers laugh when they miss her.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a historian.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Employability Journal, by Barbara Bassot
Designing Your Life, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
The Designing Your Life Workbook, by Bill Burnett and Dave Evans
Put Your Science to Work: The Take-Charge Career Guide for Scientists, by Peter S. Fiske
Building a Career in America’s Community Colleges, by Rob Jenkins
Putting the Humanities PhD to Work, by Katina Rogers
Next Gen PhD: A Guide to Career Paths in Science, by Melanie W. Sinche
Academic Life episode on leaving academia
Vanderbilt Beyond the Lab Podcast series: https://medschool.vanderbilt.edu/career-development/beyond-the-lab-see-listen/

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from today’s experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day

Thu, 11 May 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Feeling worn out by the work of resistance? How do you persevere? Why is so challenging to find wholeness? Kaitlin Curtice joins us to share:

The four realms of resistance.
Why they are all needed for our liberation.
How resistance is a basic human calling.
The anxiety and fatigue that will set in if you don’t seek wholeness.
Why time in nature, ritual, rest, community, and journaling may help you.
Two poems and an excerpt from her book.

Today’s book is: Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day, by Kaitlin Curtice. In an era in which "resistance" has become tokenized, Kaitlin Curtice reclaims it as a basic human calling. Curtice shows that we can learn to practice embodied ways of belonging and connection to ourselves and one another through everyday practices, such as getting more in touch with our bodies, resting, and remembering our ancestors. She explores four "realms of resistance"—the personal, the communal, the ancestral, and the integral—and shows how these realms overlap and why all are needed for our liberation. Readers will be empowered to seek wholeness in whatever spheres of influence they inhabit.

Our guest is: Kaitlin B. Curtice, who is an award-winning author, poet-storyteller, and public speaker. As an enrolled citizen of the Potawatomi nation, she writes on the intersections of spirituality and identity and how that shifts throughout our lives. She also speaks on these topics to diverse audiences who are interested in truth-telling and healing. Kaitlin participates in conversations on topics such as colonialism in faith communities, and she has spoken at many conferences. She writes online for Apartment Therapy, On Being, SELF Magazine, Oprah Daily, and more. Her work has been featured on CBS and in USA Today. She also writes at The Liminality Journal. Kaitlin lives in Philadelphia with her family.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a historian.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

How We Show Up, by Mia Birdsong
Native, by Kaitlin Curtis
Glory Happening, by Kaitlin Curtis
Women Who Run With The Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
The Wisdom of Your Body, Hilary McBride
This Here Flesh, by Cole Arthur Riley
Welcome Home, by Najwa Zebian
Kaitlin Curtice reading one of her poems [audio recording]
Mia Birdsong on community building and how we show up
This discussion on The Diné Reader with Esther Belin

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from today’s experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it truly means to live an academic life.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Do You Have Imposter Syndrome?

Thu, 04 May 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Why do so many students and academics worry that they are imposters? Is it normal to experience this kind of self-doubt? This episode explores:

The difference between imposter syndrome and imposter phenomenon.
How we can better understand imposter syndrome.
Why it strikes some people.
How to recognize it when it does.
Tips for helping others and ourselves.

Our guest is: Dr Darragh McCashin, who is an Assistant Professor in the School of Psychology at Dublin City University (DCU), and is interested in digital youth mental health, and clinical/forensic applications of technology. Previously, Darragh was a Marie Curie Fellow/PhD student at University College Dublin (UCD), examining technology-enabled youth mental health within the EU H2020-funded TEAM-ITN project, specifically the role of technology-assisted cognitive behavioural therapy for children using mixed methodologies. A second strand to Darragh’s research is that of forensic/criminal psychology. With an MSc in Applied Forensic Psychology (University of York), Darragh has previously worked as an Associate Lecturer and Research Assistant in the Online-Protect research group at the University of Lincoln case formulation tools for those with convictions for internet sexual offences.

With respect to policy-making, Darragh is currently the taskforce leader for Mental Health of Researchers within the Policy Working Group of the Marie Curie Alumni Association (MCAA), and co-founded the researcher mentoring programme Referent. Darragh also sits on two COST Actions: Researcher Mental Health Observatory (CA19117; Working Group Chair), and the European Network for Problematic Usage of the Internet (CA16207; management committee member for Ireland).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community, by Mia Birdsong
It’s a Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence, by Frank Martela
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, by Nedra Glover Tawwab
The Rejection That Saved My Life, by Jessica Bacal
The Academic Life podcast on belonging and the science of creating connection and bridging divides
The Academic Life podcast Dealing With Rejection
The Academic Life podcast On The Museum of Failure

Welcome to The Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today’s knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Find us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Tell Me What You Want: A Therapist and Her Clients Explore Our 12 Deepest Desires

Tue, 02 May 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Do we know what we really want, and what we are willing to do to get it? What if what we want doesn’t align with who we think we are supposed to be? Dr. Charlotte Fox Weber joins us today to help us think about what we really want. In this episode we consider some of life’s messy questions about opportunity, regret, ego, growth, and power.

Today’s book is: Tell Me What You Want: A Therapist and Her Clients Explore Our 12 Deepest Desires (Atria Books,2023), by Dr. Charlotte Fox Weber, which is an exploration of the twelve fundamental psychological needs we all share. In Tell Me What You Want, Dr. Weber guides us in navigating our deepest longings, by asking the too-often unasked questions: “What do we want? And how do we get it?” Each of us, at certain moments in our lives, can feel lost or confused. We often don’t know how to get what we want, or what we think we want, but we share these universal desires: to love and be loved; understanding, power, attention, freedom; to create, to belong, to win, to connect, to control; and we want what we shouldn’t. In the twelve chapters, each focused on one of these universal desires, psychotherapist Dr. Weber considers the personal costs of met and unmet desires, and how they can lead to insights, change, and growth.

Today’s guest is: Dr. Charlotte Fox Weber, who is a psychotherapist and writer. She cofounded Examined Life, and was the founding head of The School of Life Psychotherapy. She grew up in Connecticut and Paris and now lives in London with her husband and two young children. Tell Me What You Want is her first book. Find out more at CharlotteFoxWeber.com.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Podcast on belonging and the science of creating connection and bridging divides Podcast on making a meaningful life
Podcast on living the "good-enough" life
Podcast on overcoming public speaking anxieties
Podcast on campus mental wellness services
The Rejection That Saved My Life, by Jessica Bacal
Permission to Speak, by Samara Bay
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community, by Mia Birdsong
Life B, by Bethanne Patrick
Bring Yourself, by Mori Taheripour
Podcast on the knowledge unlocked by facing failure
Podcast on the benefits of doing less, and stressing less

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Ph.D. Employability: Struggles and Solutions

Thu, 27 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0000

What happens when jobs in academia are scarce, and few of the descriptions of jobs outside academia seem like a fit? How can graduates find the right job for them, whether it’s inside academia or far afield? This episode explores:

Ways to explain your skills and expertise so an employer sees you as a good match for them.
Tips for reframing how graduate students talk about themselves and their research.
How advisors can encourage graduates to explore a wider range of jobs.
A discussion of the book chapter “Beyond the Data: Navigating the Struggles of Post-PhD Employability,” in The Sage Handbook of Graduate Employability.

Our guest is: Dr. Holly Prescott, who is a career guidance practitioner specializing in working with postgraduate researchers (graduate students/ PhDs). She completed a PhD in Literature and Cultural Geography at the University of Birmingham (UK) in 2011. Since then, she has gained ten years' experience in postgraduate student recruitment, admissions, and careers support. Holly also holds a PGDip (QCG) in Career Guidance from Coventry University (UK) and the Career Development Institute, and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She is currently the Careers Adviser for Postgraduate Researchers at the University of Birmingham (UK). Holly is particularly passionate about developing Postgraduate Researchers' awareness of career routes beyond and adjacent to academic research, helping them to make transitions into meaningful careers. This led her to found the PhD careers blog ‘PostGradual’ (www.phd-careers.co.uk). Holly lives with a rare autoimmune eye condition called AZOOR which causes visual field defects, and outside of work she volunteers for the British sight loss charity RNIB. She is also Assistant Artistic Director of Ottisdotter Theatre Company based in London. She is the author of “Beyond the Data: Navigating the Struggles of Post-PhD Employability,” in The Sage Handbook of Graduate Employability.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Employability Journal, by Barbara Bassot
Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide, by Christopher L. Caterine
Candid Advice for New Faculty Members, by Marybeth Gasman
Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom, by Katina Rogers
Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers, by Kathryn Linder, Keven Kelly, and Thomas Tobin
The Connected PhD podcast episode, part one
Academic Life podcast episode on Hope for the Humanities PhD
Academic Life podcast on Leaving Academia

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week, to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Contracts, Agents, and Editors, Oh My! Demystifying the Path to Publication

Thu, 20 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0000

What is an advance contract? Do you need an agent? How do you know which editor to approach with your manuscript? Successfully following the path to academic publishing can be daunting for first-time authors. But it doesn’t have to be. Acquisitions editor Laura Devulis joins us to explain the hidden curriculum, including:

How soon you can approach an academic press with your proposal.
What it means when your editor offers you an advance contract.
How much of your manuscript can be previously published.
What happens when you miss a deadline.
Some important things to communicate to your editor.

Our guest is: Laura Davulis, who is an acquisitions editor at the Johns Hopkins University Press, where she publishes academic and trade books in American history and current affairs. She lives in Baltimore. You can follow her on Twitter (@davulis) for musings on books and publishing, along with cat pictures and extended discussions of pizza-making techniques.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

What Editors Do, by Peter Ginna
Revise: The Scholar-Writer’s Essential Guide to Tweaking, Editing, and Perfecting Your Manuscript, by Pamela Haag
Handbook for Academic Authors, by Beth Luey
The Book Proposal Book, by Laura Portwood-Stacer
Academic Life podcast on writing book proposals
Academic Life podcast on revising your dissertation for publication with the editor of University of Wyoming Press
A conversation about marketing scholarly books
A conversation about the peer review process with acquisitions editor Rachael Levay
Academic Life podcast about working with developmental editors
ASK UP: Authors Seeking Knowledge from University Presses

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

What Do Bees, Ants, and Dragonflies Get up to All Day?

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Bugs are everywhere: in every corner of the world, even the Artic. But of the estimated 10 million species of bugs worldwide, only a million have been studied or described. Given the increasing rate of extinction, can scientists hope to learn about them all? What do bugs do all day? Where do they live? How do they communicate? This episode explores:

How Dr. Jessica Ware became a curator and professor at the American Museum of Natural History.
Dr. Ware’s travels around the world, to study bugs in their habitats.
Why she’s passionate about encouraging minoritized persons to go into science.
Ways to decolonize knowledge and materials.
Tips for science communication.
The graduate school at the American Museum of Natural History.
A discussion of the book Bugs (A Day in the Life).

Today’s book is: Bugs (A Day in the Life), by Dr. Jessica L. Ware, which is set over a 24-hour period, and explores the work and communities of bugs like honey bees, leafcutter ants, and dragonflies; it is illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat.

Our guest is: Dr. Jessica L. Ware, director of the Ware Lab, and Associate Curator in the Division of Invertebrate Zoology at the American Museum of Natural History. Her research focuses on the evolution of behavioral and physiological adaptations in insects, with an emphasis on how these occur in Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) and Dictyoptera (termites, cockroaches and mantises). Her research group focuses on phylogenetics/phylogenomics and uses these tools to inform their work on reproductive, social and flight behaviors in insects. She was an NSF postdoctoral fellow, is the president of The Worldwide Dragonfly Association, and is a board member of the Entomological Society of America. She was awarded a PECASE medal from the US government for her work on insect evolution, and is the author of Bugs (A Day in the Life).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Samples of Funded Grants
Sharks (A Day in the Life), by Carlee Jackson
The Grant Writing Guide, by Betty Lai
Storycraft, Second Edition: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction (Chicago Guides to Writing, Editing, and Publishing), by Jack Hart
Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: Fifty Award-Winning Children’s Book Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing, edited by Melissa Stewart
The Academic Life episode on Wasps
The Academic Life episode with climate change scientist Dr. Shuang-ye Wu
The Academic Life episode From PhD to Picture Book
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators [SCBWI]

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week, to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Gay on God's Campus: Mobilizing for LGBT Equality at Christian Colleges and Universities

Thu, 06 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Gay on God's Campus: Mobilizing for LGBT Equality at Christian Colleges and Universities (UNC Press, 2018), by Jonathan Coley. Although the LGBT movement has made rapid gains in the United States, LGBT people continue to face discrimination in faith communities. In this book, sociologist Jonathan S. Coley documents why and how student activists mobilize for greater inclusion at Christian colleges and universities. Drawing on interviews with student activists at a range of Christian institutions of higher learning, Dr. Coley shows that students, initially drawn to activism because of their own political, religious, or LGBT identities, are forming direct action groups that transform university policies, educational groups that open up campus dialogue, and solidarity groups that facilitate their members’ personal growth. He also shows how these LGBT activists apply their skills and values after graduation in subsequent political campaigns, careers, and family lives, potentially serving as change agents in their faith communities for years to come. Dr. Coley’s findings shed light on a new frontier of LGBT activism and challenge prevailing wisdom about the characteristics of activists, the purpose of activist groups, and ultimately the nature of activism itself. Gay on God’s Campus won the 2018 Stanford M. Lyman Distinguished Book Award, from the Mid-South Sociological Association. For more information about this project’s research methodology and theoretical grounding, please visit http://jonathancoley.com/book

Our guest is: Dr. Jonathan Coley, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Oklahoma State University and Deputy Editor of The Sociological Quarterly. His research focuses on social movements, politics, religion, education, gender and sexuality, and race and ethnicity. His current research projects examine LGBTQ activism at Christian colleges and universities; the presence of political, religious, and social activist groups at U.S. colleges and universities (with Dhruba Das, Gabby Gomez, Jericho McElroy, and Jessica Schachle); local-level church-state relations in the United States (with Gary Adler, Damon Mayrl, and Rebecca Sager); and LGBTQ faith leaders in the United States (with Joseph Anthony). His research has been published in American Journal of Sociology, Social Forces, Sociological Forum, Mobilization, Sociology of Religion, and Sociology of Education. He is the author of Gay on God's Campus: Mobilizing for LGBT Equality at Christian Colleges and Universities.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Progressive Evangelicals and the Pursuit of Social Justice, by Brantley Gasaway
From Single to Serious: Relationships, Gender, and Sexuality on American Evangelical Campuses, by Dana Malone
Queer Faith: Reading Promiscuity and Race in the Secular Love Tradition, by Melissa Sanchez

Reforming Sodom: Protestants and the Rise of Gay Rights, by Heather White

The Queer Faith page at Union Theological Seminary This podcast on feminism and fierceness in the Bible

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us each week, where we learn directly from experts. We embrace the broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life, and are informed and inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Connected PhD, Part Three

Tue, 04 Apr 2023 08:00:00 -0000

How can a PhD program pivot from a professoriate-apprenticeship system, to one that is mindful of students’ post-grad career goals? This episode completes our three-part series on The Connected PhD, and explores:

The positive effect on professors when their graduate students can prepare for multiple career options.
How speaking one-on-one with students helped one program reexamine what “support” is, and what it needs to be.
The importance of restructuring PhD timelines.
Why the future of humanities PhD programs matters.

Our guest is: Dr. Ulka Anjaria, who teaches and researches South Asian literature and film. She is the author many articles and books, including Realism in the Twentieth-Century Indian Novel: Colonial Difference and Literary Form (Cambridge University Press, 2012); Reading India Now: Contemporary Formations in Literature and Popular Culture (Temple University Press, 2019); and Understanding Bollywood: The Grammar of Hindi Cinema, First Edition (Routledge, 2021). She is a professor of English, and the director of the Mandel Center for the Humanities at Brandeis University.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Managing Your Mental Health During Your PhD: A Survival Guide, by Zoe Ayers
Being Well in Academia: Ways to Feel Stronger, Safer and More Connected, by Petra Boynton
The Field Guide to Grad School, by Jessica McCrory Calarco
Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School, by Kimberly McKee and Denise Delgado, eds.
Your PhD Survival Guide: Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year, by Katherine Firth. Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone
Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom, by Katina Rogers
The Field Guide to Grad School podcast
This podcast on protecting your wellbeing in graduate school
This podcast on finding good alt-ac jobs
The Connected PhD Part One
The Connected PhD Part Two

Welcome to the Academic Life, where we are inspired and informed by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy. Missed any episodes? You’ll find over 150 of the Academic Life podcast episodes archived and freely available to you on the New Books Network website.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Good Enough Life

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: The Good-Enough Life (Princeton UP, 2022) by Avram Alpert. We live in a world oriented toward greatness, one in which we feel compelled to be among the wealthiest, most powerful, and most famous. This book explains why no one truly benefits from this competitive social order, and reveals how another way of life is possible—a good-enough life for all. Dr. Alpert shows how our obsession with greatness results in stress and anxiety, damage to our relationships, widespread political and economic inequality, and destruction of the natural world. He describes how to move beyond greatness to create a society in which everyone flourishes. By competing less with each other, each of us can find renewed meaning and purpose, have our material and emotional needs met, and begin to lead more leisurely lives. Alpert makes no false utopian promises, however. Life can never be more than good enough because there will always be accidents and tragedies beyond our control, which is why we must stop dividing the world into winners and losers and ensure that there is a fair share of decency and sufficiency to go around.

Visionary and provocative, The Good-Enough Life demonstrates how we can work together to cultivate a good-enough life for all instead of tearing ourselves apart in a race to the top of the social pyramid.

Our guest is: Dr. Avram Alpert, a writer and teacher. He is currently a research fellow at The New Institute, Hamburg. He previously taught at Princeton and Rutgers Universities. He is the author of three books, most recently The Good Enough Life. His work has appeared in publications such as the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Aeon.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

A Partial Enlightenment: What Modern Literature and Buddhism Can Teach Us about Living Well without Perfection, by Avram Alpert
Global Origins of the Modern Self, from Montaigne to Suzuki, by Avram Alpert
How to Human: An Incomplete Manual for Living in a Mess-up World, by Alice Connor
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving, by Celeste Headlee
Find the Good, by Heather Lende
A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence, by Frank Martela
Podcast on making a meaningful life
Podcast on belonging and the science of creating connection and bridging divides
Podcast on the knowledge unlocked by facing failure
Podcast on the benefits of doing less, and stressing less

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Top Ten Struggles in Writing A Book Manuscript (and What to Do About It)

Thu, 23 Mar 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Is writing a nonfiction book harder than you thought it would be? This episode explores:

What your reader needs from you, and why.
Which writing struggles are the most common, and how to fix them.
How to make sure your purpose in writing your book isn’t getting lost.
Ways to more effectively focus on what you need to say.
What to polish up [and how to do that] before you send it off.
Why you can send it out before it’s “perfect.”

Our guest is: Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer who earned a PhD in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. She is a publishing consultant and developmental editor for academic authors, and offers a free newsletter entitled Manuscript Works. Before starting her consulting business, she was a scholar and academic whose research focused on lifestyle choices; and taught at New York University in the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication. She now lives in Los Angeles with her family, and is a two-time Jeopardy champion.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Story Craft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction, by Jack Hart
The Grant Writing Guide, by Betty S. Lai
The Book Proposal Book, by Laura Portwood-Stacer
Laura's template on how to write an introduction
Laura's template on Reverse Outlining
7 Mistakes I Made When I Published My Academic Book by Laura Portwood-Stacer
How To Impress an Acquisitions Editor
The Academic Life podcast on how to revise your dissertation so a university press will want to publish it
The Academic Life podcast Do You Need A Developmental Editor?
The Academic Life podcast on University Press Submissions and The Peer Review
The Academic Life podcast about marketing your scholarly book
The Academic Life podcast on writing a book proposal
The Academic Life episode on open-access publishing

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week, as we learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life.

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Overcoming the Anxiety of Giving a Presentation

Thu, 16 Mar 2023 08:00:00 -0000

Why is giving a presentation so stressful? Is your heart supposed to race? And how do you gain more confidence? This episode explores:

How to feel more connected to your audience.
Why feeling some “stage-fright” might be a good thing.
What your audience needs from you.
How to use tools to “break the ice” like asking your listeners a great question.
A discussion of the article “How to Cope with Presentation Anxiety,” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, by Dr. James M. Lang

Our guest is: Dr. James M. Lang, who is the author of six books, writes a monthly column on teaching and learning for The Chronicle of Higher Education, and edits a series of books on teaching and learning in higher education for West Virginia University Press. A former Professor of English and Director of the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence at Assumption University, he stepped down from full-time academic work in 2021 to concentrate on his writing and teaching and public speaking. He has consulted with the United Nations on a multi-year project to develop teaching materials in ethics and integrity for high school and college faculty, and is the recipient of a 2016 Fulbright Specialist Grant, and the 2019 Paul Ziegler Presidential Award for Excellence in Scholarship. Jim and his wife formed the Lang Family Foundation, which provides grants to non-profit organizations dedicated to the alleviation of poverty and homelessness, support for the environment and the arts, and funding for libraries and public education. Recent grant recipients include the INTERFAITH HOSPITALITY NETWORK OF GREATER WORCESTER, a shelter for families with children; the WORCESTER PUBLIC LIBRARY FOUNDATION; and ABBY’S HOUSE, a shelter for women in need of support services.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Chronicle of Higher Education article "Should We Stop Grading Class Participation?" by James Lang
“Distracted Minds: Why You Should Teach Like a Poet,” in The Chronicle of Higher Education, by James Lang
Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, by James Lang
Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes, by James Lang and Flower Darby
The Academic Life podcast episode Archival Kismet: Lessons in Launching an Online Conference
The Academic Life podcast episode Making the Most of Academic Conferences

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Can we Engage in Public Scholarship with Feminist and Accessible Communication?

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Engage in Public Scholarship: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication, by Dr. Alex D. Ketchum. Public scholarship—sharing research with audiences outside of academic settings—has become increasingly necessary to counter the rise of misinformation, fill gaps from cuts to traditional media, and increase the reach of important scholarship. Engaging in these efforts often comes with the risk of harassment and threats—especially for women, people of color, queer communities, and precariously employed workers. Engage in Public Scholarship provides guidance on translating research into inclusive public outreach while ensuring that such efforts are safer and more accessible. Dr. Ketchum discusses practices and planning for a range of educational activities from in-person and online events, conferences, and lectures to publishing and working with the media, social media activity, blogging, and podcasting. Using an intersectional feminist lens, this book offers a concise approach to challenges and benefits of feminist and accessible public scholarship.

Our guest is: Dr. Alex Ketchum, who is the Faculty Lecturer of the Institute for Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies of McGill University. She is the Director of the Just Feminist Tech and Scholarship Lab. She is the author of Engage in Public Scholarship!: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication (Concordia University Press, 2022), and Ingredients for Revolution: A History of American Feminist Restaurants, Cafes, and Coffeehouses (2022). Since 2019, Ketchum has organized the SSHRC-funded Disrupting Disruptions: The Feminist and Accessible Publishing and Communications Technologies Speaker and Workshop Series. She is also the founder of The Feminist Restaurant Project, and co-founder and editor of The Historical Cooking Project, and the former co-founder of Food, Feminism, and Fermentation. She is published in Feminist Studies, Feminist Media Studies, and Digital Humanities Quarterly. Dr. Ketchum was named one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics for 2021, and is involved in feminist, food, and environmental politics. She has worked on organic farms in Ireland and France, and she founded Farm House in Middletown, Connecticut, a living community dedicated to food politics work.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

A Primer for Teaching Digital History: 10 Design Principles by Jennifer Guiliano
Roopika Risam and Jennifer Guiliano, editors, Reviews in Digital Humanities
This podcast episode on Hope for the Humanities PhD
This podcast episode on new ways of launching an online conference
This episode on exploring public-facing humanities at historic sites

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week, where we learn directly from experts. We embrace the broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life, and are informed and inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy.

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Are We Done with Higher Education Rankings?

Thu, 02 Mar 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Why do most of the institutions of higher education in the United States participate in a rankings system? What do the rankings do? And what does it mean when some schools refuse to participate in rankings? This episode explores:

How and why the ranking system got started.
Who creates the ranking.
Why the statics and data collected for it aren’t neutral or even necessarily accurate.
What the rankings mean to prospective students, their families, and even alumni.
Why some schools might have to stay in the ranking system, even as more schools are refusing to participate.

Our guest is: Francie Diep, who is a senior reporter covering money in higher education for The Chronicle of Higher Education. She joined The Chronicle in 2019. Previously, she spent a decade covering health and science, including funding for academic labs, for publications including Pacific Standard, Popular Science, Scientific American, and The New York Times. She received her bachelor’s degree in English from the University of California at Los Angeles and her master’s in journalism from New York University.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

"A Third Top 10 Law School Pulls out of US News Rankings" by Francie Diep in The Chronicle of Higher Education
"Is This The Beginning of the End of the US News Rankings Dominance?" by Francie Diep in The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Truth about College Admission: A Family Guide to Getting In and Staying Together, by Brennan Barnard and Rick Clark
The Merit Myth: How Our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America, by Anthony Carnevale et al
Breaking Ranks: How the Rankings Industry Rules Higher Education and What to Do About It, by Colin Diver
This article in the Guardian about the Columbia University rankings whistleblower
This podcast on the book about admissions entitled Get Real and Get In

Welcome to the Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today’s knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Missed any of our episodes? You’ll find more than 100 of the Academic Life podcast episodes archived and freely available to you on the New Books Network website.

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Who Gets Believed? When the Truth Isn't Enough

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Why are people judged on whether or not they are compelling? Why isn’t telling the truth enough? What are people really listening for when others share their truths? And how does this harm asylum seekers? Dina Nayeri joins us to share:

Why our perceptions of other people’s experiences impact them and us.
What makes a “credible” story, and what doesn’t.
How her own stories shape her.
Why it can be difficult to believe a messy truth.
What she had to forgive herself for.
The book Who Gets Believed.

Today’s book is: Who Gets Believed by Dina Nayeri, which asks unsettling questions about lies, truths, and the difference between being believed and being dismissed. Dina Nayeri begins with asking why are honest asylum seekers dismissed as liars? She shares shocking and illuminating case studies, as the book grows into a reckoning with our culture’s views on believability. From learning the tools of persuasion and performance in her job at McKinsey to struggling to believe her troubled brother-in-law, Nayeri explores an aspect of our society that is rarely held up to the light. Who Gets Believed is a book as deeply personal as it is profound in its reflections on morals, language, literature, human psychology, and the unspoken social codes that determine how we relate to one another.

Our guest is: Dina Nayeri, who is the author of novels, articles, and creative nonfiction. A former Fellow at the Columbia Institute for Ideas and Imagination in Paris, winner of the UNESCO City of Literature Paul Engle Prize, and fellow at the American Library in Paris, she has also won a National Endowment for the Arts literature grant, the O. Henry Prize, and Best American Short Stories, among other honors. Her work has been published in 20+ countries, in The Guardian, The New Yorker, Granta, and many other publications. She is a graduate of Princeton, Harvard, and the Iowa Writers Workshop. She has recently joined the permanent faculty at the University of St. Andrews.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is a historian.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The American Library in Paris
The Innocence Project
A Teaspoon of Earth and Sea, by Dina Nayeri
Refuge, by Dina Nayeri
The Ungrateful Refugee, by Dina Nayeri
Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle R. Boyd

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week to learn from today’s experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it means to live an academic life.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Connected PhD, Part Two

Thu, 23 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0000

How can PhD programs prepare graduate students for future paths beyond academia? This episode explores:

The positive effect on students when they are prepared to graduate with multiple career options.
Why most jobs for graduating students will be located outside of academia.
How students can build support networks outside of their own program.
The importance of graduate student internships.
Taking a broader view of what constitutes a “dissertation,” a “project,” and a career.

Our guest is: Dr. Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli, who is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Brandeis.

Our co-guest is: Anna Valcour (she/her) is currently a Ph. D. student in Musicology at Brandeis University while simultaneously earning her M.A. in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She holds a M.M. in Voice from the University of North Texas, a B.M. in Vocal Performance, and a B.A. in History from Lawrence University. Her research interests include witchcraft and demonology in Lieder, cultic groups and music, vocal pedagogy, representation in opera and its staging, and voice-based analysis. She is currently the Project Lead for the Connected PhD and is also interning with the African and African American Studies for the creation of their newsletter and alumni collective. Last year, she researched insular plainchant as an assistant under Dr. Karen Desmond. In addition to her scholarly pursuits, Anna is a professional opera singer. She has been a Resident Artist for the Dallas Opera, Toledo Opera, Cedar Rapids Opera, Opera MODO, Ann Arbor Opera, and Main Street Opera.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Being Well in Academia: Ways to Feel Stronger, Safer and More Connected, by Petra Boynton
The Field Guide to Grad School, by Jessica McCrory Calarco
Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School, by Kimberly McKee and Denise Delgado, eds.
Your PhD Survival Guide: Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year, by Katherine Firth. Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone
Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom, by Katina Rogers
Imagine PhD, created by the Graduate Career Consortium
The Field Guide to Grad School podcast
This podcast on protecting your wellbeing in graduate school
This podcast on finding good alt-ac jobs
The podcast on dealing with rejection so you can grow your career

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

A Primer for Teaching Digital History

Thu, 16 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: A Primer for Teaching Digital History: Ten Design Principles (Duke UP, 2022), which is a guide for those who are teaching digital history for the first time, and for experienced instructors who want to reinvigorate their pedagogy. Offering design principles for approaching digital history that represent the possibilities that digital research and scholarship can take, Dr. Jennifer Guiliano outlines potential strategies and methods for building syllabi and curricula. Taking readers through the process of selecting data, identifying learning outcomes, and determining which tools students will use in the classroom, Guiliano outlines popular research methods including digital source criticism, text analysis, and visualization. She also discusses digital archives, exhibits, and collections as well as audiovisual and mixed-media narratives such as short documentaries, podcasts, and multimodal storytelling. Throughout, Guiliano illuminates how digital history can enhance understandings of not just what histories are told but how they are told and who has access to them.

Our guest is: Dr. Jennifer Guiliano, who is a white academic living and working on the lands of the Myaamia/Miami, Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, Wea, and Shawnee peoples. She currently holds a position as Associate Professor in the Department of History and affiliated faculty in both Native American and Indigenous Studies and American Studies at IUPUI in Indianapolis, Indiana. She is co-director with Trevor Muñoz of the Humanities Intensive Teaching + Learning Initiative (HILT). She is the author of Indian Spectacle: College Mascots and the Anxiety of Modern America , and of A Primer for Teaching Digital History: 10 Design Principles . She is co-editor with Roopika Risam of Reviews in Digital Humanities, of DevDH.org with Simon Appleford, and of Digital Humanities Workshops with Laura Estill. She is also completing a co-authored work Getting Started in the Digital Humanities (Wiley & Sons).

