Teachin' Books
A podcast all about the ways people teach, learn, and work with literature -- aaaand all sorts of other cultural bits and bobs, like video games, theatrical performances, Dungeons and Dragons, and more! Host Jessica McDonald talks about teachin' books in undergraduate classrooms, and she interviews folks to learn more about what cool work is happening in other other teaching and learning contexts.
Episodes
37 episodes
2.11 Teaching Reality TV / Below Deck: Mediterranean
On the agenda today is true masterpiece of reality television, Below Deck: Mediterranean! Specifically: Season 6 Episode 16, "Sleepless in Croatia," which I've happily...
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Season 2
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Episode 11
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36:22
2.10 Time for Rest
Heeeey y'all: Teachin' Books is back to production after a longer-than-expected hiatus, and today I'm talkin' about REST. More specifically: how an enforced rest-by-injury shaped my teaching practices in the last six months, inclu...
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Season 2
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Episode 10
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30:23
2.9 Kate Beaton's Ducks
Today's episode involves our first ever comic on Teachin' Books! I'm excited to share with you how I teach Kate Beaton's webcomic Ducks, which you should
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Season 2
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Episode 9
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28:41
2.8 Interview with Namrata Mitra / Teaching Postcolonial Literatures
On today's episode, I'm chattin' with the fabulous Namrata Mitra, who is an Associate Professor at Iona College in the Department of English. Her resea...
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Season 2
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Episode 8
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1:09:50
2.7 Changin' Times
Wow, things have chaaaanged and are still a-changin'! Teachin' and learnin' things, that is. On this first solo episode of 2022, I talk about how I've come face-to-face, in the last few weeks of full-time teaching, with how teachin...
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Season 2
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Episode 7
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28:35
2.6 Interview with Brent Ryan Bellamy, Moritz Ingwersen, and Rachel Webb Jekanowski / Teaching about Oil through Arts, Film, and Literature
In this first episode of 2022 (!!!), I'm delighted to be joined by Brent Ryan Bellamy, Moritz Ingwersen, and Rachel Webb Jekanowski, co-instructors of a course on "North American Petrocultures," taught collaboratively and online through T...
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Season 2
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Episode 6
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1:08:46
Holiday special! - Feeling My Way through Walmart
This year's Holiday Special episode (whoop whoooop!) is an audio essay I produced for the Future Horizons summer project series. The series was organized by the fabulous Sarah Roger ...
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Season 2
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46:49
2.5 Interview with Karrie Auger and Nancy Van Styvendale / Inspired Minds: All Nations Creative Writing Program and Gregory Scofield's "Heart Food"
I'm so pleased to share today's interview with you, featuring Karrie Auger and Nancy Van Styvendale, all about the Inspired Minds: All Nations Creative Writing Program, which is facilitated in prisons in Saskatchewan and Alberta.In addi...
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Season 2
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Episode 5
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56:03
2.4 Interview with Shana MacDonald / Feminist Think Tank and Instagram Research, Activism, and Education
Today's episode is all about the ways we teach, learn, and work with... Instagraaaaaaaaam! I'm so excited to share with you this conversation I had with S...
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Season 2
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Episode 4
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58:10
2.3 Emily Dickinson's "A narrow Fellow in the Grass"
If you enjoy thinking, learning, and hearing about the nuts and bolts of classroom practice, this one's for you! In today's episode, I talk about three methods / exercises / approaches I've used to teach Emily Dickinson's poem "A narrow...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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31:19
2.2 Interview with Megan Solberg and Ian Moy / Part Two of Giggles and Screams, AKA: A Conversation with Veteran Teaching Assistants
Listen in to part TWO of my conversation with expert TAs and all-around excellent humans Megan Solberg and Ian Moy, Ph.D. candidates in English at the University of Saskatchewan who have lots of wisdom to share about navigating the unique conte...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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58:26
2.1 Interview with Megan Solberg and Ian Moy / Giggles and Screams, AKA: A Conversation with Veteran Teaching Assistants
Teachin' Books is back for Season Twoooooo, and I'm excited, y'all! ...especially because this first episode is part of a special two-part series to kick off Season Two, and it features a couple of my dearest friends, Megan Solberg and Ian Moy,...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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1:04:28
1.23 Failure in/and Teaching
Today I'm talkin' FAILURE. With contributions from friends, colleagues, listeners who shared their stories and thoughts about failure, as well as my own experiences and ideas, this episode gets into: the "meta" experience of failing...
