The Authority File Round-Up: April 2023
A quick overview of last month's episodes, in case you missed them
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Posted on December 30, 2022 in Blog
To celebrate The Authority File reaching 300 episodes, the Choice team put together several lists highlighting key episodes and topics. This collection features interviews with authors deep-diving into their research and latest works. Guests range from the STEM fields of environmental studies and space technology to those studying philosophy, literature, and religion. Enjoy!
With work, family duties, household chores, who has free time? And when we do, should we zone out to Netflix and a quickly-depleting box of Cheez-Its? Or is free time better used on altruistic efforts in our own communities? How do we make our free time not only restorative, but meaningful? Read more and listen here.
Austin Clarke, a Black Canadian writer of novels, short stories, and poetry didn’t fit into the typical CanLit narrative. As Paul Barrett, editor of ‘Membering Austin Clarke explains, Clarke’s writing depicted migration and anti-Black racism—”he’s not writing about … old farmers staring wistfully into snowbanks, and, you know, having lives of quiet desperation.” So where does that leave his writing and his legacy? Read more and listen here.
During her undergraduate years, Deanna Reder, Associate Professor of Indigenous Studies and English at Simon Fraser University, struggled to find a wide range of scholarship on Indigenous literary works. However, by the time she returned for her PhD in the early 2000s, an explosion of Indigenous scholars had entered the academic scene. Read more and listen here.
Dr. Randolph Cornelius, professor of psychological science at Vassar College, gets Dr. Heidi Maibom, professor of philosophy at the University of Cincinnati, to discuss the role of empathy in altruism, the function of empathy, and the way in which the possible evolutionary history of empathy illustrates the deep ties that bind humans to the natural world. Read more and listen here.
It’s the question routinely posed to artists, writers, and poets: who are your major influences? We expect famous names—Plath, Wallace, Morrison—but what about the people close to the creator who affect their character and, consequently, general oeuvre? Read more and listen here.
For David Danelo, the road to defining his job title was a long one. A Naval Academy graduate and US Marine Corps infantry officer, he knew after serving that he wanted to be paid to travel and write—a good place to start, but how to find a steady foothold within the freelance journalism world? The answer, he discovered, was in front of him all along: field research. Read more and listen here.
The autobiographical genre of life writing takes many forms: personal essays, memoirs, diary entries, letters—all forms that the currently and formerly incarcerated write in. But what are the characteristics and complexities of prison life writing? How does it mirror the history of incarceration? What’s its relationship with resistance literature? Read more and listen here.
In recent decades, which has experienced the most significant change: space technology or its business model? Dr. Stella Tkatchova, a project manager in the European Space Industry and author of Emerging Space Markets, has observed a striking shift in space commerce. Read more and listen here.
What differentiates literature from world literature? How do western conceptions of literary works categorize or diminish contributions from those outside the West? In today’s age of connectivity, migration, and growing diasporas, is there really a need for this distinction? Was there ever? Read more and listen here.
Flexibility isn’t exactly a defining trait of academia. Though scholarship has grown to embrace new areas of research and interdisciplinary subjects, historically, academics have stayed within their disciplines and employed traditional forms of study and evaluation. But is there another way? Read more and listen here.
Human activity has undoubtedly impacted our planet’s systems. With deforestation, air pollution, and plastic waste, can we still call the natural sciences “natural”? Or have humans changed the planet so much that the “natural” and “human” worlds are now indistinguishable? Could seeing ourselves as part of the earth’s systems help bring more urgency to the climate crisis? Read more and listen here.
A quick overview of last month's episodes, in case you missed them
Posted on in Blog
A quick overview of last month's episodes, in case you missed them
Posted on in Blog
Apply your collection assessment skills and gain subject expertise
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A quick overview of last month's episodes, in case you missed them
Posted on in Blog