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Engage in Public Scholarship!: A Guidebook on Feminist and Accessible Communication, by Alex D. Ketchum
Envisioning Public Scholarship for Our Time: Models for Higher Education Researchers, by Adriana J. Kezar et al
Using Digital Humanities in the Classroom: A Practical Introduction for Teachers, Lecturers, and Students, by Claire Battershill and Shawna Ross
What is Digital History? by Hannu Salmi
The Unessay as Native-Centered History and Pedagogy [an open journal article]
This episode on teaching about race and racism in the college classroom
This episode on From Equity Talk to Equity Walk with Dr. Tia Brown McNair
This podcast the Tribal College Journal of American Indian Higher Education

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We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States

Thu, 09 Feb 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States. The “Dreamer narrative” celebrates the educational and economic achievements of undocumented youth to justify a path to citizenship, and has promoted the idea that access to citizenship and rights should be granted only to a select group of “deserving” immigrants. The contributors to We Are Not Dreamers—themselves currently or formerly undocumented—counter the Dreamer narrative by grappling with the nuances of undocumented life in this country. Theorizing those excluded from the Dreamer category—academically struggling students, transgender activists, and queer undocumented parents—the contributors call for an expansive articulation of immigrant rights and justice that recognizes the full humanity of undocumented immigrants while granting full and unconditional rights.

Our guest is: Dr. Genevieve Negrón-Gonzales, an Associate Professor of Leadership Studies at University of San Francisco, who is an interdisciplinary scholar of immigration and education. Her academic, activist and community work focuses on the ways undocumented young people are changing the political and legislative terrain around “illegality” and belonging in this country. Her work lies at the intersection of education, immigration, and social movements. She is the co-author of Encountering Poverty: Thinking and Acting in an Unequal World (2016, University of California Press) and co-editor of We Are Not DREAMers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States (2020, Duke University Press).

Our co-guest is: Dr. Leisy J. Abrego, who is Professor in Chicana/o and Central American Studies at the UCLA. She studies the intimate consequences of U.S. foreign and immigration policies for Central American migrants and Latinx families in the United States. She is the author Sacrificing Families: Navigating Laws, Labor, and Love Across Borders (Stanford University Press, 2014), and co-editor of We Are Not Dreamers: Undocumented Scholars Theorize Undocumented Life in the United States. Her scholarship analyzing legal consciousness, illegality, and legal violence has garnered numerous awards from the Latin American Studies Association and the American Sociological Association. She dedicates much of her time to supporting and advocating for refugees and immigrants by writing editorials and pro-bono expert declarations in asylum cases.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Negrón-Gonzales, G. (2017). Political possibilities: Lessons from the undocumented youth Movement for resistance to the Trump Administration. Anthropology and Education Quarterly. In press.
Negrón-Gonzales, G. (2017). Constrained inclusion: Access and persistence among undocumented community college students in California’s Central Valley. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 16(2), 105-122.
Negrón-Gonzales, G., Abrego, L., & Coll, K. (2016). Immigrant Latina/o youth and illegality: Challenging the politics of deservingness. Association of Mexican American Educators Journal, 9(3). 7-10.
Gonzales, R. G., Heredia, L. L. & Negrón-Gonzales, G. (2015). Untangling Plyler's legacy: Undocumented students, schools, and citizenship. Harvard Educational Review, 85(3), 318-341.
This podcast on structural inequality in higher education

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The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars

Thu, 02 Feb 2023 04:00:00 -0000

Why is writing a grant proposal so stressful? Are you supposed to just know how to do it? This episode explores:

How to align your values and interests with a grant opportunity.
Why most of us will end up needing a grant.
Things you can learn from a grant proposal that succeeded, and from one that didn’t.
What your grant reviewer really needs from you and why.
How to use the funder’s guidelines and terminology to your advantage.
Why a guide book can help you write your grant proposal.
A discussion of the Grant Writing Guide.

Today’s book is: The Grant Writing Guide: A Road Map for Scholars (Princeton UP, , 2023) by Dr. Betty S. Lai, which is an essential handbook for writing fundable grants. This easy-to-use guide features writing samples, a glossary of important terms, answers common questions, and explains pitfalls to avoid. Dr. Lai focuses on skills that are universal to all grant writers, not just specific skills for one type of grant or funder. She explains how to craft phenomenal pitches and align them with your values, structure timelines and drafts, communicate clearly in prose and images, solicit feedback to strengthen your proposals, and much more. This incisive book walks you through every step along the way, from generating ideas to finding the right funder, determining which grants help you create the career you want, and writing in a way that excites reviewers and funders.

Our guest is: Dr. Betty S. Lai, who is an associate professor in the Lynch School of Education and Human Development at Boston College. Her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, and the Gulf Research Program of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, among others. Her work has been recognized with awards from the American Psychological Association and the American Psychological Foundation.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week, to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and embrace the broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Connected PhD, Part One

Thu, 26 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Why do PhD programs assume students will become professors, when most people find careers outside academia? How can we better prepare graduate students for the post-grad career path? This episode explores:

What a “Connected PhD” program is, and why it’s necessary.
The negative impact on students when they feel "less than" or as if they have failed when they can't land a tenure-track job.
How to change the PhD so students graduate with multiple career options.
Why faculty need to approach graduate programs differently.
How students can build their mentoring and support network outside of their program, and outside of academia
The Connected PhD program's impact on the culture of doctoral pedagogy.

Our guest is: Dr. Alyssa Stalsberg Canelli, who is the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs at Brandeis.

Our co-guest is: Dr. Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria, who is the Faculty Director of Professional Development at GSAS, and associate professor in the Anthropology department at Brandeis.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Generous Thinking: A Radical Approach to Saving the University, by Kathleen Fitzpatrick
Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom, by Katina Rogers
Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers, by Kathryn Linder, Keven Kelly, and Thomas Tobin
The New PhD: How to Build a Better Graduate Education, by Leonard Cassuto and Robert Weisbuch
Slow Boil: Street Food, Public Space and Rights in Mumbai, by Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria
Urban Navigations: Politics, Space and the City in South Asia, edited by Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria and Colin McFarlane
Imagine PhD, created by the Graduate Career Consortium
This podcast on reimagining the academic conference
This podcast on hope for the humanities PhD

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature

Thu, 19 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: The Diné Reader: An Anthology of Navajo Literature, which is the 2022 Before Columbus Foundation American Book Award Winner. The Diné Reader showcases the breadth, depth, and diversity of Diné creative artists and their poetry, fiction, and nonfiction prose, in a wide-ranging anthology. The collected works display a rich variety of and creativity in themes: home and history; contemporary concerns about identity, historical trauma, and loss of language; and economic and environmental inequalities. The Diné Reader developed as a way to demonstrate both the power of Diné literary artistry and the persistence of the Navajo people. The volume opens with a foreword by poet Sherwin Bitsui, who offers insight into the importance of writing to the Navajo people. The editors then introduce the volume by detailing the literary history of the Diné people, establishing the context for the tremendous diversity of the works that follow, which includes free verse, sestinas, limericks, haiku, prose poems, creative nonfiction, mixed genres, and oral traditions reshaped into the written word. This volume combines an array of literature with illuminating interviews, biographies, and photographs of the featured Diné writers and artists. A valuable resource to educators, literature enthusiasts, and beyond, this anthology is a much-needed showcase of Diné writers and their compelling work. The volume also includes a chronology of important dates in Diné history by Jennifer Nez Denetdale, as well as resources for teachers, students, and general readers by Michael Thompson. The Diné Reader is an exciting convergence of Navajo writers and artists with scholars and educators.

Our guest is: Esther G. Belin, who is a Diné multimedia artist and writer, and a faculty mentor in the Low Rez MFA program at the Institute for American Indian Arts. She graduated from the Institute of American Indian Arts and the University of California, Berkeley. Her poetry collection From the Belly of My Beauty won the American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation. Her latest collection is Of Cartography: Poems.

Our co-guest is: Jeff Berglund, who is the director of the Liberal Studies Program and a professor of English at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, Arizona, where he has worked since 1999. Dr. Berglund’s research and teaching focuses on Native American literature, comparative Indigenous film, and U.S. multi-ethnic literature. His books include Indigenous Pop: Native American Music from Jazz to Hip Hop (co-editor), and Indigenous Peoples Rise Up: The Global Ascendancy of Social Media Activism (co-editor).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Institute of American Indian Arts
Esther Belin’s poems on the Poetry Foundation website, including Bringing Hannah Home and When Roots Are Exposed and Blues-ing on the Brown Vibe
Sherman Alexie: A Collection of Critical Essays edited by Jeff Berglund and Jan Roush
This podcast with Morgan Talty discussing Night of the Living Rez
This podcast with Michelle Cyca about Misrepresentation on Campus
This podcast with the editor of Tribal Colleges Journal of American Indian Higher Education

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Climate Change Scientist: A Conversation with Dr. Shuang-ye Wu

Thu, 12 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

What is the difference between global warming and climate change? This episode explores:

What led Dr. Wu into STEM, and to the study of climate change.
Why the term global warming is misleading, and potentially confusing.
Why weather around the world is getting more extreme.
What she foresees for the future, and what we can do to change that.
Why human choices matter on much a larger scale than most people realize.
A discussion of the article “Looking Back on America’s Summer of Heat, Floods, and Climate Change: Welcome to the New Abnormal”.

Today’s article is: Looking Back on America's Summer of Heat, Floods, and Climate Change: Welcome to the New Abnormal by Dr. Shuang-ye Wu, which provides an overview of the record-breaking heat and historic floods of 2022. Dr. Wu discusses how the new abnormal is increasingly seen as the new weather pattern, why it’s dangerous to normalize this, and what we can do change it. “Welcome to the New Abnormal” was published in The Conversation on September 21, 2022.

Our guest is: Dr. Shuang-ye Wu, who is a climate scientist. Dr. Wu uses climate models to project future climate change and its potential impacts on the hydrological cycle, including precipitation, extreme storms and flood risks. She also collaborates with researchers in ice core science and stable isotope geochemistry investigate climate and environmental change in the past ten thousand years. Dr. Wu received her Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge in 2000 where she studied environmental geography. She joined the University of Dayton department of Geology and Environmental Geosciences in 2004 after completing three-year post-doctoral research at Pennsylvania State University. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles in high-impact scientific journals, and received close to two million dollars in external funding for her research. Dr. Wu teaches a variety courses mainly in the field of climate change, environmental geosciences, and Geographical Information Systems.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Conversation article: 2022's US Climate Disasters: A tale of too much rain and too little
The Conversation article: For a Flooded Midwest Climate Forecasts Offer Little Comfort
Bedaso, Z., & Wu, S. Y. (2020). Daily precipitation isotope variation in Midwestern United States: Implication for hydroclimate and moisture source. Science of The Total Environment, 713, 136631.
Yuan, W., Wu, S. Y., Hou, S., Xu, Z., & Lu, H. (2019). Normalized Difference Vegetation Index‐based assessment of climate change impact on vegetation growth in the humid‐arid transition zone in northern China during 1982–2013. International Journal of Climatology, 39(15), 5583-5598.
Wu, Y., Ji, H., Wen, J., Wu, S.-Y., Xu, M., Tagle, F., Duan, W., Li, J. (2018). The characteristics of regional persistent heavy precipitation events over eastern monsoon China during 1960-2013. Global and Planetary Change, 172, pp.414-427.

Welcome to The Academic Life! Join us here each week, where we go inside the academy to learn directly from experts. We embrace a broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life, and are inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Why Did 48,000 UC Workers Go on Strike? A Conversation with Dr. Trevor Griffey

Thu, 05 Jan 2023 09:00:00 -0000

Why did thousands of workers at prestigious universities in the United States go on strike in 2022? How did we get to this historic moment, and is it really over? This episode explores:

The myriad ways universities can wield power over workers and even their families.
Why university workers are divided into different unions—and why some have no union representation at all.
How inflation, student debt, housing shortages, health insurance access, and the constriction of the tenure-track put unbearable pressure graduate students, adjuncts, and instructors.
The limitations of sympathy strikes.
How higher education became a gig economy.
Why this generation of students and their parents have more power to change academic inequality than they may realize.

Our guest is: Trevor Griffey is a Lecturer in U.S. History at UC Irvine and in Labor Studies at UCLA. He is co-founder of the Seattle Civil Rights and Labor History Project, and co-editor of the book Black Power at Work: Community Control, Affirmative Actiton and the Construction Industry (Cornell University Press, 2010). He currently serves as the Vice President of Legislation for the University Council-American Federation of Teachers (UC-AFT), which represents non-Senate faculty and librarians in the University of California system.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

This podcast on dealing with structural inequalities in the tenure pipeline
This podcast with the AAUP on how the demise of the tenure system is hurting students, professors, and academic freedom
The podcast on one professor's long road to the dream job in academia
The Gig Academy: Mapping Labor in the Neoliberal University by Adrianna Kezar, Tom DePaola, And Daniel T. Scott
State of the Union: A Century of American Labor - Revised and Expanded Edition, by Nelson Lichtenstein
Nelson Lichtenstein's piece about the UC Strike in Dissent Magazine
This LA Times article, which is one of many pieces in recent years about how graduate students and adjuncts cannot afford housing
The Guardian's article on firings of graduate student strikers in 2020
For teaching US labor and social history, this resource which is free and available online (free registration): https://wba.ashpcml.org/

Welcome to the Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today’s knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Missed any of our episodes? You’ll find over 130 of the Academic Life podcast episodes archived and freely available to you on the New Books Network website.

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You Do Have A Right To Remain Fat: A Conversation with Virgie Tovar

Thu, 29 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Why are women judged for their size? What if you decided that you had the right to remain fat? This episode explores:

Our born desire to like ourselves as we are.
How we get shamed out of that at such a young age, and so very quickly.
How hard it is to re-learn how to like yourself.
Why our cultural commitment to fat-phobia harms us all.
A Discussion of the book You Have the Right To Remain Fat.

Our guest is: Virgie Tovar, who is an author, activist, and a lecturer on weight-based discrimination and body image. She holds a Master's degree in Sexuality Studies with a focus on the intersections of body size, race and gender. She edited the anthology Hot & Heavy: Fierce Fat Girls on Life, Love and Fashion (Seal Press, November 2012), is the author of You Have the Right to Remain Fat (Feminist Press August 2018), The Self-Love Revolution: Radical Body Positivity for Girls of Color (New Harbinger Publications 2020), and The Body Positive Journal (Chronicle Books 2022). She has received three San Francisco Arts Commission Individual Artist Commissions as well as Yale's Poynter Fellowship in Journalism.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Fatty Fatty Boom Boom, by Rabia Chaudry
What We Don’t Talk About When We Talk About Fat, by Aubrey Gordon
Belly of the Beast: The Politics of Anti-Fatness, by Da’Shaun L. Harrison
Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia, by Sabrina Strings
The Body is Not An Apology, Second Edition, by Sonya Renee Taylor

Welcome to The Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we embrace a broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life. We view education as a transformative human endeavor and are inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy. Find us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Archival Kismet: Lessons in Launching An Online Conference

Thu, 22 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

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 comfortable presenting online, even when things go wrong.

Our guest is: Dr. Courtney Thompson, who is an associate history professor at Mississippi State University, and the founder of Archival Kismet online conferences. Her research and teaching interests are centered in the history of nineteenth-century American medicine; medical humanities; history of the mind and body; history of women, gender, and sexuality; feminist science studies; history of emotions; visual culture; science and crime; psychiatry and mental illness.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Archival Kismet Conference page
This podcast on making the most of an academic conference
This podcast on getting started on your research
The Chronicle of Higher Ed article “How to Make the Most of a Virtual Conference”
The Chronicle of Higher Ed article “How To Cope With Presentation Anxiety”
The Research Companion: A Practical Guide, by Petra Boynton
The Art of Creative Research, by Philip Gerald
How to Read a History Book: The Hidden History of History, by Marshall Poe
Where Research Begins, by Thomas Mullaney and Christopher Rea

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Belonging: A Conversation with Geoffrey Cohen

Thu, 15 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Why do we feel the need to belong, and what happens when we don’t? This episode explores:

What it takes to belong.
Why it physically hurts to be excluded.
How perspective-gathering can help create more inclusion.
A Discussion of the book Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides.

Today’s book is: Belonging: The Science of Creating Connection and Bridging Divides, by Dr. Geoffrey Cohen, which explores how we became so alienated from one another, the physical and emotional costs of exclusion, and what we can do to create belonging even in polarized times. Dr. Cohen applies his and others’ groundbreaking research to offer solutions for improving daily life at work, in school, in our homes, and in our communities. We all feel a deep need to belong, but most of us don’t fully appreciate that need in others. Small acts of connection such as reflecting on our core values, and a suite of practices that Cohen defines as “situation-crafting,” can lessen polarization, improve performance in school and work, and unleash the potential in ourselves and in our relationships.

Our guest is: Professor Geoffrey Cohen, whose research examines processes that shape people's sense of belonging and self and implications for social problems. He studies the big and small threats to belonging and self-integrity that people encounter in school, work, and health care settings, and strategies to create more inclusive spaces for people from all walks of life. He believes that the development of psychological theory is facilitated not only by descriptive and observational research but by theory-driven intervention. He has long been inspired by Kurt Lewin's quip, "The best way to try to understand something is to try to change it."

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Brady, S. T., Cohen, G. L., Jarvis, S. N., & Walton, G. M. (2020). A brief social-belonging intervention in college improves adult outcomes for black Americans. Science Advances, 6(18), eaay3689.
Connor, Alice. How To Human: An Incomplete Manual for Living in a Mess-up World.
Frank Martela, A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence.
Milam, L. A., Cohen, G. L., Mueller, C., & Salles, A. (2019). Stereotype threat and working memory among surgical residents (vol 216, pg 824, 2018). American Journal of Surgery, 218(3), 668.

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Finding Yourself in Difficult Conversations?

Tue, 13 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Why do so many difficult conversations happen over a school break, a holiday meal, or at an important family event? How can we better prepare ourselves, and start managing our expectations? This episode explores:

Ways we can navigate difficult* conversations.
Why we can stop trying to have the right answer.
Questions to ask ourselves as we set our intentions and our boundaries.
How to offer a heads up in advance of divulging surprising news.
The importance of chosen families, and of friendship gatherings.
Tips for helping others and ourselves, even when things go wrong.

*This episode is not applicable for abusive situations.

Our guest is: Lindsay Geist, who holds an MDiv and MSW, and is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. She completed her graduate work at Duke Divinity School and UNC-Chapel Hill (according to Lindsay: “yes, you can go to two rival schools at the same time...as long as you don’t mention it during basketball season!”). She runs her own private practice; and leads trainings on mental health, addressing anxiety, and soul care. Lindsay also co-hosts the podcast, “Not Alone: Conversations on Faith and Mental Health.”

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship and Community, by Mia Birdsong
It’s a Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence, by Frank Martela
Tw-eats: Big Feelings and Short Recipes for Those Who Cook and Eat With Love, David K. Smith
Set Boundaries, Find Peace: A Guide to Reclaiming Yourself, by Nedra Glover Tawwab
This podcast episode on dealing with rejection
This podcast on the value of spending time outside
This podcast on Cooking and Grief

Welcome to The Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we are inspired and informed by today’s knowledge-producers, working inside and outside the academy. Find us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Misrepresentation on Campus: A Conversation with Michelle Cyca

Thu, 08 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

When a professor is not who they say they are, what does it take to get them to resign? This episode explores:

How an anonymous twitter account and a media investigation helped Ms. Cyca reveal the truth about a professor misrepresenting their identity.
Why professors can fail to fully acknowledge all the harm done to the students, staff, and community even after they are exposed.
A discussion of the article The Curious Case of Gina Adams: A “Pretendian” Investigation.

Our guest is: Michelle Cyca, a former employee at Emily Carr University of Art and Design, who currently works as a freelance writer, editor, and content strategist. For over 15 years she has written for numerous print magazines, digital publications, brands and creators. She is the author of The Curious Case of Gina Adams, and many other articles.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in these other articles by Michelle Cyca:

Resilience & Reconnection: Stories of Indigenous Parenting, Romper
Orange Shirt Day Is Not About Buying Orange Shirts, IndigiNews
Learning Cree with My Daughter, Romper
Monuments to What? The Tyee
Tanya Talaga Is Telling the Stories Canada Needs to Hear, Maclean’s
To Honour Lee Maracle’s Life, Read Indigenous Women, The Tyee
Resistance 150: Indigenous Artists Challenge Canadians to Reckon with Our History, Chatelaine

Welcome to The Academic Life! On the Academic Life channel we embrace a broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life. We are inspired by knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy. Find us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

When Your Professor Asks You to Cheat: A Conversation with Dr. Joel Heng Hartse

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 09:00:00 -0000

We all know that academic integrity matters. But do we all agree on what academic integrity really is? Somewhere beyond the nuances and gray areas is blatant cheating. And that’s always wrong . . . but what if your professor asks you to cheat? This episode explores:

How well students understand academic integrity.
Why Dr. Heng Hartse designed a course that required cheating.
What he and his students learned from it.
How it feels to cheat, and why some students feel forced to do it.
A discussion of the article “What Happened When I Made My Students Cheat.”

Our guest is: Dr. Joel Heng Hartse, who teaches at Simon Fraser University. He wrote Sects, Love, and Rock and Roll (Cascade Books, 2010); Dancing About Architecture is a Reasonable Things to Do (Cascade Books, 2022); co-authored with Jiang Dong Perspectives on Teaching English at Colleges and Universities in China (TESOL Press, 2015); and is the author of the article “What Happened When I Made My Students Cheat,” published in Inside Higher Ed (November 9, 2022).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Intellectual Appetite, by Paul Griffiths
“Dishonest Behavior in the Classroom and Clinical Setting: Perceptions and Engagement” by Emily L. McClung and Joanna Kraenzle Schneider
“Literacy Brokers and the Emotional Work of Mediation,” by Ligia Ana Mihut, in Literacy and Composition Studies, volume 2, number 1 (2014)
Jeffrey Moro’s blog article “Against Cop Shit”
The New York Times article on the aftermath of “Harvard cheating scandal”
This podcast on learning from your failed research

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Books, Antisemitism, and a Viral Tweet: A Conversation with Library Director Susan Kusel

Tue, 22 Nov 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Need help curating a list of Holocaust books for your students or library patrons? What’s on your shelf? What should be there? This podcast episode explores:

The most commonly assigned Holocaust books.
Why some of them are books you should never assign.
Recommendations for books to assign, read, and share.
Gaps in the literature.
Gatekeepers of higher education.
Susan’s wish-list.

Our guest is: Susan Kusel, who is the Library Director at Temple Rodef Shalom in Falls Church, Virginia. She is also an author, a children’s book consultant and a former independent bookstore buyer. She has served on multiple book award committees including the Caldecott Medal and as the chair of the Sydney Taylor Book Award. She is a former board member of the Association of Jewish Libraries. Her debut picture book, The Passover Guest won the Sydney Taylor Book Award.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Deborah Hopkinson, We Must Not Forget
Dita Kraus, A Delayed Life: The True Story of the Librarian of Auschwitz
Susan Kusel, The Passover Guest
Primo Levi, The Periodic Table
Doreen Rappaport, Beyond Courage: The Untold Story of Jewish Resistance During the Holocaust
David Safier, 28 Days: A Novel of Resistance in the Warsaw Ghetto
Hana Volavkova et al, I Never Saw Another Butterfly: Children’s Drawings and Poems from the Terezin Concentration Camp, 1942-1944
Liza Wiemer, The Assignment
Elie Wiesel, Night
Susan’s wish list
The Blog: The Sydney Taylor Schooze
The Association of Jewish Libraries
Sydney Taylor Book Award

Welcome to The Academic Life! We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish a project to how to take care of your beautiful mind. On the Academic Life channel we embrace a broad definition of what it means to lead an academic life. We view education as a transformative human endeavor and are inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy. DMs us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Scholar Skills: Unraveling Faculty Burnout

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 09:00:00 -0000

“I’m burned out” is a familiar phrase in higher ed these days. This episode explores:

What burnout is and is not.
One scholar’s personal experience with burnout.
How higher ed’s culture and the “expectation escalation” encourage burnout.
Academic capitalism and its relationship to faculty burnout.
The missing voices from the conversation on burnout.
Imposter syndrome and how it plays out for women, especially, in the academy.

Our guest is: Dr. Rebecca Pope-Ruark, Director of the Office of Faculty Professional Development at the Georgia Institute of Technology. She is the author of Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) and Agile Faculty: Practical Strategies for Managing Research, Service, and Teaching (The University of Chicago Press, 2017) as well as the coeditor of Redesigning Liberal Education: Innovative Design for a Twenty-First-Century Undergraduate Education (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020).

Our host is: Dr. Dana M. Malone, co-producer and co-host of The Academic Life channel. Dana is energized by facilitating meaningful conversations and educational experiences for folks across the academy and beyond. Dana is the author of From Single to Serious: Relationships, Gender, and Sexuality on American Evangelical Campuses, (Rutgers University Press).

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

This Chronicle of Higher Education article on how to cope with Covid-19 burnout.
This Inside Higher Ed article on beating pandemic burnout.
The Maslach Burnout Inventory for Educators (MBI-ES).
This Academic Life conversation on community building and how we show up.
This Academic Life conversation on being well in academia.
This Academic Life conversation on finding your people and making meaningful connections.

Welcome to The Academic Life! You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Here on the Academic Life channel, we embrace a broad definition of what it means to be an academic and to lead an academic life. We view education as a transformative human endeavor and are inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DMs us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Where Does Research Really Begin?

Thu, 10 Nov 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Today’s book is: Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World) (U Chicago Press, 2022) by Thomas S. Mullaney and Christopher Rea, which 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 anyone else?” This easy-to-follow workbook guides you to find research inspiration within yourself, and in the broader world of ideas.

Our guest is: Dr. Thomas S. Mullaney, who is Professor of History at Stanford University and Professor of East Asian Languages and Cultures, by courtesy; the Kluge Chair in Technology and Society at the Library of Congress; and a Guggenheim Fellow. He is the author or lead editor of 7 books and the forthcoming The Chinese Computer—the first comprehensive history of Chinese-language computing. His writings have appeared in the Journal of Asian Studies, Technology & Culture, Aeon, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy, and his work has been featured in the LA Times, The Atlantic, the BBC, and in invited lectures at Google, Microsoft, Adobe, and more. He holds a PhD from Columbia University.

Our guest is: Dr. Christopher Rea, who is a literary and cultural historian. His research focuses on the modern Chinese-speaking world, and his most recent publications concern research methods, cinema, comedy, celebrities, swindlers, cultural entrepreneurs, and the scholar-writers Qian Zhongshu and Yang Jiang. At University of British Columbia, he is a faculty member and Associate Head, External of the Department of Asian Studies; former Director of the Centre for Chinese Research; an associate of the Hong Kong Studies Initiative; and a Faculty Fellow of St. John’s College. He co-authored with Tom Mullaney, Where Research Begins: Choosing a Research Project That Matters to You (and the World).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Craft of Research, by Wayne Booth et al
The Research Companion, by Petra Boynton
How to Write a Thesis, by Umberto Eco
The Art of Creative Research, by Philip Gerald
This podcast on learning from your failed research

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Making the Most of Academic Conferences: Insights and Tips from Dr. Thomas Tobin

Tue, 08 Nov 2022 09:00:00 -0000

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 University of Wisconsin at Madison. He is an internationally recognized speaker and author on quality in technology-enhanced education. His latest book is Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers, written with Katie Linder and Kevin Kelly, from Stylus Publishing. You can find him on Twitter @ThomasJTobin and at his website, Thomasjtobin.com.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender and an introvert, who has presented in dozens of academic conference, and like many of our listeners, she is still learning how to make the most of an academic conference.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Chronicle of Higher Ed article “How to Make the Most Out of An Academic Conference”
The Chronicle of Higher Ed article “How to Make the Most of a Virtual Conference”
The Chronicle of Higher Ed article “How To Cope With Presentation Anxiety”
This article on The Introverts’ Guide to Speaking Up
Quiet: The Power of Introverts, by Susan Cain
The Craft of Research, by Wayne Booth et al
The Research Companion, by Petra Boynton
The Art of Creative Research, by Philip Gerald

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Night of the Living Rez

Thu, 03 Nov 2022 08:00:00 -0000

How does identity and experience inform your writing? This episode explores:

Professor Talty’s journey from community college student to college professor.
The importance of supportive mentors and professors.
Using identity and experience ethically in fiction and nonfiction.
Why finding the right form for your story matters.
A discussion of the book Night of the Living Rez.

Our guest is: Professor Morgan Talty, who is a citizen of the Penobscot Indian Nation where he grew up. He is the author of the story collection Night of the Living Rez from Tin House Books, and his work has appeared in Granta, The Georgia Review, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, Narrative Magazine, LitHub, and elsewhere. A winner of the 2021 Narrative Prize, Talty’s work has been supported by the Elizabeth George Foundation and National Endowment for the Arts (2022). Talty is an Assistant Professor of English in Creative Writing and Native American and contemporary Literature at the University of Maine, Orono, and he is on the faculty at the Stonecoast MFA in creative writing as well as the Institute of American Indian Arts. Professor Talty is also a Prose Editor at The Massachusetts Review. He lives in Levant, Maine.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

A Calm and Normal Heart by Chelsea T. Hicks
The Removed by Brandon Hobson
There There by Tommy Orange
Heart Berries by Terese Marie Mailhot
The Lesser Blessed by Richard Van Camp

Welcome to The Academic Life! We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Here on the Academic Life channel, we embrace a broad definition of what it means to be an academic and to lead an academic life. We view education as a transformative human endeavor and are inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DMs us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Scholar Skills: Managing and Re-Envisioning the Academic Mid-Career

Thu, 27 Oct 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Ever felt uncertain about how to manage the academic mid-career stage? This episode explores:

Why the mid-career stage is so important to mid-career faculty.
Strategies for taking control of your mid-career advancement plans.
Equity issues surrounding women, academic mothers, and faculty of color.
The importance of the department chair for mid-career faculty.
Being strategic about your mentoring needs in mid-career.
Two critical considerations for mid-career faculty developing programs.

