The Humanities District

Happy December, everybody! In this episode we get a visit from the Dean. Dr. Wahl and I discuss building projects happening on campus at Missouri State University. We talk about new academic programs, the phases of the academic realignment, AI, the new digital humanities lab, and much more. Shawn enjoys books about motivation and leadership. In the conversation, he shares an example of book that h...

Shannon Cay is a visual journalist with The Daily Citizen . We talk about the making of her recent short documentary " Beyond the Veil : Exploring the psychic community in Springfield." We also discuss the Daily Citizen, how Shannon got her start in journalism, and much more. Thanks for listening.

Dr. Suzanne E. Walker-Pacheco is a Professor in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology at Missouri State University. She stopped by the Humanities District to share the inside story of Paws to the Polls, a nonpartisan voter participation and voter literacy campus initiative. ~ You can find the voter info guides we discussed as well as the videos we discussed here: https://public...

**Interested in the Humanities District Fall Book Club? Click here! ** ~ My guest this month is Andrew Crocker, an Instructor of Political Science at Ozarks Technical Community College (OTC) and the co-advisor for a student organization called Politically Active , a nonpartisan student-run group focused on improving the political literacy of Ozarks Tech students. ~ Andrew also co-hosts a podcast a...

**Check out the Humanities District Book Club!** > The Last Human Job by Allison Pugh ~ My guest today is Dr. Leslie Baynes, Associate Professor in the department of languages cultures and religions at MSU. She teaches many classes on topics in Religious Studies including a class on apocalyptic literature and a class on C. S. Lewis, both of which I took in 2007. ~ Leslie is the author of the fo...

Today's guest is Gemma Campanini, poetry event facilitator extraordinaire. If you've ever felt like poetry made more sense out loud and in person than it did on the page, you're in good company with Gemma. We talk about many of Gemma's poetic and literary endeavors, past, present, and future, including but not limited to: Oh Snap poetry, poetry slams, poetry for personal healing, t...

Today we welcome Jennifer Murvin back to the podcast. Jennifer is assistant professor of English at Missouri State and owner of Pagination Bookshop in Springfield. The shop is celebrating its 5th birthday this year! We talk about highs and lows from the past 5 years and look to the future.

Today's guest is Dr. Jonathan Groves, Professor of Communication and Department Chair of Communication at Drury University. In today's conversation we talk about Jonathan's class, "Communication and Civic Engagement." We talk about the Community Focus Report , which Jonathan has facilitated since 2016. And we talk about KDRU , Springfield's community radio, live from Drur...

What is a pedagogy of truth? Read a transcript of this episode on Substack here . Heather Walters is a senior instructor of Communication. Today we talk about two of her books: Understanding Argumentation in a Post-Truth World , and Communication Ethics: Promoting Truth, Responsibility, and Civil Discourse in a Polarized Age.

Stop the presses! A conversation with professor Mike Czyzniejewski. Read a transcript of this episode on Substack here . Our topic today: The ongoing plagiarism scandal that hit literary magazines around the country. To learn more, I spoke with Professor  Mike Czyzniejewski , editor of  Moon City Review , Missouri State’s literary journal. Mike is a returning champion on the  podcast : We spoke ab...

Episode transcripts are now available on Substack ! Tracie Gieselman France is an archivist at Meyer Library University Archives and Special Collections. In this conversation, Tracie sheds light on the marvelous surprises that await you in the university archives. We also discuss the book "Creating Family Archives: A Step-by-Step Guide to Saving Your Memories for Future Generations" by M...

Tessa Cooper is a freelance lifestyle writer. Her work appears in places such as 417 Magazine (Sign up for Tessa’s Table Talk Newsletter !), Apartment Therapy , and The Spruce⁠. Tessa and I discussed our top picks for our favorite categories on 417 Magazine’s annual “Best of” ballot. – Everything from best patio, to best sandwich, to best cocktail. Do you agree with my and Tessa’s picks? Tessa is...

Introducing Dr. Bajalan Dr. Djene Bajalan is associate professor of history at Missouri State University. ~ Talking History Djene is co-host of Talking History, a radio program and podcast created by KSMU. Each month, Dr. Bajalan and Patrick Needham speak with historians and scholars about the ideas, people, and events that have shaped our world. ( https://www.ksmu.org/podcast/talking-history ). Y...

