Humanities Now

Could a gaggle of monkeys randomly typing produce a literary classic? Could they by chance produce the complete works of Shakespeare, as many have speculated in an ongoing thought experiment for over a century now.These questions are the starting point for a post-script conversation to our 2023-2024 Value/Values programming. On this episode, Michael Borshuk chats with TTU faculty members Dr. Heather Warren-Crow, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts, and Dr. TJ Geiger II, Associate Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric, to talk about their recent research projects. In a wide-ranging conversation that begins with Dr. Warren-Crow’s newest book and its attention the idea that monkeys might randomly write the works of Shakespeare, we discuss animals, culture, the divine, how to define humanity, and whether the act of producing that definition continues to matter at all?Click here for more on Dr. Warren-Crow's latest book Shakespeare and Nonhuman Intelligence.

In this episode, Michael Borshuk looks back on our February art exhibition, Jerry Hunt: Transmissions from the Pleroma, which the Humanities Center hosted in collaboration with Brooklyn's Blank Forms and the TTU School of Art. In thinking about Jerry Hunt's career and activities by those artists who influenced him, we contemplate the value of the avant-garde as another component of our year-long Value/Values  conversation. Some of the material Borshuk mentions in this episode:Blank Forms Editions 08: Transmissions from the PleromaStephen Housewright, PartnersMichael Schell's The Jerry Hunt Home Page

On this episode, we continue our Value/Values theme by thinking about the value of confronting works of art that challenge our values. Michael Borshuk speaks with Rob Weiner from Texas Tech libraries about transgressive cinema and the "video nasties" scandal of the 1980s in the United Kingdom, and then talks to Dr. Belinda Kleinhans, Associate Professor of German Studies, about censorship activities in Nazi Germany and an ironic tie to the practice of banning books in our contemporary moment.Some of the contexts Michael Borshuk references in this episode:Kat Eschner, "The Bowdlers Wanted to Clean Up Shakespeare, Not Become a Byword for Censorship"https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bowdlers-wanted-clean-shakespeare-not-become-byword-censorship-180963945/American Library Association, "2023 Preliminary Data Shows Record Surge of Challenges in Public Libraries"https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/book-ban-data

On the first episode of our new season, Michael Borshuk introduces our programming theme for 2023-2024, Value/Values. Speaking about recent volatile debates in American universities about fiscal responsibility and academic programming, we find our way into some of the questions we will be pursuing this year. Next we hear from Paul Reinsch, who previews the film series we will host this year at Alamo Drafthouse in Lubbock, before we move to a brief note of introduction from our new Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Humanities, historian Kevan Q. Malone.Some of the sources Michael Borshuk cites in the episode:Liam Knox, "Slimming Down to Stay Afloat," https://www.insidehighered.com/news/business/cost-cutting/2023/05/03/slimming-down-stay-afloatLisa M. Corrigan, "The Evisceration of a Public University," https://www.thenation.com/article/society/wvu-cuts-higher-education/Lora Kelley, "How Corporate Jargon Can Obscure Reality," https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/09/corporate-jargon-layoffs-workplace/675430/Kasey Turman and Taylor Stumbaugh, "Miami University considers eliminating majors in the humanities," https://www.journal-news.com/news/miami-university-considers-eliminating-majors-in-the-humanities/KZFLPVB4X5BCNLBBI2SDNMT7XU/Madison Montag, "Gettysburg College Ends Award-winning Literary Publication of 35 Years," https://www.pennlive.com/news/2023/10/gettysburg-college-ends-award-winning-literary-publication-of-35-years.html

On this episode, Michael Borshuk speaks with Dr. Bill Poirier, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Joint Professor of Physics, and Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Research Awardee at Texas Tech.  In a very personal conversation, Bill shares his experience with Long COVID Syndrome, including his own research and approach to recovery, and how his symptoms have affected his academic career.  As the conversation reveals, Bill is a very local representative of the global patient-driven community that helped all of us understand the complexities of the coronavirus these past few years. Some of the material discussed in this episode:Felicity Callard and Elisa Perego, "How and why patients made Long Covid" Amali U. Lokugamage and Clare Rayner, "The Rehabilitation of Long Covid Requires Understanding of Not Just the Biomedical Dimensions But All Aspects of Being Human"The Mayo Clinic on Post-COVID Syndrome (An interactive course)

As we continue the Humanities Center's year-long Health theme we move to a conversation about art and the body with Texas Tech School of Art faculty member Ghi Fremaux and her collaborative partner Lando Valdez.  As As Ghi and Lando discuss with Michael Borshuk, the paintings they produce extend a long history of visual examination of the body as they put critical pressure on why we’re often so quick to separate the medical from the aesthetic in how we think about our physical selves.See images of Ghi and Lando's work here. For some of the research mentioned at the beginning of the episode, see here and here.