Our guest is: Dr. Vicki L Baker, author of Managing Your Academic Career: A Guide to Re-Envision Mid-Career (Routledge). Vicki is the E. Maynard Aris Endowed Professor in Economics and Management at Albion College and serves as the Faculty Director of the Albion College Community Collaborative (AC3), Co-Chair of the Economics & Management Department, and instructor for Penn State University’s World Campus. Prior to joining the academy as a faculty member, Vicki worked at Harvard Business School (Executive Education) and AK Steel Corporation. Vicki is the author of 90 peer-reviewed articles, chapters, invited works, and several books. Recognized as a “Top 100 Visionary” in Education by the Global Forum for Education and Learning (20-21), Vicki is at the forefront of innovation and strategy in faculty and leadership development; her goal is to help faculty members and colleges and universities thrive. She earned her PhD (Higher Education) and MS (Management & Organization) from Penn State University, MBA from Clarion University and BS from Indiana University of Pennsylvania. Vicki also holds a certificate in Human Resource Management from Villanova University and is a certified professional in HR from the Society for Human Resource Management.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

New Directions in Higher Education volume, Bridging the Research-Practice Nexus: Resources, Tools, and Strategies to Navigate Mid-Career in the Academy. Edited by Vick L. Baker and Aimee LaPointe Terosky.
The Evolving Faculty Affairs Landscape - a compilation of publications from Inside HigherEd focused on faculty (several focused at mid-career).
This Academic Life channel conversation with Vicki Baker on navigating mid-career choices as a faculty member.
This Academic Life channel conversation with Laura Gail Lunsford on how to create a mentor network.
How to Chair a Department by Kevin Dettmar (Johns Hopkins).
Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal by Rebecca Pope-Ruark (Johns Hopkins).

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Far From Home: A Conversation About Academic Relocation with Clare Griffin

Thu, 20 Oct 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

What inspired Clare Griffin to move far from home.
The hidden curriculum of academic relocation.
Her research concerns given world tensions and wars.
The complexity of taking your pet from country to country.
The importance of creating a community.

Our guest is: Dr. Clare Griffin, a neuroatypical historian, fiction writer, and mental health advocate who is an assistant professor in the department of history at Indiana University Bloomington. Originally from the UK, her work has taken her to Russia, Germany, and Kazakhstan. Her research focuses on science, medicine, and expertise in the early modern Russian Empire, in particular how those processes intersected with colonialism and globalization. Alongside her academic work, she also publishes fiction and advocacy pieces focused on her experiences of neurodiversity and mental illness. Her new book is Mixing Medicines: The Global Drug Trade and Early Modern Russia.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Eternal Dislocation of Academic Living
Manu Sander’s blog post on academic relocations
Academic Nomad
The Long Road to A Dream Job

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Here on the Academic Life channel, we embrace a broad definition of what it means to be an academic and to lead an academic life. We view education as a transformative human endeavor and are inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DMs us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Fight to Save the Town

Thu, 13 Oct 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Why we need to write about difficult topics.
Four American towns trying to save themselves.
The structural processes behind poverty.
A discussion of the book The Fight to Save the Town.

Today’s book is: The Fight to Save the Town: Reimagining Discarded America (Avid Reader, 2022), by Michele Wilde Anderson, which examines how decades of cuts to local government amidst rising concentrations of poverty have wreaked havoc on communities left behind by the modern economy. These discarded places include big cities, small cities, rural areas, and historic suburbs. Some are diverse communities, while others are nearly all white, all Latino, or all Black. All are routinely trashed by the media for their poverty and their politics, ignoring how our smallest governments shape people’s safety, comfort, and life chances. For decades, these governments haven’t just reflected inequality—they have helped drive it. But Anderson argues that a new generation of local leaders are figuring out how to turn poverty traps back into gateway cities.

Our guest is: Michelle Wilde Anderson, a professor of property, local government, and environmental justice at Stanford Law School. Her writing has appeared in the Stanford Law Journal, Yale Law Journal, California Law Review, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, among other publications. Prior to joining Stanford, she worked as a visiting professor, assistant professor, a research fellow, and an environmental law fellow. She is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Housing Law Project and a board member at the East Bay Community Law Center in Oakland. She holds a joint appointment with Stanford’s new Doerr School of Sustainability, and lives with her family in San Francisco.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

On the Line: A Story of Class, Solidarity, and Two Women’s Epic Fight to Build a Union, by Daisy Pitkin
Pedagogy of the Poor: Building the Movement to End Poverty, by Willie Baptist and Jan Rehmann
How to Live in Detroit Without Being a Jackass, by Aaron Foley
Dog Whistle Politics, by Ian Henry Lopez
The Miseducation of the Barrio: The School to Prison Pipeline, by Julia Mendoza

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Surprising World of Wasps

Thu, 06 Oct 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

What inspired Professor Sumner to study wasps.
That time she ate a slug.
Her grad school research trip to study wasps in the Malaysian rainforest.
The complex and varied roles wasps play in the natural world.
The importance of approaching the natural world with endless curiosity.

Today’s book is: Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps, which explores these much-maligned insects’ secret world, their incredible diversity and complex social lives, and reveals how they hold our fragile ecosystem in balance. Everyone worries about the collapse of bee populations. But what about wasps? Deemed the gangsters of the insect world, wasps are winged assassins with formidable stings. But do wasps deserve this reputation? Wasps are nature’s most misunderstood insect: as predators and pollinators, they keep the planet’s ecological balance in check. They are nature’s pest controllers; a world without wasps would be just as ecologically devastating as losing the bees, or beetles, or butterflies.

Our guest is: Seirian Sumner, who is a professor of behavioral ecology at University College London, where she studies the ecology and evolution of social insects. She has published over seventy papers in scientific journals and has received numerous awards for her work, including a L’Oréal-UNESCO for Women in Science Award, a Points of Light Award from the UK prime minister, and a Silver Medal from the Zoological Society of London. She is a fellow and trustee of the Royal Entomological Society and cofounder of the citizen science initiative Big Wasp Survey. Sumner lives in Oxfordshire, England, with her husband and three children. She is the author of Endless Forms: The Secret World of Wasps (HarperCollins, 2022).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire
Silent Earth: Averting the Insect Apocalypse by Dave Goulson
Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
City of Sinners by A. A. Dhand
S. Sumner et al, “Why We Love Bees and Hate Wasps,” in Ecological Entomology 43 (6): 836-45.
Natural History and the Evolution of Paper-Wasps, ed by Stefano Turillazzi and Mary Jane West-Eberhard

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Scholar Skills: Communicating Through your Online Presence

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 08:00:00 -0000

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 LLC, Jennifer helps people share their work effectively in online spaces like websites and social media. The Social Academic blog shares advice about managing your online presence in Higher Education. Jennifer is a Peruvian-American poet with a BA in English from Monmouth University, an MFA in Writing & Poetics from the Jack Kerouac School, and an MA in English from the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. She lives in San Diego, California. Connect with Jennifer on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Our host is: Dr. Dana M. Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner energized by facilitating meaningful conversations and educational experiences. She specializes in college student relationships, gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as student success and assessment planning. Dana is the author of From Single to Serious: Relationships, Gender, and Sexuality on American Evangelical Campuses, (Rutgers UP).

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Social Media How To’s
Articles about managing your personal website
Successes and Setbacks of Social Media: Impact on Academic Life edited by Cheyenne Seymour (Wiley)
Social Media for Academics by Mark Carrigan, 2nd edition (Sage)
This NBN conversation on how social media has shaped contemporary society.
This NBN conversation on theories and practices of social media communication.

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College Baseball in the Offseason: Meet the Savannah Bananas

Thu, 22 Sep 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

The hard work of balancing academics and sports when you attend college on an athletic scholarship.
Kyle’s original dream for his life after college, and where he is now.
Why you need someone to have your back, and who that person has been in Kyle’s life for the last five years.
How playing ball in the college off-season for the Savannah Bananas reminded him about the importance of having fun, and what he had liked about the sport as a kid.
How learning to dance taught him not to take himself too seriously.

Our guest is: Kyle Luigs, who is the pitcher for the Savannah Banana’s professional premier team. He also works as their camp instructor. Kyle attended the University of North Georgia on a baseball scholarship, and graduated in 2021 with a kinesiology degree. From 2018 to 2021, he played summer baseball for the Savannah Bananas on the CPL team. He played his last year of college baseball at Jacksonville State University, while working on a masters in Sports Management.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Ballparks: A Journey Through the Fields of the Past, Present, and Future, by Eric Enders
The Savannah Bananas
University of North Georgia baseball
This discussion of How to College
This discussion about making a meaningful life
A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding a Meaningful Existence, by Frank Martela

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Hope for the Humanities PhD

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Why a humanities degree actually opens many career paths.
The importance of curiosity.
The contingency crisis in higher ed.
How we can re-evaluate “academic success.”
Advice for students and faculty.

Our guest is: Dr. Katina Rogers, the author of Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Thriving in and beyond the Classroom (Duke University Press, 2020). In 2021, she founded Inkcap Consulting to help universities build more supportive and sustainable graduate programs. Her career has included work at The Graduate Center, CUNY, the Modern Language Association, the Scholarly Communication Institute, and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. She has two young kids and a deep frustration with higher education, that is inextricably bound up with hope. She holds a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who has effectively used her humanities degrees for interesting jobs both inside and outside the academy. She is the co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Mushroom at the End of the World: On the Possibility of Life in Capitalist Ruins, by Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Imagine PhD, created by the Graduate Career Consortium:
Next Generation Dissertations
Inkcap and its resources
Get Sorted: How to Make the Most of Your Student Experience, by Jeff Gill and Will Medd
Where Research Begins: Choosing A Research Project that Matters to You, by Thomas Mullaney and Christopher Rea
Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers, by Kathryn Linder, Keven Kelly, and Thomas Tobin
The Employability Journal, by Barbara Bassot
Candid Advice for New Faculty Members, by Marybeth Gasman

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The Two Keys to Student Retention: A Discussion with Aaron Basko

Thu, 08 Sep 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Why Aaron Basko thinks we are looking at student success backwards.
How asking alums why they stayed at a school often tells us more about student needs than asking the students who are withdrawing why they leave.
What the “Big Six” for student success is.
What two things to evaluate as you decide which college or university will be the right “fit” for you.
His advice to parents and incoming students.

Our guest is: Aaron Basko, who currently serves as Associate Vice President for Enrollment Services at the University of Lynchburg, in Lynchburg Virginia. With 25 years of experience serving as an enrollment growth specialist and student success strategist for multiple institutions, Aaron has been part of the leadership team that engineered historic growth comebacks at three different colleges and universities. Aaron specializes in creating cross-functional teams for strategic enrollment planning and retention success. A thought leader and author, Aaron has written for The Chronicle of Higher Education, Inside Higher Ed, The Times Higher Education, and the State Department’s Fulbright blog. As a 2015 Fulbright International Education Administrator and capacity building specialist, Aaron also assists institutions with student mobility and international partnership initiatives. Aaron loves to create “a-ha moments” and to help institutions clarify the distinctive voice that will resonate with the right students.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in American history. She is the co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Aaron Basko’s article in Inside Higher Ed on how to attract more liberal arts college students to campus : Liberal arts colleges need new strategies (opinion)
“Have We Gotten Student Success Completely Backwards?” and Aaron’s other articles in The Chronicle of Higher Education: Aaron Basko (chronicle.com)
This discussion about the college admissions process.
Get Real and Get In: How to Get Into the College of Your Dreams by Being Your Authentic Self, by Aviva Legatt
This conversation about navigating the ups and downs of student life:
How To Human: An Incomplete Manual for Living in a Messed-Up World, by Alice Connor
How to College: What to Know Before You Go (and When You’re There), by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope Schwartz
This conversation about rejection-recovery and dealing with mistakes

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What is a Tomboy?: A Discussion with Lisa Selin Davis

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

How journalist Lisa Selin Davis became interested in tomboys.
The questions that arise when we say the word “gender.”
The supposed freedoms and limits of being a tomboy.
Why manufacturers insist that clothing and toys and décor are “gendered.”
A discussion of the book Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to be Different.

Today’s book is: Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls Who Dare to be Different, which journalist Lisa Selin Davis was inspired to write when her six-year-old daughter first called herself a "tomboy.” She favored sweatpants and T-shirts over anything pink or princess-themed, just like the sporty and skinned-kneed girls Davis had played with as a kid. But "tomboy" seemed like an outdated word, and why use a word with "boy" in it for girls? Where do tomboys fit into our understandings of gender? In Tomboy, Davis highlights the forces behind what we think of as masculine and feminine, delving into everything from clothing to psychology, history to neuroscience, and the connection between tomboyism, gender identity, and sexuality. Davis's deep-dive appreciates those who defy traditional gender boundaries, and the incredible people they become.

Our guest is: journalist Lisa Selin Davis, who wrote the novels Belly, and Lost Stars, and the non-fiction book Tomboy: The Surprising History and Future of Girls* Who Dare to Be Different. She has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Time and many others.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in American history. She is the co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Gender and Our Brains, by Gina Rippon
Raising Them, by Kyl Myers
A Burst of Light, by Audre Lorde
LGBTQ+ Studies channel on NBN
Gender Studies channel on NBN
This conversation about gender bias in science
This discussion of the book Raising Them

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Opening Up the University for Displaced Students

Thu, 25 Aug 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

The Open Learning Initiative (OLIve) operating out of Central European University.
The importance of language related to students experiencing displacement.
How our guests center theory-informed practice in their work.
Three proposals for opening up the university to promote transformative experiences.
Advice to others in the field initiating programs for displaced students.

Our guests are: Dr. Ian M. Cook and Dr. Prem Kumar Rajaram, two of the three editors of Opening Up the University: Teaching and Learning with Refugees. Dr. Celine Cantat is also an editor on the volume. Ian M. Cook is Director of Studies at the Open Learning Initiative (OLIve), Budapest located at Central European University (CEU). An anthropologist by training, his work focuses on urban India, environmental justice, access to higher education, and podcasting. He strives to make scholarly practice more collaborative and multimodal. He is part of the Allegra Lab editorial collective.

Dr. Prem Kumar Rajaram is Professor of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University and Head of the OLIve unit at the same university. He works on issues to do with race, capitalism, and displacement in historical and contemporary perspective.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

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The Journal of Higher Education in Prison

Thu, 18 Aug 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

How both of today’s guests became involved in higher education in prison.
Why this work is personal to them.
Funding and representation issues in higher education in prison.
The complexities of supporting students who are incarcerated without supporting the carceral system.
And a discussion of the Journal of Higher Education in Prison.

Our guest is: Dr. Erin Corbett, who earned her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania, where her dissertation examined the relationship between educational attainment level and post-release employment outcomes for formerly incarcerated people in Connecticut. While pursuing her doctorate, Erin launched a nonprofit that provides not-for-credit, postsecondary level courses in three correctional facilities in Connecticut. She has also taught in correctional facilities in Rhode Island with College Unbound, and guest lectured to incarcerated students in the Iowa through the University of Iowa Liberal Arts Beyond Bars (UI LABB) program. Erin was the Assistant Director for Applied Research at the Institute for Higher Education Policy focusing on federal policy related to the intersection of higher education policy and policy related to educational access for justice-impacted people; and she was the Director of Policy at the Katal Center for Health, Equity, and Justice before transitioning to working with SCEA full time and consulting.

Our guest is: Dr. Breea Willingham, incoming Associate Professor of Criminology at UNC Wilmington. Dr. Willingham earned her Ph.D. in American Studies from the State University of New York at Buffalo. As an interdisciplinary scholar, Dr. Willingham’s research examines the intersections of race, gender, higher education, and the injustice system. She is particularly interested in examining Black women’s pathways to incarceration, their experiences with higher education in prison, and providing a platform for Black women impacted by the injustice system to tell their stories. Influenced by her experiences as a sister and aunt of two men serving life sentences, Dr. Willingham’s research also focuses on the societal ramifications of mass incarceration, especially its impact on families. Her work on incarcerated fathers and their children, Black women’s prison narratives, teaching in women’s prisons, and Black women and police violence has been published in academic journals and edited collections. In 2020, Dr. Willingham was appointed Managing Editor of the Journal for Higher Education in Prison, a peer-reviewed journal that publishes on the topics and issues in higher education in prison.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

The Journal of Higher Education in Prison
The Alliance for Higher Education in Prison
Ear Hustle, a podcast hosted by persons who are incarcerated at San Quentin
A conversation about the Emerson Prison Initiative
Dr. Erin Corbett on Beyond Prisons
Abolition. Feminism. Now. edited by Angela Davis et al.
Punishment and Society, by Breea Willingham
Privilege and Punishment, by Matthew Clair
No Mercy Here, by Sarah Haley

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Here on the Academic Life channel, we embrace a broad definition of what it means to be an academic and to lead an academic life. We view education as a transformative human endeavor and are inspired by today’s knowledge-producers working inside and outside the academy. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DMs us on Twitter: @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Writing Beyond a Limited Narrative: A Conversation with Hari Ziyad

Thu, 11 Aug 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Hari Ziyad’s journey through higher education.
Why they became editor of RaceBaitr after finishing film school at NYU.
The necessary disruption of social norms.
The challenges of writing memoir.
And a discussion of the book Black Boy Out of Time.

Our guest is: Hari Ziyad (he/they), a screenwriter, and the Editor-in-Chief of RaceBaitr. Originally from Cleveland, OH, they currently reside in Brooklyn, NY, and received their BFA from New York University, where they concentrated in Film and Television and Psychology. They are a 2021 Lambda Literary Fellow, and their writing has been featured in the peer-reviewed academic journal Critical Ethnic Studies, among other publications. They are also currently a writer at CBS, and were previously a script consultant on the drama series David Makes Man (OWN), as well as Managing Editor of Black Youth Project, and an Assistant Editor of Vinyl Poetry & Prose. They are the author of Black Boy Out of Time (Little A, 2021)

Today’s book is: Black Boy Out of Time, which explores childhood, gender, race, and the trust that is built, broken, and repaired through generations. Memoirist Hari Ziyad investigates what it means to live beyond the limited narratives Black children are given and challenges the irreconcilable binaries that restrict them. Heartwarming and heart-wrenching, radical and reflective, Hari Ziyad’s vital memoir is for the outcast, the unheard, the unborn, and the dead. It offers us a new way to think about survival and the necessary disruption of social norms. It looks back in tenderness as well as justified rage, forces us to address where we are now, and, born out of hope, illuminates the possibilities for the future.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Hari’s website
Hari’s pieces in Gawker, Out, The Guardian, Huffington Post, Ebony, Mic, Paste Magazine , AFROPUNK
The Future is Black: Afropessimism, Fugitivity and Radical Hope in Education, edited by Michael Dumas, Ashley Woodson and Carl Grant
This Academic Life episode on memoir and the MFA

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Do You Need a Developmental Editor?

Thu, 04 Aug 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer’s own experience getting her first two academic books published.
An overview of different kinds of editors who will be part of shepherding your book to publication.
What a developmental editor does.
Why might you need to hire one.
Her advice to book editors and their clients.

Our guest is: Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer, who is a scholar and academic. She wrote a book based on her dissertation and many scholarly journal articles, including “How To Email Your Professor (Without Being Annoying AF).” She earned a PhD in Communication, with a certificate in gender studies, from the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. She lives in Los Angeles and, in 2021, I became a two-time Jeopardy champion. She is the author of The Book Proposal Book, and runs her own consulting business for authors.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in American history.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Stylish Academic Writing, by Helen Sword
What Editors Do, by Peter Ginna
This podcast about the peer review process
This podcast about book proposals, by Laura Portwood-Stacer
Information about developmental editing and academic book publishing in general:
These online programs, including a free webinar for scholarly authors on How to Work With a Developmental Editor
Information about The Book Proposal Book including free downloads and worksheets
Laura’s weekly newsletter with timely tips and resources for scholarly authors

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Considering Museum Work? A Conversation with Curators From the Smithsonian

Thu, 28 Jul 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Our guests’ career paths at the Smithsonian,
their work to help create a new Women’s history museum,
collecting BLM materials during protests,
creating exhibits just as the pandemic closed the museum,
and a discussion of their book on women’s artifacts in the Smithsonian.

Today’s book is: Smithsonian American Women: Remarkable Objects and Stories of Strength, Ingenuity, and Vision from the National Collection, a book that offers a unique and panoramic look at women's history in the United States through the lens of ordinary objects from, by, and for extraordinary women. Featuring more than 280 artifacts from 16 Smithsonian museums and archives, and more than 135 essays from 95 Smithsonian authors, this book tells women's history as only the Smithsonian can. Portraits, photographs, paintings, political materials, signs, musical instruments, sports equipment, clothes, letters, ads, personal possessions, and other objects reveal the incredible stories of amazing women such as Phillis Wheatley, Julia Child, Sojourner Truth, Mary Cassat, Madame CJ Walker, Amelia Earhart, Eleanor Roosevelt, Mamie Till Mobley, Dolores Clara Fernandez Huerta, Phyllis Diller, Celia Cruz, Sandra Day O'Connor, Billie Jean King, and Silvia Rivera. Published to commemorate the centennial of the 19th Amendment granting women the right to vote, Smithsonian American Women is a deeply satisfying read and a reflection on how generations of women have defined what it means to be recognized in both the nation and the world.

Our guest is: Dr. Margaret A. Weitekamp, who is the Department Chair and Curator of the Space History Department at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Dr. Weitekamp curates the Museum's social and cultural history of spaceflight collection, and is the author of numerous scholarly articles, and co-edited the ninth volume in the Artefacts series on the material culture of science and technology, Analyzing Art and Aesthetics (Smithsonian Institution Scholarly Press, 2013). She is currently completing a book on social and cultural history of space memorabilia.

Our guest is: Dr. Michelle Anne Delaney, who is the Assistant Director for History and Culture of the National Museum of the American Indian. Dr. Delaney manages the Museum's research and scholarship team, and leads the intellectual program development for exhibitions, educational programming, publications, and digital scholarship; and directs strategic internal pan-Smithsonian projects, and external collaborations and university partnerships. An author and editor of several history of photography books, Dr. Delaney has also curated 25 Smithsonian exhibitions and web projects.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Information in the National Archives about the 19th Amendment
Because of Herstory webpage
National Women’s History Museum website
Information on the 19th amendment from the National Parks Service
The Women’s Museum of California
Women’s history resources at the National Museum of American History

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The Cornell Sweatshirt Tweet

Thu, 21 Jul 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Dr. Ruby Tapia’s viral Cornell sweatshirt tweet.
How witnessing domestic violence, and the aftermath of her father’s suicide, influenced her decision to go to college far from home.
Difficulties she faced freshman year both on and off campus.
The professor who called her in to office hours, and how that changed her academic path.
The meaning she’s made of these experiences, and how they changed her.
Her hopes for future generation of college students, including her own daughters.

Our guest is: Dr. Ruby C. Tapia, who is Chair of the Department of Women's and Gender Studies, and Associate Professor of English and Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Michigan. Her work engages the intersections of photography theory, feminist and critical race theory, and critical prison studies. She is co-editor of Interrupted Life: Experiences of Incarcerated Women in the United States, co-editor of the University of California book series Reproductive Justice: New Visions for the 21st Century, and author of American Pietàs: Visions of Race, Death and the Maternal. Her current book project, The Camera in the Cage, interrogates the intersections of prison photography and carceral humanism and puts forth an argument and methodology for abolitionist aesthetics. She has facilitated creative writing workshops via the Prison Creative Arts Project at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility in Michigan, is a member of the Theory Group Think Tank at Macomb Correctional Facility for men and is the lead faculty member of the Critical Carceral Visualities component of the Documenting Criminalization and Confinement project at UM's Humanities Collaboratory.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Borderlands, by Gloria Anzaldua
Academic Outsider, by Victoria Reyes
The Abortionist, by Rickie Solinger
Welfare, by Rickie Solinger
Ruby Tapia’s Avidly article “What I Was Looking For Was Green”
Ruby Tapia’s Avidly article “Never Been A Scared Bitch”
A discussion of Presumed Incompetent

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Bookends: A Conversation about Grad School, Loss, and Books

Thu, 14 Jul 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Zibby Owen’s experience in grad school of losing her best friend.
What she did to regroup and find a way forward after failing a grad exam.
How the meaning she’s made of those experiences changed her.
Why books and writing are essential to her.
Why “overnight” success takes tenacity, adaptability, and a long time.
Her passion for publishing, podcasting, and reading.
The advice she would have given herself when she was embarking on her educational journeys.

Today’s book is: Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature by Zibby Owens.

Our guest is: Zibby Owens, who is an author, podcaster, publisher, CEO, and founder of Zibby Owens Media, a privately-held media company designed to help busy people live their best lives by connecting to books and each other. Moms Don’t Have Time To is the home for Zibby’s podcasts, publications (including two anthologies), and communities. Zibby Books is a publishing home for fiction and memoir which she co-founded with Leigh Newman. Her award-winning podcast, Moms Don’t Have Time to Read Books, has been downloaded millions of times. She is a regular columnist for Good Morning America, Katie Couric Media, and Moms Don’t Have Time to Write on Medium. She is the author of Bookends: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Literature, and lives in New York with her husband and four children. Visit zibbyowens.com and follow her on Instagram @zibbyowens.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Harbus article Zibby wrote about her conflicted feelings about finishing graduate school.
The Harbus article Zibby wrote about losing her friend Stacey:
The Harbus article Zibby wrote about not going back to normal:
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life, by Anne Lamott
Still Points North, by Leigh Newman
Academic Life Podcast: Being Well in Academia
Academic Life Podcast about failing a comp

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Dissertations Wanted! A Conversation with the Editor of University of Wyoming Press

Thu, 07 Jul 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Why Robert Ramaswamy wants to see your revised dissertation submitted for publication.
What makes a revised dissertation ready to submit to a press.
How to choose mentor texts to put in your proposal.
Signs that you might not want to turn your dissertation into a book, and what to do instead.
The editorial complexities of saying “no” to a book proposal.
And a discussion about the new University of Wyoming Press imprint

Our guest is: Robert Ramaswamy (he/they), who has a BA in American studies from Yale University and an MA in American studies from George Washington University, and left a PhD program in American Culture at the University of Michigan ABD. He joined UPC/University of Wyoming Press as acquisitions editor in 2022, after working as an assistant editor for the Ohio State University Press and as an editorial assistant for University of Michigan Press/Michigan Publishing. At UPC/UWyoP, Robert acquires in history, environmental humanities, public humanities, and democracy and the United States. He lives in Ann Arbor, MI with his partner, Anna, two dogs, and eight chickens.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Association of University Presses
University of Wyoming Press
On Revision, by William Germano
From Dissertation to Book, by William Germano
What Editors Do: The Art, Craft and Business of Book Editing, by Peter Ginna
A discussion of From Dissertation to Book, hosted by Dr. Dana Malone
A conversation with Mona Hamlin about marketing scholarly books
A conversation with acquisitions editor Rachael Levay

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Exploring Public-Facing Humanities

Thu, 30 Jun 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Ellen Synder-Grenier’s career as a curator and public historian
How Henry Street helped its neighbors survive the 1918 pandemic
A discussion of the book The House on Henry Street

Today’s book is: The House on Henry Street: The Enduring Life of a Lower East Side Settlement, which chronicles the sweeping history of the Henry Street Settlement and its enduring vision of a more just society. Through personal narratives, vivid images, and previously untold stories, Ellen M. Snyder-Grenier chronicles Henry Street’s sweeping history from 1893 to today. From the fights for public health and immigrants’ rights that fueled its founding, to advocating for relief during the Great Depression, all the way to tackling homelessness and AIDS in the 1980s, and into today―Henry Street has been a champion for social justice. Its powerful narrative illuminates larger stories about poverty, and who is “worthy” of help; immigration and migration, and who is welcomed; human rights, and whose voice is heard.

Our guest is: Ellen M. Snyder-Grenier, who is an award-winning curator and writer, and principal of REW & Co. She has directed research projects, developed physical and digital exhibitions, and written on the history of New York City—as well the urban centers of Newark and Philadelphia—with a focus on social justice. She is a Fellow of the New York Academy of History.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

· The House on Henry Street: The Enduring Life of a Lower East Side Settlement, by Ellen M. Snyder-Grenier
The Henry Street website
Windows on Henry Street by Lillian Wald
The House on Henry Street by Lillian Wald
This online journal about gender and the history of medicine
This NPR episode about the 1918 pandemic and Covid
The Pandemic Perspectives episodes on the Academic life, such as this one

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An Inside Look at the American Association of University Professors

Thu, 23 Jun 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Why the AAUP was formed.
Their role in supporting academic freedom.
Why the threat to tenure is a threat to higher education.
The importance of collective bargaining, and of transparency in academic salaries.

Our guest is: Dr. Irene Mulvey, who is a Professor of Mathematics at Fairfield University where she has been teaching for 37 years. She has been fighting to protect academic freedom, to promote shared governance, and to uphold AAUP principles and standards at the campus, state and national level for over 30 years. In 2020, she was elected to a four-year term as President of the AAUP on a platform pledging progress toward making the AAUP an anti-racist organization and dismantling structural racism in all aspects of higher education.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

The AAUP
The AAUP Foundation
Chronicle of Higher Education article on the Adjunct Problem
LA Times editorial about the adjunct crisis in California and how that affects Academic Freedom
Statement on academic freedom from the American Federation of Teachers
Academic Life interview with an Adjunct Professor
NBN episode on the future of tenure

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The Great Resignation: In, Out, and Around Higher Education

Thu, 16 Jun 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Our guest Eric Frans’ career path into, out of, and around higher education
Key factors that influenced his decision to pursue employment outside the academy
The transition from higher education to a different industry
How he plans to use his doctorate in the future
His advice to those inside higher ed considering switching to other industries

Our guest is: Eric Frans, a career development professional currently working as a Talent Acquisition Manager for PrimePay, a human resources software company. Eric holds a master’s degree in Higher Education Counseling/Student Affairs from West Chester University (WCU) and is pursuing a doctorate in Higher Education Policy, Planning, and Administration from WCU. Eric worked as a career development professional at SUNY Oswego and WCU before moving into his current role at PrimePay. Eric was born in Ghana and raised in Lehigh Valley Pennsylvania. As an undergraduate student, Eric studied psychology at WCU and was highly engaged in campus life; he was a member of the men’s basketball team, a resident assistant, and an orientation leader.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Inside Higher Ed article: 7 Steps for Discerning Whether to Leave Higher Ed by Beth Godbee
Chronicle article: Many Student Affairs Officials are Considering Leaving the Field
Jenny Blake’s Book: Pivot: The Only Move That Matters is Your Next One (Portfolio/Penguin) - https://www.pivotmethod.com/
Dawn Graham’s book: Switchers: How Smart Professionals Change Careers and Seize Success (Harper Collins Leadership)
The Academic Life episode: The Self-Care Stuff: Considering Whether to Stay or Drop Out

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Scholar Skills: Editing a Book Collection Through a Professional Organization

Thu, 09 Jun 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Dr. Karin Lewis’s experience pitching and winning the book bid
Karin and the editorial team’s vision for an inclusive and diverse collection
The process of working as a team to develop an idea into a book
The realities of editing a large volume with many authors
Blurring the lines of traditional scholarship with artistic and creative submissions
Her advice to other scholars considering editing an established collection

Our guest is: Dr. Karin A. Lewis, an associate professor in the Department of

Teaching and Learning at the University of Texas – Rio Grande Valley. She teaches educational psychology in the areas of cognition, learning, human development, and adult learning at the undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral levels. Her scholarship explores complexities of identity and agency from a multicultural, social justice perspective via transdisciplinary discourses and collaborative, collective ethnographic methodologies. Dr. Lewis is the Lead Editor for The Kaleidoscope of Lived Curriculum: Learning Through a Confluence of Crisis, 13th Annual Curriculum and Pedagogy Group, 2021 Edited Collection, published through Information Age Publishing.

