The Humanities District

Overview of the 5 steps

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 has inspired him. The title of that book is Reframing Organizations: Artistry, Choice, and Leadership, by Bolman and Deal.

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://publicaffairs.missouristate.edu/PTTP/default.htm ~ Thanks for listening! If youre listening to this conversation your web browser, please help me out by subscribing to the podcast for free on a podcast app such as Spotify, and tell a friend about the show. You can also reach me at jayhoward@missouristate.edu

**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 about OTC called Oh That's Cool. ~ The Humanities District is Springfield-based podcast hosted by me, Jay Howard. I talk to leaders in the arts, social sciences and humanities about their work in the community.

**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 forthcoming book, "Incarnation and Imagination: C. S. Lewis and the Bible." She has visited the museum that holds Lewis's wardrobe, the library that holds many of his personal letters, the pub where the Inklings met, and even Lewis's house, the Kilns. ~ We talk about all things Lewis, including Leslie's recent participation in the inaugural cohort of the Inklings Project.

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, the Bards of Moon City, the Ozarks Literacy Council, the Missouri Fine Arts Academy, as well as Gemma's newest project, "Reignite - burn through barriers with free verse poetry," upcoming this fall. Like The Humanities District on facebook, subscribe to the Substack, and share this podcast with a friend!

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 Drury University. The Humanities District is a podcast about creativity and community. Host Jay Howard talks to academics and alumni in Springfield Missouri about their work. Got an idea for the podcast? Drop me a line at jayhoward@gmail.com.

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 about Moon City Review back in March 2022. Mike teaches a Small Press Production class which focuses on Moon City Review. This scandal has furnished endless discussion starters in his class of late. “It gives us this huge topic to talk about,” said Mike. “And then we had a lot of followups. I've given kind of a daily update about this as the stories evolved.”

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 Margot Note. To view the collections online, check out the special collections website. And for more from Tracie, check out this episode of OzarksWatch video magazine.

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 2016 Missouri State graduate who studied Public Relations and Design, is my guest for episode 15 of the Fall 2023 season. This is the third installment of the Alumni Series. I ask Tessa the hard questions in this interview, including: “Is there any upper limit to the number of throw pillows that should be on a bed?” We talk about secret menu items, travel writing, and house tours. Tessa also gives a shoutout to some of her most memorable professors during her undergraduate career at Missouri State.

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). You can hear the program on the radio on Thursdays, or tune in on the website to hear the radio spot plus “Talking History Extra.” Djene is also a contributor on several other podcasts, including This is Revolution (https://open.spotify.com/show/0EGnAcDc6f13xJey7nRYPD) and American Prestige podcast where he hosts a series about the history of the Kurds (https://www.americanprestigepod.com/p/the-history-of-the-kurds-w-djene). ~ Maybe Scar was the good guy? We discuss The Lion King at about 36 minutes into the conversation. I ask Djene why the MSU general education world history classes are the way they are, with HST 103 covering up to the year 1600, and HST 104 covering 1600 on. Why 1600? The answer is multi-pronged, but one thing Djene talks about is the difference between premodern societies and modern. Djene points to the Lion King as an analogy of how pre-modern societies worked: “Everybody is in their place in society and should stay in their place. And the bad guy, Scar, his big sin is bringing the hyenas into the ruling elite, and destructing the natural order of things.” Djene notes that people did move up and down in pre-modern societies sometimes, but, in general, “if you were a peasant, you would expect your children to continue being a peasant. If you were an aristocrat, you would expect your children to continue being aristocrats. You have a society which was hierarchically organized into different social classes […] There was no concept of a universal right, as it were. But in modern society that's really different.”  So, Scar could be cast as the good guy in the Lion King “because he's trying to bring more people in that ruling elite of society, that's challenging the hierarchies of society.” ~ Housekeeping We also discuss Djene’s other classes, his research interests, and the History department more generally. Please note that this episode was recorded earlier in the semester, prior to the October 2023 Hamas attack. You can follow the Making Cash podcast on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100094909736350⁠ Please like, follow, subscribe, and share!

