The Authority File Round-Up: January 2023

A quick round-up of last year’s most popular episodes, as well as a sneak peak into our latest series

After reaching The Authority File‘s 300th episode last December, we took a short break to recuperate. Although we didn’t have any new series in January, we gathered 10 of the most listened to episodes in 2022 by our listeners. Topics range from primary source literacy, artificial intelligence, ethics in higher education, and more. We’ll be back with more informative and thought-provoking interviews with authors, librarians, and higher education stakeholders starting in February.

Please enjoy this quick round-up of last year’s most popular episodes, as well as a sneak peak into our latest series. Happy listening!


Here are 10 of the most listened to episodes in 2022. Enjoy!


Celebrating 300 Episodes of The Authority File

In December, we reached 300 episodes of The Authority File. To mark the milestone, we created several themed lists that bring together the episodes from over the years. Take a look back at the series, themes, and guests from 2017 to 2022. Thanks for listening!

Check out a few of the lists below:


Multispecies Modernity: Disorderly Life in Postcolonial Literature book cover. Artistic, kaleidoscopic drawing of flowers, plants, and shapes emerging from the center of a large flower. In the mid-left, Earth with flowers/plants emerging from it. In the bottom left, a stag stands with its mouth open, turned toward the kaleidoscopic flower.

Missed December’s episodes? We’ve got you covered.

Sundhya Walther, author of Multispecies Modernity: Disorderly Life in Postcolonial Literature, discussed her title and research on animal-human interactions in literature. She highlighted key concepts like disorderly multispecies living, creating a “postcolonial freedom” for nonhumans, and evolving animal studies into a more general ecological field. She also unpacked appropriative interpretation and explained how the climate crisis impacts her work. Listen to the first episode here.


What’s Coming Up in February

In the first episode of this two-part series, Dr. Sarah Derbew, assistant professor of Classics at Stanford University, discusses the future of Classical Studies and her book, Untangling Blackness in Greek Antiquity. Sarah introduces us to her research area and provides an overview of her title, including why she differentiates between ancient and modern understandings of race. In addition, she explains how framing her book as an anti-racist study informed her research, how Classicists have historically approached ancient depictions of Blackness, and why addressing a researcher’s own experience and subjectivity creates a more rigorous and ethical work than falsely claiming objectivity. Listen to the episode here.


You can find more episodes of the Authority File here on our websiteApple PodcastsSpotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Thanks for listening! See you next month.


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