Our host is: Dr. Dana M. Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner specializing in college student relationships, gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as student success and assessment planning. Dana first met Karin as a doctorate student at the University of Kentucky when Karin hired her as a graduate TA to teach courses offered through the university’s academic success unit. Dana has always been impressed with Karin’s dedication to students, love of teaching, and the grace with which she moves through the world.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Curriculum and Pedagogy Group Edited Collections
Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy
About the Curriculum and Pedagogy Group
The Academic Life episode on writing a book proposal

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Amplifying Academics and Supporting Public Education

Thu, 02 Jun 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Why Dr. Marshall Poe left a tenured professorship to create the New Books Network
How his own experience with dyslexia inspired his book-talk podcasts,
Why he wouldn’t want to go back to being a professor now,
Common misconceptions—plus some good advice—about starting a podcast
The NBN’s role in democratizing education and in supporting academic presses.

Our guest is: Dr. Marshall Poe, who is a historian, writer, podcaster, and editor. He is the founder and editor of the New Books Network, an online collection of podcast interviews with a wide range of nonfiction authors which began as a single channel in 2007 and has since grown into an archived audio library containing thousands of NBN episodes. He has taught Russian, European, Eurasian, and world history at universities including Harvard, Columbia, University of Iowa, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dr. Poe has also authored and edited of a number of books for children and adults. He lives in Northampton, MA.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

A History of Communications: Media and Society from the Evolution of Speech to the Internet, by Marshall Poe
Articles by Marshall Poe in the Atlantic
The Grinnell College History Department
The Grinnell College podcast channel on the NBN
The Russian and Eurasian Studies channel on the NBN

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Feminism and Fierceness: A New Approach to Biblical Studies

Thu, 26 May 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Alice Connor’s career as a feminist scholar and a college chaplain
How women in the bible have been misunderstood by scholars
A discussion of the book Fierce: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Violence, Mercy, Bravery, Wisdom, Sex, and Salvation

Today’s book is: Fierce: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Violence, Mercy, Bravery, Wisdom, Sex, and Salvation which reveals how women in the Bible aren't shy or retiring; they're fierce and funny and demanding and relevant to 21st-century people. Women in the Bible—some of their names we know, others we’ve only heard, and others are tragically unnamed. In Fierce, Alice Connor introduces these women and invites us to see them not as players in a man’s story—as victims or tempters—nor as morality archetypes, teaching us to be better wives and mothers, but as fierce foremothers of the faith. These women’s stories are messy, challenging, and beautiful. When we read their stories, we can see not only their particular, fearsome lives but also our own.

Our guest is: Alice Connor is an Episcopal priest and a chaplain on a college campus. She is the author of Fierce: Women of the Bible and Their Stories of Violence, Mercy, Bravery, Wisdom, Sex, and Salvation. She also wrote How to Human: An Incomplete Manual for Living in a Messed-Up World, and the book Brave: Women of the Bible and their Stories of Grief, Mercy, Folly, Joy, Sex, and Redemption. Alice is also a certified enneagram teacher and a stellar pie-maker. She lives for challenging conversations and has a high tolerance for awkwardness. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband, two kids, a dog, and no cats.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Brave: Women of the Bible and their Stories of Grief, Mercy, Folly, Joy, Sex, and Redemption by Alice Conner
How to Human: An Incomplete Manual for Living in a Messed-Up World, by Alice Connor
Understanding the Bible, by Stephen Harris
Standing Again at Sinai: Judaism from a Feminist Perspective, by Judith Plaskow
The Samaritan Woman’s Story: Reconsidering John 4 After #ChurchToo by Caryn A. Reeder
Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Reading of Biblical Narratives, by Phyllis Trible
Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk, by Delores Williams
This podcast with Alice Connor about her book How To Human

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Setbacks and Missteps: A Conversation about Failing Comps

Thu, 19 May 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Dr. Heather Wagoner’s experience failing her doctoral qualifying exam
How she responded as the shame set in
What she did to regroup and find a way forward
The meaning she’s made of that experience and how it changed her
Heather’s advice to advisors and graduate faculty
Her advice to students facing a crossroad in their educational journeys

Our guest is: Dr. Heather Wagoner, Director of Student Engagement and Campus Life at Virginia Tech. Heather has been a higher education practitioner for almost 20 years, working at institutions including Longwood University, University of South Carolina, and University of Kentucky. She specializes in college student involvement, experience building, communications, strategic planning, and leadership. Heather loves spending time with her little family, listening to musicals, and dancing around the kitchen. She dabbles in academic and creative writing and hopes to use her dissertation “Determined to Make a Difference: A Qualitative Study of College Women Leaders” as a launching point for future articles and conversations.

Our host is: Dr. Dana M. Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner specializing in college student relationships, gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as student success and assessment planning. Dana first met Heather at University of Kentucky when they were both doctoral students. Dana was and continues to be impressed with Heather’s commitment to students, enthusiasm for her work, and the authenticity she brings to her life. Dana enjoys engaging conversations, delicious food, practicing yoga, and wandering the Jersey shore.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Academic Life Podcast: Being Well in Academia
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown (Gotham Books)
Pivot: The Only Move That Matters is Your Next One by Jenny Blake (Portfolio/Penguin)
Switchers by Dawn Graham (Amacom)
Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide by Christopher L. Caterine (Princeton UP)

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Facing Failure and the Museum Dedicated to It

Thu, 12 May 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Why failure is part of the hidden curriculum
Why you can’t be creative or innovative without failing [sometimes a lot]
How to learn from it, instead of sweeping it under the rug
A failure our guest and our host each faced
A discussion of the Museum of Failure

Our guest is: Dr. Samuel West, a licensed psychologist (cognitive behavioral therapy) with a PhD in Organizational Psychology. His research focuses on creating climates for innovation by encouraging experimentation and exploration. In 2017 he founded the Museum of Failure showcasing over a 100 innovation failures from around the world. The aim of the museum is to stimulate productive discussions about the important role of failure for innovation and to increase organizational acceptance of failure.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She previously worked in Museum Education at a small museum in New York; and as a PhD student worked for a professor who was a Smithsonian curator.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

The Museum of Failure
The Museum of Broken Relationships
The remote control referred to in this podcast
The marshmallow candy referred to in this podcast
TedTalk on Failing “Mindfully”
Podcast on fear and failure
Podcast on the role of failure in student success
Failosophy: A Handbook for When Things Go Wrong, by Elizabeth Day
Dr. Manu Kapur’s work on Productive Failure

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Behind the Scenes at a Literary Magazine: The Common

Thu, 05 May 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

How the Common got started
What is involved in running a literary journal
Why grants and institutional support matter so much in the literary arts
The importance of finding mentors and building a network
How the Common creates community

Our guest is: Jennifer Acker , who is the founder and editor in chief of The Common, and author of the debut novel The Limits of the World, a fiction honoree for the Massachusetts Book Award. Her memoir “Fatigue” is a #1 Amazon bestseller, and her short stories, essays, translations, and reviews have appeared in Oprah Daily, Washington Post, Literary Hub, n+1, and The Yale Review, among other places. Acker has an MFA from the Bennington Writing Seminars and teaches writing and editing at Amherst College, where she directs the Literary Publishing Internship and LitFest. She lives in western Massachusetts with her husband.

Our guest is: Elizabeth Witte, who is a writer and editor based in western Massachusetts. She is a recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council's Artist Fellowships in Poetry and author of the chapbook, Dry Eye (Dancing Girl Press); her work appears in a variety of journals, including Prelude, Word For/ Word, and Denver Quarterly. She is Associate Editor of The Common and directs the journal's education program The Common in the Classroom.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Fatigue, by Jennifer Acker
Amherst College
The Bennington Writing Seminars https://www.bennington.edu/writing-seminars
The Common
More about the Common in the Classroom can be found here The Common in the Classroom,
The Common Young Writers Program
A podcast from The Common magazine on The New Books Network “This is the Place”
Amherst College LitFest
The Whiting Literary Magazine Prize
Learn more about The Alternative Press conversation with co-founder Ken Mikolowski (courtesy of Centre For Print Research, UWE Bristol); and the Press’s Multiple Originals project
The Poetry Foundation

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Why a Retreat Might Help: DIY Retreats

Thu, 28 Apr 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Why doing writing and other kinds of retreats are part of the hidden curriculum
How taking time for self-care is crucial to doing well at work and at school
What a retreat is
How to do a retreat at home
Ways retreating helps you think and feel better, and the science that proves it

Today’s book is: DIY Solo Retreats: A Handbook for Creating Your Space, Setting an Intention and Getting the Self-Care You Deserve, by S. A. Snyder. Whether you need time to decompress, listen for answers to nagging questions, read, write, or recharge your life, a personal retreat might be what you need. But when going away on a retreat is too expensive or just not possible, this handbook helps you create your own retreat. Whether you want to find time to journal, meditate, or tackle that writing assignment, this how-to guide for retreating may just be the book you're looking for.

Our guest is: S.A. Snyder, who has been a professional writer for more than 30 years. She has worn hats as a newspaper columnist and reporter, writing instructor, communications manager and consultant, blogger, and book author. With humor and insight, she inspires others through the telling of her own experiences to examine what it means to live a meaningful life. She currently blogs about self-care and random commentary on contemporary life. She is the author of DIY Solo Retreats: A Handbook for Creating Your Space, Setting an Intention and Getting the Self-Care You Deserve.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Atomic Habits, by James Clear
Bird by Bird, by Anne Lamott
It’s a Wonderful Life, by Frank Martel
Make Your Art No Matter What, by Beth Pickens
From To-Do to Done, by Maura Thomas
This episode on guided meditation
This episode on finishing your book when things are going wrong https://newbooksnetwork.com/finishing-your-book-when-life-is-a-disaster
This episode on writing a book proposal https://newbooksnetwork.com/the-book-proposal-book
Sarah’s website on DIY retreats

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From PhD to Picture Book

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Dr. Julie Dillemuth’s path through higher ed
What led her to try to write for a popular audience, and what helped her learn how to do it
Why she writes for children about spatial cognition skills
How receiving 82 rejection letters didn’t stop her path to publication
A discussion of the books Lucy in the City, and Camilla and the Big Change

Today’s books are: Lucy in the City, a picture book about a young raccoon who gets separated from her family one night and has to find her way home. Faced with the challenge of being on her own, Lucy tunes in to her surroundings for the first time and discovers that she can re-trace her steps using smells, sights, and sounds. At its heart, the story focuses on developing spatial thinking, understanding the world around us, and using concepts of space for problem-solving. Our other book today is Camilla and the Big Change, a picture book about the wild boar Camilla and her loyal sidekick Parsley enjoying Spring in the forest. When beavers move in, trees come down as they start building a dam. The path of the river will be forever altered and Camilla does NOT want a pond in the middle of her forest! It's too much change. But when her map-making skills are needed for the pond construction, Camilla comes to understand that change can be good as she works with the entire forest community to draw new maps and look at her home in a whole new way. Both books include a Note to Parents & Caregivers in the backmatter with information about map-making and spatial thinking, and also about adapting to new environments and building community.

Our guest is: Dr. Julie Dillemuth, who earned her undergraduate degree at Yale, and went on to earn a PhD in Geography with an Emphasis in Cognitive Science from UC Santa Barbara, where her dissertation focused on how people use maps on small screens (like cell phones) to make navigation decisions, follow routes, and acquire spatial knowledge about their environment. She is the author numerous picture books for children, including Lucy in the City, and Camilla and the Big Change.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator of the Academic Life. She and Julie met when they joined the same critique group. They have been friends for nearly a decade.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Mapping My Day, by Julie Dillemuth
Camilla Cartographer, by Julie Dillemuth
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
The American Psychological Association’s Press
This Academic Life episode on writing and mindfulness
This Academic Life episode about writing middle grade novels

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Community Building and How We Show Up

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

How ‘the good life’ makes people disconnected and unhappy
Mia Birdsong’s work in community building
The intentionality required for creating communities of support
The importance of interdependence, vulnerability, accountability, and leaning on each other
And a discussion of her book How We Show Up

Today’s book is: How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong, in which Birdsong uses research, interviews, and stories of lived experience to explore how showing up—literally and figuratively—points us toward the promise of our collective vitality and leads us to the liberated wellbeing we all want.

Our guest is: Mia Birdsong, who was an inaugural Ascend Fellow and faculty member with The Aspen Institute, a New America California Fellow, and Advocate-in-Residence with University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy and Practice. She has been published widely and speaks at conferences and universities across the country. A graduate of Oberlin College, she stays “apocalypse ready” by gardening, keeping bees and chickens, studying herbalism, and occasionally practicing archery. Her children, partner, and chosen family are her home.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong
Mia Birdsong’s website
Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good by adrienne maree brown
Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformational Justice Movement, by Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, eds.
Stamped from the Beginning: The Definitive History of Racist Ideas in America, by Ibram X. Kendi
This Academic Life episode about finding mentors and friends

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Scholarly Skills: From Dissertation to Book

Thu, 07 Apr 2022 08:00:00 -0000

A Conversation with Dr. William Germano

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Important questions to ask yourself before getting started on revising
A review of the basic options for the post-defense dissertation
Hurdles a manuscript must clear in the scholarly publishing process
How voice operates in scholarly writing
The importance of book and chapter titles
What good writing is and what it does

Our guest is: Dr William Germano, professor of English at Cooper Union in New York, where he served as dean of humanities and social sciences for more than a decade. In the years before he joined Cooper Union, he served as editorial director at Columbia University Press and, for almost twenty years, as publishing director at Routledge. He, and the editorial teams he has worked with, have published hundreds of leading scholars in the humanities and the social sciences.

Bill Germano is the author of six books, On Revision: The Only Writing that Counts (University of Chicago Press, 2021) and Syllabus: The Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything, coauthored with Kit Nicholls and published by Princeton. Editor, publisher, teacher, writer, he is especially attuned to the problems that academic writers face. Those problems, and practical solutions for them, are the focus of his best-known work, Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books (published by Chicago and currently in a third edition) and From Dissertation to Book (also from Chicago and currently in its second edition).

Our host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a scholar and practitioner energized by facilitating meaningful learning experiences for students and educators alike. From Dissertation to Book was a valuable recommendation at pivotal moment in her scholarly life, and she is excited to share it with The Academic Life audience.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

NBN Interview with William Germano for On Revision: The Only Writing that Counts On RevisionNBN Interview with William Germano for Getting it Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Getting It Published
On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction by William Zinsser (Quill)
How to Write a Sentence: And How to Read One by Stanley Fish (Harper)
Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott (Anchor Books)

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Skills for Scholars: How Can Mindfulness Help?

Thu, 31 Mar 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

The science that explains our busy minds
What mindfulness is
The difference between mindfulness and meditation
How changing our habits is a small-step by small-step process
A discussion of the book Bettter Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact

Today’s book is: Better Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact Mindfulness by Kristen Manieri. Mindfulness is a powerful tool for staying calm, centered, and steady―but it can be challenging to remember to stay mindful. Better Daily Mindfulness Habits helps practitioners of any level. Rooted in proven habit-building methodology, the book contains 40 practices designed to orient your attention to the present. In as little as a few minutes at a time, it can become easier to practice self-compassion and connect with others, your work, and yourself more mindfully.

Our guest is: Kristen Manieri, a certified habits coach as well as a certified mindfulness teacher. Kristen believes that when we actively engage in our growth and evolution, we can begin to live a more conscious, connected, and intentional life. She is the author of Bettter Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Atomic Habits by James Clear
Tiny Habits by BJ Fogg
Create Your Own Calm: A Journal for Quieting Anxiety by Meera Lee Patel
The Mindfulness Journal by Worthy Stokes
Quick Calm: Easy Meditations to Short-Circuit Stress Using Mindfulness and Neuroscience by Jennifer Wolkin
The 60 Mindful Minutes podcasts with Kristen Manieri
This discussion of meditation

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Tia Brown McNair, "From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education" (Jossey-Bass, 2020)

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear:

Why it is so important to have the conversation about “Equity in Higher Education” and why now is the time to do so
What equity means; for whom, and what equity entails in thought and action
What it means to perform equity as a routine practice in higher education
What makes individuals equity minded

Today’s book is: From Equity Talk to Equity Walk: Expanding Practitioner Knowledge for Racial Justice in Higher Education, draws from campus-based research projects sponsored by the AAC&U and the Center for Urban Education at the University of Southern California. The book is a practical guide on the design and application of campus change strategies for achieving equitable outcomes. The authors offer advice on how to build an equity-minded campus culture aligning strategic priorities and institutional missions to advance equity.

Our guest is: Dr. Tia Brown McNair, is the Vice President in the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Student Success and Executive Director for the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) Campus Centers at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) in Washington, DC. She oversees both funded projects and AAC&U’s continuing programs on equity, inclusive excellence, high-impact practices, and student success. McNair also directs AAC&U’s Summer Institutes on High-Impact Practices and Student Success, and Truth, Racial Healing, & Transformation Campus Centers. McNair currently serves as the project director for several AAC&U initiatives: "Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation Campus Centers," "Strengthening Guided Pathways and Career Success by Ensuring Students Are Learning," and “Purposeful Pathways: Faculty Planning and Curricular Coherence.”

Our host is: Dr. Zebulun R. Davenport, Vice President for Student Affairs, West Chester University.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

AAC&U’s Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence: Campus Guide for Self-Study and Planning.
AAC&U’s Step Up and Lead for Equity: What Higher Education Can Do to Reverse Our Deepening Divides.
Five principles for enacting equity by design by E.M. Bensimon, A.C. Dowd, and K. Witham in Diversity & Democracy 19 (1)
Engaging the “Race Question”: Accountability and Equity in U.S. Higher Education, Multicultural Education Series by A.C. Dowd and E.M. Bensimon. (Teachers College Press).
Heutsche, A.M. and Hicks, K. (2018). Embedding equity through the practice of real talk. In: A Vision for Equity: Results from AAC&U’s Project: Committing to Equity and Inclusive Excellence: Campus-Based Strategies for Student Success. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges.

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Dealing with Rejection

Thu, 17 Mar 2022 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Dr. Bacal professional and academic rejections
How success and rejection are part of the same path
The importance of having a supportive person or a support system
Why rejection is part of the hidden curriculum
A discussion of the book The Rejection that Changed My Life

Today’s book is: The Rejection that Changed My Life, featuring interviews with more than twenty-five women, including Keri Smith, Angela Duckworth, and Roz Chast. Rejections don’t go on your résumé, but they are part of every successful person’s career. All of us will apply for jobs that we don’t get or have ambitions that aren’t fulfilled, because that is part of pushing oneself to the next step professionally. While everyone deserves feel-better stories, women are more likely to ruminate, more likely to overthink rejection until it becomes even more painful—a situation that the women in this collection are determined to change, and in so doing, normalize rejection and encourage others to talk about it.

Our guest is: Dr. Jessica Bacal is director of Reflective and Integrative Practices and of the Narratives Project at Smith College. She leads programs to help students explore identity and find resilience in community. She also teaches a course called Designing Your Path, which guides students to consider questions like: What is your story? Where have you been and where are you going? What matters to you? What skills do you need to pursue what matters? Before her career in higher education, she was an elementary school teacher in New York City, and then a curriculum developer and consultant. She received a bachelor’s degree from Carleton College, an MFA in writing from Hunter College, and an EdD from the University of Pennsylvania. She lives in Northampton, Massachusetts, with her husband, two children, and two dogs. She is the author of The Rejection that Changed My Life.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Mistakes I Made at Work, by Jessica Bacal
“Things You Didn’t Put on Your Resume” by Joyce Sutphen
Dr. Kristin Neff’s website
Dr. Kirby’s rejection letter dress
Rachel Platten’s Fight Song
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance, by Angela Duckworth
This conversation about dealing with failure

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Need A Break from Overworking and Underliving?

Thu, 10 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

How a devotion to efficiency can become unhealthy
Why leisure time (a.k.a. doing nothing) is essential
How to reclaim our time and humanity
· A discussion of the book Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving

Today’s book is: Do Nothing, by Celeste Headlee, which examines how in searching for ways to “hack” our bodies and minds for peak performance, people are working more instead of less, living harder not smarter, and becoming more lonely and anxious. We strive for the absolute best in every aspect of our lives, ignoring what we do well naturally, and reaching for a bar that keeps rising higher. In Do Nothing, Celeste Headlee illuminates a new path to stop sabotaging our well-being, and start living instead of doing. Celeste offers strategies help you determine how your hours are being spent, invest in quality idle time, and focus on end goals instead of mean goals.

Our guest is: Celeste Headlee, an award-winning journalist, professional speaker, and author. She is a regular guest host on NPR and American Public Media and a highly sought consultant, advising companies around the world on conversations about race, diversity and inclusion. Her TEDx Talk sharing 10 ways to have a better conversation has over 26 million total views, and she serves as an advisory board member for ProCon.org and The Listen First Project. Celeste is recipient of the 2019 Media Changemaker Award; the proud granddaughter of composer William Grant Still, the Dean of African American Composers; and she is the author of Do Nothing.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving by Celeste Headlee
Speaking of Race by Celeste Headlee
We Need To Talk: How To Have Conversations That Matter, by Celeste Headlee
Laziness Does Not Exist, by Devon Price
This conversation about seeking meaning instead of happiness
This conversation about the importance of spending time in nature

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Rejection Skills: How to Win or Learn

Thu, 03 Mar 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

How rejection is normal and even inevitable
Skills to help you learn from and move through rejections toward your goals
Why you need to develop your capacity for patience
How asking people about their own rejections can help normalize yours
A discussion of the book Win or Learn

Today’s book is: Win or Learn: The Naked Truth About Turning Every Rejection into Your Ultimate Success, by rejection expert and New York Times bestselling author Harlan Cohen. Cohen lays the framework for identifying your wants, taking the risks necessary to pursue them, and finding success no matter the outcome. This step-by-step risk-taking experiment will guide you on a journey to understand your worth and fight for your goals—because rejection is a universal truth but not a final destination.

Our guest is: Harlan Cohen, bestselling author of seven books, a journalist, and a speaker who has visited over 500 college campuses. He loves helping people find support, happiness, hope, love, and light. He is the author of WIN or LEARN: The Naked Truth About Turning Every Rejection Into Your Ultimate Success.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

The Naked Roommate, by Harlan Cohen
Harlan’s TedX talk (watch TEDx talk here).
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
The Rejection that Changed My Life by Jessica Bacal
How to Fail podcast by Elizabeth Day
The Museum of Failure website

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Attention Skills: How to Gain Productivity

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

How multi-tasking and reactivity drain productivity
Why skills you used before you turned 20 don’t work for your maturing brain
Which attention management skills can solve your time management problems
How mindfulness can help
A discussion of the book Attention Management

Today’s book is: Attention Management: How to Create Success and Gain Productivity Every Day, by Maura Thomas. In a short, color-coded book designed to be read in an hour, Thomas succinctly outlines why Attention Management is the most essential skill you need to live a life of choice rather than a life of reaction and distraction. Offering readers a collection of new behaviors, including focus, mindfulness, control, presence, flow, and practical skills that will support your success, Maura Nevel Thomas shows you how to master attention management with strategies that make an immediate impact.

Our guest is: Maura Nevel Thomas, an award-winning international speaker and trainer on individual and corporate productivity and work-life balance, and the most widely-cited authority on attention management. Her proprietary Empowered Productivity™ System has been embraced by the likes of the U.S. Army, L’Oreal, and Dell. She is a TEDx Speaker, founder of Regain Your Time, author of five books, and was named a Top Leadership Speaker in Inc. Magazine. Maura is frequently featured in major business outlets including Business Insider, Fast Company, and Huffington Post, and she’s also a regular contributor to both Forbes and the Harvard Business Review, with articles there viewed over a million times. Follow her on Twitter @mnthomas.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Information about Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing and Underliving by Celeste Headlee
Better Daily Mindfulness Habits: Simple Changes with Lifelong Impact by Kristen Manieri
· From To-Do to Done: How to Go from Busy to Productive by Mastering to Your To-Do List by Maura Thomas
This Maura Thomas article on attention
The Maura Thomas webpage on Flow https://maurathomas.com/flow/
This discussion of meditation

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How to Finish Your Dissertation

Thu, 17 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

A process focused approach to completing a dissertation and other academic writing
The function of a dissertation and how it’s often misunderstood
The importance of the research question
The shift from student to scholar
How delaying writing saves time
The differences between fast writing, editing, and proof-reading

Our guests are: Dr. Sonja K. Foss and Dr. William Waters. Sonja and William are the coauthors of Destination Dissertation: A Traveler’s Guide to a Done Dissertation (Rowman & Littlefield). They offer writing retreats and present workshops at universities throughout the country on topics such as completing dissertations, publishing, and advisor advising and do individual coaching of scholars working on dissertations, articles, and books.

Sonja K. Foss is a professor emeritus in the Department of Communication at the University of Colorado Denver. Her research and teaching interests are in contemporary rhetorical theory and criticism, feminist perspectives on communication, the incorporation of marginalized voices into rhetorical theory and practice, and visual rhetoric. She is the author or coauthor of the books Feminism in Practice, Gender Stories, Rhetorical Criticism, Contemporary Perspectives on Rhetoric, Inviting Transformation, Feminist Rhetorical Theories, and Women Speak. Dr. Foss earned her Ph.D. in communication studies from Northwestern University and previously taught at Ohio State University, the University of Oregon, the University of Denver, Virginia Tech, and Norfolk State University.

William Waters is an associate professor in the Department of English at the University of Houston Downtown. His research and teaching interests are in writing theory and practice, the history of the English language, linguistics, and modern grammar. He was the managing editor of the book La Puerta: A Doorway into the Academy and has published several poems in national journals. Dr. Waters earned his Ph.D. in language and linguistics from the University of New Mexico and previously taught at Northwest Missouri State University; the University of Maine; University College in Galway, Ireland; and Cheongbuk National University in Korea.

Our host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a scholar and practitioner energized by facilitating meaningful learning experiences for students and educators alike. She benefited from Destination Dissertation as a doctoral student and is excited to share it with The Academic Life audience.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Dissertations and Project Reports: A Step by Step Guide by Stella Cottrell (Bloomsbury)
On Revision: The Only Writing that Counts by William Germano (Chicago UP)
Your PhD Survival Guide: Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year by Katherine Firth, Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone (Routledge)
How to Write a Better Thesis (3rd ed) by David Evans, Paul Gruba, and Justin Zobel (Springer)

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A Conversation with the Director of the Emerson Prison Initiative

Thu, 10 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

The Emerson College Prison Initiative
The Bard Prison Initiative
How students apply to, enroll in, and attend college while in prison
Challenges faced by incarcerated students
Engaging effectively with incarcerated students

Our guest is: Dr. Mneesha Gellman, an Associate Professor of Political Science in the Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College, in Boston, MA, USA. her primary research interests include comparative democratization, cultural resilience, memory politics, and social movements in the Global South and the United States. She is the founder and Director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which seeks to bring high quality liberal arts education to incarcerated students at Massachusetts Correctional Institute (MCI) at Concord, a men’s medium security prison. EPI follows the model of college-in-prison work led by the Bard Prison Initiative. Prior to joining the faculty at Emerson College, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Centre for Global Cooperation Research in Duisburg, Germany. She holds a PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University, USA, and an MA in International Studies/Peace and Conflict Resolution from the University of Queensland, Australia.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender, and the co-founder of the Academic Life on NBN. She is the daughter of a public defender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach in Prison [Brandeis University Press, 2022], by Mneesha
The Alliance for Higher Education in Prison
The Prison Policy Initiative
This report from the ACLU
The Sentencing Project
Equal Justice Initiative
The Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI) Emerson Prison Initiative (EPI)
The Bard Prison Initiative Consortium for the Liberal Arts in Prison
Democratization and Memories of Violence: Ethnic Minority Social Movements in Mexico, Turkey, and El Salvador by Dr. Mneesha Gellman
The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom by Stephen Brookfield

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our network to bring you experts about everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

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I'm Possible: A Conversation with Tuba Professor Dr. Richard White

Thu, 03 Feb 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Dr. White’s journey to earn a PhD in tuba
The Baltimore School for the Arts
The importance of having a village
The hidden curriculum
Why teaching and mentoring are equally important for educators to do
A discussion of the book I’m Possible: A Story of Survival, A Tuba, and the Small Miracle of a Big Dream

Today’s book is: I'm Possible: A Story of Survival, a Tuba, and the Small Miracle of a Big Dream (Flatiron Books, 2021), a memoir by Dr. Richard Antoine White. When he and his mother didn’t have a key to a room or a house, they had each other. Richard believed he could look after his mother, even as she struggled with alcoholism and sometimes disappeared, sending Richard into loops of visiting familiar spots until he could find her again. One night, when he almost died searching for her in the snow, he was taken in by his adoptive grandparents. When Richard joined the school band, he discovered a talent and a sense of purpose. He was accepted to the Baltimore School for the Arts, then to the Peabody, where he navigated racial and socioeconomic disparities as one of few Black students in his programs. Richard secured a coveted spot in a symphony orchestra and became the first African American to earn a doctorate in music for tuba performance.

Our guest is: Dr. Richard Antoine White, a professor, mentor, and motivational speaker. He received his bachelor's degree at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, and his master's and doctoral degrees at Indiana University. Dr. White was principal tubist of the New Mexico Symphony Orchestra from 2004 until its untimely demise in 2011. He is now principal tubist of the Santa Fe Symphony and is in his tenth season as principal tubist of the New Mexico Philharmonic. He teaches at the University of Mexico, where he is associate professor of tuba/euphonium. He is the author of I’m Possible.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Information about the documentary referenced in this podcast and the film’s trailer
Baltimore School for the Arts
The Peabody Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University
The Santa Fe Symphony
The New Mexico Philharmonic
Dr. White playing tuba

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Your PhD Survival Guide: Succeeding in Your Final Year

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

The hidden curriculum of the final year of the PhD program
Writing your dissertation when you still have so much left to read about
Why the final year of grad school is uniquely challenging
How to determine if you should stay in your program or leave
Why finishing your degree causes both relief and grief
A discussion of the book Your PhD Survival Guide:Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year

Our book is: Your PhD Survival Guide: Planning, Writing, and Succeeding in Your Final Year (Routledge, 2020).

by Katherine Firth, Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone. Part of the 'Insider Guides to Success in Academia' series from Routledge, this book offers practical and realistic guidance to students. Written in short chapters, this book is designed as an accessible toolkit for final year doctoral students. Drawing on an understanding of the intellectual, professional, practical and personal elements of the doctorate to help readers gain insight into what it means to finish a PhD and how to get there, this book covers the common challenges and ways to resolve them. Written for students in all disciplines, and relevant to university systems around the world, this book expertly guides students through the final 6–12 months of the thesis.

