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How do schools navigate the complexities of inclusion, polarization, and freedom of expression while fostering a vibrant learning environment? Today, John Austin, Head of School at Deerfield Academy, joins Heterodox Out Loud to explore these questions and share insights from the groundbreaking report, Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention: A Framework for Schools.John reflects on his unique journey from aspiring surfer to educational leader, shaping student experiences across continents, including his tenure at King's Academy in Jordan. Drawing from decades of experience, John delves into the challenges and opportunities presented by diversity in schools, discussing how institutions can promote dialogue, trust, and intellectual growth through structured initiatives like randomized community meals and robust expressive frameworks. John also sheds light on the collaborative process behind the report and its three foundational pillars: disciplined nonpartisanship, expressive freedom, and intellectual diversity.In This Episode:Independent schools as laboratories for educational innovationBalancing inclusivity with robust academic inquiryThe significance of Robert Putnam's social capital theoryStrategies for fostering meaningful dialogue across differencesThe transformative potential of conscientious, courageous, and tolerant expressionAbout John:Dr. John Austin became Deerfield Academy's 56th Head of School in July of 2019. Prior to Deerfield, Dr. Austin served as Headmaster at King's Academy in Madaba, Jordan, and before that as Academic Dean at St. Andrew's School in Middletown, Delaware, where he joined the faculty in 1987. A graduate of Williams College, he holds a Master of Arts, Master of Philosophy, and Doctoral degrees in English and Comparative Literature from Columbia University, along with a Master's degree from the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. Last year, with funding from an E.E. Ford Foundation grant, Dr. Austin convened a group of renowned independent school leaders from across the United States to develop a framework for enhancing the expressive freedom of students, fostering in them habits of curiosity and critical analysis, and preparing them to thrive in a world of pluralistic contention. The resulting work, authored by Dr. Austin, Thriving in a World of Pluralistic Contention: A Framework for Schools, was published in May of 2024. Follow Heterodox Academy on:Twitter: https://bit.ly/3Fax5DyFacebook: https://bit.ly/3PMYxfwLinkedIn: https://bit.ly/48IYeuJInstagram: https://bit.ly/46HKfUgSubstack: https://bit.ly/48IhjNF
Today, while the host works in the mountains, we are featuring the first half of a longer poem by Fugitive poet Donald Davidson, imagining the inner agonies of a Robert E. Lee in retirement. Part 2 tomorrow.Associated with the Fugitives and Southern Agrarians, poet Donald (Grady) Davidson was born in Tennessee and earned both a BA and an MA from Vanderbilt University in Nashville. Davidson published five collections of poetry The Outland Piper (1924), The Tall Man (1927), Lee in the Mountains and Other Poems (1938), The Long Street: Poems (1961), and Collected Poems: 1922–1961 (1966). In the 1920s, Davidson co-founded and co-edited the influential journal The Fugitive. His prose writings include an essay in I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition (1930); a collection, Still Rebels, Still Yankees and Other Essays (1957); and Southern Writers in the Modern World (1958), which he first delivered as a lecture at Mercer University in Georgia. Davidson wrote a two-volume history of Tennessee, The Tennessee Volume One: The Old River: Frontier to Secession (1946) and The Tennessee Volume Two: The New River: Civil War to TVA (1948).Davidson taught English at Vanderbilt University from 1920 to 1968. He spent summers teaching at the Bread Loaf School of English in Vermont.-bio via Poetry Foundation Get full access to The Daily Poem Podcast at dailypoempod.substack.com/subscribe
“And the point is, you can do it. You have more strength than you think you do. You can go through these tough situations. You move through that adversity, and you move through those struggles. And you keep going.” Susan J. Godwin, fervent educator, writer, freelance artist, and today's guest on Fierce Conversations with Toby Head to https://www.youtube.com/@fierceconversationswithtoby to find all video interviews! Transcripts available at https://tobydorr.com/podcast-schedule/ Some of our fierce topics today: [03:28] It shouldn't be called breaking up, because that implies a quick break. It's more like a taffy pull. [04:50] I discovered a female court of writers in the late 17th century. [09:31] Crazy David was my boyfriend who faked his own death and then showed up at my house in the middle of the night a couple weeks later. [13:22] I was cocktail waitressing in LA at the world-famous Palomino Club and I waited on Manuel (designer to the stars) and we fell in love and got married and had a baby. [17:19] But it felt if I didn't leave him I would get cancer and die – it was such a toxic unhealthy moment. Susan Godwin is a fervent educator, writer, and freelance artist whose world has always been steeped in books, from Harold and the Purple Crayon; she couldn't resist drawing