Today’s guest is Greta Cross, 2023 Missouri Press Association Young Journalist of the Year. A graduate of MSU’s journalism program, Greta was the editor-in-chief of the Standard during her time at Missouri State, and is now the trending topics reporter for the Springfield News-Leader. In today’s conversation we talk about how trending topics is the everything bagel beat, and we talk about the “str...

Today’s guest is Jack Diamond, senior instructor in the CMJF department and advisor of the student newspaper, the Standard.  Check out the Standard’s website here --> https://www.the-standard.org/ Note especially their email newsletter. They also have student-run podcasts! Jack and I discuss: A student newspaper’s role in campus community. The impact of COVID on campus and on the Standard, The...

Happy Halloween! In honor of spooky season, our topic today is horror. American horror fiction, that is! ENG 355 is a variable topics class in the English department, and it's one of the classes taught by today's guest - Joel Coltharp, instructor in the English Department at Missouri State University. We talk about gothic horror, weird horror, cosmic horror, monsters, body horror, psycholo...

Dr. Stephen Berkwitz is department head of the Languages, Cultures and Religions at Missouri State. He is also an expert in religious studies with a special focus on South Asian religions. He teaches classes including Buddhism, Yoga and Meditation, and Theories of Religion – a class he developed. We talk about comparative religion, Buddhism, and the Four Noble Truths. I pose questions on religious...

To those of you listening from the MSU campus community, happy Midterm!! We have Thursday and Friday off this week for Fall Break. The podcast will be taking time off for fall break too, so we’ll be back Monday the 23rd with a brand new conversation. This week my guest is Jon Mabee, Associate Professor in the Department of Communication, Media, Journalism and Film. Jon’s many classes include Funda...

Today’s guest is Dr. Amy Knowles, assistant clinical professor in the department of English and the interim director of English education. Amy works with preservice teachers, which are students studying education in a content area, in this case English Language Arts, who have degree requirements that include practicums and student teaching that they must meet in order to be certified. I ask Amy wh...

Nick Beatty is an instructor and academic advisor in the Department of Political Science and Philosophy. In today's episode, Nick and I chat about two central topics: political science (from international relations to political efficacy) and chess club (from chess strategy to chess scholarships). In the episode intro, I mention a bunch of upcoming things. Here are the links to those things: MS...

Stacy Rice is Senior Instructional Designer in the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning (FCTL) at Missouri State University. On January 18, 2023, the FCTL blog posted a piece by Stacy about artificial intelligence and its role in education: ⁠FCTL Blog post: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Its Impact on the Classroom⁠ Stacy's post was the first of its kind that I found. At the time, I had...

It's such a joy to speak with Dr. Shawn Wahl, the Dean of the Reynolds College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities. Jay Howard and Dean Wahl talk about Tent Theater, the John Goodman Amphitheater, The Reynolds Scholarship, the completion of the Grant Street Underpass, upcoming college celebrations, the new college's footprint on campus and throughout the community, marching band, and t...

Who is the film person in your life? Personally, I know a bunch of film buffs, but only one of them has a Youtube channel! This week I talk to Nathan Jones about his Youtube journey. Nathan currently has 3.27K subscribers on Youtube and 550 videos on his channel. In my book, that's a pretty big deal. He's collected more than 4,000 Blu-Rays---around 1,200 of which he hasn't yet seen. Sp...

Dr. Alan Tinkler is an associate professor and assistant department head in the Department of English at Missouri State University. We talk about a new summer internship program called The Springfield Way. The Springfield Way is a paid summer internship program. Summer 2023 was its first run. There were 14 students who each did 100 hours of service with a community partner using skills that are sp...

Dr. William Harwood is an assistant professor of philosophy at Missouri State University. We talk about data ethics, the trolley problem, and much more. The trolley problem stuff starts at around 1:02:10 in the episode. Thoughts on this episode? Weigh in on Facebook! --> https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094909736350&mibextid=ZbWKwL Do you have an idea about who/what we should feat...