Our guest is: Dr. Katherine Firth, who manages the academic programs of a residential college at the University of Melbourne, Australia and founded the Research Insiders Blog which has been running since 2013.

Our guest is: Dr. Liam Connell, who has worked in research training and education since the late 2000s. He works in research development at La Trobe University, Australia.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

How to Fix your Academic Writing Trouble (Open University Press) by Inger Mewburn, Katherine Firth and Shaun Lehmann
Being Well in Academia: Ways to Feel Stronger, Safe and More Connected by Petra Boynton
A Field Guide to Grad School by Jessica Calarco
Level Up Your Essays by Katherine Firth
Katherine Firth, ‘Should a PhD be hard?’, Research Degree Insiders
Peta Freestone, ‘Valuing your writing: making a time budget’

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Navigating the Two-Body Problem

Thu, 20 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

What the two-body problem is
Dr. Kelly Baker’s experience on the academic job market as a wife and mother
How gender bias can play out in academic job searches
Why the three-body problem is a more accurate framing of this issue
How Kelly reimagined herself and her skill set for jobs outside the professoriate
Kelly and Chris’s advice to other dual-career academic couples

Our guests are: Dr. Kelly J. Baker and Dr. Chris Baker. Kelly is a religious studies Ph.D. and writer. She's the author of five books, including Sexism Ed: Essays on Gender and Labor in Academia, and the co-editor of Succeeding Outside the Academy with Joseph Fruscione. Her chapter, “What Would Your Poor Husband Do? Living with the Two-Body Problem” is the basis of this episode. Currently, she's the editor of Women in Higher Education and The National Teaching and Learning Forum.

Chris has been a researcher and software developer in academia, industry, and government for over 20 years. Previously a scientist for the US Department of Energy, he developed software for the world’s largest supercomputers and published research in leading international journals. At ServiceMesh, and later CSC, Chris worked to streamline development and IT operations for numerous Fortune 1000 companies. After developing and leading the Nomad ecosystem team at HashiCorp, Chris joined Amazon Web Services as a Principal Engineer in the Core Container Technology group. Chris holds a Ph.D. in Computational Science from Florida State University.

Our host is: Dr. Dana M. Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. She specializes in college student relationships, gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as assessment planning. Dana enjoys engaging conversations, delicious food, practicing yoga, and wandering the Jersey shore.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

The Freelance Academic by Katie Pryal
Sexism Ed: Essays on Gender and Labor in Academia by Kelly J. Baker
From PhD to Life
Women in Higher Education
Succeeding Outside the Academy: Career Paths beyond the Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEM, edited by Joseph Fruscione and Kelly J. Baker, The University Press of Kansas
Dr. Frank Martela episode: Stop Chasing Happiness and Make a Meaningful Life

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

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A Conversation about Teaching While Nerdy

Thu, 13 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

The hidden curriculum of transforming yourself from student to teacher
Accepting and embracing your nerdy/geeky/introverted self
Challenges faced by introverted teachers
Prep [for yourself, your syllabus, and your course]
Engaging effectively with students
A discussion of the book Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers

Todays’ book is: Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers, a funny and pragmatic guide to the process of learning and relearning how to be an effective college teacher. It is the first college teaching guide that encourages faculty to embrace their inner nerd. Neuhaus eschews formulaic depictions of idealized exemplar teaching, instead inviting readers to join her in an engaging, critically reflective conversation about the vicissitudes of teaching and learning in higher education as a geek, introvert, or nerd. Written for the wonks and eggheads who want to translate their vast scholarly expertise into authentic student learning, Geeky Pedagogy is packed with practical advice and encouragement for increasing readers’ pedagogical knowledge.

Our guest is: Dr. Jessamyn Neuhaus, a professor of popular culture, historian of gender, and scholar of teaching and learning, and a recipient of the SUNY Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. As an educational developer, she advocates for introverts in the college classroom. She is the author of Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers. You can learn more about her work and publications here https://geekypedagogy.com/about-jessamyn-neuhaus

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, an introvert who is probably geeky or nerdy or both. She is a historian of women and gender, and the co-founder of the Academic Life on NBN.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

“The Damaging Myth of the Natural Teacher” by Beth McMurtrie in The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol 68, number 5, p. 13-21
Ungrading by Susan D. Blum
The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom by Stephen Brookfield
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking by Susan Cain
This discussion of effective teaching strategies
Geeky Bonus Materials: A Bibliographic Essay from Dr. Neuhaus

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Being Well in Academia: A Candid Conversation About Challenges and Connection

Thu, 06 Jan 2022 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

The other hidden curriculum: the support and care strategies necessary for being well in academia
Systemic and structural barriers
Undiagnosed academic challenges, and personal traumas guest and host have faced
Why we all need support
How to support someone in tough times and why “help” needs to be customized
the book Being Well in Academia: Ways to Fell Stronger, Safer and More Connected

Our book is: Being Well in Academia: Ways to Fell Stronger, Safer and More Connected

by Dr. Petra Boynton. Part of the 'Insider Guides to Success in Academia' series from Routledge, this book offers practical and realistic guidance to students and early-career researchers on wellbeing topics that really matter, but which often get overlooked. Being Well addresses many of the personal challenges of trying to remain in academia when you are in need of support [perhaps you’re finding your work, study or personal life challenging or overwhelming; are experiencing bullying, harassment or abuse; or your progress is being blocked by unfair, exploitative or precarious systems; or you want to support a friend or colleague who’s struggling]. Being Well in Academia provides resources and workable solutions to help you feel stronger, safer and more connected in what has become an increasingly competitive and stressful environment.

Our guest is: Dr. Petra Boynton, a social psychologist and Agony Aunt who teaches and researches in International Healthcare. She specializes in addressing the safety and wellbeing of students and staff in academic settings.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian specializing in under-represented voices. As referenced in this episode, between December 2017 and early 2020 she survived a wildfire, a mudslide, lost five loved ones on by one, and then the pandemic hit. She coped by joining a poetry writing group for reluctant grief experts, asking friends to take her to a lot of movies, and spending time in nature. She believes everyone deserves support [inside and outside academia]. It was out of this belief this that she co-founded the Academic Life channel on NBN with Dr. Dana Malone in 2020; she and Dr. Malone serve as the co-producers and hosts.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

The Unrecovery Star, referenced in this episode, found on page 78 and the Kvetching Circle and The Ring Theory, found on page 79 of Being Well in Academia
Your PhD Survival Guide by Katherine Firth, Liam Connell, and Peta Freestone
A Field Guide to Grad School by Jessica Calarco
These videos and resources from Dr. Pooky Knightsmith.
A discussion about natural disasters and poetry writing by Dr. Christina Gessler and her friend and neighbor, poet Jen Strube.

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Find Your People: A Conversation About Meaningful Connections

Thu, 30 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear:

How part of the hidden curriculum is the support networks you need to create for yourself;
How you create that by “finding your people” and what qualities to look for in those people;
Determining whether they belong in an advisor, mentor, thought partner, or academic friend role, and ways those relationships may transcend time and institutions;
Barriers to making connections and to being authentic;
And the importance of asking, “does this have my best interest at heart?”
Dana’s personal examples of why we need to be intentional in community building.

Our guest is: Dr. Dana Malone is a scholar and practitioner energized by facilitating meaningful learning experiences for students and educators alike. She loves connecting with kindred academic spirits and collaborating on inspiring projects. When she’s not having engaging conversations on The Academic Life channel, she writes, teaches, and works with institutions on a contract basis. Her specialty areas include student cultures, the intersection of gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as student success and assessment and evaluation. Dana is the author of From Single to Serious. She counts herself fortunate to have made many meaningful connections that sustain her as she journeys through life and the academy.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian specializing in women and the environment, the writings of under-represented voices, and in public engagement with the humanities. She believes everyone deserves to have the support they need inside and outside academia. It was out of this belief this that she co-created and co-founded the Academic Life channel on NBN with Dr. Dana Malone in the summer of 2020. She and Dr. Malone work as the co-producers and hosts of the Academic Life. This is the channel’s 81st episode.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:
How We Show Up: Reclaiming Family, Friendship, and Community by Mia Birdsong
Being Well in Academia: Ways to Feel Stronger, Safer and More Connected by Petra Boynton
Radical Friendship: Seven Ways to Love Yourself and Find Your People in an Unjust World by Kate Johnson
Dana’s conversation with Dr. Claire Renzetti about mentoring in academe
Dana’s episode on creating a mentor network
Christina’s conversation with Dr. Frank Martell about making a meaningful life through connection

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Dreaming of Leaving Academia to Write Full-time?

Thu, 23 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Nancy Thayer’s path through college and graduate school, her work as a professor, how she hit a glass ceiling in academia, her decision to pursue writing as a full-time career, her life on an island off the coast of Massachusetts, and a discussion of the book Girls of Summer.

Our guest is: Nancy Thayer, the New York Times bestselling author of Secrets in Summer, The Island House, The Guest Cottage, An Island Christmas, Nantucket Sisters, A Nantucket Christmas, Island Girls, Summer Breeze, Heat Wave, Beachcombers, Summer House, and Moon Shell Beach. Her books center on families and relationships: marriage and friendships, divorce and love, custody and step parenting, family secrets and private self-affirmation, the quest for independence and the normal human hunger for personal connections. Her work has been translated into German, Finnish, Hebrew, Russian, Turkish, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch, Serbo-Croatian, Swedish, Danish, and Polish. She has a B.A. and M.A. in English literature from the University of Missouri at Kansas City. She was a Fellow at the Breadloaf Writers’ Conference. In 2015, she was awarded the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for Mainstream Fiction. She has lived on Nantucket Island for over thirty years with her husband Charley Walters; her daughter is the novelist Samantha Wilde. You can find Nancy’s videos and photos of Nantucket Island life by following Nancy Thayer on Facebook, or Instagram.

Today’s book is: Girls of Summer, a novel set on Nantucket, which explores themes about single parenting, female friendships, starting over after a divorce, opioid addiction, romance between older women and younger men, climate change, and rising waters.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. She used to live on the same island as Nancy Thayer; they often met for lunch or coffees and talked all things books and writing and friendship and life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

--This article about Charley Walter’s work for Rolling Stone

--The Rolling Stone music review referenced in the N magazine article

--Stepping, by Nancy Thayer

--Let it Snow, by Nancy Thayer

--Nantucket Noel, the 2021 Hallmark Channel Christmas Movie based on Let It Snow by Nancy Thayer

--Three Women at the Water’s Edge, by Nancy Thayer

--Family Reunion, by Nancy Thayer

--I’ll Take What She Has, by Samantha Wilde

--The Business of Being a Writer, by Jane Friedman

--This podcast about leaving academia

--You can find the shark tracker referenced in this podcast here

--The Marine Mammal Alliance Nantucket

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Scholarly Skills: Getting From To-Do to Done

Thu, 16 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear:

--how Maura Nevel Thomas became an expert in time-management skills

--why you need to use your to-do list differently than you think

--how to determine your priorities

--why life-hacks don’t help

--and why being productive and being busy aren’t the same thing.

Today’s book is: From To-Do to Done: How to Go From Busy to Productive by Mastering Your To-Do List, by Maura Nevel Thomas. Trying to remember a bunch of details and tasks isn't the best use of your brainpower. By collecting all of your tasks in one place, you can reserve your mental energy for work that drives significant results, both in your professional life and your personal life. Rather than just another book on time management, Thomas helps you figure out and then focus on the things that matter to you, to feel more in control, less overwhelmed, and a greater sense of accomplishment now that you're focusing on what's important to you.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

--the links for the Brain-Dump PDF referenced in this podcast and directions for how to use it, which can be found on pages 18 and 19 in From To-Do to Done

--Atomic Habits, by James Clear

--Smart Change, by Art Markman

--Attention Management: How to Create Success and Gain Productivity Every Day, by Maura Nevel Thomas

-- The Happy Inbox, by Maura Nevel Thomas

--The companion guide for From To-Do to Done: Download the guide now!

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Shoutin’ In the Fire: A Conversation with Graduate Student Dante Stewart

Tue, 07 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Dante Stewart’s path through college and into his current graduate school, playing football for Clemson, why former college athletes need to advocate for current student players’ rights, why he chose to go into the seminary at Emery, his grandmother, and a discussion of Shoutin’ in The Fire: An American Epistle.

Our guest is: Dante Stewart, who is a graduate student, writer, and speaker. His voice has been featured on CNN, The Washington Post, Christianity Today, Sojourners, The Witness: A Black Christian Collective, Comment Magazine, and more. As an up and coming voice, he writes and speaks into the areas of race, religion, and politics. He received his B.A. in Sociology from Clemson University. He is currently studying at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga. He is the author of Shoutin’ in The Fire: An American Epistle.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

--The Collected Autobiographies of Maya Angelou, by Maya Angelou

--The poem Kitchenette Building, by Gwendolyn Brooks

--Cables to Rage, by Audre Lorde

--Notes of a Native Son, by James Baldwin

--The Fire Next Time, by James Baldwin

-- Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates

--the Smithsonian Folkway’s recording of The World is Not A Pleasant Place to Be, by Nikki Giovanni

--Salvation: Black People and Love, by bell hooks

--What Moves at the Margin: Selected Nonfiction, by Toni Morrison

--Breathe: A Letter To My Sons, by Imani Perry

-- Dante Stewart’s articles referenced in this episode can be found here

--The Candler School of Theology at Emory University: http://candler.emory.edu/index.html

--Clemson College Athletics

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Underrepresented Groups in Archives: A Conversation About Ethics, Inclusion, and Acquisitions

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Megan Fraser’s job collecting and curating a Punk Rock archive, her current work at the Research Institute for Contemporary Outlaws, the outreach necessary for inclusion, the ethics of acquisitions, the complexity of preservation concerns, and why not everything can be saved.

Our guest is: Megan Hahn Fraser has worked as the Assistant Curator of Manuscripts at The New-York Historical Society, the Library Director at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Co-Head of Collection Management at UCLA Library Special Collections in Los Angeles, and the Vice President and Marcus A. McCorison Librarian at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass. Currently, she and her husband, also an archivist, are working for the Research Institute for Contemporary Outlaws, a private collection of 20th century counter-culture materials based in Los Angeles. She received her Master of Information and Library Science (with a concentration in archives management) degree from Pratt Institute in 2000, and has an undergraduate degree in history from New York University. While at UCLA in 2014, Megan founded the Los Angeles Punk Rock Archive Collective, a group of archivists and others focused on acquiring collections from musicians, artists, and fans of the punk rock scene in Southern California. She has given presentations at the Society of American Archivists annual conference, the South by Southwest Festival, the L.A. as Subject Archives Bazaar, and the Legion of Steel Metalfest and Conference. She can be found on Twitter @mmhfraser, where she talks about archives, justice, and The Clash.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender, and can often be found in an archive reading 19th century New England farm women’s diaries.

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About Maternal Health Studies: A Conversation with Bethany Johnson

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Bethany Johnson’s simultaneous journey through graduate school and motherhood, her struggles with infertility, the history of birth-care access, why Black women have worse maternal health outcomes, the consequences for pregnant people in a pregnancy-surveillance culture, and a discussion of the book You’re Doing it Wrong: Mothering, Media, and Medical Expertise.

Today’s book is: You’re Doing it Wrong: Mothering, Media, and Medical Expertise by Bethany L. Johnson and Margaret M. Quinlan, which explores how new mothers face a barrage of confounding decisions. Whatever they “choose,” experts ranging from health practitioners to social media influencers tell them they’re making mistakes. Johnson and Quinlan draw from their own experiences, the history of mothering advice from the newspapers, magazines, doctors’ records and personal papers of the nineteenth-century to today’s websites and Instagram feeds. Johnson and Quinlan find surprising parallels between today’s mothering experts and their Victorian counterparts, and explore how social media pressures pregnant people, even as it offers social support.

Our guest is: Bethany L. Johnson, a doctoral student in the history of science, technology and the environment at the University of South Carolina and an associate member to the graduate faculty and research affiliate faculty in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. Her research examines medical technologies and public health policies as tools of institutional power from the 19th-century to the present, with a focus on epidemics and reproductive health. She has published in journals such as Health Communication, Women & Language, Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, Journal of Holistic Nursing, and Women's Reproductive Health. She is the co-author of You’re Doing it Wrong! Mothering, Media and Medical Expertise.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

--Dr. Quinlan and Bethany Johnson’s Medical “Humanities Mamas” articles for Psychology Today

--Dr Quinlan and Bethany Johnson’s website, including their greeting cards for people experiencing infertility

--This website by a pregnant graduate student

--The Unequal Impact of Parenthood in Academia

--Fixing Parental Leave: The Six Month Solution, by Gayle Kaufman

--“Families Devalued: Black Academic Women and the Neoliberal Era’s Family Tariff,” in Lean Semesters, by Sekile M. Nzinga

--I Had a Miscarriage, by Dr. Jessica Zucker

--You’re the Only One I’ve Told: The Stories Behind Abortion, by Dr. Meera Shah

--Our interview about gender-free childrearing

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Wondering How to Design a Qualitative Study?

Thu, 11 Nov 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Dana Malone’s inspiration for researching in her own backyard, why she chose to do qualitative research for her dissertation and her first book, how she managed her insider/outside status, what bracketing is, using feminist research ethics, and how she dealt with gatekeepers.

Our guest is: Dr. Dana M. Malone, a dynamic scholar-practitioner with a diverse portfolio of experiences in higher education. She specializes in the intersection of gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as student success, assessment planning and program evaluation. Currently, Dr. Malone is an Independent Scholar, based in the Philadelphia area, writing, teaching, speaking, and working with institutions on a contract basis. She provides invited talks on her book, From Single to Serious: Relationships, Gender, and Sexuality on American Evangelical Campuses (Rutgers University Press), and she teaches in the M.Ed. in Higher Education Leadership and Social Justice Program at Bellarmine University. She is also the co-producer and co-host of The Academic Life channel. When she’s not engaging in the academic life, Dana can be found enjoying a good latte with family and friends, wandering the Jersey shore, and spending time on her yoga mat. Connect at danammalone.com.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

--From Single to Serious: Relationships, Gender, and Sexuality on American Evangelical Campuses by Dana M. Malone, published by Rutgers University Press

--Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approach (5th ed) by John W. Creswell and J. David Creswell, published by SAGE

--Qualitative Research and Evaluation Methods: Integrating Theory and Practice (4th ed) by Michael Quinn Patton, published by SAGE

--Doing Feminist Research in Political and Social Science (2nd ed) by Brooke Ackerly and Jacqui True

--Tufford, L. & Newman, P. (2010). Bracketing in Qualitative Research. Qualitative Social Work, 11(1), 80-96. DOI: 10.1177/1473325010368316

--Dr. Gessler and Dr. Malone’s conversation about sexuality on evangelical campuses:

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A Chemistry Professor Shares his Grief and his Favorite Recipes: A Conversation with David Smith

Thu, 04 Nov 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Professor David Smith’s path to becoming a chemistry professor
Why he’s passionate about making science inclusive and representational
His husband’s death
Being an academic and a single parent
How sharing stories about food and cooking dinner helps him process his grief
A discussion of his book Tw-eat: A Little Book with Big Feelings and Short Recipes for Very Busy Lives

Today’s book is: Tw-eat: A Little Book with Big Feelings and Short Recipes for Very Busy Lives, written by David Smith during the Covid lockdown. In it, Professor Smith tells the story of his husband Sam dying, leaving him a single parent to a young son. Cooking and a love of food have been helping them get through things together. Tw-eat is his first book, presenting 100 of his favorite recipes, many of which he has shared on Twitter. He believes cooking should be simple: a few clear instructions, a good picture of the finished dish, and dinner on the table with a minimum of effort. His recipes are presented in the simplest possible form, offering a fresh new approach to cooking. Alongside the recipes, he shares the story of his family, and explores the emotional resonance of what we eat.

Our guest is: Dave Smith is Professor of Chemistry at University of York, UK, where he carries out research into smart nanomaterials and nanomedicines, publishing around 200 papers. He is a passionate educator, giving outreach lectures to UK school students and through his own YouTube chemistry channel. Chemical and Engineering News named him as one of the Top 25 chemists to follow on Twitter, and he has received the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Corday Morgan Award and a Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellowship. He has written and lectured on the representation of LGBT+ scientists and was shortlisted for the Gay Times Barbara Burford Award for activist work representing LGBT+ individuals working in STEM. After the death of his husband from cystic fibrosis, Dave became a single parent, and has advocated for both carers and fathers in STEM. He is the author of Tw-eat: A Little Book with Big Feelings and Short Recipes for Very Busy Lives.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Tw-eat More: A Little Book with More Big Feelings and Short Recipes for Very Busy Lives by David K. Smith
Professor Smith’s research
Find the Good: Unexpected Life Lessons from a Small-Town Obituary Writer, by Heather Lende
Heal Yourself with Writing, by Catherine Ann Jones
Self-Care for Grief: 100 Practices for Healing During Times of Loss by Nneka M. Okana
This Will All Be Over Soon, by Cecily Strong
The NBN podcast on The Aftergrief

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Andrea Laurent-Simpson, "Just Like Family: How Companion Animals Joined the Household" (NYU Press, 2021)

Thu, 28 Oct 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Andrea Laurent-Simpson’s path in and out of and back into graduate school
The story of her college dog, who became her family
Why she became interested in looking at her pets as family members
How her human kids reacted to her research project
What her in-person research taught her about human-animal interactions

Our book is: Just Like Family: How Companion Animals Joined the Household (NYU Press, 2021),

which explores the expanding role of animals in what Dr. Laurent-Simpson calls “the multi-species family,” providing a window into a world where almost 95 percent of adults who share their homes with dogs and cats identify their animal companions as legitimate members of their families.

She examines why and how these animals have increasingly become an important part of our households and in our lives, including as siblings to our existing children, as animal children themselves, and even as grandchildren, particularly as fertility rates decline and a growing number of younger couples choose to live a childfree lifestyle. Laurent-Simpson highlights how animals—and their place in our lives—have changed the structure of the American family in surprising ways.

Our guest is: Dr. Andrea Laurent-Simpson, Research Assistant Professor and

Lecturer in the department of sociology at Southern Methodist University. Her work engages identity theory, family and fertility, and human-nonhuman animal interaction. Her research uses original, qualitative, mixed methods data to examine how familial identities are impacted by human-nonhuman animal relationships; how household structure affects resulting identity formation; how this contributes to post-modern, cultural definitions of who or what counts as family; and how dropping fertility rates and delays of first birth characteristic of the second demographic transition aid in the emergence of a “multi-species” family post-1970’s in the U.S. Her newest project examines “pandemic” pets, family structure and health, and pet owner returns to work and school. Her work is award-winning and has appeared in Symbolic Interaction; Sociological Forum; Sociological Inquiry; Sociology of Health and Illness; and Sociological Spectrum. She is the author of Just Like Family: How Companion Animals Joined the Household.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. Her college allowed her to live in a pet-dorm with her dog Riley; he quickly became the best friend of Ratty [the pet rat next door] and frenemy of Ivory [the neighboring dog who tried to steal his toys. Often.].

Listeners to this episode might also be interested in:

Arluke, Arnold and Andrew Rowan. (2020). Underdogs: Pets, People, and Poverty. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press.
Canales, Alejandra. (2021). “SMU Sociologist’s Research Shows How Pets Have Become Part of the Family.” Dallas Morning News, August 23. Article here.
Grimm, David. (2014). Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs. New York, NY: Public Affairs.
Irvine, Leslie. (2004). If You Tame Me: Understanding Our Connection with Animals. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
Laurent-Simpson, Andrea. (2017). “They Make Me Not Want to Have a Child: Effects of Companion Animals on Fertility Intentions of the Childfree.” Sociological Inquiry 87(4):586-607. Article here.
Laurent-Simpson, Andrea. “All In the Family: The Modern Multispecies Household.” The Bark, August 2021. Article here.
This program model for “keeping pets with their people”
Animal Planet meets cats in pet dorms at Christina’s college

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Long Road to the Dream Job in Academia: A Conversation with Liz W. Faber

Thu, 21 Oct 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Dr. Liz Faber’s long road from completed PhD to dream job
Why academia said she was a failure
The financial reasons she worked two academic jobs at once
The importance of speaking out about pay-scale and departmental inequities
Putting kindness in the classroom
Why you have to define your own success

Our guest is: Dr. Liz W Faber, an Assistant Professor of English & Communication at Dean College. Her teaching and research interests include multimodal communication, science communication, representations of AI in science fiction, computer history, and gender/sexuality studies. She is the author of The Computer's Voice: From Star Trek to Siri (U. Minnesota Press, 2020) and the guest editor for the Popular Culture Studies Journal special issue on robots and labor. She can be found on Twitter (@lizwfab) or at her website (lizwfaber.com).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

"Faculty Talk about Teaching at a Community College" by Dianne Finley and Sherry Kinslow
Academic Ableism by Jay Dolmage (U Michigan Press, 2017)
More than Machines? by Laura Voss (Columbia U Press, 2021)
Carleigh Brower’s work
The Computer's Voice: From Star Trek to Siri by Liz Faber (U. Minnesota Press, 2020)
Articles on robots and labor, ed by Dr. Liz Faber Popular Culture Studies Journal https://mpcaaca.org/the-
NEA article on the need for change
Inside Higher Ed examines contingent faculty wages
The Daily Beast finds making coffee pays more than being an adjunct

You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts. Wish we’d bring on a particular expert? DM on Twitter @AcademicLifeNBN.

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A Conversation About Reproductive Health and Abortion Studies

Thu, 14 Oct 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

The field of reproductive health studies
The data on contraceptive access and effectiveness [even when used correctly]
Why we need to trust women
What happens when a pregnant person seeking an abortion is turned away
The long-term outcomes for people who have had abortions
The consequences for people denied abortions
A discussion of the book The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having or Being Denied an Abortion

Today’s book is: The Turnaway Study, which asks what happens when a person seeking an abortion is turned away. Dr. Diane Greene Foster and a team of scientists, psychologists, epidemiologists, demographers, nurses, physicians, economists, sociologists, and public health researchers conducted a ten-year study on the outcomes of a thousand pregnant people across America, studying both those who received abortions, and those who were turned away. Dr. Foster analyzes impacts on mental and physical health, careers, and romantic relationships, offering the first data-driven examination of the negative consequences for pregnant people who are denied abortions.

Our guest is: Dr. Diana Greene Foster, a professor and demographer who uses quantitative models and analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of family planning policies and the effect of unwanted pregnancy on women’s lives. She led the Turnaway Study in the US, and is collaborating with scientists on a Nepal Turnaway Study. Dr. Foster also worked on the evaluation of the California State family planning program, Family PACT, demonstrating the effectiveness of the program in reducing the incidence of unintended pregnancy and the effect of dispensing a one-year supply of contraception. Dr. Foster created a new methodology for estimating pregnancies averted based on a Markov model and a microsimulation to identify the cost-effectiveness of advance provision of emergency contraception.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advocacy webpage
The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having or Being Denied an Abortion, by Diana Greene Foster
Advancing New Studies in Reproductive Health
You’re Doing it Wrong: Mothering, Media, and Medical Expertise by Bethany L. Johnson and Margaret M. Quinlan
A discussion of the book You’re Doing it Wrong,

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Cyndi Kernahan, "Teaching about Race and Racism in the College Classroom: Notes from a White Professor" (West Virginia UP, 2019)

Thu, 07 Oct 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Why White professors need to teach about race and racism in their courses
The gap between “inside” and “outside” knowledge
How to effectively provide data in an atmosphere of strong emotions
Why having debates and discussing misinformation won’t work
The reasons students resist learning about race and racism
How to meet students where they are and help them cross the learning threshold

Today’s book is: Teaching About Race and Racism in the College Classroom: Notes from a White Professor (U West Virginia Press, 2019). Teaching about race and racism can be difficult. Students and instructors alike often struggle with strong emotions, and many have preexisting beliefs about race. It is important for students to learn how we got here and how racism is more than just individual acts of meanness. Students also need to understand that colorblindness is not an effective anti-racism strategy. Dr. Kernahan argues that you can be honest and unflinching in your teaching about racism while also providing a compassionate learning environment that allows for mistakes, and avoids shaming students. She provides practical teaching strategies to help instructors feel more confident, and differentiates between how white students and students of color are likely to experience the classroom, helping instructors provide a more effective learning experience for all students.

Our guest is: Dr. Cyndi Kernahan, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. She is also the assistant dean for teaching and learning in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research and writing are focused primarily on teaching and learning, including the teaching of race, inclusive pedagogy, and student success. She is the author of Teaching About Race and Racism in the College Classroom.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, by Nancy Isenberg
The Making of Asian America: A History, by Erika Lee
Teaching Black History to White People, by Leonard N. Moore
The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America, by Andres Resendez
Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic
Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, by B.D. Tatum

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The Role of “Failure” in Student Success

Thu, 30 Sep 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: the importance of normalizing failure in college, the emotional work involved with coming back from a failure, the role institutions have in resilience work, and the power of reflection for student success.

Our guest is: Dr. Anna Sharpe, Associate Dean for Student Success at Berry College. Dr. Sharpe has spent the last six years reimagining academic success and support programming at Berry College. She has the privilege of leading an incredible team of five professional staff and over a hundred student employees working in the areas of academic success, first-year experience, accessibility, and retention. Holding a PhD in Geography from University of Kentucky, Dr. Sharpe also researches the interplay of race, politics, law, and land use, focusing on the southeastern coast, where she was born and raised. When she is not on Berry’s beautiful campus, you can find her with her husband and son--cooking, hiking, and making frequent trips to the coast

Our host is: Dr. Dana M. Malone, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts. She is a higher education scholar and practitioner. Dana met Anna at the University of Kentucky, where they worked together with students in academic jeopardy and assisted them in reimagining and refocusing their college trajectories.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The Stanford Resilience Project: Stanford Resilience Project videos
Carol Dweck’s work: Carol Dweck’s TED Talk on the Power of Believing You Can Improve
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth
From the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, Promoting Belonging, Growth Mindset, and Resilience to Foster Student Success (Baldwin, A., et al.)
NBN Podcasts with Lisa Nunn on College Belonging
NBN Podcast with Lisa Nunn on Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students:

Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

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Aviva Legatt, "Get Real and Get In: How to Get Into the College of Your Dreams by Being Your Authentic Self" (St. Martin's Griffin, 2021)

Thu, 23 Sep 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about:

Aviva Legatt’s journey into and through college
Why she became an Ivy League college admissions officer
What that job taught her about common application missteps
How to determine which school is right for you and show them you’re right for it
Month-by-month application checklist for high school seniors.