On this episode, a special feature to continue our ongoing conversation about health: a conversation between one of the members of our Health programming theme this year, TTU History professor Dr. Paul Bjerk, and Dr. Heri Tungaraza, a Tanzanian oncologist committed to the well-being of low-income earners, and an activist practitioner in matters of public health.

As we return from hiatus to begin a new season, we introduce the Humanities Center's programming theme for 2022-2023: "Health." This year, we will imagine multiple ways of being healthy, and critique definitions of wellness or ability. We will close the gap between the mind and the body. We hear from multiple members of this year's programming theme: Dr. Julie Zook (Architecture), Dr. Jacob Baum (History),  Dr. Victoria Sutton (Law), Dr. Emily Skidmore (History), and Dr. Paul Reinsch (Theatre and Dance). Across these five conversations we see the range of humanities perspectives we will bring to our theme this year, and the variety of questions that will shape our events.

On our season finale, we wish a happy fortieth anniversary to Texas Tech's Women's and Gender Studies program by talking at length with two WGS-affiliated faculty members about their recent books.  Dr. Elissa Zellinger from the Department of English speaks with us her book Lyrical Strains and its attention to nineteenth-century American poetry and the figure of the "poetess."  Next, Dr. Julie Willett from the Department of History discusses her recent history of the male chauvinist pig--as a trope in American popular culture and as an influence on political discourse over the past few decades.For more on Elissa Zellinger's Lyrical Strains: Liberalism and Women's Poetry in Nineteenth-Century America, see https://uncpress.org/book/9781469659817/lyrical-strains/.For more on Julie Willett's The Male Chauvinist Pig: A History, see https://uncpress.org/book/9781469661070/the-male-chauvinist-pig/.

On this first episode back from winter break, we sit down with Dr. Bryan K. Hotchkins, a faculty member in TTU's College of Education, to hear about his new book My Black is Exhausted: Forever in Pursuit of a Racist-free World Where Hashtags Don't Exist.  Extending our year-long conversation about anti-racism in scholarship and the arts, Hotchkins shows us how writing autobiographically and reflecting on popular culture offer possibilities for challenging white supremacy, acknowledging the persistence of anti-black racism, and offering relief for African Americans afflicted by those forces.Click here for more information about Dr. Hotchkins's book, or here for more about the art he is creating in coordination with that project.  Follow Dr. Hotchkins (@drbkhotchkins)  on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

For our final fall episode before our winter break hiatus, Michael Borshuk sits down with Dr. Sebastian Ramirez, the Humanities Center's 2021-2022 Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Humanities.  Sebastian speaks with us about his research on white supremacy and "white backlash" and how his scholarship builds on the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, Charles Mills, and others.  Over the course of the conversation, Dr. Ramirez shows us how philosophy's disciplinary focus might contribute to anti-racism, and reminds us of the importance of conceptual clarity as we look critically at white supremacy's history and legacy.Some of the works Dr. Ramirez mentions in our conversation: Black Reconstruction in America by W.E.B. Du Bois, The Racial Contract by Charles Mills, From Class to Race: Essays in White Marxism and Black Radicalism by Charles Mills,  Private Government: How Employers Rule Our Lives (And Why We Don't Talk About It) by Elizabeth Anderson, Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism by Anne Case and Angus Deaton, and The Ideological Condition: Selected Essays on History, Race and Gender by Himani Bannerji.

On this episode, we think about the relationship between art, racism, and social justice as we continue to engage our year-long Anti-Racism theme.  We speak with Dra. Leslie C. Sotomayor II, Visiting Assistant Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at Texas Tech, about her work as a scholar, curator, and working artist, and how her various projects contribute to an anti-racist mission.  Then we hear from Danielle Demetria East, founding Director of East Lubbock Art House, a vital center here in Lubbock for showcasing marginalized artists, supporting anti-racism, and building community.Click here to read more about the Let's Pretend exhibition Dra. Sotomayor curated, and here to see her work featured in Visual Culture and Gender.Click here to read more about East Lubbock Art House, including how to donate to this important institution.

