The Academic Life

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Andrea Laurent-Simpson’s path in and out of and back into graduate school The story of her college dog, who became her family Why she became interested in looking at her pets as family members How her human kids reacted to her research project What her in-person research taught her about human-animal interactions Our book is: Just Like Family: How Companion Animals Joined the Household (NYU Press, 2021),which explores the expanding role of animals in what Dr. Laurent-Simpson calls “the multi-species family,” providing a window into a world where almost 95 percent of adults who share their homes with dogs and cats identify their animal companions as legitimate members of their families.She examines why and how these animals have increasingly become an important part of our households and in our lives, including as siblings to our existing children, as animal children themselves, and even as grandchildren, particularly as fertility rates decline and a growing number of younger couples choose to live a childfree lifestyle. Laurent-Simpson highlights how animals—and their place in our lives—have changed the structure of the American family in surprising ways.Our guest is: Dr. Andrea Laurent-Simpson, Research Assistant Professor andLecturer in the department of sociology at Southern Methodist University. Her work engages identity theory, family and fertility, and human-nonhuman animal interaction. Her research uses original, qualitative, mixed methods data to examine how familial identities are impacted by human-nonhuman animal relationships; how household structure affects resulting identity formation; how this contributes to post-modern, cultural definitions of who or what counts as family; and how dropping fertility rates and delays of first birth characteristic of the second demographic transition aid in the emergence of a “multi-species” family post-1970’s in the U.S. Her newest project examines “pandemic” pets, family structure and health, and pet owner returns to work and school. Her work is award-winning and has appeared in Symbolic Interaction; Sociological Forum; Sociological Inquiry; Sociology of Health and Illness; and Sociological Spectrum. She is the author of Just Like Family: How Companion Animals Joined the Household.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. Her college allowed her to live in a pet-dorm with her dog Riley; he quickly became the best friend of Ratty [the pet rat next door] and frenemy of Ivory [the neighboring dog who tried to steal his toys. Often.].Listeners to this episode might also be interested in: Arluke, Arnold and Andrew Rowan. (2020). Underdogs: Pets, People, and Poverty. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press. Canales, Alejandra. (2021). “SMU Sociologist’s Research Shows How Pets Have Become Part of the Family.” Dallas Morning News, August 23. Article here. Grimm, David. (2014). Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs. New York, NY: Public Affairs. Irvine, Leslie. (2004). If You Tame Me: Understanding Our Connection with Animals. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press. Laurent-Simpson, Andrea. (2017). “They Make Me Not Want to Have a Child: Effects of Companion Animals on Fertility Intentions of the Childfree.” Sociological Inquiry 87(4):586-607. Article here. Laurent-Simpson, Andrea. “All In the Family: The Modern Multispecies Household.” The Bark, August 2021. Article here. This program model for “keeping pets with their people” Animal Planet meets cats in pet dorms at Christina’s college You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Liz Faber’s long road from completed PhD to dream job Why academia said she was a failure The financial reasons she worked two academic jobs at once The importance of speaking out about pay-scale and departmental inequities Putting kindness in the classroom Why you have to define your own success Our guest is: Dr. Liz W Faber, an Assistant Professor of English & Communication at Dean College. Her teaching and research interests include multimodal communication, science communication, representations of AI in science fiction, computer history, and gender/sexuality studies. She is the author of The Computer's Voice: From Star Trek to Siri (U. Minnesota Press, 2020) and the guest editor for the Popular Culture Studies Journal special issue on robots and labor. She can be found on Twitter (@lizwfab) or at her website (lizwfaber.com).Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts.Listeners to this episode might be interested in: "Faculty Talk about Teaching at a Community College" by Dianne Finley and Sherry Kinslow Academic Ableism by Jay Dolmage (U Michigan Press, 2017) More than Machines? by Laura Voss (Columbia U Press, 2021) Carleigh Brower’s work The Computer's Voice: From Star Trek to Siri by Liz Faber (U. Minnesota Press, 2020)  Articles on robots and labor, ed by Dr. Liz Faber Popular Culture Studies Journal https://mpcaaca.org/the- NEA article on the need for change  Inside Higher Ed examines contingent faculty wages  The Daily Beast finds making coffee pays more than being an adjunct You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts. Wish we’d bring on a particular expert? DM on Twitter @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: The field of reproductive health studies The data on contraceptive access and effectiveness [even when used correctly] Why we need to trust women What happens when a pregnant person seeking an abortion is turned away The long-term outcomes for people who have had abortions The consequences for people denied abortions A discussion of the book The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having or Being Denied an Abortion Today’s book is: The Turnaway Study, which asks what happens when a person seeking an abortion is turned away. Dr. Diane Greene Foster and a team of scientists, psychologists, epidemiologists, demographers, nurses, physicians, economists, sociologists, and public health researchers conducted a ten-year study on the outcomes of a thousand pregnant people across America, studying both those who received abortions, and those who were turned away. Dr. Foster analyzes impacts on mental and physical health, careers, and romantic relationships, offering the first data-driven examination of the negative consequences for pregnant people who are denied abortions.Our guest is: Dr. Diana Greene Foster, a professor and demographer who uses quantitative models and analyses to evaluate the effectiveness of family planning policies and the effect of unwanted pregnancy on women’s lives. She led the Turnaway Study in the US, and is collaborating with scientists on a Nepal Turnaway Study. Dr. Foster also worked on the evaluation of the California State family planning program, Family PACT, demonstrating the effectiveness of the program in reducing the incidence of unintended pregnancy and the effect of dispensing a one-year supply of contraception. Dr. Foster created a new methodology for estimating pregnancies averted based on a Markov model and a microsimulation to identify the cost-effectiveness of advance provision of emergency contraception.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.Listeners to this episode might be interested in: American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists advocacy webpage  The Turnaway Study: Ten Years, a Thousand Women, and the Consequences of Having or Being Denied an Abortion, by Diana Greene Foster Advancing New Studies in Reproductive Health You’re Doing it Wrong: Mothering, Media, and Medical Expertise by Bethany L. Johnson and Margaret M. Quinlan A discussion of the book You’re Doing it Wrong,  You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why White professors need to teach about race and racism in their courses The gap between “inside” and “outside” knowledge How to effectively provide data in an atmosphere of strong emotions Why having debates and discussing misinformation won’t work The reasons students resist learning about race and racism How to meet students where they are and help them cross the learning threshold Today’s book is: Teaching About Race and Racism in the College Classroom: Notes from a White Professor (U West Virginia Press, 2019). Teaching about race and racism can be difficult. Students and instructors alike often struggle with strong emotions, and many have preexisting beliefs about race. It is important for students to learn how we got here and how racism is more than just individual acts of meanness. Students also need to understand that colorblindness is not an effective anti-racism strategy. Dr. Kernahan argues that you can be honest and unflinching in your teaching about racism while also providing a compassionate learning environment that allows for mistakes, and avoids shaming students. She provides practical teaching strategies to help instructors feel more confident, and differentiates between how white students and students of color are likely to experience the classroom, helping instructors provide a more effective learning experience for all students.Our guest is: Dr. Cyndi Kernahan, professor of psychology at the University of Wisconsin–River Falls. She is also the assistant dean for teaching and learning in the College of Arts and Sciences. Her research and writing are focused primarily on teaching and learning, including the teaching of race, inclusive pedagogy, and student success. She is the author of Teaching About Race and Racism in the College Classroom.