Our guest is:

Dr. Aviva Legatt, who has been in the higher education field for over fifteen years. She is a faculty member in Organizational Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania and at The Wharton School, teaching in-person and online through Coursera. She has a column in Forbes about issues affecting higher education, and is the author of Get Real and Get In: How to Get Into the College of Your Dreams by Being Your Authentic Self (St. Martin's Griffin, 2021).

Our host is:

Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life, who attended college on a writing scholarship. She chose the school for its pet policy, relationship with the natural environment, and faculty-student ratio. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The Enlightened College Applicant: A New Approach to the Search and Admissions Process by Andrew Belasco and Dave Bergman
Fiske Guide to Colleges
College Admission Essentials: A Step-by-Step Guide to Showing Colleges Who You Are and What Matters to You by Ethan Sawyer
How To College :What To Know Before You Go (and When You’re There) by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Laura Hope Schwartz
Show Them You're Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before College by Jeff Hobbs
The Merit Myth: How our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America by Anthony Carnevale, Peter Schmidt, and Jeff Strohl
A Discussion of the book How To College: What To Know Before You Go (and When You’re There)
A Discussion of the book Show Them You’re Good

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Ginetta Candelario on Feminism, Race, and Transnationalism

Thu, 16 Sep 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. So we are reaching across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Ginetta Candelario’s path from journalism-major-hopeful to sociologist, how her family history shaped her intellectual questions, what inspired her to return to Smith after campus racism drove her out, a model for building an intentional community, editing a journal dedicated to the scholarship and voices of women of color, and a discussion of Meridians: 20th Anniversary Reader.

Our guest is: Dr. Ginetta Candelario, who is a faculty affiliate of the Latin American and Latina/o Studies Program, the Study of Women and Gender Program, and the Community Engagement and Social Change Concentration at Smith College. She is the founding vice president of the National Latin@ Studies Association, and a founding executive committee member of the New England Consortium for Latina/o Studies, and was appointed by the American Sociological Association to its Committee on Professional Ethics for 2017–20 and to the Finance Committee for 2021-2024. Dr. Candelario is widely published, serves on editorial boards, and is a peer reviewer. Her research interests include Dominican history and society, with a focus on national identity formation and women’s history; Blackness in the Americas; Latin American, Caribbean and Latina feminisms; Latina/o communities (particularly Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican); U.S. beauty culture; and museum studies. She has been a Fulbright Scholar in the Dominican Republic twice, and has been the editor of Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism since July 2017.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts. She is a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode may be interested in:

Dr. Candelario’s Ted Talk
Meridians’ materials referenced in the podcast
Meridians' portal for submissions
Cien años de feminismos dominicanos, 1865-1965. Tomo I: El fuego detrás de las ruinas, 1865-1931. Co-edited by Ginetta Candalario, April J. Mayes, and Elizabeth Manley, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Archivo General de la Nación, 2016.
Black Behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops, Durham: Duke University Press, December 2007.
Salome by Julia Alvarez
Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko
Democracy in Chains by Nancy McClean
YouTube recording of the Meridians’ 20th anniversary celebration talks

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Archival Etiquette: What To Know Before You Go

Thu, 09 Sep 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us your suggestion on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: how Megan became an archivist, the unusual collections she works with, why archives can be intimidating, how historians and archivists work together, and archival etiquette tips for new researchers.

Our guest is: Megan Hahn Fraser, who has worked as the Assistant Curator of Manuscripts at The New-York Historical Society, the Library Director at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Co-Head of Collection Management at UCLA Library Special Collections in Los Angeles, and the Vice President and Marcus A. McCorison Librarian at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass. Currently, she is working for the Research Institute for Contemporary Outlaws, a private collection of 20th century counter-culture materials based in Los Angeles. She received her Master of Information and Library Science (with a concentration in archives management) degree from Pratt Institute in 2000, and has an undergraduate degree in history from New York University. While at UCLA in 2014, Megan founded the Los Angeles Punk Rock Archive Collective, a group of archivists and others focused on acquiring collections from musicians, artists, and fans of the punk rock scene in Southern California. She has presented at the Society of American Archivists annual conference, the South by Southwest Festival, the L.A. as Subject Archives Bazaar, and the Legion of Steel Metalfest and Conference. She can be found on Twitter @mmhfraser, talking about archives, justice, and The Clash.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts, and a historian of women and gender. She has a small garden.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

UCLA Library Special Collections Punk archive
Research Institute for Contemporary Outlaws on Instagram
For more information on how reliance on contingent labor is detrimental to the responsible stewardship of archives
American Historical Association open letter to National Archives and Records Administration and retraction
Society of American Archivists (SAA) Responds to the American Historical Association
Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman (2010)
Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World by Christopher de Hamel (2017)
Standing in their own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution by Judith L. Van Buskirk (2017)
Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin (2019)

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Karen Cook Bell, "Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

Thu, 02 Sep 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we, so we reached across our mentor network to bring you these podcasts. Wish we’d include a specific topic? DM suggestions on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: how Black women contributed to America’s first freedom war, reading against the grain, rival geographies, fugitivity as an act of resistance, why we must center Black women’s voices, and a discussion of the book Running from Bondage.

Our guest is: Dr. Karen Cook Bell, who is Associate Professor of History. Her areas of specialization include slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and women’s history. Her scholarship has appeared in the Journal of African American History; Georgia Historical Quarterly; Passport; U.S. West-Africa: Interaction and Relations; Before Obama: A Reappraisal of Black Reconstruction Era Politicians; Converging Identities: Blackness in the Contemporary Diaspora; and Slavery and Freedom in Savannah. She has published Claiming Freedom: Race, Kinship, and Land in Nineteenth Century Georgia, which won the Georgia Board of Regents Excellence in Research Award; and Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America. She is editor of Southern Black Women’s Struggle for Freedom during the Civil War and Reconstruction; and a contributor for Black Perspectives. She is a former AAUW Dissertation Fellow.

Today’s book is: Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America, which tells how enslaved women comprised one-third of all runaways, and the ways in which they fled or attempted to flee bondage during and after the Revolutionary War. Dr. Cook Bell's contribution to the study of slave resistance explores the individual and collective lives of these women and girls, and details about what led them to escape. She demonstrates that there two wars waged during the Revolutionary Era: a political revolution for independence from Great Britain and a social revolution for emancipation and equality in which Black women played an active role. Running from Bondage emphasizes the chances taken by these Black founding mothers and the important contributions they made to the cause of liberty.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts, and a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Claiming Freedom: Race, Kinship, and Land in Nineteenth Century Georgia, by Karen Cook Bell
Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South, by Stephanie Camp
“What Can We Learn from a Digital Database of Runaway Slave Advertisements,” International Social Science Review vol 76 no. (2001), by Tom Costa
Never Caught, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
This interview on reclaiming lost voices with Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar
This interview about the social constructions of race with Dr. Brigette Fielder

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Mentoring in the Academy: A Conversation with Dr. Claire Renzetti

Thu, 26 Aug 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. So, we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us your suggestion on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: mentoring across academic careers from graduate students to seasoned faculty, optimal conditions for mentor-mentee relationships, mentoring scholars through the publishing process, and gender and power dynamics within academic mentoring.

Our guest is: Dr. Claire M. Renzetti, Professor and Chair of Sociology and the Judi Conway Patton Endowed Chair for Studies of Violence Against Women at the University of Kentucky. She received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Delaware, with specialties in criminology and the sociology of gender.

For more than 40 years, Dr. Renzetti’s research has focused on the violent victimization experiences of socially and economically marginalized women and girls. She founded in 1995, and continues to edit, the peer-reviewed, international and interdisciplinary journal Violence Against Women, through Sage Publications. Dr. Renzetti is also the editor of the Gender and Justice book series for University of California Press; co-editor of the Interpersonal Violence book series for Oxford University Press, and editor of the Family and Gender-based Violence book series for Cognella. She has written or edited 26 books as well as numerous book chapters and journal articles based on her own research. She also studies the problem of domestic sex trafficking. Additionally, she conducts research on the effects of religiosity and religious self-regulation on intimate partner violence perpetration and victimization. She has held elected offices in several national and regional professional associations, including the American Sociological Association, the American Society of Criminology, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the Eastern Sociological Society. Her research and community service has been recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association, the American Society of Criminology, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the University of Delaware, Artemis Center (Dayton, OH), and the YWCA of Dayton (OH).

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. Dana met Claire as a PhD student at the University of Kentucky, when one of Dana’s academic mentors introduced them.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Positive Academic Leadership: How to Stop Putting Out Fires and Start Making a Difference by Jeffrey L. Buller
Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia edited by: Yolanda Flores Niemann, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, and Carmen G. González
NBN Podcast on Presumed Incompetent II
NBN Podcast on How to Create a Mentor Network
Claire Renzetti’s video series on academic publishing for the American Sociological Association (ASA).*Please note access requires an ASA membership

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Exploring New Paths to Mental Health: A Discussion with Sue Stuart-Smith

Thu, 19 Aug 2021 09:00:00 -0000

In this episode you’ll hear about: Sue Stuart-Smith’s path from English major to psychiatrist, how she went from avoiding gardening to becoming an avid gardener, and a discussion of The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature.

Our guest is: Sue Stuart-Smith, a prominent psychiatrist and psychotherapist. She is also an avid gardener. She took her degree in English literature at Cambridge before qualifying as a doctor. She worked in the National Health Service for many years, becoming the lead clinician for psychotherapy in Hertfordshire. She teaches at The Tavistock Clinic in London and is consultant to the DocHealth service. She is married to Tom Stuart-Smith, the celebrated garden designer. She is the author of The Well-Gardened Mind.

Today’s book is: The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature, about the healing effects of gardening and its ability to decrease stress and foster mental well-being in our everyday lives. The garden is often seen as a refuge, a place to forget worldly cares, removed from the “real” life that lies outside. But when we get our hands in the earth we connect with the cycle of life in nature through which destruction and decay are followed by regrowth and renewal. Sue Stuart-Smith provides a new perspective on the power of gardening to change people’s lives.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts, and a historian of women and gender. She has a small garden.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature, by Sue Stuart Smith
Therapeutic Landscapes: An Evidence-Based Approach to Designing Healing Gardens and Restorative Outdoor Spaces, by Clare Marcus and Naomi Sachs
The Profession and Practice of Horticultural Therapy, edited by Rebecca Haller and Karen Kennedy and Christine Capra
Ecotherapy: Theory, Research and Practice, edited by Martin Jordan and Joe Hinds
The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative, by Florence Williams
Radical Compassion, by Tara Brach
The psychology podcast channel on NBN
The mindfulness podcast channel on NBN

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Laura Portwood-Stacer, "The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors" (Princeton UP, 2021)

Thu, 12 Aug 2021 08:00:00 -0000

In this episode you’ll hear about: what a book proposal is and isn’t, why you have to write one, the importance of seeking the right “fit” for your manuscript, how to pitch a quirky book, the difference between a book’s topic and its argument, how to summarize your project in just one sentence, and a discussion of The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors (Princeton UP, 2021)

Our guest is: Dr. Laura Portwood-Stacer, an experienced developmental editor and publishing consultant for academic authors. She is the author of The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors.

You have to write a book proposal to get published, but most scholars receive no training on how to do so, and you may have never even seen a proposal before you’re expected to produce your own. The Book Proposal Book cuts through the mystery and guides you step by step through the process of crafting a compelling proposal and pitching it to university presses and other academic publishers. Whether you’re hoping to publish your first book or you’re a seasoned author with an unfinished proposal languishing on your hard drive, The Book Proposal Book provides honest, empathetic, and invaluable advice on how to overcome common sticking points and get your book published. It also shows why a well-conceived proposal can help lead to an outstanding book.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts, and a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The Book Proposal Book: A Guide for Scholarly Authors, by Laura Portwood-Stacer
Dr. Portwood-Stacer’s Manuscript and Editing Workshops
Dr. Portwood-Stacer’s website
Handbook for Academic Authors, by Beth Luey
Writing and Publishing Your Book: A Guide for Experts in Every Field, by Melody Herr
From Dissertation to Book, by William Germano
The Chicago Manual of Style: The Essential Guide for Writers, Editors, and Publishers
Story Craft: The Complete Guide to Writing Narrative Nonfiction, by Jack Hart
The Business of Being a Writer, by Jane Friedman

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Pandemic Perspectives from an Assistant Professor: A Discussion with Ulices Piña

Thu, 05 Aug 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? DM us your suggestion on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Piña’s path through higher education, the importance of mentors and coaches in achieving personal and professional success, how he found his current job, some of the concerns of first gen and of working class students, student grief, the complexity of using campus resources in a pandemic, and what he’s hopeful about.

Our guest is: Dr. Ulices Piña, an Assistant Professor of History at California State University, Long Beach. A native of Long Beach and a product of the California public school system, his teaching and research interests include Mexico, Modern Latin America, revolutions and social movements, and social activism. He is currently writing a book tentatively titled Rebellious Citizens: Democracy and the Search for Dignity in Revolutionary Mexico. The book places the roles of ordinary people in the country’s long fight for democracy, front and center, to tell the story of how they actively shaped the political process and struggled for equality and dignity in the decades following the Mexican Revolution of 1910. He also has a forthcoming article in the Journal of Social History titled “Rebellion at the Fringe: Conspiracy, Surveillance, and State-Making in 1920s Mexico.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. She heard Dr. Piña’s presentation about pandemic pedagogy lessons at the recent WAWH conference, and invited him to share this on the Academic Life.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

H-LatAm
The History Teacher
Zapata and the Mexican Revolution by John Womack
Pedro Páramo by Juan Rulfo
The TV Series: Ted Lasso
The History Department at California State University Long Beach
The Latino Studies Channel on NBN
There’s a Revolution Outside, My Love: Letters from a Crisis edited by Tracy K. Smith and John Freeman
Resources for College Students Dealing With Grief
Resource List for First Gen Students

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Pandemic Perspectives from a Student Studying Abroad

Thu, 29 Jul 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05[at]gmail.com or dr.danamalone[at]gmail.com Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: a student’s goal to study abroad during college, how she dealt with unexpected restrictions on becoming an international student during a pandemic, her transatlantic travels, living in a “bubble” in her new dorm, and what she’s hopeful about for her return to her American campus for her senior year.

Our guest is: Emma Halfin, who is a junior at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) majoring in Political Science and History and minoring in French. She is currently a visiting student at the University of Oxford in the UK studying history and politics and is looking forward to returning to CWRU in the fall for her senior year.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Woollacott, Angela, ‘“Khaki Fever” and its Control: Gender, Class, Age and Sexual Morality on the British Home Front in the First World War’, Journal of Contemporary History, 29/2 (1994), pp. 325-347
Giorgio Agamben, State of Exception (2003)
Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism (1951)
Jeanne Boydston, “Gender as a Question of Historical Analysis”, Gender and History 20/3 (2008)
The Visiting Student Program at the University of Oxford
American students studying abroad during the pandemic
International Students studying in America during the pandemic
The College of Arts and Sciences at Case Western Reserve University
Visa concerns for students studying abroad during the pandemic

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Reclaiming Lost Voices and Recovering History: A Discussion with Erica Armstrong Dunbar

Thu, 22 Jul 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05(at)gmail.com or dr.danamalone(at)gmail.com or find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: reclaiming lost voices, recovering history, and a discussion of the book Never Caught: The Washington’s Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge.

Our guest is: Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar, a late eighteenth and early nineteenth-century scholar with a specialization in African American women’s history. From 2011 to 2018 she was the Inaugural Director of the Program in African American history at the Library Company of Philadelphia. She has written numerous articles, reviews, essays, and books including Never Caught, and has given scholarly talks across the country. She is the National Director of the Association of Black Women Historians (ABWH), and is the Charles and Mary Beard Distinguished Professor of History at Rutgers University.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Never Caught: The Washington’s Relentless Pursuit of Their Runaway Slave, Ona Judge by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
She Came to Slay: The Life and Times of Harriet Tubman by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
A Fragile Freedom: African American Women and Emancipation in the Antebellum City by Erica Armstrong Dunbar
Daina Ramey Berry and Erica Armstrong Dunbar, “The Unbroken Chain of Enslaved African Resistance and Rebellion.” In The Birth of a Nation: Nat Turner and the Making of a Movement, edited by N. Parker, 35-61. New York: Atria/Simon and Schuster, September 2016.
The Association of Black Women Historians http://abwh.org
The Program in African American History at the Library Company of Philadelphia
Dr. Armstrong’s website
The African-American studies channel on NBN
The History Department at the College of Arts and Sciences at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey

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Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students: A Conversation with Lisa Nunn

Thu, 15 Jul 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler05@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: distinguishing between student abilities and academic skill sets, why the goal should not be making first-generation students more like continuing generation students, how to introduce yourself in a way that promotes student success, the mini-midterm, and other strategies to promote student success.

Our guest is: Lisa M. Nunn, Ph.D., author of 33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students (Rutgers University Press, 2018) and Professor of Sociology at the University of San Diego. She is the Director of her campus' Center for Educational Excellence. She is also the author of College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life as well as a book on high school students, Defining Student Success: The Role of School and Culture. She didn't grow up knowing that she would become a sociologist and she graduated college as a literature and theater major, still not knowing that she would become a sociologist. It was during her years with the Peace Corps in Limbaži, Latvia in her early twenties when she started to recognize how fascinating cultural ideas and social structures are. How they shape who we are, who we want to become, and how they also constrain the paths available to us to get there. She hasn't stopped thinking about or talking about these dynamics since.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. She specializes in college student relationships, gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as assessment planning. Dana enjoys engaging conversations, delicious food, practicing yoga, and wandering the Jersey shore.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life by Lisa M. Nunn
Interview with Lisa Nunn on her book College Belonging.
Defining Student Success: The Role of School and Culture by Lisa Nunn
The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom by Stephen Brookfield
Small Teaching Online: Applying Learning Science in Online Classes by Flower Darby and James Lang

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Another Look at Life as an Alt-Ac: A Discussion with Erica Bauermeister

Thu, 08 Jul 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05(at)gmail.com or dr.danamalone(at)gmail.com or find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Erica Bauermeister’s career journey out of academia, her move to Italy and back to the US, how she unexpectedly found herself renovating a house, and a discussion of the book House Lessons.

Our guest is: Erica Bauermeister, who earned her PhD at the University of Washington. She was frustrated by the lack of women authors in the curriculum, and in response co-authored 500 Great Books by Women: A Reader’s Guide, and Let’s Hear it For The Girls. She taught writing and literature, got married and had children and left academia. She became a Realtor, moved to Italy, moved back to the US, continued writing, and then unexpectedly found herself renovating a house. Erica’s first novel was published as she was turning 50. Her books have been translated into more than 50 languages, been selected for Reese Witherspoon’s book club, and made the USA Today and NYT bestseller list.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. Christina once helped renovate a cottage on a small island off the coast of Massachusetts.

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Open Access Publishing Explained: A Discussion with Ros Pyne

Thu, 01 Jul 2021 08:00:00 -0000

In this episode you’ll hear about: Ros Pyne’s path through higher education, how she found her way to her current job, her role at Bloomsbury Publishers, what Open Access [OA] is and is not, how OA can democratize knowledge, and what she’s hopeful about.

Our guest is: Ros Pyne, who is the Global Director of Research and Open Access at Bloomsbury Publishers. She has worked in academic publishing since 2007, initially as an editor, and for the last eight years in roles focusing on open access. She has a particular interest in bringing open access to long-form scholarship and to the humanities, and is the co-author of several reports on open access books. She holds a degree in English from the University of Cambridge, and an MA in early modern English literature from King’s College London.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Open access at Bloomsbury
Directory of Open Access Books
OAPEN OA Books Toolkit (for anyone interested in learning more about what open access books are and how they work)
Open Access Books Network (a free online network for people working on open access books or interested in getting involved)
Open Access and the Humanities (a 2014 book by an open access expert Martin Paul Eve that’s still an excellent primer on this topic)

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Gender Bias in Medical School and the ER: A Discussion with Alyson J. McGregor

Thu, 24 Jun 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05(at)gmail.com or dr.danamalone(at)gmail.com or find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: gender and sex bias in medical school textbooks and in medical training and how that shows up in the ER, the work Dr. McGregor is doing to change that, and a discussion of the book Sex Matters: How Male-Centric Medicine Endangers Women’s Health and What We Can Do About It.

Our guest is: Alyson J. McGregor MD, MA, FACEP. Dr. McGregor is a women’s health pioneer focusing on the concept of sex and gender difference in the delivery of acute medical care. She is an Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, and the co-founder and director for the Division of Sex and Gender in Emergency Medicine (SGEM) at Brown University’s Department of Emergency Medicine, and a co-founder for the national organization Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative. Dr. McGregor’s research focus is on the effects that sex and gender have on emergent conditions. She has been an advocate for this model nationally, speaking widely to medical students and professionals and laypeople. She has written or co-written over sixty peer-reviewed publications in scientific journals on the topic of sex and gender as well as given a widely popular TEDx Talk, and authored and edited books.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative Sex and Gender Women’s Health Collaborative.
Sex Matters: How Male-Centric Medicine Endangers Women’s Health and What We Can Do About It, by Alyson McGregor, MD
Sex and Gender in Acute Care Medicine, edited by Alyson J. McGregor
Dr. McGregor’s TedxTalk: Her TEDx talk, “Why Medicine Often Has Dangerous Side Effects for Women,”
Premed Prep: Advice From a Medical School Admissions Dean by Sunny Nakae
Gender and Our Brains, by Gina Rippon
The Medicine Channel on New Books Network
Feeling Medicine: How the Pelvic Exam Shapes Medical Training, by Kelly Underman
The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University

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Pandemic Perspective from a Dual MA Student and New Bride

Thu, 17 Jun 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: how Clair adapted to changes in her academic timeline, re-planned her wedding, and postponed taking the Bar exam due to the pandemic.

Our guest is: Clair Wright Sumerfield, a fourth-year, dual-degree graduate student at the University of Denver. She is earning both a JD from Sturm College of Law and an MA is Art History & Museum Studies from the School of Art and Art History. She expects to graduate from both programs by fall 2021 and hopes to find a job that combines both fields. Originally from Illinois, Clair currently lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband and two cats and enjoys exploring Colorado’s beautiful scenery in her free time.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Center for Art Law
“Understanding Grief in the Age of the Covid-19 Pandemic”
Textile & Fashion Collection at the Denver Art Museum
“Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty”
Alexander McQueen Savage Beauty (video)
Experimental Fashion: Performance Art, Carnival and the Grotesque Body by Francesca Granata
The Grotesque in Western Art and Culture: The Image at Play by Frances S. Connelly
Supporting Graduate Students in Times of Stress
Reflections on the downsides of remote work

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Pandemic Perspectives from The Chronicle of Higher Education

Thu, 10 Jun 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: Karin Fischer’s job as a contributing writer for the Chronicle of Higher Education, how she researches stories about international students, what the pandemic means for her work and for the students she writes about, and what she’s hopeful about.

Our guest is: Karin Fischer, a higher-education journalist with a focus on international education, American colleges’ activities overseas, the globalization of the college experience, and study abroad. Her work has appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education, the New York Times, EdSource, the Washington Monthly, and University World News. Ms. Fischer is also a research associate at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at the University of California at Berkeley and an international education leadership fellow at the University at Albany. She is a recipient of the East-West Center’s Jefferson Fellowship for reporting in Asia and the International Reporting Project fellowship. Her work has been honored by the Education Writers Association, the National Press Foundation, and the Poynter Institute.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

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The Social Constructions of Race: A Discussion with Brigitte Fielder

Mon, 07 Jun 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05(at)gmail.com or dr.danamalone(at)gmail.com or find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the importance of expanding the boundaries of academic theory through interdisciplinary studies, why you need to build and acknowledge your own support network, the social construction of race and racism, and a discussion of the book Relative Races.

Our guest is: Dr. Brigitte Fielder, an Associate Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is (with Jonathan Senchyne) co-editor of Against a Sharp White Background: Infrastructures of African-American Print and author of Relative Races: Genealogies of Interracial Kinship in Nineteenth-Century America. Her work has been published in various journals and edited collections. She is currently writing a book on racialized human-animal relationships in the long nineteenth century, which shows how childhood becomes a key site for (often simultaneous) humanization and racialization.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

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How To: Create a Mentor Network

Thu, 03 Jun 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler05@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: how mentoring differs from friendship, common (mis)perceptions of how mentoring happens across the academy, what makes a great mentor, steps to take when connecting with a potential mentor, and how to construct your optimal “board of advisors.”

Dr. Laura Gail Lunsford, author, scholar, speaker, consultant, and southerner. Dr. Lunsford is an expert in mentoring and leadership. She has written over 40 peer-reviewed articles, case studies and chapters on leadership and mentoring. She wrote the Handbook for Managing Mentoring Programs, co-edited the Sage Handbook of Mentoring, and co-authored Faculty Development in Liberal Arts Colleges. Funny and engaging, she consults with organizations on effective mentoring and coaching. Presently, she professes psychology at Campbell University, a beautiful liberal arts college in rural NC. Laura enjoys her Japanese Zen Garden, cycling, kayaking, and karate (and holds a black belt in Shoto kan) in addition to eating her husband’s cooking. A Rotarian, she also volunteers with the American Red Cross.

Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. She specializes in college student relationships, gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as assessment planning. Dana enjoys delicious, healthy food, practicing yoga, and wandering the Jersey shore.

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From the Military to Academia: A Discussion with Maurice Wilson

Thu, 27 May 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: Maurice Wilson’s journey from the military to higher education, how he has pursued his dual interests in aviation and creative writing, and a discussion of his chapter in Learning from the Lived Experiences of Graduate Student Writers.

Our guest is: Maurice Wilson, who considers himself the “Robin Hood” of academic literacy. Maurice develops and implements a comprehensive training program curriculum for writing center consultants at a large urban university. He is the administrator for a developmental writing program, and provides training and support for instructors and other writing groups. A career US Army aviator, Maurice taught basic and advanced composition and literature at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, and retired from military service following his stint as a graduate teaching fellow before moving into writing center administration. Maurice also teaches professional writing for Ed.D. students. His research interests include the diverse student voices in writing centers, the writing of military veterans, and HBCU writing programs.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

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A Conversation with Jessica Kirzane about Yiddish Studies

Thu, 20 May 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: how Jessica first began to learn Yiddish, what drew her to translation work, the importance of finding encouraging mentors and creating peer supports, what it means to be “contingent” faculty, and a discussion of her new book Diary of A Lonely Girl.

Our guest is: Dr. Jessica Kirzane, who teaches Yiddish language as well as courses in Yiddish literature and culture. She received her PhD in Yiddish Studies from Columbia University in 2017. Dr. Kirzane is the Editor-in-Chief of In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies. In addition, she has held several positions at the Yiddish Book Center: Translation Fellow in 2017-18, Pedagogy Fellow in 2018-19, and as an editor and contributor to the Teach Great Jewish Books site of the Yiddish Book Center. Her research interests include race, sex, gender, and regionalism in American Jewish and Yiddish literature and has published articles on the idea of rural America in Yiddish literature, interethnic romance in Yiddish periodicals, and lynching in American Yiddish literature. Most recently she has published a translation of Miriam Karpilove's The Diary of a Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love (Syracuse UP, 2020).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The Yiddish Book Center
“New York’s First-Time Women Voters” in Jewish Currents
“Freydl” in Columbia Journal
The Abandoned Book: A New Collection of Yiddish Translations.
To Tread on New Ground: Selected Hebrew Writings of Hava Shapiro. Ed. Carole Balin and Wendy Zierler (Wayne State University Press, 2014)
Have I Got a Story For You: More than a Century of Yiddish Fiction from the Forward. (Norton, 2016)
Diary of A Lonely Girl, or the Battle Against Free Love by Miriam Karpilove
In geveb: A Journal of Yiddish Studies.

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Pandemic Perspectives: Loneliness in Graduate School

Mon, 17 May 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: how Sarah dealt with loneliness, worked as a teaching assistant from a tent her own backyard, and what the pandemic means for her dissertation, her timeline, and her funding.

Our guest is: Sarah Paschal Gerenday is a PhD student in Earth Science at University of California Santa Barbara researching the use of recycled water for groundwater replenishment. She lives with a few friends and a dog in Santa Barbara.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

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College Belonging: A Conversation with Lisa M. Nunn

Thu, 13 May 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the three realms of college belonging, why “finding your place” is bad advice for first-gen students, how financial aid packages affect students’ experiences of belonging, “nice” and “not-so-nice” diversity, and the hypocrisy of white niceness on college campuses.

Our guest is: Lisa M. Nunn, Ph.D., author of College Belonging: How First-Year and First-Generation Students Navigate Campus Life and Professor of Sociology at the University of San Diego. She is the Director of her campus' Center for Educational Excellence. She is also the author of 33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students as well as a book on high school students, Defining Student Success: The Role of School and Culture. She didn't grow up knowing that she would become a sociologist and she graduated college as a literature and theater major, still not knowing that she would become a sociologist. It was during her years with the Peace Corps in Limbaži, Latvia in her early twenties when she started to recognize how fascinating cultural ideas and social structures are. How they shape who we are, who we want to become, and how they also constrain the paths available to us to get there. She hasn't stopped thinking about or talking about these dynamics since.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

33 Simple Strategies for Faculty: A Week-by-Week Resource for Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students by Lisa M. Nunn
Defining Student Success: The Role of School and Culture by Lisa Nunn
The Cost of Inclusion: How Student Conformity Leads to Inequality on College Campuses by Blake R. Silver
The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students by Anthony Abraham Jack

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Pandemic Perspectives: Working Remotely, a Discussion with Raj Balkaran

Mon, 10 May 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the benefits and challenges of working remotely, being alt-ac, Hindu Studies, founding an online school, and the pandemic shutdowns in Canada.

Our guest is: Dr. Raj Balkaran is a prolific independent scholar of Sanskrit narrative texts. He is the author of The Goddess and the King in Indian Myth (Routledge 2018), The Goddess and the Sun in Indian Myth (Routledge 2020) along with a number of articles and book chapters. Having taught comparative religion and mythology at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies for a decade, he now Tutors at the Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies where he also serves on the Centre’s Curriculum Development Board. Alongside his academic training, he has received extensive spiritual training as part of an oral tradition dedicated to the transmission of Indian wisdom teachings. Integrating his academic and spiritual training, he has founded the online School of Indian Wisdom where he designs and delivers original online courses centered on the practical life wisdom to be found in the philosophical, mythological and spiritual traditions of ancient India. Beyond teaching and research, Dr. Balkaran runs a thriving life consulting practice and hosts the New Books in Indian Religions podcast.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. Christina recently met Raj at a Zoom meeting for New Books Network channel hosts, and invited him to come on the Academic Life to share his pandemic perspective.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

School of Indian Wisdom
Oxford Centre for Hindu Studies
The New Books in Indian Religion podcast
The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume I: Balakāṇḍa
The Rāmāyaṇa of Vālmīki: An Epic of Ancient India, Volume II: Ayodhyakāṇḍa
The Mahabharata, Volume 1: Book 1: The Book of the Beginning
The Mahabharata, Volume 2: Book 2: The Book of Assembly
In Praise of the Goddess: The Devimahatmya and Its Meaning

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Inside Look: "Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education"

Thu, 06 May 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Bradley Shreve’s decision to leave academia after he became a parent; his job as the editor of Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education; what the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC) does; and his work as a podcaster interviewing tribal elders.