On this first episode of season two, Michael Borshuk sits down with members of the programming team for the Center's scholarly theme for 2021-2022, Anti-Racism.  We hear from Dr. Nadia Flores-Yeffal, dr. aretha marbley, Dr. Jennifer Nish, and Dr. Beau Pihlaja, as they explain what events and ideas provided the impetus for this year's programming and then forecast what topics and contexts we will work through in our various events and activities.  What does it mean to be anti-racist in the humanities and what steps must a university take to be anti-racist? How does this year's programming clear up some of the misconceptions that circulate in our public conversations about race, racism, and white supremacy? Where should one begin in one's reading to commit to anti-racism?For further reading, texts mentioned in this episode:Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Racism Without Racists (5th ed., Rowman & Littlefield, 2017)  Joe R. Feagin, The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing (Routledge, 2013) Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Anti-Racist (Random House, 2019)  Bonita Lawrence and Enakshi Dua, "Decolonizing Antiracism," Social Justice 32.4 (2005): 120-43. Kyla Wazana Tompkins, "The Shush," PMLA 136.3 (2021): 417-23. Rinaldo Walcott, On Property  (Biblioasis, 2021)

On this final episode of our first season, we conclude our ongoing discussion with this year's Alumni College Fellows by considering the new perspectives their research offers on the texture of everyday life.  We hear from Dr. Heather Warren-Crow, media theorist, interdisciplinary artist, and Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts, as she leads us through the history of singing ATMS; Dr. Scott Weedon, Assistant Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric, who speaks with us about popular beliefs about science and their broader implications; and Dr. Justin Tosi, Assistant Professor of Philosophy, who advises why, in these ever contentious times, it might just be all right to mind our own business.

On this episode, we continue visiting with our 2020-2021 Alumni College Fellows as they lead us in conversation on the relationship between who we are, how much freedom we possess, and the cultures we navigate in establishing either of the two.  We hear from Dr. Dale Kretz, Assistant Professor of History, who discusses African Americans' engagement with the federal government after the Civil War; Dr. Lesley Wolff, Assistant Professor of Latinx and Latin American Art History, who speaks with us about foodways and indigeneity in post-revolutionary Mexico City; and Dr. Alan Barenberg, Buena Vista Foundation Associate Professor of History, who talks about his current research on the Soviet government's punitive use of hard labor beginning in the 1940s.

On this episode, we reflect on creativity in its worldly context as we continue to visit with the Humanities Center’s most recent cohort of Alumni College fellows.   Our topic is New Perspectives on Art, Aesthetics, and the World at Large, and our guests are Dr. Ali Duffy,  Associate Professor of Dance and Founder and Artistic Director of the Flatlands Dance Theatre, Dr. Michael Jordan, Associate Professor of Cultural Anthropology, and Dr. Matthew Hunter, an Assistant Professor of English who focuses on poetry and drama of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.  We also check in with Yerko Sepulveda, a specialist in Spanish Linguistics with the Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures.   Yerko was the first student the Humanities Center selected to represent Texas Tech at the National Humanities Center's graduate student summer residency last year.

As we come back from winter break, we begin a new sequence of episodes featuring the research of our 2020-2021 Alumni College Fellows.  Between now and May, we have arranged our twelve scholars into four audio panels, all speaking under the broad banner “New Perspectives on…”  For our February installment, the topic is “New Perspectives on History and Society,” and we hear from historian Richard Lutjens on "ordinary crime" in Nazi Germany, sociologist Ori Swed on drone technology and violent non-state actors, and musicologist Virginia E. Whealton on nineteenth-century musical culture in Norfolk, Virginia.

To wrap up our first half-season before we take a pause for winter break, we discuss the Humanities Center's focus on interdisciplinary collaboration by introducing two of our funded working groups.  Belinda Kleinhans tell us the history of the Animal in the Humanities working group, which the center funded from 2017 to 2019.  Then we hear from our latest working group, the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Center.  Five of their members, Angela Mariani, Janis Elliott, Julie Nelson Couch, Jacob Baum, and Lane Sobehrad, talk about the intellectual ideas that ground their collaborative work, and preview some of the plans they have for the future.

In this special Election Day episode, we put our democracy in context through various humanities perspectives. Sydnor Roy helps us compare American democracy with its long ago antecedents in ancient Athens, Carol Flueckiger tells us about her new exhibition commemorating the 19th Amendment, Sean Cunningham historicizes the culture of American elections, and Amy Flowerree helps us work through the philosophical crisis of "fake news."

On this episode, Michael Borshuk speaks with musicologists Roger Landes and Christopher J. Smith about their recurring conference "The Electric Guitar in American Culture," hosted here in Lubbock at Texas Tech.  We hear about what makes this conference unique and how it fits into the mission of TTU's Vernacular Music Center, before Landes and Smith narrate the technological history of the electric guitar and offer some reflections about its cultural importance.  Finally, Borshuk, Landes, and Smith share some of their favorite electric guitar solos and discuss what makes these performances noteworthy.  The conversation covers a wide range of artists, including Jimi Hendrix, Wes Montgomery, Prince, Frank Zappa, the recently departed Eddie Van Halen, and Lubbock's own favorite son, Buddy Holly.This episode's extras include a YouTube playlist of great solos and a link to the Call for Papers for the next iteration of the conference.