on her bedroom wall, no matter how many reprimands; to her first job as a library book mender in her Shaker Heights High School basement to teaching English at the prestigious University School of Nashville. A former Oxford scholar, Godwin has received writing awards from the University of Michigan, Middle Tennessee State University, and Bread Loaf School of English. Though writing is her true passion, she is also a visual artist working primarily in oils and pastels. Her home is outside of Nashville, in Dickson, TN, on the banks of a winding Tennessee river, in a hayloft renovated by her sweet, sexy husband, Tony; with help from their rotty, Roady! Links mentioned in this episode: Susan J. Godwin: https://susanjgodwin.com ____________________________________ Toby Dorr: Books and Audiobook Website Patreon YouTube Instagram Facebook Or head to https://linktr.ee/fierceconversations for all things Fierce Conversations with Toby. Credits: Created by Toby Dorr. Produced by Number Three Productions, a division of GracePoint Publishing. Theme song: Lisa Plasse: Composer, arranger, and flutist Caroline Parody: Piano Tony Ventura: Bass For more information on these fabulous musicians, please go to https://tobydorr.com/theme-song/
Have you ever felt stuck? How about feeling like you've hit a wall? What did you do to overcome it? How did you push through? These questions and more are covered in the latest episode of The DTALKS Podcast! About Barbara Dee Barbara Dee is the award-winning author of fourteen middle grade novels, all published by Simon & Schuster. Her books have earned several starred reviews and have been named to many best-of lists, including The Washington Post's Best Children's Books, ALA Notable Children's Books, ALA Rise: A Feminist Book Project List, School Library Journal's Best Middle Grade Books, and the ALA Rainbow List Top Ten. Her books appear on numerous state awards lists as well. Barbara graduated magna cum laude from Yale with honors in English. She has a MA degree from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English and a JD degree from the University of Chicago Law School, where she was an associate editor of the law review. She has taught high school English and has practiced law. Barbara is one of the founders and a former board member of the Chappaqua Children's Book Festival, now the largest children's book festival in the country. About 'Unstuck' Lyla is thrilled when her seventh-grade English language arts class begins a daily creative writing project. For the past year, she's been writing a brilliant fantasy novel in her head, and here's her chance to get it on paper! The plot to Lyla's novel is super complicated, with battle scenes and witches and a mysterious one-toed-beast, but at its core, it's about an overlooked girl who has to rescue her beautiful, highly accomplished older sister. But writing a fantasy novel turns out to be harder than simply imagining one, and pretty soon Lyla finds herself stuck, experiencing a panic she realizes is writer's block. Part of the problem is that she's trying to impress certain people—like Rania, her best friend who's pulling away, and Ms. Bowman, the coolest teacher at school. Plus, there's the pressure of meeting the deadline for the town writing contest. A few years ago, Lyla's superstar teen sister Dahlia came in second, and this time, Lyla is determined to win first prize. Finally, Lyla confides about her writing problems to Dahlia, who is dealing with her own academic stress as she applies to college. That's when she learns Dahlia's secret, which is causing a very different type of writer's block. Can Lyla rescue a surprisingly vulnerable big sister, both on the page and in real life? Make sure to check out the Dtalkspodcast.com website! Thanks to Empire Toys for this episode of the podcast! Nostalgia is something everyone loves and Empire Toys in Keller Texas is on nostalgia overload. With toys and action figures from the 70's, 80's, 90's, and today, Empire Toys is a one-stop-shop for a trip down memory lane and a chance to reclaim what was once yours (but likely sold at a garage sale) Check out Empire Toys on Facebook, Instagram, or at TheEmpireToys.com AND Thanks to Self Unbound for this episode of the podcast: Your quality of life: physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, is a direct reflection of the level of abundant energy, ease, and connection your nervous system has to experience your life! At Self Unbound, your nervous system takes center stage as we help unbind your limited healing potential through NetworkSpinal Care. Access the first steps to your Unbound journey by following us on Facebook, Instagram, or at www.selfunbound.com The DTALKS Podcast has also been ranked #9 in the "Top 40 Detox Podcast You Must Follow in 2020" according to Feedspot.com for our work in the Cultural Detox space. Thank you so much to the Feedspot team! https://blog.feedspot.com/detox_podcasts/
