More Human

One of the most unique aspects of Tri-C’s Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Scholars Academy is its capstone course, HUM 2020: Community Engagement. In this episode of the More Human podcast, Professor Theresa Gromek and Mandel Scholar Dillon Forsythe join Dean Jordan to discuss the work they did in Fall 2022 with the Cleveland Orchestra.

Speaking at the 2022 conference of the National Collegiate Honors Council, administrators from three very different colleges discuss challenges and strategies relevant to cultivating genuine community in an academic context.

On this episode of More Human, Cuyahoga Community College president Dr. Michael A. Baston joins the podcast to discuss his career, the importance of the humanities in higher ed, and the urgency of making connections between the humanities and other disciplines.

Tri-C Humanities professor Dr. Brian Johnson joins Dean Jordan to discuss his journey from computer science to the humanities, his scholarly work on the evils of Nazism, connections between the humanities and pop culture, and the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Scholars Academy's foundational course, "The Individual in Society."

More Human is pleased to share a recording of Dr. Anika Prather's plenary address from the 2022 CCHA conference, held at Cuyahoga Community College's Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Humanities Center, as a special podcast episode. The first speaker is Dr. Mike Jacobs of Monroe Community College; he is followed by Dr. Janine Utell of the Modern Language Association, who introduces Dr. Prather

There are a number of controversies surrounding the humanities and the classics, including concerns about their usefulness (why should anyone bother to read old books?) and racial dynamics (doesn't studying the classics simply reinforce and perpetuate a white, Eurocentric perspective?). In this episode of More Human, Dr. Anika Prather of Howard University and Johns Hopkins University joins Dean Jordan for a wide-ranging conversation about the nature and value of studying the classics.  Dr. Prather's book Living in the Constellation of the Canon: The Lived Experiences of African-American Students Reading Great Books Literature can be found on Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/Living-Constellation-Canon-Experiences-African-American/dp/172493337X. Other resources discussed or recommended include The Norton Anthology of African American Literature (https://wwnorton.com/books/9780393911558), Antigone (https://www.amazon.com/Sophocles-Antigone-Translation-Diane-Rayor/dp/0521134781), The Souls of Black Folk (https://www.amazon.com/Souls-Black-Folk-B-Bois/dp/1505223377) and the Touchstones Discussion Project (https://touchstones.org/).

Dr. David Busch oversees Tri-C's Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Youth Humanities Academy, a summer initiative that gives high school students from northeast Ohio an opportunity to earn money while engaging with the humanities; Harry Anderson and Desire Goodwin are alumni of the first cohort of MYHA students. In this episode of More Human, they discuss the purpose and vision for MYHA and what it was like to experience it in the summer of 2022. The book mentioned several times in this episode is Nathan King's The Excellent Mind(https://global.oup.com/ushe/product/the-excellent-mind-9780190096267) and the inaugaral MYHA journal can be viewed at https://myha-journal.com/issue-1/.

Dr. Tyler Olson is the program manager of Tri-C's Conflict Resolution and Peace Studies program. He joins Dean Jordan for a wide-ranging conversation on the research he conducted as a doctoral candidate, the work he does at Tri-C, and, of course, his swashbuckling adventures as a teacher in Central America.

Dr. Elizabeth Lehfeldt teaches history at Cleveland State University. Her scholarly work focuses on the lives of nuns in late medieval and early modern Spain. In this episode of More Human, she talks with Dean Jordan about the kind of work her research requires and shares some surprising insights about the lives of the women she studies

Tri-C professor Casandra Sweeney has done some fascinating work integrating themes of environmentalism and environmental justice into her English courses. In this episode of More Human, Professor Sweeney speaks candidly about the challenges and joys of majoring in English, what political advocacy has to do with first-year composition courses, and why students should be excited rather than frightened by 10-page research paper assignments.