The Humanities Pod Archive

Michael Witgen, professor of History and American Culture and twice former director of Native American Studies at the University of Michigan, provides insight into how non-removal treaties incrementally restricted traditional lands and life-ways for Anishinaabe while benefiting white settlers throughout the 19th century. Beyond his academic work, Michael also shares personal insights on generations of Native resilience in the Great Lakes from his position as a direct lineal descendant of a key Ojibwe signatory to the 1842 treaty that soon became one of the financial engines for establishing Cornell University. 

Shaping Emotions in Late Ancient Christianity with Georgia Frank
Georgia Frank, 2020-21 Society Fellow and Charles A. Dana Professor of Religion at Colgate University, takes us back to the first 600 years of Christianity to explore the power of song and participatory performances in reenacting and fabricating emotions. Georgia shares insights from her research on bodily experience in ancient Mediterranean religions, including methods and metaphors by which early Christians shaped a collective identity.

Sartorial Self-Fashioning and the Legacies of Enslavement with Kimberly Kay Lamm
Kimberly Kay Lamm, 2020-21 Society Fellow and associate professor of gender, sexuality and feminist studies at Duke University, introduces us to writers and artists of the Harlem Renaissance and their impact on Black women's cultural representation today.

Shutting off the Gaslight with Kate Manne
Kate Manne, 2018-19 “Authority” Faculty Fellow and associate professor of philosophy at Cornell University takes listeners behind the pages of her latest book “Entitled: How Male Privilege Hurts Women.” Discussing concepts such as “himpathy,” “mansplaining,” and “gaslighting” Kate shares stories from her writing process, earlier philosophical roots, and where she finds the strength to keep fighting on behalf of women and girls today.

Crafting Belief from Medieval Dreamscapes to Thai Buddhist Temples with Adin Lears and Anthony Irwin
2020-21 'Fabrication' Fellows, Adin Lears, assistant professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, and Anthony Lovenheim Irwin, scholar of Asian religions, engage in a conversation that ranges from creatures and creaturehood in Piers Plowman to craft and construction in Thai Buddhism, finding common ground in questions of spirituality and belief, language and craft, as they consider the ethics and poetics of 'Fabrication.'

Rural Poetics: Part 1 with Nikki Wallschlaeger
In this episode, author Nikki Wallschlaeger reads 11 poems from her latest published collection of poetry-- Waterbaby (2021, Copper Canyon Press). Nikki also speaks with Rural Poetics host Marty Cain to contextualize her work, sharing stories insights into her writing process and geographic inspirations.

Rural Poetics: Part 2 with Nancy Bereano
This episode features Nancy Bereano, founder of Ithaca’s groundbreaking, award-winning lesbian and feminist press, Firebrand Books (1985-2000). Speaking with Rural Poetics host Alec Pollak, Bereano reflects on the heyday of feminist small-press publishing, Ithaca’s queer social scene, and the early days of publishing notable authors such as Alison Bechdel, Leslie Feinberg, and Audre Lorde.

Rural Poetics: Part 3 with Tim Earley
This third episode of the Rural Poetics podcast series features poetry author Tim Earley, visiting assistant professor of English at the University of Mississippi. Earley’s dynamic range of diction mixes the academic vocabulary of continental theory with his own roots of Appalachian vernacular English. Tim’s work directly confronts the class hierarchies of U.S. poetry communities, giving audiences a language to better understand the complexity of contemporary rural life.