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Season 1
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Episode 23
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35:43
1.22 Louise Halfe - Sky Dancer's Blue Marrow and "Body Politics"
On today's solo episode of Teachin' Books, I'm talking about the work of acclaimed poet Louise Bernice Halfe, whose Cree name is Sky Dancer. In particular, I'm talking about an excerpt from Blue Marrow and a short poem called "...
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Season 1
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Episode 22
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33:39
1.21 Interview with Lucy Hinnie / Teaching Shakespeare: Comedy and History
We're back to teachin' Shakespeeeeeare today! This episode features an interview with my lovely friend and brilliant human Dr. Lucy Hinnie! Lucy is currently Wikimedian-in-Residence at the British Library, and is completing her postdoctoral fel...
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Season 1
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Episode 21
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1:04:56
1.20 Interview with Khodi Dill / Spoken Word Poetry and “Grey,” Picture Books, and Education
Teachin' Books is back with an exciting interview with Khodi Dill, who is author of the picture book Welcome to the Cypher (available for
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Season 1
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Episode 20
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1:10:00
1.19 End-of-Term Tips
How do you wrap up the term in a good way? What do you do in the final days of class, whether remote or in-person? What atmosphere do you try to create? This episode includes thoughts in response to those questions, featuring fanta...
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Season 1
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Episode 19
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29:48
1.18 Interview with Wendy Roy / On Researching, Writing, and Publishing The Next Instalment
Heeey y'all! On today's episode of Teachin' Books, we're talking about something a bit different: research, writing, and publishing as forms of teaching and learning. The episode features part of the book launch for The Next Instal...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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1:02:47
1.17 Listener Q&A / Catch-Up Episode!
Today's episode is a bit of a catch-up / breather: I'm answering a few listener questions and emails and, along the way, returning to some of the podcast's ongoing topics of interest.Topics like... statue activism, book clubs (I ask: wh...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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22:37
1.16 Interview with Jordan Bolay / Dungeons and Dragons
It's heeeeeere! I'm so excited to share this Teachin' Books episode on Dungeons and Dragons, featuring Dr. Jordan Bolay, who is an instructor of English at Pearson College UWC.Even if you're not a DnD player, I think you'll like our cha...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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1:04:48
1.15 Robert Montgomery's Public Poetry Installations
On today's episode, I'm talking about the public poetry installations of London-based poet and artist Robert Montgomery. I use Montgomery's work in my first-year undergrad poetry class to consider important dimensions of and questi...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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31:12
1.14 Interview with Rebekah Ludolph / Hiromi Goto's The Kappa Child
Heeeeey y'all! We're back to talkin' about book clubs today as Ph.D. candidate Rebekah Ludolph shares her experience reading Hiromi Goto's novel The Kappa Child (2001) in a book club that encourages the goal of reading to learn. At the same tim...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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1:10:03
1.13 Janelle Monáe's "Pynk" and Vivek Shraya's "Part-time Woman"
I've been really excited to share this episode with you: today, I talk about teachin' Janelle Monáe's song/music video "Pynk" in combination with Vivek Shraya's song/music video "Part-time Woman"! This is always a fun combo to teach. <...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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30:43
1.12 Interview with Taylor Brown / Thomas King's The Inconvenient Indian
On today's episode of Teachin' Books, undergraduate student Taylor Brown shares her experiences working as a tour guide while she was also reading and thinking through Thomas King's 2012 non-fiction work The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious A...
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Season 1
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Episode 12
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1:01:00