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life. She is a historian of women and gender.Listeners to this episode might be interested in: White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, by Nancy Isenberg The Making of Asian America: A History, by Erika Lee Teaching Black History to White People, by Leonard N. Moore The Other Slavery: The Uncovered Story of Indian Enslavement in America, by Andres Resendez Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, by Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic Why Are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria, by B.D. Tatum You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: the importance of normalizing failure in college, the emotional work involved with coming back from a failure, the role institutions have in resilience work, and the power of reflection for student success.Our guest is: Dr. Anna Sharpe, Associate Dean for Student Success at Berry College. Dr. Sharpe has spent the last six years reimagining academic success and support programming at Berry College. She has the privilege of leading an incredible team of five professional staff and over a hundred student employees working in the areas of academic success, first-year experience, accessibility, and retention. Holding a PhD in Geography from University of Kentucky, Dr. Sharpe also researches the interplay of race, politics, law, and land use, focusing on the southeastern coast, where she was born and raised. When she is not on Berry’s beautiful campus, you can find her with her husband and son--cooking, hiking, and making frequent trips to the coastOur host is: Dr. Dana M. Malone, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts. She is a higher education scholar and practitioner. Dana met Anna at the University of Kentucky, where they worked together with students in academic jeopardy and assisted them in reimagining and refocusing their college trajectories.Listeners to this episode might be interested in: The Stanford Resilience Project: Stanford Resilience Project videos Carol Dweck’s work: Carol Dweck’s TED Talk on the Power of Believing You Can Improve Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance by Angela Duckworth From the National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, Promoting Belonging, Growth Mindset, and Resilience to Foster Student Success (Baldwin, A., et al.) NBN Podcasts with Lisa Nunn on College Belonging NBN Podcast with Lisa Nunn on Teaching First-Year and First-Generation Students:  Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Aviva Legatt’s journey into and through college Why she became an Ivy League college admissions officer What that job taught her about common application missteps How to determine which school is right for you and show them you’re right for it Month-by-month application checklist for high school seniors. Our guest is:Dr. Aviva Legatt, who has been in the higher education field for over fifteen years. She is a faculty member in Organizational Dynamics at the University of Pennsylvania and at The Wharton School, teaching in-person and online through Coursera. She has a column in Forbes about issues affecting higher education, and is the author of Get Real and Get In: How to Get Into the College of Your Dreams by Being Your Authentic Self (St. Martin's Griffin, 2021).Our host is:Dr. Christina Gessler, co-producer of the Academic Life, who attended college on a writing scholarship. She chose the school for its pet policy, relationship with the natural environment, and faculty-student ratio. She is a historian of women and gender.Listeners to this episode might be interested in: The Enlightened College Applicant: A New Approach to the Search and Admissions Process by Andrew Belasco and Dave Bergman Fiske Guide to Colleges College Admission Essentials: A Step-by-Step Guide to Showing Colleges Who You Are and What Matters to You by Ethan Sawyer How To College :What To Know Before You Go (and When You’re There) by Andrea Malkin Brenner and Laura Hope Schwartz Show Them You're Good: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before College by Jeff Hobbs The Merit Myth: How our Colleges Favor the Rich and Divide America by Anthony Carnevale, Peter Schmidt, and Jeff Strohl A Discussion of the book How To College: What To Know Before You Go (and When You’re There)  A Discussion of the book Show Them You’re Good You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. We reach across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. So we are reaching across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.In this episode you’ll hear about: Dr. Ginetta Candelario’s path from journalism-major-hopeful to sociologist, how her family history shaped her intellectual questions, what inspired her to return to Smith after campus racism drove her out, a model for building an intentional community, editing a journal dedicated to the scholarship and voices of women of color, and a discussion of Meridians: 20th Anniversary Reader.Our guest is: Dr. Ginetta Candelario, who is a faculty affiliate of the Latin American and Latina/o Studies Program, the Study of Women and Gender Program, and the Community Engagement and Social Change Concentration at Smith College. She is the founding vice president of the National Latin@ Studies Association, and a founding executive committee member of the New England Consortium for Latina/o Studies, and was appointed by the American Sociological Association to its Committee on Professional Ethics for 2017–20 and to the Finance Committee for 2021-2024. Dr. Candelario is widely published, serves on editorial boards, and is a peer reviewer. Her research interests include Dominican history and society, with a focus on national identity formation and women’s history; Blackness in the Americas; Latin American, Caribbean and Latina feminisms; Latina/o communities (particularly Cuban, Dominican and Puerto Rican); U.S. beauty culture; and museum studies. She has been a Fulbright Scholar in the Dominican Republic twice, and has been the editor of Meridians: feminism, race, transnationalism since July 2017.