In this episode, Amanda Henderson interviews Dr. Albert Hernández - a Cuban-American academic with a unique perspective on the American Dream. Dr. Hernández discusses the challenges faced by those who exist in-between cultures, feeling a lack of belonging to either. He shares historical perspectives on the experience of immigration to the U.S, particularly from Cuba, and explores how global political conflicts can drive individuals to relocate, seeking safety and better futures for their offspring. The episode illuminates the significance of personal and political narratives in shaping our understanding of the past and our vision for the future. The discussions range from colonial legacies, racialization, to the long road to societal change.Lastly, it presents a reflective poem reading by Mariela Saavedra Carquin – I swear There Was a River. In Maps You Can't Make, Mariella Saavedra Carquin confronts hard truths in this powerful debut collection, pushing through layered complexities of immigration, race, and identity to find a way forward.00:00 Introduction: The Hyphenated Existence00:33 Understanding the American Dream02:04 Historical Context: Cuba and the United States03:25 Interview with Dr. Albert Hernández: A Cuban-American Perspective05:55 The Cuban Revolution and Its Impact07:50 The Hyphenated Existence: A Personal Journey09:01 The Struggle of Belonging: Between Cuban and American10:19 The Influence of Personal History on Academic Interests13:09 Generational Differences in Immigrant Experiences20:22 The Complexity of Identity and the American Dream23:39 The Role of History in Shaping Our Present and Future30:56 The Long Haul Commitment to Change33:12 Poetry Reading: I Swear There Was a River by Mariella Saavedra Carquin 35:58 Conclusion and Acknowledgements Guest BiosDr. Albert Hernández joined the Iliff faculty in 2001. He teaches courses in the history of Christianity from Medieval to Early Modern times with additional expertise in the history of the ancient Hellenistic-Roman period. His research and teaching areas include the history of mysticism and pneumatology; Muslim and Christian relations beginning with the Crusades; religious diversity in medieval Iberia and the Spanish Empire; and the history of medicine and pandemics. Hernández led the faculty design team that created the Authentic Engagement Program™ focusing his contribution on human flourishing and the philosophy of Happiness.Poet Mariella Saavedra Carquin is a graduate of Middlebury College, holds an EdM and an MA in psychological counseling from Columbia University, and recently earned an MA from Middlebury's Bread Loaf School of English. She is a licensed mental health counselor who has practiced in clinical, higher education, and middle school settings and published in academic journals on the psychological impact of microaggressions experienced by undocumented immigrant youth. Born in Peru and raised in Miami, she currently lives in Colorado. Want to Learn More?Cuban Missile Crisis - https://www.history.com/topics/cold-war/cuban-missile-crisisMariella Saavedra Carquin, the poet who read one of her poems at the end of this episode. Her recently published book of poems confronts hard truths in this powerful debut collection, pushing through layered complexities of immigration, race, and identity to find a way forward. https://www.juneroadpress.com/maps-you-cant-make Want to Take Action? Learn about immigration rights and how to take action in Colorado: https://www.aclu-co.org/en/campaigns/immigrants-rights Sign up for Complexified Newsletter: https://complexified.substack.com/Help Make Complexified Happen - Donate here https://interland3.donorperfect.net/weblink/weblink.aspx?name=E345509&id=75Contact us: email complexified@iliff.eduComplexified Website: https://www.complexified.org/
In this episode, we talk with Beyond the Page (BtP), a Middlebury program of professional teaching artists who use theater techniques in college classrooms to foster creativity and storytelling. Conflict Transformation Collaborative and BtP have been exploring ways to shift conflict dynamics through community building, playful exploration, and seeing our relationships and structures in new ways. CT Director Sarah Stroup speaks with Craig Maravich, BtP program director and visiting assistant professor at Middlebury; Jude Sandy, BtP lead teaching artist; and Madison Middleton, BtP teaching artist. Learn more about the Beyond the Page program, visit their website: http://beyondthepage.middcreate.net/ Beyond the Page emerged from the Bread Loaf School of English, where conflict transformation programs focus on the role of storytelling in understanding and approaching conflict. To learn more about CT at Bread Loaf, visit: https://www.middlebury.edu/conflict-transformation/reaching-students-high-school-through-graduate-school/high-school-students
This week let's talk about a unique masters program - and the one I did - The Bread Loaf School of English. Quick Details: Summer Program out of Middlebury College M.A. In English, but almost all participants are teachers, so there's a teaching angle! Campuses in Vermont, Oxford (England), and California Unique Classes and Activities (Opera, "Discovering the Imagination," and my Independent Study on Travel writing were three of my personal favorites...) Learn more here: The Bread Loaf School of English Go Further: Explore alllll the Episodes of The Spark Creativity Teacher Podcast. Join our community, Creative High School English, on Facebook. Come hang out on Instagram. Enjoying the podcast? Please consider sharing it with a friend, snagging a screenshot to share on the ‘gram, or tapping those ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ to help others discover the show. Thank you!
