Season 2, Episode 7: Novelist Curtis Smith On His Latest Book, The Lost and the Blind

Curtis Smith is a novelist and essayist who works at Etown College as the Assistant Director of Academic Advising and teaches in the English department and the First Year Seminar program. In this final episode of Season 2, Smith returns to the podcast to discuss his sixth novel, The Lost and the Blind. The novel centers on a 17-year-old boy named Mark Hayes who lives in a highly unstable family situation with a drug-addicted single mother who is often absent for long stretches of time, leaving Mark to fend for himself without many resources and very limited guidance. Some of Smith\u27s other recent publications include the novels The Magpie\u27s Return and Lovepain as well as the essay collection Communion. If you are interested in purchasing The Lost and the Blind, you can find a copy in print, ebook format, or as an audiobook from most online booksellers, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop. You can also find a copy at the High Library

Season 2, Episode 4: On Race and Racial Equity in Higher Education with Dr. Kesha Morant Williams

This episode features a conversation with Dr. Kesha Morant Williams, Etown College’s Senior Advisor for College Diversity, Equity and Belonging. We discuss Dr. Williams’ 2021 essay, “I Can Breathe,” published in Survive and Thrive: A Journal for the Medical Humanities and Narrative as Medicine. In the essay, she reflects on a racist hate crime she experienced on the campus of Penn State Berks when she worked there in 2020. We also discuss other topics around race in the United States, including the concept of “Black respectability,” the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action in higher education, and her work promoting diversity, equity, and belonging at Elizabethtown College

Season 2, Episode 6: Creating an LGBTQ+ Dictionary in Arabic with Samhar Almomani \u2724

In the March episode of the library podcast, we welcome graduating senior, Samhar Almomani, to discuss his work creating an LGBTQ+ dictionary in Arabic. The dictionary includes both terminology and spotlights notable figures and events in LGBTQ+ history in the Middle East. Samhar is a public health major at Etown College with a special interest in addressing healthcare disparities. He recently presented on his dictionary project at the American Public Health Association conference

American Political Culture in Transition: The Erosion of Consensus and Democratic Norms

This article identifies and examines the major characteristics, trends, and tendencies in American political culture and political performance that have been evolving in recent years, for a comprehensive picture of how Americans perceive and believe about their country and its political system. The analysis places the findings in a comparative perspective, provides relevant insights from other Western democracies, and discusses the implications of the findings for American democracy. Many links to high-quality, cost-free online sources are offered to facilitate further study of relevant aspects of the contemporary situation of the United States. (https://www.opeu.org.br/2024/02/29/american-political-culture-in-transition-the-erosion-of-consensus-and-democratic-norms/

Season 2, Episode 5: Etown College Alumnus Spotlight: W. Miller Barbour \u2732, Civil Rights Leader

In celebration of Black History Month, this episode spotlights a notable, African American Etown College alumnus, W. Miller Barbour (also known as William Miller Barbour). Hailing from nearby Middletown, PA, Barbour was one of the college’s first African American graduates, studying in the liberal arts program and graduating in 1932. He then went on to pursue a Master’s degree in social work at the University of Pennsylvania before embarking on a career as a scholar and activist, fighting for African American rights around housing and employment through leadership positions at the National Urban League. A group of Etown faculty, staff, and recent alums are working together on a research project about Barbour’s life, work, and legacy. Librarian Josh Cohen speaks with some of the team, including Jean-Paul Benowitz, director of prestigious scholarships and Public Heritage Studies; Peter Depuydt, a retired librarian and archivist; Abigail Sholes \u2723, a History and Social Studies Education major who graduated in December; and a returning guest to the podcast, Eric Schubert \u2723, who has been working as a forensic genetic genealogist for the company Othram Incorporated since graduating last May. It was a pleasure to be able to talk with them about their research, which they hope to publish prior to the college’s 125th anniversary celebration in the Fall 2024

Season 1, Episode 6: Using Digital Storytelling in Literacy Education with Dr. Kathryn Caprino

Digital storytelling can be a powerful teaching tool for children. In this episode of The JayPod, Etown Education professor Dr. Kathryn Caprino talks about what digital storytelling is and what some of the potential benefits are for using it in the classroom. In 2021, she published a series of blog posts on this topic in collaboration with former Early Childhood Education students, Samantha Weigle and Alyssa Marzili. You can check out those blog posts at the links below: Digital Storytelling: An Exciting Teaching Tool! href= https://www.middleweb.com/46096/assessing-digital-stories-in-the-middle-grades/\u3eAssessing Digital Stories in the Middle Grades Dr. Caprino has taught middle and high school English. She teaches classes on adolescent and children’s literature and literacy methods and has a special interest in integrating technology as part of literacy education. You can follow her on Twitter at @Kcapliteracy and she also reviews children\u27s books at https://katiereviewsbooks.wordpress.com/

Season 1, Episode 8: Philip Roth\u27s The Plot Against America and Its Relevance to American Politics Today with Dr. Fletcher McClellan

In his 2004 novel, The Plot Against America, the late author Philip Roth explores an alternate version of American history from 1940-1942 in which FDR loses the 1940 presidential election against the isolationist, celebrity aviator Charles Lindbergh, leading to serious consequences for the country, particularly for the Jewish population. Etown College Professor of Political Science, Dr. Fletcher McClellan has used the novel in his senior seminar in recent years as a way to explore parallels between the fictional Lindbergh presidency of Roth\u27s novel and the Trump presidency, focusing on the similarities between the isolationist, nativist ideology behind the America First movement of the early 40s and the MAGA movement. In this month\u27s JayPod episode, we discuss these and other parallels and how the novel might inform discussions of current American politics and the state of our democracy. In November 2022, Dr. McClellan published an article, href= https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15512169.2022.2148533\u3e It Almost Happened (And Might Still Happen) Here: Philip Roth\u27s The Plot Against America in the Journal of Political Science Education on how he has used the novel in his senior seminars

Season 1, Episode 9: Using Archival Materials in Pre-service Teacher Education: A Conversation with Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh and Brian Booker

In this archives-focused episode, host Josh Cohen got the opportunity to talk with High Library archivist, Rachel Grove Rohrbaugh, and Education faculty member, Brian Booker, about their collaboration for Education students in Brian\u27s Social Studies Methods course. Rachel and Brian worked together to create an assignment requiring the students to use archival resources to create a short K-12 social studies lesson. In the January/February issue of the publication Archival Outlook, Rachel published an article about this project, titled, “Make an Impact with Archival Outreach to Preservice Teachers: Instructing Students to Teach with Primary Sources.” We discuss that collaboration and its goals and how K-12 social studies teachers can benefit from incorporating primary source materials into their instruction. Plus, we highlight the High Library\u27s Hess Archives collections which feature materials related to the Church of the Brethren, the Elizabethtown College archives, and collections related to Anabaptist and Pietist groups. For archivists and others interested in Rachel\u27s work with Brian\u27s class, here is a link to the href= https://libraryguides.etown.edu/socialstudies\u3elibrary guide that Rachel created and which we reference in the episode

Season 2, Episode 3: Directing Julia Cho’s play The Language Archive : A Conversation with Bruce Walsh

In this episode of the podcast, Bruce Walsh, who teaches playwriting and acting at Elizabethtown College, talks about directing Julia Cho’s 2012 play, The Language Archive. The play focuses on the character of George, a linguist who studies and tries to preserve dying languages. Although language is his field of study, he struggles to communicate with other people, particularly with his wife, Mary, who leaves him at the start of the play