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-creator and co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts. She is a historian of women and gender.Listeners to this episode may be interested in: Dr. Candelario’s Ted Talk Meridians’ materials referenced in the podcast Meridians' portal for submissions Cien años de feminismos dominicanos, 1865-1965. Tomo I: El fuego detrás de las ruinas, 1865-1931. Co-edited by Ginetta Candalario, April J. Mayes, and Elizabeth Manley, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic: Archivo General de la Nación, 2016. Black Behind the Ears: Dominican Racial Identity from Museums to Beauty Shops, Durham: Duke University Press, December 2007. Salome by Julia Alvarez Almanac of the Dead by Leslie Marmon Silko Democracy in Chains by Nancy McClean YouTube recording of the Meridians’ 20th anniversary celebration talks Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. So we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us your suggestion on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.In this episode you’ll hear about: how Megan became an archivist, the unusual collections she works with, why archives can be intimidating, how historians and archivists work together, and archival etiquette tips for new researchers.Our guest is: Megan Hahn Fraser, who has worked as the Assistant Curator of Manuscripts at The New-York Historical Society, the Library Director at the Independence Seaport Museum in Philadelphia, Co-Head of Collection Management at UCLA Library Special Collections in Los Angeles, and the Vice President and Marcus A. McCorison Librarian at the American Antiquarian Society in Worcester, Mass. Currently, she is working for the Research Institute for Contemporary Outlaws, a private collection of 20th century counter-culture materials based in Los Angeles. She received her Master of Information and Library Science (with a concentration in archives management) degree from Pratt Institute in 2000, and has an undergraduate degree in history from New York University. While at UCLA in 2014, Megan founded the Los Angeles Punk Rock Archive Collective, a group of archivists and others focused on acquiring collections from musicians, artists, and fans of the punk rock scene in Southern California. She has presented at the Society of American Archivists annual conference, the South by Southwest Festival, the L.A. as Subject Archives Bazaar, and the Legion of Steel Metalfest and Conference. She can be found on Twitter @mmhfraser, talking about archives, justice, and The Clash.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts, and a historian of women and gender. She has a small garden.Listeners to this episode might be interested in: UCLA Library Special Collections Punk archive Research Institute for Contemporary Outlaws on Instagram For more information on how reliance on contingent labor is detrimental to the responsible stewardship of archives American Historical Association open letter to National Archives and Records Administration and retraction Society of American Archivists (SAA) Responds to the American Historical Association Priceless: How I Went Undercover to Rescue the World's Stolen Treasures by Robert K. Wittman (2010) Meetings with Remarkable Manuscripts: Twelve Journeys into the Medieval World by Christopher de Hamel (2017) Standing in their own Light: African American Patriots in the American Revolution by Judith L. Van Buskirk (2017) Indecent Advances: A Hidden History of True Crime and Prejudice Before Stonewall by James Polchin (2019) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we, so we reached across our mentor network to bring you these podcasts. Wish we’d include a specific topic? DM suggestions on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.In this episode you’ll hear about: how Black women contributed to America’s first freedom war, reading against the grain, rival geographies, fugitivity as an act of resistance, why we must center Black women’s voices, and a discussion of the book Running from Bondage.Our guest is: Dr. Karen Cook Bell, who is Associate Professor of History. Her areas of specialization include slavery, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and women’s history. Her scholarship has appeared in the Journal of African American History; Georgia Historical Quarterly; Passport; U.S. West-Africa: Interaction and Relations; Before Obama: A Reappraisal of Black Reconstruction Era Politicians; Converging Identities: Blackness in the Contemporary Diaspora; and Slavery and Freedom in Savannah. She has published Claiming Freedom: Race, Kinship, and Land in Nineteenth Century Georgia, which won the