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 “strange, weird, glorious place” that is Springfield, Missouri. Greta is currently developing a 5 episode podcast project forthcoming in 2024 about drag in rural Missouri communities. We talk about the art and activism of drag, Greta’s interviews and research for the project including her use of the Meyer Library OLGA archives (Ozarks Lesbian and Gay Archives), and much more.

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 history of Standard and how its operations have changed over time, The now-defunct MSU readership program that used to provide the Wall Street Journal, NYT, and the News-Leader daily to students and the campus community, Some of the controversies the paper has covered, The classes Jack teaches, and Freedom of the press. This was the first episode I’ve ever recorded in the Standard’s podcasting studio, and the equipment there is great! I’ll definitely be back!

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, psychological horror, supernatural horror, and much more. Joel is also the fiction editor at Moon City Review. We talk about his editing, teaching, and writing. We also talk about Books to Keep, a charitable community organization that sponsors book fairs in our community. Check out Books to Keep here. Don't forget to subscribe to the podcast on your podcast platform of choice, and follow on facebook. Thanks for listening.

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 topics ranging from jet skis to beer styles, and Stephen deftly addresses them all. As a Buddhism expert, I had to ask Stephen about the Taylor Swift song, Karma. Is karma really the breeze in Taylor Swift’s hair on the weekend? Stephen (who has written books on Buddhist poetry, and who in a past life was a concert promoter) breaks it all down for us. We also talk about the LCR department itself and its role in the University’s public affairs mission and it’s cultural competence pillar. Learning about something new, such as an unfamiliar language or religion, can help us look at things that are familiar to us in a new light. Check us out on facebook, and please share this podcast with your friends and colleagues.

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 Fundamentals Media Production, Principles of Cinematography, and special topics classes including Advanced Directing: D&D Storytelling. We talk about D&D and nerd culture, from noble paladins to evil dragons. Jon explains what aspiring filmmakers can learn about storytelling from studying the character dynamics in role-playing games. We also talk about the TV and film industries, which Jon’s media students are preparing to enter. The writers guild was on strike from May 2 to September 27 of this year. The actors went on strike July 14, and that strike is still ongoing. We talk about topics related to the strike including AI, what TV is doing in the meantime, and the future of the industry generally. Instead of recording a housekeeping segment this week, I thought I’d put housekeeping here in the show notes and let the episode start right off with the guest. What do you think of the format? Can I get away with putting the housekeeping only here in the shownotes (shoutouts, announcements, previews of the episode conversation topics, etc) or do you prefer to hear me talk about it at the top of the episode? I think it can work well both ways, but sometimes I like it when a podcast host omits the preface and get right to the meat. Let me know all your thoughts. jayhoward@missouristate.edu. As always, I want to say a hearty THANK YOU to everybody listening. The podcast audience continues to grow. Thank you for telling your friends about the podcast. Analytics show a lot of Springfieldians are listening. And beyond the campus community and the Springfield area, we’ve got people listening from as far away as Germany. Very cool. Please take a moment to like and follow the podcast on facebook. Rate and review the pod on facebook and/or Apple Podcasts. Subscribe on your platform of choice, especially if your platform of choice is Spotify.

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 what sort of challenges PSTs face and how they learn to navigate them. Amy and I talk about the teacher shortage, teacher burnout, the definition of socially just instruction, and the sticking points that arise for preservice teachers in their placements. ~ Happy National Podcasting Month, everyone! I’m so grateful for the conversations I’ve been able to share with faculty, graduates, and community members so far, and I’m looking forward to more conversations throughout the rest of this semester with amazing people who are using their calling to make the world a little brighter, whether in higher education or beyond. We’ll take a production break over Christmas. What direction should the podcast take next year? Send your feedback and suggestions to jayhoward@missouristate.edu! facebook page.