Our guest is: Dr. Bradley Shreve, the editor of Tribal College: Journal of American Indian Higher Education, the quarterly publication of the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC). Previously, he taught history and chaired the Division of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Diné College, America’s first tribal college, which is located in the Navajo Nation. Bradley is the author of numerous articles, essays, and the book Red Power Rising: The National Indian Youth Council and the Origins of Native Activism (University of Oklahoma Press, 2011).

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

TCJ
Tribal College Press
TCJ student magazine
Meditation on Ceremonies of Beginnings: The Tribal College and World Indigenous Nations Higher Education Consortium Poems, by Thomas Davis
The Pathfinders: Women Leaders in the Tribal College Movement
Remembering Diné College: Origin Stories of America’s First Tribal College
Red Power Rising: The National Indian Youth Council and the Origins of Native Activism by Bradley Shreve
A Conversation with Verna Fowler [Audio Podcast].
Native American Studies channel on NBN

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Pandemic Perspectives: A Student Speaks About Mental Health

Mon, 03 May 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the challenges Kaylah Marcello, a STEM graduate student at UC Davis, suddenly faced when she was having coffee with a friend in mid-March 2020 and her phone rang telling her that her son’s elementary school was closing down. She quickly realized she couldn’t work in the lab she was assigned to while homeschooling her son. Kaylah shares openly about her personal history, her mental health struggles, and why taking care of herself was crucial to taking care of her family and her own educational goals.

Our guest is: Kaylah Marcello, a Microbiology PhD student at the University of California, Davis. Kaylah is researching cold tolerance genes that support photosynthesis in Antarctic cyanobacteria with Dr. Dawn Sumner. She has been a teaching assistant for in-person microbiology lab courses during the pandemic. Prior to pursuing a graduate education, she was a transfer student from the California Community College system to the UC system. She is passionate about science communication, educational outreach, mental health awareness and making academia more accessible to people who would otherwise not pursue it. She is a mother and an all-around science enthusiast, taking life one minute at a time.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Dr. Christina Gessler is a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

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Inside Look: Campus Mental Wellness Services

Thu, 29 Apr 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: mental wellness services on campus, asking for help, embracing who you are, and why you need support to succeed at your life.

Our guest is: Elisabeth Gonella, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who has worked in the mental health and spiritual counseling fields for over 25 years. The early years of her career were spent working primarily with adolescents in various institutional settings where she facilitated therapeutic wilderness programs, Gestalt based group therapy, expressive arts, and daily activities as a vehicle for self-reflection. She has received training in working with substance abuse and dually diagnosed clients in both in-patient and out-patient settings. Currently, Elisabeth is seeing clients in private practice and in a College Counseling and Psychological Services Department. Elisabeth develops curriculum for The Therapist Development Center assisting hundreds of interns to pass the MFT exams (both California and National). Since 2012, Elisabeth has served as an adjunct faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Elisabeth is a clinical member of both the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapists and the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists. She is also a graduate of Community Choir Leadership Training and facilitates Community Singing in Santa Barbara, California to promote well-being through music.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Elisabeth’s website
Care of the Soul by Thomas Moore
The Gift of Therapy by Irvin Yalom, MD
The documentary film Finding Joe
Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
Flow, the Ted Talk:
The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work by Joseph Campbell
Acacia Counseling and Wellness

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Pandemic Perspectives: Graduating, Job Searching, and Being a New Professional

Mon, 26 Apr 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: the realities of completing a master’s program, initiating a job search, and transitioning into a new professional role during a pandemic; losses and silver linings around key milestones and traditions, the significance of physical spaces; lessons learned; and advice to other graduate students.

Our guest is: Alex Schmied, M.S., an academic coordinator for Spectrum Scholars, a comprehensive college-to-career program for University of Delaware undergraduates on the autism spectrum. She supports students in obtaining their personal and academic success by providing holistic coaching sessions focused on executive functioning, academics, self-care, self-advocacy, social engagement, career exploration and interdependent living skills. Alex holds an M.S. in Higher Education Policy and Student Affairs from West Chester University and a B.S. in Public Health from Temple University, merging her two interests she loves identifying ways to support the whole student and focuses on wellbeing. She lives in Philadelphia, PA, a city she loves to explore. She prizes the time she spends with her friends, partner, family, and dogs.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner, with a background in student affairs. She specializes in college student relationships, gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as assessment planning. Dana enjoys making (and, of course, eating) delicious, healthy food, practicing yoga, and wandering the Jersey shore.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Stacey Flower’s TEDx talk entitled, “The 5 People You Need to be Happy” Alex uses this when choosing “her circle” of people. The 5 People You Need To Be Happy | Stacey Flowers
Drew Dudley’s TEDx Talk on “Everyday Leadership” A reminder to celebrate the little moments! Everyday Leadership | Drew Dudley
“The Opposite of Loneliness” by Marina Keegan. Alex read this her senior year of undergrad when everything feels so uncertain. The author was the same age as Alex when she died in a car crash after graduating from Yale. The Opposite of Loneliness | Marina Keegan
The Opposite of Loneliness: Essays and Stories by Marina Keegan
NPR News Now Podcast and Inside Higher Ed. Alex uses these to stay informed as a new professional. NPR News Now Podcast & Inside Higher Ed
NASPA New Professionals and Graduate Students Knowledge Community and ACPA Graduate Students and New Professionals Community of Practice. It’s also important to get involved in your field. NASPA New Professionals & Graduate Students Knowledge Community & ACPA Graduate Students and New Professionals Community of Practice
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire. This was a classic grad school read that really opened Alex’s eyes. Pedagogy of the Oppressed | Paulo Freire

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An Inside Look at the American Historical Association: An Interview with Laura Ansley

Thu, 22 Apr 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: Laura’s reasons for leaving academia, the path to her job at the American Historical Association, what the AHA is, how the insurrection on the US Capital on January 6th made historians “relevant”, and how historians continue to teach both inside and outside academia.

Our guest is: Laura Ansley, who joined the AHA as managing editor in September 2019. She worked previously at the American Society of Civil Engineers as a journals production editor and was an editorial apprentice at the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture. In her free time, she volunteers as managing editor of Nursing Clio, a website focusing on histories of gender and medicine. She holds an MA in history from the College of William & Mary and a BA in history and American studies from Case Western Reserve University. Her ORCID is https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0160-0190. Follow her on Twitter: @lmansley.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The American Historical Association
New Books in History
Omohundro Institute
Historians in Historic Times
Washington History Seminar
Essential Guide to Writing History: History Essays by Katherine Pickering Antonova
400 Souls: A Community History of African-America, 1619-2019 by Ibram X. Kendi, Editor
Leaving Academia by Christopher Caterine [which includes Laura’s story of leaving her PhD program]
Writing Your Journal Article in Twelve Weeks by Wendy Laura Belcher

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Marketing Your Scholarly Book: A Discussion with Mona Rosen Hamlin

Thu, 15 Apr 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the benefits of publishing with a smaller press, how scholarly books are marketed, and what to do if your book is rejected by a publisher.

Our guest is: Mona Rosen Hamlin, who has been in the marketing field at Syracuse University for 22 years. For the last twelve she has been a marketing research analyst with the Syracuse University Press. She was a recipient of the Crystal Ball award for marketing and has won numerous sales awards in advertising. She resides in upstate New York with her husband and two dogs and is a very proud grandmother to five grandchildren. She loves traveling, reading, writing, spending time with friends and family, and watching the Syracuse Orange play football.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

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Pandemic Perspectives from a Recent College Graduate: A Discussion with Amy Sumerfield

Mon, 12 Apr 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler05@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: social justice, chronic illness, the importance of self-advocacy and a support network, and what it’s like graduating from college and then applying to graduate school during a pandemic.

Our guest is Amy Sumerfield, who describes herself like this: I am a 23 year old cisgendered woman living in Loveland, Colorado. I was born in South Korea and lived with a foster family there until I was five months old. I was eventually adopted by my current family where I then grew up in Boulder, Colorado. I am more than privileged to have the upbringing that I did and I would not be here today if it wasn't for their constant support. Growing up as an adoptee was certainly hard to process, and especially as I grew older, I began to struggle greatly with my multi intersectionality. Not only was I confused about my identity at the time, but I was also learning to live with an autoimmune disease - Lupus. I was diagnosed with Lupus when I was 11 years old, and having to limit my activity in an extremely active town was difficult and only added to my idea that I didn't fit in. It took a lot of ups and mostly downs for me to learn how to cope, but I eventually came out on a better end. I received my degrees in Social Work and Sociology from Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado in August 2020 and am currently applying for my Masters in School Counseling. My goals are to take not only my educational background, but my personal experiences as well, to help advocate and support children and families in need. Although I had a very positive environment growing up, I had my own struggles and everyone does. Especially as children, they are extremely vulnerable and impressionable and I believe this is the most important time of their lives as it sets the foundation for their future and beyond.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. She is Amy’s first cousin. Christina co-created the Academic Life channel with Dr. Dana Malone during the pandemic.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

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A Field Guide to Grad School: A Conversation with Jessica McCrory Calarco

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: things you really need to know to navigate graduate school, why there’s a hidden curriculum, and a discussion of the book A Field Guide to Grad School.

Our guest is: Dr. Jessica McCrory Calarco, an Associate Professor of Sociology at Indiana University in Bloomington. She is the author of A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum (Princeton, 2020), and Negotiating Opportunities: How the Middle Class Secures Advantages in Schools (Oxford 2018). Her research examines inequalities in education and family life, which she has written about for The New York Times, The Atlantic, Inside Higher Ed, and The Conversation.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She sincerely wished she had had a guide to graduate school; the lack of one coupled with the ongoing mysteries of the hidden curriculum of her PhD program led her to create a mentorship program while still a student. She later co-created the Academic Life channel for NBN with Dr. Dana Malone.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

A Field Guide to Grad School: Uncovering the Hidden Curriculum by Jessica McCrory Calarco
The Merit Myth by Anthony Carnevale, Peter Schmidt and Jeff Strohl
The Hidden Curriculum by Rachel Gable
Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School by Kimberly McKee and Denise Delgado, eds.
The Academic Life channel on New Books Network
Dr. Calarco’s graduate school advice here.

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Meditation for the Academic Life: A Discussion with Lori Snyder

Thu, 01 Apr 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the importance of listening to yourself—even if that means leaving one grad school program to enter one in a totally different field, the difference between meditation and mindfulness, why silent meditation can be so challenging, and how to develop a meditation practice that has enough flexibility to work for you. At the end of this episode, Lori leads us in a 10 minute guided meditation.

Our guest is: Lori Snyder, a meditation and yoga teacher, and a professional writer who founded the Writers Happiness Movement. Lori lives with her husband and her cat near the beach outside LA, all of which she loves.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. Christina supports her work-life balance with long walks in nature, and taking meditation classes. She met Lori six years ago, when she won the All-Voices Fellowship to attend Lori’s Splendid Mola writing retreat. They’ve been friends [and been to many retreats together] ever since.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Kindfulness, by Ajahn Brahm
Peace is Every Step, by Thich That Hanh
A Path with Heart: A Guide Through the Perils and Promises of Spiritual Life, by Jack Kornfield
Good Morning, I Love You: Mindfulness and Self-Compassion Practices to Rewire Your Brain for Calm and Clarity, by Shauna Shapiro
Links to Lori’s free online yoga and meditation classes are available through the Writers Happiness Movement.
Meditation Apps, like this one: Liberate - Black-owned meditation app that is a safe space for BIPOC and features BIPOC teachers and topics
Insight Timer
The Spiritual Practice and Mindfulness Channel on New Books Network

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Pandemic Perspectives from a University Administrator: A Discussion with James D. Breslin

Mon, 29 Mar 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: reflections on the shutdown, the weight and tension involved in decision-making during this time, mental and soul exhaustion, centering the humanity in higher education work, and thoughts on what we’re taking out of this pandemic as a field.

Our guest is: Dr. James (Jim) D. Breslin, PhD a higher education scholar, practitioner, and consultant who specializes in student success, academic support and advising, assessment, institutional effectiveness, and leadership and administration. He currently serves as the Assistant Provost for Assessment, Accreditation, and Institutional Effectiveness at Bellarmine University.

Dr. Breslin has presented more than 70 conference sessions and published several peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on a variety of topics. He is engaged currently with research teams that range from developing new conceptual and practical frameworks for assessment to exploring the relationships between higher education professionals and peer educators.

Dr. Breslin participates as an active citizen in the field of higher education and has consulted with institutions and organizations across the US and beyond. He has served on editorial boards for several peer-reviewed publications and in leadership roles in professional organizations, including his current roles as Director-elect of Professional Development on the ACPA Governing Board and Chair of the ACPA Assessment Oversight Task Force. Dr. Breslin has been recognized for his contributions to the field of higher education and most recently was named a Diamond Honoree by the American College Personnel Association Foundation.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. Dana first met Jim in graduate school in their “Theories of College Student Development” course. Over the years, a kindred professional relationship – and friendship – developed, which includes working, presenting, and writing together as well as sharing drinks over Facetime.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Code Switch podcast.
Throughline podcast.
ACPA’s A Bold Vision Forward.
If anyone is interested in Dr. Breslin’s thoughts on pressing issues in higher ed just prior to COVID, check out Emerging Trends in Higher Education.
A recent read that stands out: Heavy: An American Memoir.

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University Press Submissions and the Peer Review: A Discussion with Rachael Levay

Thu, 25 Mar 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: acquiring manuscripts, what editors do, and how the peer review process works.

Our guest is: Rachael Levay, the acquisitions editor at University Press of Colorado and Utah State University Press.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The Business of Being a Writer by Jane Friedman
From Dissertation to Book by William Germano
Association of University Presses Subject Area Grid. These documents list every publishing subject area and which university presses have historically acquired in them and are still acquiring in them. It’s a fabulous research tool when thinking about which press to submit one’s work to.
Platypus: The Blog of the Humanities Common Team. “Rethinking Scholarly Communication: Open Peer Review” details a 2019 Twitter chat about what open peer review looks like currently and could look like in the future.
ASK UP: Authors Seeking Knowledge from University Presses. This Association of University Presses site offers answers to many common questions about finding a publisher, working through the process, and more.
A discussion of stylish academic writing
A discussion about university presses

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Pandemic Perspectives: From a Vice President of Student Affairs

Mon, 22 Mar 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: reflections on the shutdown, lessons learned, leading through change and ambiguity, impacts and challenges facing students, the future of higher education, and the distinctive nuances of a vocation versus a job.

Our guest is: Dr. Zebulun Davenport, the Vice President for Student Affairs at West Chester University. He earned his Doctorate in Higher Education and Leadership from Nova Southeastern University, an M.Ed. in College Student Personnel Administration, and a B.S. in Communications/Public Relations from James Madison University. His contributions have advanced campus culture, organizational structure, and student success. Dr. Davenport has served as a Vice President for Student Affairs for three institutions and under his leadership, two of those divisions of student affairs have received Diverse Magazine’s the distinction of “Most Promising Places to Work.”

His expertise includes student retention, outcomes assessment, strategic planning, and strategies for assisting first-generation college students. Dr. Davenport’s publications include co-authoring two books entitled First-Generation College Students – Understanding and Improving the Experience from Recruitment to Commencement; and Student Affairs Assessment, Evaluation, and Research: A Guidebook for Graduate Students and New Professionals, a chapter in an edited volume entitled The Student Success Conundrum, in B. Bontrager (Ed.), Strategic Enrollment Management: Transforming Higher Education; a chapter in an edited monograph entitled Creating Collaborative Conditions for Student Success in S. Whalen (Ed.), Proceedings of the 8th National Symposium on Student Retention 2012, and a chapter in the fourth edition of The Handbook of Student Affairs Administration in Jossey Bass 2016. He has presented at workshops for numerous public agencies; educational institutions; state, regional, and national conferences; as well as to thousands of college students and professionals throughout his career.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner with a background in student affairs. Dana has known Zeb for several years. His dynamic personality and ability to relate over what really matters in work and life sparked a kindred connection from their first meeting.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Working with Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman
Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni
Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter
by Liz Wiseman
Uncommon Candor: A Leader's Guide to Straight Talk
by Nancy K. Eberhardt

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The Self-Care Stuff: Parenting and Personal Life in Academia

Thu, 18 Mar 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: navigating academia, gender creative parenting, and a discussion of the book Raising Them.

Our guest is: Dr. Kyl Myers, author of Raising Them: Our Adventure in Gender Creative Parenting. Kyl is a sociologist, parent, partner, professor, and advocate of gender creative parenting. Kyl’s work has been featured on social media, a TedX Talk, and in numerous articles. She can be found at raisingzoomer.com and at kylmyers.com.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

TheybyParenting.com
Parenting Beyond Pink and Blue, by Christia Spears Brown
Gender Revolution, Documentary from National Geographic
Beyond the Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon
Raising Them: Our Adventure in Gender Creative Parenting by Kyl Myers
Raising Baby Grey, video and story from The New Yorker

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Pandemic Perspective from an Adjunct: A Discussion with Dawn Fratini

Mon, 15 Mar 2021 08:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the paid and unpaid workload required of adjuncts, Dawn’s personal pandemic perspective as she had to suddenly pivot from teaching on campus to teaching online, the effect of the pivot on her students, and her love of film studies and why she’s hopeful for the future.

Our guest is: Dawn Fratini, who has nearly twenty years adjunct teaching experience at the community college and college level. She is currently an adjunct professor at Chapman University’s Dodge College of Film and Media Arts where she teaches courses in Film History, Animation History, the Walt Disney Company, the Horror Genre and more. She hold an MFA in Screenwriting and is a PhD candidate at UCLA’s School of Film, Television and Digital Media. She researches technical labor in Hollywood and is currently completing her PhD dissertation, The Genies in the System: The Motion Picture Research Council, 1947-1960.

Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. Christina and Dawn are members of the Friday Morning Molas, a writing group founded during the pandemic. Christina is the co-creator the Academic Life channel for NBN with Dr. Dana Malone, a channel they started during the pandemic.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Margaret Herrick Library, Digital Collections.
UCLA Oral History Digital Collection.
Media History Digital Archive.
The Internet Archive.
Aca-Media podcast of the Society of Cinema and Media Studies, which looks at a variety of issues in the field, including teaching during the pandemic.
Teaching Media, which hosts an online journal on media pedagogy, and also serves as open source for sharing teaching ideas and resources.
SCMS Precarious Labor Organization. "The Precarious Labor Organization provides community and advocacy for the Society’s members who are in positions without job security or a clear route to promotion and advancement."
SCMS. "The Society for Cinema and Media Studies is the leading scholarly organization in the United States dedicated to promoting a broad understanding of film, television, and related media through research and teaching grounded in the contemporary humanities tradition.”

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How to College: A Conversation with Lara Hope Schwartz and Andrea Malkin Brenner

Thu, 11 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: what you need to know before you go, the talk you need to have with your family and friends before you leave for school, what to do when you get there, and a discussion of the book How to College.

Our guest is: Lara Hope Schwartz, the co-author of How To College. She has served as a Faculty Fellow at American University’s Center for Teaching, Research, and Learning. She teaches at American University’s School of Public Affairs, and serves as Honors Program Director. Previously, Lara was Director of Strategic Engagement at the American Constitution Society for Law & Policy, Courts Matter director at Media Matters, Legal Director at the Human Rights Campaign, and Vice President of External Affairs at the American Association of People with Disabilities. She earned her Juris Doctor Cum Laude from Harvard Law School and her AB in English and American Literature Magna Cum Laude from Brown University.

Our guest is: Andrea Malkin Brenner, PhD, the co-author of How To College. She was a faculty member in the Department of Sociology at American University for 20 years, and directed the University College program. She created the American University Experience (AUx) Program, a mandatory full-year course that serves as a college transition course, and a cross-cultural communication class. She holds a BA in Sociology from Brandeis University, an MA in Curriculum, Instruction and Administration in Higher Education from Boston College, and a PhD in Sociology from American University. She currently consults with colleges that wish to create their own first-year transitions courses.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in 19th century America.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

How to College: What to Know Before You Go and When You’re There, by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Lara Hope Schwartz
What Parents Should do to Help Students Prepare for The First Year of College
https://www.pennlive.com/opini... Lara Schwartz and Andrea Brenner virtual interactive workshop focused on building college learning communities where open, respectful, and collaborative communication can flourish.

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Exploring Careers After Graduation: Writing for the Kid’s Lit Market

Thu, 04 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the steps to creating a writing career after college; the children’s book market; the difference between a pitch, a hook, a logline, and a synopsis; the importance of building a support network; and a discussion of the book Premeditated Myrtle.

Our guest is: Elizabeth C. Bunce, the author of the Myrtle Hardcastle mystery book series. Elizabeth’s books are inspired by real places and cultures of the past, often with otherworldly or magical elements. She has been writing for as long as she can remember, and has always been interested in literature, folklore, history, and culture. She studied English and anthropology in college. When she’s not writing, she’s usually making something—cosplay, needlework, historical costuming, quilting—but not cooking.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in 19th century America. She belongs to a critique group for children’s book writers, and has been an active member of SCBWI for over a decade. When she’s not reading, writing, podcasting, or teaching, she can be spotted taking walks along the shore and working on her nature photography. She seldom cooks.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Premeditated Myrtle by Elizabeth Bunce
Wired for Story by Lisa Cron
The Magic Words: Writing Great Books for Children and Young Adults by Cheryl Klein
Book in a Month by Victoria Lynn Schmidt
Stealing Hollywood: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors by Andrea Sokoloff
The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators
The Highlights Foundation
The Vermont College of Fine Arts MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults

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Pandemic Perspectives: Three Students Share

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: the different perspectives of three students sharing the same house in a small Oregon town during the pandemic, how all of their academic plans have been affected, why eliminating the SAT and standardized tests might increase college application rates, what’s helping them each get through the pandemic, and what gives them all hope for their futures.

Our first guest is: Will Sumerfield, a junior at UC San Diego studying Cognitive Science and Computer Science, with a goal to achieve a Doctorate in Machine Learning. He is now taking classes remotely from his family’s home in Oregon, trying to decide if he’ll return to campus for his senior year of college, and what the pandemic means for his graduate school plans.

Our next guest is: Branislav Petrovic, a water polo player from Serbia who came to Oregon as a foreign exchange student planning to spend his senior year at an in-person American high school, seeing how Americans really live, and applying to colleges, but has had to change nearly all of those plans.

Our final guest is: Olivia Sumerfield, the president of her senior class, now taking her classes online, applying to colleges she’s never been able to visit, preparing for her future as a doctor, and wondering about the merits of taking a gap year.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. Christina supports her pandemic-life well-being by working on her photography, taking long walks in nature, and going to [online] meditation class. Will and Olivia are her cousins.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Excelling in College: Strategies for Success and Reducing Stress by Jeffrey Kottler
Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education by Justin Reich
Learning Innovation and the Future of Higher Ed
What Students Really Think About Online Learning
Online Learning and the Pandemic Impact
International Cultural Exchange Services
The Geisel Library at UCSD
Call of Cthulhu (Video Game)
Cognitive Science at UCSD

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Exploring STEM, Insulin Research, and Why We Get Sick

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: about Dr Bikman’s unconventional path to pursuing degrees in science, why scientists need to do a postdoc, what it means to have your own lab, the important role of insulin in the body, and a discussion of the book Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease--And How to Fight It (Benbella Books, 2020).

Our guest is: Dr. Benjamin Bikman, associate professor of Physiology & Developmental Biology at BYU, where he has his own lab and is currently exploring the contrasting roles of insulin and ketones as key drivers of metabolic function. He frequently publishes his research in peer-reviewed journals and presents at international science meetings. He lives in Utah with his wife and children, and strongly believes in the importance of a work-life balance.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in 19th-century America. She supports her work-life balance by taking long walks, and making time for her loved ones.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Why We Get Sick by Benjamin Bikman
Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz
Getting the Most Out of Your Postdoc
Determine Whether A STEM Major Is The Right Choice

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Faculty versus Administrative Positions: A Discussion with Karin Lewis

Thu, 18 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: key characteristics of administrative and faculty roles, ideas about administrative leadership versus management, questions to consider if you’re on the fence about which route to pursue, lessons learned, and ways to cultivate collaborative and supportive working relationships in either role.

Our guest is: Dr. Karin Lewis, an associate professor in the Teaching and Learning Department in the College of Education and P-16 Integration at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV). She teaches undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral courses in cognition, learning, and human development, writing for inquiry, and diversity, equity, and inclusion, and she mentors doctoral students in their scholarship. She has an extensive network of colleagues and scholars as Past-Chair of the UTRGV Women’s Faculty Network and President-Elect of the UTRGV Faculty Senate with a demonstrated record of collegial collaboration and leadership among her colleagues across the university, as well as nationally. She brings experience as a peer reviewer and editor for several publishers and academic journals, as well as professional conferences, such as AERA. She demonstrates a steadfast commitment to productive collaboration, an ethic of care, social justice, and culturally responsive transformative pedagogies, with expertise in qualitative research methodologies.

Prior to joining the faculty at UTRGV, for nine years Karin served as Assistant Provost of Undergraduate Education and Executive Director of the Department of Academic Enhancement at the University of Kentucky.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. Dana first met Karin as a doctorate student at the University of Kentucky when Karin hired her as a graduate TA to teach courses offered out of Academic Enhancement.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Random House Books.
Covey, S. (2013). 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Simon & Schuster.
Gordon, J. (2017). The Power of Positive Leadership: How and Why Positive Leaders Transform Teams and Organizations and Change the World. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Sinek, S. (2011). Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action. Penguin Group.
The work of Dr. Wayne Dyer, Coach John Wooden, and Maya Angelou, as well as the Positive Psychology Center at the University of Pennsylvania
Podcasts: Unlocking Us, Dr. Brené Brown; Dare to Lead, Dr. Brené Brown; Super Soul Conversations, Oprah Winfrey and The Happiness Lab, Dr. Laurie Santos

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Pandemic and the Student Parent: A Discussion with Brooke Lombardi

Mon, 15 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: realities of the shutdown with two young children; the internal reckoning when things beyond our control force a change in course, timeline adjustments and impacts on research as well as lessons learned and finding beauty in life amidst deep challenges.

Our guest is: Brooke Lombardi, M.S., a social worker and Ph.D. candidate at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Brooke researches perinatal health, specializing in the intersection of sexual victimization and the perinatal health care needs of women. Her dissertation is focused on the connection between lifetime experiences of sexual victimization and perinatal mental health disorders, such as PTSD, depression, and anxiety. She has co-authored papers related to perinatal health, human trafficking, and substance misuse in the perinatal period. Brooke is also a birth doula, adjunct faculty member at Elon University, partner, and mother to two.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. Dana met Brooke as a live-in Resident Director (RD) and Brooke was an undergraduate Resident Assistant (RA) on staff. They stayed connected after Brooke graduated, and over several years, a beautiful friendship unfolded.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Inside Higher Ed article: “Surviving the Pandemic as Grad Student Parents”
The Chronicle of Higher Education article: “Covid-19 and the Academic Parent”
Inside Higher Ed article: “A Double Whammy For Student Parents”
Institute for Women’s Policy Research report, Student Parents in the Covid-19 Pandemic: Heightened Need and Imperative for Strengthened Support
Interview with authors of You’re Doing it Wrong: Mothering, Media, and Medical Expertise (RUP) on NBN Gender Channel

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How to Navigate Mid-Career Choices as a Faculty Member: A Discussion with Vicki Baker

Thu, 11 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about a new, versatile resource for women associate professors, flipping the script on the mid-career stage, finding joy in the work and taking stock of priorities, as well as the importance of building a personalized mentor group.

Our guest is: Dr. Vicki Baker, recognized as a “Top 100 Visionary” in Education by the Global Forum for Education and Learning. Vicki is at the forefront of innovation and strategy in faculty and leadership development. As a faculty member herself and Fulbright Specialist Alumna her goal is to help faculty members and colleges and universities thrive. Vicki is the author of Charting Your Path to Full: A Guide for Women Associate Professors, lead editor of Success After Tenure: Supporting Mid-Career Faculty, and co-author of Faculty Development in Liberal Arts Colleges. Her work has been featured in national and international media outlets including WalletHub, Times Higher Education, Hechinger Report, Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic, USA Today, New York Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, and the Huffington Post. She regularly consults with industry and higher education institutions on the topics of leadership, faculty development, change management, and mentoring. Vicki enjoys spending time with her husband, two children, and their dog. She participates in interval training three days a week and is an avid reader.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. She specializes in college student relationships, gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as assessment planning. Dana enjoys delicious, healthy food, practicing yoga, and wandering the Jersey shore.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

(1) Dr. Vicki Baker’s website with Co-Founder Dr. Laura Lunsford (mentoring and leadership development expert) for additional resources and services we offer. Lead Mentor Develop LLC

(2) Great new book out by Pam Eddy & Elizabeth Kirby, Leading for Tomorrow

(3) Another excellent book by Rena Seltzer, The Coach's Guide for Women Professors

(4) Women in Academe Series by Jeanie K Allen

(5) Seminal work in this area by the late Kelly Ward and Lisa Wolf-Wendel, Academic Motherhood: How Faculty Manage Work and Family

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The Role of Community Colleges in Higher Education: A Discussion with Penny Wills

Thu, 04 Feb 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the role of community colleges in higher education and in their local communities, the Rural Community College Alliance, and being a first generation college student.

Our guest is: Dr Penny Wills, the President of Rural Community College Alliance.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

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How to Work Toward Diversity and Inclusion in Campus Organizations

Thu, 28 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the need for diversity and inclusion in campus organizations, what it means to do The Work, and a discussion of the book The Token.

Our guest is: Crystal Byrd Farmer, an engineer turned educator. She is the author of The Token: Common Sense Ideas for Increasing Diversity in Your Organization.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She reinterprets the historical narrative in both traditional and creative forms.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America by Richard Rothstein
Me and White Supremacy: Combat Racism, Change the World, and Become a Good Ancestor by Layla Saad
Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? And Other Conversations About Race by Beverly Tatum
College Presidents and the Struggle for Black Liberation by Eddie Cole.
Seeing White podcast series from Scene on Radio
AWARE-LA. White Anti-Racist Culture Building Toolkit
Dismantling Racism Workbook

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How to Stop Chasing Happiness and Make a Meaningful Life Instead

Thu, 21 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: why pursuing happiness won’t make you happy [but pursuing meaning can make you happier], why doing three random acts of kindness improves your mood, and discussion of the book A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding A Meaningful Existence.