Georgia Board of Regents Excellence in Research Award; and Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America. She is editor of Southern Black Women’s Struggle for Freedom during the Civil War and Reconstruction; and a contributor for Black Perspectives. She is a former AAUW Dissertation Fellow.Today’s book is: Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America, which tells how enslaved women comprised one-third of all runaways, and the ways in which they fled or attempted to flee bondage during and after the Revolutionary War. Dr. Cook Bell's contribution to the study of slave resistance explores the individual and collective lives of these women and girls, and details about what led them to escape. She demonstrates that there two wars waged during the Revolutionary Era: a political revolution for independence from Great Britain and a social revolution for emancipation and equality in which Black women played an active role. Running from Bondage emphasizes the chances taken by these Black founding mothers and the important contributions they made to the cause of liberty.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, the co-producer of the Academic Life podcasts, and a historian of women and gender.Listeners to this episode might be interested in: Claiming Freedom: Race, Kinship, and Land in Nineteenth Century Georgia, by Karen Cook Bell Closer to Freedom: Enslaved Women and Everyday Resistance in the Plantation South, by Stephanie Camp “What Can We Learn from a Digital Database of Runaway Slave Advertisements,” International Social Science Review vol 76 no. (2001), by Tom Costa Never Caught, by Erica Armstrong Dunbar This interview on reclaiming lost voices with Dr. Erica Armstrong Dunbar  This interview about the social constructions of race with Dr. Brigette Fielder Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Welcome to The Academic Life. You are smart and capable, but you aren’t an island and neither are we. So, we reached across our mentor network to bring you podcasts on everything from how to finish that project, to how to take care of your beautiful mind. Wish we’d bring on an expert about something? DM us your suggestion on Twitter: The Academic Life @AcademicLifeNBN.In this episode you’ll hear: mentoring across academic careers from graduate students to seasoned faculty, optimal conditions for mentor-mentee relationships, mentoring scholars through the publishing process, and gender and power dynamics within academic mentoring.Our guest is: Dr. Claire M. Renzetti, Professor and Chair of Sociology and the Judi Conway Patton Endowed Chair for Studies of Violence Against Women at the University of Kentucky. She received a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Delaware, with specialties in criminology and the sociology of gender.For more than 40 years, Dr. Renzetti’s research has focused on the violent victimization experiences of socially and economically marginalized women and girls. She founded in 1995, and continues to edit, the peer-reviewed, international and interdisciplinary journal Violence Against Women, through Sage Publications. Dr. Renzetti is also the editor of the Gender and Justice book series for University of California Press; co-editor of the Interpersonal Violence book series for Oxford University Press, and editor of the Family and Gender-based Violence book series for Cognella. She has written or edited 26 books as well as numerous book chapters and journal articles based on her own research. She also studies the problem of domestic sex trafficking. Additionally, she conducts research on the effects of religiosity and religious self-regulation on intimate partner violence perpetration and victimization. She has held elected offices in several national and regional professional associations, including the American Sociological Association, the American Society of Criminology, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, and the Eastern Sociological Society. Her research and community service has been recognized with awards from the American Sociological Association, the American Society of Criminology, the Society for the Study of Social Problems, the University of Delaware, Artemis Center (Dayton, OH), and the YWCA of Dayton (OH).Your host is: Dr. Dana Malone, a higher education scholar and practitioner. Dana met Claire as a PhD student at the University of Kentucky, when one of Dana’s academic mentors introduced them.Listeners to this episode might be interested in: Positive Academic Leadership: How to Stop Putting Out Fires and Start Making a Difference by Jeffrey L. Buller Presumed Incompetent II: Race, Class, Power, and Resistance of Women in Academia edited by: Yolanda Flores Niemann, Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs, and Carmen G. González NBN Podcast on Presumed Incompetent II NBN Podcast on How to Create a Mentor Network Claire Renzetti’s video series on academic publishing for the American Sociological Association (ASA).*Please note access requires an ASA membership Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life