“Our Largest and Most Varied Life”: Walt Whitman’s Bicentennial

May 31, 2019 marks Walt Whitman’s two-hundredth birthday. In his lifetime, Whitman was a schoolmaster, journalist, editor, novelist, poet, and more, though his posthumous legacy has depended largely on his career as the author of a distinctly American volume of verse, Leaves of Grass, which begins famously: “I celebrate myself…” As a reviewer of his own work, his words rang true enough. But Whitman has also been celebrated by readers, scholars, and statesmen since the advent of his muscular, free verse, not to mention by devoted friends and followers such as Horace Traubel, who would describe Whitman on the occasion of his seventieth birthday as “our largest and most varied life.” We’re still coming to terms with exactly how large and varied Whitman’s life was, as new discoveries of lost volumes of his prose, including a novel, have landed him on the front page of the New York Times twice in as many years (2016 and 2017), and for the first time(s) since the Civil War. Whitman’s bicentennial occasions a look back not only at these new discoveries from Whitman’s lifetime, but also at Whitman’s influence that extended well past his own life into new centuries in which his democratic optimism and Jacksonian populism would be championed, utilized, and also called into crisis. This exhibition prompts such examination by presenting a retrospective glance at (1) the many faces of Walt Whitman as he self-fashioned from dandy to sage; (2) the process by which he developed his signature poetic line that would be a hallmark of Leaves of Grass; (3) his interventions in the American Civil War; (4) how Whitman’s legacy has been shaped by those who have come after.Englis

Podcasts and Partnerships: Learning Through Listening and Content Creation

Scholarly and practitioner interest in educational/pedagogical podcasts has been evident in many areas of educational praxis since 2007; however, we have seen relatively little attention to podcast pedagogy in LIS, despite the field’s role as an early adopter of media-making pedagogies. We see podcasts as a means of extending learning beyond our immediate environs by connecting with others, either across the globe or from the reaches of the archives. We will offer a discussion of varied collaborative frameworks that can support podcasting as a pedagogical praxis. The panelists have done research and developed podcasts in multiple courses and grant-funded, open-source settings. This range of experiences and learning environments enables the panel to make recommendations to instructors who want to bring new media (and new voices) into their classrooms, giving attention to both risks and rewards. Our panel will discuss developing podcasts as open-source learning resources and as community engagement assignments that challenge students to develop technology- and listening- based skills. Based on interdisciplinary theories and experience, this panel identifies emergent best practices for using podcasting in conjunction with instruction and learning. During this panel, we envision time for information sharing and discussion

Interview: Lisa Olstein on <i>Pain Studies</i>

"Synapsis: A Health Humanities Journal" was founded in 2017 by Arden Hegele, a literary scholar, and Rishi Goyal, a physician. Its mission is to develop conversations among diverse people thinking about medical and humanistic ways of knowing ... as a “Department Without Walls” that connects scholars and thinkers from different spheres

Keeping Teachers Engaged during Non-Instructional Times: An Analysis of the Effects of a Naturalistic Intervention

As the prevalence of autism continues to rise, early childhood programs continue to evolve to meet the needs of children across a spectrum of abilities. To do this, strategies and supports are needed for teachers to engage with children who experience difficulties across developmental domains. Snack Talk, a naturalistic visual communication intervention, focuses on increases in conversation engagement for children with autism and related disabilities during mealtimes. This study examined the effects of the implementation of Snack Talk on increasing teacher engagement in conversation with five preschool children with autism during mealtimes in an EIBI classroom setting. A reversal design was used to analyze the relationship between Snack Talk and teacher conversational engagement with children. Results of this study demonstrated that implementation of Snack Talk increased instances of teacher engagement in conversation with children compared to baseline phases, demonstrating the promise of this intervention supporting students’ different levels of support needs in inclusive, blended settings. A functional relationship has been established between baseline and intervention phases and generalization. Limitations and directions for further research are discussed

Rethinking US Policy Towards North Korea

Created as part of the the 2011 Jackson School for International Studies SIS 495: Task force. Clark W. Sorensen, Task Force Advisor; Ambassador Thomas Hubbard, Evaluator; Marianne Fisher and Marcus Foster, Coordinators.Negotiations between the United States and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have failed. The United States has engaged the DPRK through a multitude of approaches with some success, though they have all ultimately deteriorated due to policy inconsistency and inability to predict and accommodate the DPRK’s erratic behavior. In the last decade,particularly with the DPRK’s successful development of nuclear weapon capabilities, relations with North Korea have collapsed due to various factors. Many failures can be attributed to US policy inconsistency towards the DPRK, especially during periods of administration change in the United States; these failures, consequently, have been perpetuated by the DPRK’s unpredictable reactions. Returning to negotiations through engaging the DPRK regime directly is increasingly important to national and global security as North Korea continues to proliferate