Our guest is: Dr. Frank Martela, a professor at Aalto University in Helsinki. He finds meaning in family life, good conversations, friendships, and being a scholar. He is a philosopher and researcher of psychology specializing in studying the meaning of life, and is the author of A Wonderful Life.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She reinterprets the historical narrative in both traditional and creative forms. She finds meaning in her personal life, her research, and in nature. She supports her work-life balance with long walks and her photography, which you can find here.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

A Wonderful Life: Insights on Finding A Meaningful Existence by Frank Martela
Donna Freitas, The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost.
Find the Good by Heather Lende
The Power of Meaning by Emily Esfahani Smith
Sue Stuart-Smith, The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature.
The Ethics of Authenticity by Charles Taylor
The Outsider by Colin Wilson

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How to Leave Academia and Find a Good Job

Thu, 14 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: why there aren’t enough jobs in academia for the number of PhDs who want them, what a “tenure-trap” is, why you might be happier in a job outside academia, and discussion of the book Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide.

Our guest is: Dr. Christopher Caterine. He is a communications strategist, writer, and career coach. Since leaving academia, he has helped many graduate students and scholars find satisfying work in new arenas.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She reinterprets the historical narrative in both traditional and creative forms. She supports her work-life balance with long walks and her love of photography, which you can find here.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Leaving Academia: A Practical Guide by Christopher Caterine
Succeeding Outside the Academy by Kelly Baker
So What Are You Going to Do with That? by Susan Basalla and Maggie Debelius
The Graduate School Mess by Lenny Cassuto
Going Alt-Ac: A Guide to Alternative Academic Careers

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On Writing Well for Trade: A Conversation with author and scholar Donna Freitas

Thu, 07 Jan 2021 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to care for your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: differences between trade books and monographs, how to translate academic scholarship for wider audiences, risks and rewards of writing for trade, and trade books as a means to address justice issues related to access to knowledge and audience hierarchies.

Our guest is: Dr. Donna Freitas, a longtime researcher and scholar on topics related to sex on campus, Title IX, and sexual assault. She has spoken about her work at more than 200 colleges and universities across the United States. Donna is also the author of many books, both fiction and nonfiction, among them, Consent on Campus: A Manifesto (Oxford University Press) and Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention (Little, Brown). She has appeared on NPR, The Today Show, and many other radio and news programs to talk about her research, and her work has been published in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal among other places. Her novel, The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano will be published in April 2021 by Pamela Dorman Books/Viking in over twenty countries and languages. She lives in Brooklyn.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher ed scholar and practitioner. Dana was a follower and admirer of Donna’s work for many years and had the good fortune to connect with her in person when Donna served as a reviewer for Dana’s book, From Single to Serious (Rutgers UP). Things that make Dana’s heart happy include making delicious, healthy food, yoga, and wandering the coastline of the Jersey shore.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Freitas, D. (2017). The Happiness Effect: How Social Media is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost. Oxford University Press.
Freitas, D. (2010). Sex and the Soul: Juggling Sexuality, Spirituality, Romance, and Religion on America’s College Campus. Oxford University Press.

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The Self-Care Stuff: Considering Whether to Stay or Drop Out

Thu, 31 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: navigating academia as a STEM student, getting pregnant and parenting while still a student, and difficult decisions about dropping out or staying in academia.

Our guest is: Dr. Miriam Martin, an Assistant Professor of Teaching at the University of California, Davis. She teaches high-enrollment lecture and laboratory courses and specializes in learner-focused teaching practices that promote deep learning and an inclusive, equitable learning environment. Prior to teaching at UC Davis, she taught at several community colleges and also brought science experiments into elementary schools as a volunteer. She is the mother of two children and a pun-loving microbe-enthusiast. She invites you to follow up on our conversation through Twitter (@MicrobialGurl) or LinkedIn.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She is an independent scholar, and the co-creator of the Academic Life channel on New Books Network.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

“What matters in a PhD adviser? Here’s what the research says”
“How to survive grad school with a family”
“Lactation Support Program”
“A repository of peer-reviewed research and resources discussing the challenges facing white women and men and women of color in science”
PhD Balance (Twitter @PhD_Balance)
The Versatile PhD (Twitter @VersatilePhD)
“Life in extreme heat” (about the heat-loving microbes in Yellowstone National Park)
“Stalking Caulobacter”

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The Other Side of the Desk with a UP Editor: A Discussion with Kim Guinta

Thu, 24 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at dr.danamalone@gmail.com or cgessler@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: an overview of the publishing process (from the author side), what makes a strong proposal, common mistakes to avoid when approaching a university press, and advice for both aspiring and seasoned authors.

Our guest is: Kimberly Guinta, Editorial Director at Rutgers University Press. In addition to managing the editorial program for the press, she is responsible for acquiring books in the areas of Anthropology, Women’s and Gender Studies, and Caribbean and Latin American Studies. Kim arrived at Rutgers University Press in 2015 from Routledge, where she spent 15 years acquiring in U.S. and Latin American History.

Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher ed scholar and practitioner. She specializes in relationships, gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as assessment planning. Dana met Kim Guinta in 2015 when Kim served as the acquiring editor for Dana’s book, From Single to Serious. Things that make Dana’s heart happy include making delicious, healthy food, doing yoga, having inspiring conversations, and wandering the coastline of the Jersey shore.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Ask UP
Publishing programs in NYC:
Pace University
NYU
Columbia
Rachel Toor, The Chronicle of Higher Education, columns on publishing
From Dissertation to Book (2nd ed.) by William Germano
Getting it Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books (3rd ed.) by William Germano
Revising Your Dissertation: Advice from Leading Editors (updated ed.) by Beth Luey
Handbook for Academic Authors (5th ed.) by Beth Luey

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How to Use Your First Amendment Rights On Campus (and Off)

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter : The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: about the limits and the breadth of the first amendment, what to do when your free speech rights are violated, why having “free speech zones” on campus doesn’t work, and what you can do when someone else’s free speech is hurtful or offensive.

Our guest is Will Creeley, legal director of The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.

Will began defending student and faculty rights for FIRE in 2006 after graduating from New York University School of Law, where he served as an associate executive editor for the New York University Law Review. He is a member of the First Amendment Lawyers Association and serves as Co-Chair of the Education Subcommittee of the American Bar Association’s Section of Administrative Law and Regulatory Practice.

Your host is Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. She credits her ability to read nearly-illegible things to a childhood spent trying read her dad’s handwriting. Christina’s dad was a public defender; human rights and how to defend them was dinner table talk nightly.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

First Things First: A Modern Coursebook on Free Speech Fundamentals, by Ronald K.L. Collins, Will Creeley, David L. Hudson Jr., and Jackie Farmer.
"How to Respond to Richard Spencer," by Will Creeley, The New York Times (Oct. 19, 2017).
Jim Crow Campus: Higher Education and the Struggle for a New Southern Social Order, by Joy Ann Williamson-Lott.
"Fighting for Free Speech on America’s Campuses," by Cecilia Capuzzi Simon, The New York Times (Aug. 1, 2016).
FIRE's Tips for Student Activism

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How to See Your Senior Year of High School as a Path to College

Thu, 10 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: about being an imbedded journalist, the senior years of kids in LA, the importance of mentors and college counselors at school, some challenges and obstacles of getting to college, and a discussion of the book Show Them You’re Good.

Our guest is: Jeff Hobbs, the author of Show Them You’re Good. Jeff graduated with a BA in English language and literature from Yale in 2002. He is also the author of The Short and Tragic Life of Robert Peace; and The Tourists. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and two children.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. She chose her college because it 1) had great academic programs, 2) offered her great funding, 3) was on the beach, and 4) allowed pets to live in the dorms. It was the right choice for her.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Substitute by Nicholson Baker
Quiet by Susan Cain
Raising Cain by Dan Kindlon, PhD and Michael Thompson, PhD
Raising Victor Vargas, a film directed by Peter Sollet
Just Like Us by Helen Thorpe
Yale's Invisible Price Tags -- Yale Daily News article by Carlos Rodriguez

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Dealing with the Fs (Fear and Failure)

Thu, 03 Dec 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: board games, Edge House, how to rethink “failure” with the replacement word “successandfailure”, facing our fears by asking for what we need, and a discussion of the book How to Human.

Our guest is: Alice Connor, the author of How to Human: An Incomplete Manual for Living in a Messed-Up World. She is an Episcopal priest, a college chaplain, and runs Edge House. Alice is a certified enneagram teacher and a stellar pie-maker. She lives for challenging conversations and has a high tolerance for awkwardness. She lives with her husband, two kids and a dog.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. Her favorite board game is a version of Sorry! she invented with her dad long ago [directions provided in this episode.]. Christina seeks the extraordinary in the ordinary, writes poems about small relatable moments, and takes many photos in nature.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Enneagram Transformations by Don Riso
The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell
“The Importance of Stupidity in Scientific Research” in Journal of Cell Science by Martin A Schwartz
“The Guest House” poem by Rumi
Brene Brown’s TED Talk on vulnerability (not the one on shame)
The How To Human Study Guide (free download, on Fortress Press website)

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Finishing Your Book When Life Is A Disaster

Thu, 19 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter : The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: disaster stories, finishing a book project, poetry, and what resilience is and isn’t.

Our guest is: Jennifer Strube, a writer, educator, and licensed therapist who loves chronicling life's stories. After three master's degrees and a decade of teaching, she relocated west from New York City in search of open sky. An avid believer in the wild places, her work highlights the spaces that wake one up—the byroads of travel, the subtlety of everyday grace, and that impetuous ache called love. She is the author of the poetry book Wild Everything, discussed in this episode.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. She credits her ability to read nearly-illegible things to a childhood spent trying read her dad’s handwriting. She reinterprets traditional narratives through her blogs, podcasts, essays, photography, and poetry. She met Jen at a community supper c.2014 and they’ve been friends ever since. Their county has faced three disasters—the Thomas Fire, a deadly debris flow, and the Covid-19 outbreak—in the last three years. Somehow, Jen and Christina are both still here. Christina supports her resilience by taking photos in nature, which you can find here.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging by Sebastian Junger
Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
The Blessing of a B-Minus by Dr. Wendy Mogel
Why I Wake Early by Mary Oliver
Wild Everything by Jennifer Strube

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Should I Quit My Ph.D. Program?

Thu, 12 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our own mentor networks to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter : The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: what happens when graduate school doesn’t go as you’d planned, and what happens to your degree and your career if you leave school before you complete your PhD.

Our guest is: Rev. Rebecca Duke-Barton, a United Methodist pastor. She has a Master of Divinity from Wesley Theological Seminary, and was A.B.D. at Emory University before leaving the program. She has taught at Andrew College, and served as pastor in four United Methodist Churches. She also serves as president of the Georgia United Methodist Commission on Higher Education & Collegiate Ministry.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian. She specializes in diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. She credits her ability to read nearly-illegible things to her childhood spent trying read her dad’s handwriting. In high school she was trained in peer mentor programs; as an undergrad she worked in her campus Writing Center; while pursuing her Ph.D. she developed and ran a Mentor Program for graduate students. She met Rev. Rebecca Duke-Barton when they were both graduate students, and they’ve been friends ever since. Christina supports her work-life balance by taking photos in nature, which you can find at here.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables by Phil Vischer
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith by Barbara Brown Taylor
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer
The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown
CareerShifters

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On Writing Well: Really Personal Essays-A Conversation with Rebekah Taussig

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: about writing personal essays both online and in print, disability as a constructed cultural barrier, and a discussion of the book Sitting Pretty [a collection of personal essays].

Our guest is: Rebekah Taussig, the author of Sitting Pretty. She is a Kansas City writer and a teacher. She earned a PhD in Creative Nonfiction and Disability Studies from the University of Kansas. She is interested in the powerful connection between the cultural narratives we tell and the world we live in, from physical spaces and economic opportunities to social roles and interpersonal relationships. She writes personal essays that participate in the stories being told about disability.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. She credits her ability to read nearly-illegible things to a childhood spent trying read her dad’s handwriting.

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Sexuality on Evangelical Campuses: A Conversation with Dana M. Malone

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: dating, sex and single students on evangelical campuses, and a discussion of the book From Single to Serious.

Our guest is: Dr. Dana M. Malone. She a higher ed scholar and practitioner energized by facilitating meaningful learning experiences for students and educators alike. Currently an Independent Scholar, she writes, teaches, and works with institutions on a contract basis. Her specialty areas include student cultures, the intersection of gender, intimate relationships, and religious identities as well as student success, assessment planning, and program evaluation. She’s the co-host of The Academic Life channel on New Books Network. She supports her work-life balance by making delicious healthy foods, spending time at the Jersey Shore, and doing yoga.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She met Dana Malone when she interviewed her for the NBN Gender Channel about her new book From Single to Serious. They stayed in touch after the interview, and over the following weeks worked together to develop and launch The Academic Life channel for NBN. They have been friends and TAL co-hosts ever since. Christina supports her work-life balance with long daily walks, and her love of photography, which you can find on Getty Images/iStock, and in galleries, and here.

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Getting an MFA and Memoir Writing

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter : The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: about putting your personal story onto the page, choosing between fiction and memoir to find your story’s true voice, getting an MFA, the importance of having a good mentor, navigating the stories of others that intersect yours, creating beauty out of trauma, grief, BLM, and a discussion of the book The Names of All the Flowers.

Our guest is: Melissa Valentine, author of The Names of All the Flowers. She is a writer from Oakland, CA. She earned her BA from Sarah Lawrence College and her MFA in creative writing from Mills College. She has been a fellow at the San Francisco Writers' Grotto, and her work has appeared in Jezebel, Guernica, Apogee Journal, and others. Her writing has received honorable mention from Glimmer Train, and the Ardella Mills Non-fiction Award. She works as an editor, and currently lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
Between the World and Me by Ta Nehisi Coates
Create Dangerously by Edwidge Danticat
The Purpose of Power by Alicia Garza
Dust Tracks On a Road by Zora Neale Hurston
Soldier by June Jordan
Sister Outsider by Audre Lorde
The Source of Self-Regard by Toni Morrison
Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward
"How Racism Makes Us Sick" [TedTalk]
"How Childhood Trauma Affects Health Across A Lifetime" [TedTalk]

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Researching Racial Injustice

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: about the process of researching a current event, the history of policing in the US, what “defund the police” means, the importance of mentors, challenges of demonstrating safely, and a discussion of the book Hands Up Don’t Shoot.

Our guest is: Jennifer E. Cobbina, the author of Hands Up Don’t Shoot. She is an Associate Professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. Her primary research focuses on the issue of corrections, prisoner reentry and the understanding of recidivism and desistance among recently released female offenders. Her second primary research area is centered on examining how race, gender, and neighborhood context impact victimization risks among minority youth.Dr. Cobbina’s work appears in a number of top criminology journals, such as Criminology, Justice Quarterly, Crime and Delinquency, Criminal Justice & Behavior, British Journal of Criminology, and Journal of Drug Issues. She currently serves as the co-chair for the ASC Division on People of Color and Crime. She is on the editorial board of the scholarly journals Justice Quarterly, Journal of Crime & Justice, and Sociology Compass: Crime and Deviance Section.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Alexander, Michelle. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. New York: New Press.
Butler, P. Chokehold: Policing Black Men. New York: The New Press.
Brunson, Rod K. 2007. “‘Police Don't Like Black People’: African American Young Men's Accumulated Police Experiences.” Criminology &Public Policy. 6:71-102.
Jones, Nikki. The Chosen Ones.
Norris, Zach. We Keep Us Safe: Building Secure, Just, and Inclusive Communities. Boston, Beacon Press.
Rios, V. Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys. New York: NYU Press.
Ritchie, A. J. Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color. Boston, MA: Beacon Press.

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How to Deal With Structural Inequality in Academia

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you’re not an island, and neither are we. So, we are reaching across our own contacts – and beyond - to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Want to hear a particular expert or topic? Email your ideas to cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com or DM us on Twitter @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode, you’ll hear: a discussion of the book Presumed Incompetent and Presumed Incompetent II; the intersecting roles of race, gender and class for academic women of color; structural inequalities; and the barriers to being hired and getting tenure.

Our guests are: Dr. Yolanda Flores Niemann, who is the Interim Chair and Professor of the Department of Psychology at University of North Texas. And Dr. Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, who is the Theilene Pigott McCone Chair for the Humanities and professor of modern languages and women studies in the Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies Department at Seattle University. They are co-editors of Presumed Incompetent: The Intersections of Race and Class for Women in Academia, and of Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode may also be interested in:

Barlow, F. K. and Sibley, C.G. The Cambridge Handbook of The Psychology of Prejudice, Concise Student Edition.
Boyd, Beth, Caraway, S. Jean, Niemann, Yolanda Flores, Eds. Surviving and Thriving in Academia: A Guide for Members of Marginalized Groups.
Caroline Kieu-Linh Valverde. "Fight the Tower: A Call to Action for Women of Color in Academia," Seattle Journal for Social Justice: Vol. 12 : Iss. 2 , Article 5.
Niemann, Y.F., & Carter, C. Microaggressions in the Classroom.
Njie-Carr, V. P. S. Niemann, Y.F., & Sharps, P. W. Eds. Disparities in the Academy: Accounting for the Elephant.
Kimberly D. McKee and Denise A. Delgado, Eds. Degrees of Difference: Reflections of Women of Color on Graduate School.
Kerry Ann Rockemore and Tracey Laszloffy, Eds. The Black Academic's Guide to Winning Tenure-Without Losing Your Soul.
Takaki, R. A Different Mirror: A History of Multicultural America (Revised Edition).
Vest, Jennifer Lisa. "What Doesn't Kill You: Existential Luck, Postracial Racism, and The Subtle and Not So Subtle Ways the Academy Keeps Women of Color Out," Seattle Journal for Social Justice: Vol. 12 : Iss. 2 , Article 7.

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How to Maintain Your Artistic Practice After Graduation

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

In this episode you’ll hear: author Beth Pickens discuss Your Art Will Save Your Life, and wisdom on why you need to preserve your artistic practice, and what to do with what blocks you.

Our guest is: Beth Pickens, a Los Angeles-based consultant for artists and arts organizations and the author of Your Art Will Save Your Life. She has a Master’s degree in Counseling Psychology, and provides career consultation, grant writing, fundraising, and financial, project, and strategic planning services for artists and arts organizations in the U.S. She teaches at the California Institute of the Arts School of Theater, and specializes in supporting queer and trans artists, women, and artists of color.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women and gender. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. She credits her ability to read nearly-illegible things to a childhood spent trying read her dad’s handwriting. She reinterprets traditional narratives in her blogs, podcasts, essays, photography, and poetry. Christina supports her artistic practice by taking daily photos in nature, which she posts at: https://www.facebook.com/themeditationwalks/

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Big Friendship by Aminatou Sow and Ann Friedman
Art INC. by Lisa Congdon
Find Your Artistic Voice: The Essential Guide to Working Your Creative Magic by Lisa Congdon
How To Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy by Jenny Odell
Art & Fear: Observations On the Perils (and Rewards) of Artmaking by David Bayles and Ted Orland
How to Break Up with Your Phone by Catherine Price
Make Your Art No Matter What: Moving Beyond Creative Hurdles by Beth Pickens (out April 6 on Chronicle Books)

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The Detective Work of Research: A Conversation with Polly E. Bugros McLean

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: how doing research is like being a detective; when you have to get off the internet and go do field work; why the person known as “the first” usually wasn’t the first; and a discussion of the book Remembering Lucille.

Our guest is: Polly E. Bugros McLean, associate professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder, where she has served as director of Women and Gender Studies and as the faculty associate to the Chancellor. She is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Chancellor’s Committee on Women Award, the Chancellor’s Equity and Excellence Award, Robert L. Stearns Award, the Edward R. Murrow Award for teaching excellence, and the Best Should Teach Gold Award. In 1999 and 2000 she was a Senior Fulbright Scholar to the University of Namibia. She is the author of Remembering Lucille.

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On Writing Well: Feminist Biography-A Conversation with Anya Jabour

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: finding elusive primary resources, following the intersections of women’s lives, how to write biography, what to do with the research you can’t fit in your book, and a discussion of the book Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women's Activism in Modern America.

Our guest is: Anya Jabour, Regents Professor of History at the University of Montana. Her books include Topsy-Turvy: How the Civil War Turned the World Upside Down for Southern Children and Scarlett's Sisters: Young Women in the Old South. She is the author of Sophonisba Breckinridge: Championing Women's Activism in Modern America.

Your host is: Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She’s run mentor programs, worked in museum education, evaluated history grants for government funded education programs, and taught writing and women’s history. She also decodes the diaries left behind by 19th century New England farm women. She is the co-producer of the Academic Life channel.

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How to Help Girls Achieve

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear about: the persistent lack of equality in educational access, why feminist schools are necessary, and a discussion of the book How Girls Achieve.

Our guest is: Sally A. Nuamah, the author of How Girls Achieve. She is a scholar, activist, and filmmaker. She has received numerous awards, including the Gates Millennium scholarship and the Black Women Organized for Political Action’s Under 40 Award in Education, and was selected a Change-Maker by the White House. She began the TWII Foundation to provide funding for girls striving to be first in their families to go to college. She was named a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University and a Women and Public Policy fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School. She is currently Assistant Professor at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

What works by Iris Bohnet
Teaching Girls: How Teachers and Parents Can Reach Their Brains and Hearts, by P. K. Kuriloff, S. H. Andrus, and C. E. Jacobs
We Want to do More than Survive by Bettina Love
Push Out by Monique Morris
How Girls Achieve by Sally Nuamah
HerStory, a documentary about girls and education in Ghana
Clapping with One Hand: Sally Nuamah at TEDx

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Research, Whiteness, and Campus Monuments

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: about getting an MFA in nonfiction, conducting research for your book, confronting your privilege, the fight to remove a campus monument, and a discussion of the book Down Along With That Devil’s Bones.

Our guest is: Connor Towne O’Neill, the author of Down Along With That Devil’s Bones. He is a graduate of Vassar College, and earned an MFA from the University of Alabama. He teaches at Auburn University, and is a producer on the NPR podcast White Lies.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century, and is the co-creator of The Academic Life podcast series on New Books Network.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

The Half Has Never Been Told by Edward Baptist
Race and Reunion by David Blight
“Applying Critical Race and Memory Studies to University Place Naming Controversies: Toward a Responsible Landscape Policy” by Jordan Brasher, Derek Alderman, and Joshua Inwood
“Landscape Fairness: Removing Discrimination from the Built Environment” by Stephen Clowney
White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo
Memorial Mania by Erika Doss
Stony the Road by Henry Louis Gates
Nathan Bedford Forrest by Jack Hurst

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Gender Bias in the Study of Science

Fri, 06 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island, and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring in an expert about something? Email us at cgessler@gmail.com or dr.danamalone@gmail.com. Find us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.

In this episode you’ll hear: studying the brain, women in STEM, your inner limiter, gender bias in the scientific method, and a discussion of the book Gender and The Brain.

Our guest is: Gina Rippon, author of Gender and Your Brain. She is a British neuroscientist, feminist, and an honorary professor of cognitive neuroimaging at the Aston Brain Centre, Aston University in Birmingham, England. In 2015 she was made honorary fellow of the British Science Association. Rippon has also sat on the editorial board of the International Journal of Psychophysiology, and is a member of the European Union Gender Equality Network, belongs to WISE and ScienceGrrl, and the Inspiring the Future initiative.

Your host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian of women, gender, and sexuality. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. She seeks the extraordinary in the ordinary, writes poems about small relatable moments, and takes many photos in nature.

Listeners to this episode might be interested in:

Blakemore, S.J. Inventing Ourselves: The Secret Life of the Teenage Brain.
Hines, M. Brain Gender.
Jarrett, C. Great Myths of the Brain.
Joel, D. and Vikhanski, L. Gender Mosaic: Beyond the Myth of the Female Brain.
Matthew D. Lieberman. Social: Why Our Brain are Wired to Connect.
Mitchell, K.J. Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are.
Rippon, G 2019. TedX talk: A Gendered World Makes a Gendered Brain: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s1hrHppl5E
Schiebinger, L. The Mind Has No Sex?: Women in the Origins of Modern Science.

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Introduction to 'The Academic Life' Podcast

Thu, 05 Nov 2020 09:00:00 -0000

In this episode, you’ll hear: our paths to college and graduate school, and the instructive moments along the way, why you might need a mentor (or two or three) to accomplish your goals, and how this channel offers a virtual community for your journey – in, out, or through – academia.

Your co-host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a scholar and practitioner energized by facilitating meaningful learning experiences for students and educators alike. She loves connecting with kindred academic spirits, like Christina, and collaborating on inspiring projects. When she’s not having engaging conversations on TAL podcast, she writes, teaches, and works with institutions on a contract basis. Her specialty areas include student cultures, the intersection of gender, sexuality, and religious identities as well as student success, assessment and evaluation, and strategic planning. She provides invited talks on her book, From Single to Serious. Dana is also known for kitchen dance parties, wandering the Jersey shore, and crushing hills on her spin bike. Check out more: www.danammalone.com.

Your other co-host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, a historian. She specializes in decoding diaries written by rural women in the 19th century. She credits her ability to read nearly-illegible things to a childhood spent trying read her dad’s handwriting. In high school she was trained in peer mentor programs; as an undergrad she worked in her campus Writing Center; while pursuing her Ph.D. she developed and ran a Mentor Program for graduate students. She enjoys presenting history in nontraditional forms, like creating photography exhibits about the fields and farms that are no longer in use, and nonfiction poems about the intersection of nature and history. She met Dr. Dana Malone when she interviewed her for an episode on the NBN Gender Channel, and they’ve been friends ever since. Christina supports her work-life balance by taking photos in nature, which you can find at: https://www.facebook.com/themeditationwalks/

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Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The Academic Life

Monsters in the Archives: My Year of Fear with Stephen King

The Case for Career Services

The Coroner’s Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence

The Club: Where American Artists Found Refuge in Belle Epoque Paris

The Criminal Record Complex: Risk, Race, and the Struggle for Work in America

⁠The Collective Cure: ﻿﻿Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health⁠

What’s on Her Mind: The Mental Workload of Family Life

Stuck: How Money, Media and Violence Prevent Change in Congress

The Vet at the End of the Earth: Adventures with Animals in the South Atlantic

A Light in the Tower: A New Reckoning with Mental Health in Higher Education

The American Mirage: How Reality TV Upholds the Myth of Meritocracy

The Power of the State: Madres de la Plaza de Mayo, and Minneapolis

Educated Out: How Rural Students Navigate Elite Colleges—And What It Costs Them

Ghost in the Criminal Justice Machine

Abortion and Reproductive Justice: An Essential Guide for Resistance

Everything Is Fine, I'll Just Work Harder: Confessions of a Former Badass

How to Make Your Brain Your Best Friend

How to Organize Inclusive Events and Conferences

Sustainability, Identity, Artisans and Designers

Try to Love the Questions: From Debate to Dialogue in Classrooms and Life

Living Night: On the Secret Wonders of Wildlife After Dark

Black Girls and How We Fail Them

The Library of Lost Maps: An Archive of a World in Progress

Conversations with Birds

Doing the Work of Equity Leadership for Justice and Systems Change

Facing Infinity: Black Holes and Our Place on Earth

House of Diggs: The Rise and Fall of America’s Most Consequential Black Congressman, Charles C. Diggs Jr.

Eram Alam, "The Care of Foreigners: How Immigrant Physicians Changed US Healthcare" (JHU Press, 2025)

What Do You Want Out of Life? A Philosophical Guide to Figuring Out What Matters

The Light Between Apple Trees: Rediscovering the Wild Through a Beloved American Fruit

Make Your Manuscript Work: A Guide to Developmental Editing for Scholarly Writers

Leading Toward Liberation: How to Build Cultures of Thriving in Higher Education

Jonn Elledge, "A Brief History of the World in 47 Borders: Surprising Stories Behind the Lines on Our Maps" (Experiment, 2024)

I Have Avenged America: Jean-Jacques Dessalines and Haiti’s Fight for Freedom

Designing and Facilitating Workshops with Intentionality

Jumping Through Hoops: Performing Gender in the 19th Century Circus

Who Needs College Anymore: Imagining A Future Where Degrees Don’t Matter

Tackling the Everyday: Race and Nation in Big-Time College Football

Citizenship Stripping: You Are Not American

Lost in Thought: The Hidden Pleasures of an Intellectual Life

Every Purchase Matters: How Fair Trade Farmers, Companies, and Consumers are Changing the World

Teacher by Teacher: The People Who Change Our Lives

Rehearsals for Dying

Religion in the Lands That Became America

The Entrepreneurial Scholar: A New Mindset for Success in Academia and Beyond

Overcoming ABD Pitfalls: Tips for Getting Unstuck

Decolonizing Ukraine: The Indigenous People of Crimea and Pathways to Freedom

Secrets of the Killing State

Considering Leaving Academia?

How Schools Make Race: Teaching Latinx Racialization in America

Trans Technologies

Moments of Impact: How to Design Strategic Conversations That Accelerate Change

The Freedom Academy

Brittany Friedman, "Carceral Apartheid: How Lies and White Supremacists Run Our Prisons" (UNC Press, 2025)

Live from the Underground: A History of College Radio

Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine

Academic Librarians: A Discussion with Karen McCoy

Living Right: Far Right Youth Activists in Contemporary Europe

You Have More Influence Than You Think

No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice

Doctors by Nature: How Ants, Apes, and Other Animals Heal Themselves

Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts

What Might Be: Confronting Racism to Transform Our Institutions

Womanist Bioethics: Social Justice, Spirituality, and Black Women's Health

The AI Mirror: How to Reclaim Our Humanity in an Age of Machine Thinking

Project Management for Researchers

The Burnout Workbook

Teaching With Positive Psychology Skills

Big Box USA: The Environmental Impact of America's Biggest Retail Stores

The World She Edited: Katharine S. White at the New Yorker

The Vice President's Black Wife: The Untold Life of Julia Chinn

Thanks to Life: A Biography of Violeta Parra

Understanding Disinformation

The First and Last King of Haiti: The Rise and Fall of Henry Christophe

Tara Dorabji, "Call Her Freedom" (Simon and Schuster, 2025)

Dear Miss Perkins: A Story of Frances Perkins's Efforts to Aid Refugees from Nazi Germany

Graduate School Myths and Misconceptions

Once Upon a Tome: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller

A Teacher’s Guide to Learning Student Names

⁠The Collective Cure: Upstream Solutions for Better Public Health⁠