ACLA 2022: The Place of Podcasts in the Humanities
Podcasts have left the garage and entered the university. This seminar considers the ever-expanding place of podcasts and podcasting in humanities research, teaching, and scholarship. Are podcasts welcome alternatives to the gatekeeping of academic journals and exclusive conferences? Or is “start a podcast” the new “learn to code,” just another skill that humanities scholars must adopt to stay relevant in a shrinking field? Do podcasts encourage new forms of scholarship, knowledge, and collaboration? What are the intersections between podcasts and the fields of public humanities, digital humanities, and sound studies?
This seminar builds on a conversation that began at the January 2021 MLA conference on a panel titled “The Scholarly Podcast as a Genre” and led to the formation of the Humanities Podcast Network, which is hosting the Humanities Podcasting Symposium in October 2021. We hope this ACLA seminar will offer opportunities to continue considering the role of podcasting in humanities scholarship and teaching. We welcome critical approaches, skeptical takes, enthusiastic adopters, and perspectives from both podcast creators and podcast listeners.
Areas of analysis may include, though not limited to:
- Podcasts as scholarship
- Podcasts as forms of public and/or digital humanities
- The humanities podcast and sound studies
- The place of humanities podcasts in media ecologies
- The humanities podcast and the (neoliberal) university
- The humanities podcast under capitalism
- Pedagogies of the humanities podcast
- Publishing and the humanities podcast
- Racism, sexism, ableism in podcasting; ways of redress
- Activism in the humanities podcast
- Theories of collaboration and voice in the humanities podcast
Co-Organizers: Saronik Bosu + Laura Perry