Welcome to the Opening Up podcast series, a new effort from the Conflict Transformation (CT) Collaborative at Middlebury! Many people hear the word conflict and pull away, because they think of the harm that can come from destructive conflict. Yet conflict is part of the human experience, and constructive conflict can enrich our relationships and communities. This lens on conflict informs the field of "conflict transformation," and helps us understand the value of engaging across our differences. The Conflict Transformation (CT) Collaborative at Middlebury is a major new initiative that seeks to use this lens on conflict to expand our work on intercultural communication, dialogue, restorative justice, and beyond. Middlebury is a global educational institution, and CT programs are being expanded at the College in Vermont, the Institute in Monterey, CA, at the Bread Loaf School of English, and in our Schools Abroad. Our first two episodes are hosted by Sarah Stroup, director of the CT Collaborative and a political science professor at Middlebury. In Episode 1, we introduce you to the field of conflict transformation through the words of leading practitioners and scholars that have visiting Middlebury in our first year.
Welcome to the Opening Up podcast series, a new effort from the Conflict Transformation (CT) Collaborative at Middlebury! The Conflict Transformation (CT) Collaborative at Middlebury is a major new initiative that seeks to expand our work on critical self-awareness, conflict analysis, intercultural communication, dialogue, restorative justice, and beyond. Our first two episodes are hosted by Sarah Stroup, director of the CT Collaborative and a political science professor at Middlebury. In Episode 2, we introduce you to the faculty and staff who are designing the new projects and programs at Middlebury. Middlebury is a global educational institution, and CT programs are being expanded at the College in Vermont, the Institute in Monterey, CA, at the Bread Loaf School of English, and in our Schools Abroad.
Event Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-iliad-at-grace-san-francisco-a-public-reading-event-tickets-511419889657 The International Readers of Homer: https://www.internationalreadersofhomer.org/ Kathryn Hohlwein is a poet, author, teacher, world traveler, and Homerist. Born in the Rocky Mountains, she graduated from the University of Utah in 1951 and received an M.A. from The Bread Loaf School of English of Middlebury College in Vermont 1953. For 37 years, she taught poetry, creative writing, world literature, poetry in translation, and the Homeric imagination at the University of Utah, Ohio State University, and for many years at California State University, Sacramento. Her publications include: Touchstones: Letters Between Two Women 1953 to 1964, The Middle Kingdom, What's Funny About Forever, and The Little Chapel in Donegal. Upon retiring from teaching, she founded the International Readers of Homer, through which she created multilingual, audience-participation readings of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the International Readers of Homer has delighted audiences in London, New York, Los Angeles, Brussels, Montevideo, Alexandria, Tehran, Athens, and the Greek islands of Kos and Chios. She is looking forward to the upcoming reading of The Iliad in San Francisco in May 2023, just a week shy of her 93rd birthday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
For the first time in our podcast's history, we are featuring our first married educator couple, Lorena & Roberto Germán. In our conversation, they shared about their collective journey in education, the founding of their company Multicultural Classroom, the importance of incorporating culturally sustaining practices into our classrooms, and so much more! To learn more about the Germáns' work, you can visit their website at multiculturalclassroom.com or follow them on Instagram (@multiculturalclassroom) and Twitter (@nenagerman). BIO: LORENA: Lorena is an immigrant from Dominican Republic and raised in the U.S. She attended public schooling from first grade through high school. She earned her Bachelor's Degree in English Communication from Emmanuel College and her Master of Arts in English from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English. She is an advocate for the practice of a culturally sustaining pedagogical approach in education. Lorena has been in the field of education, working in various settings, since 2001. Her extensive experience in myriad of settings ranging from extracurricular youth work to community spaces to the traditional classroom equips her to offer sound advice on strong teaching practices. Specifically, her classroom experience has been as an ELA teacher from grades 6th through 12th. Lorena has held educational leadership positions at the department level, school-wide level, and in the larger district level from designing curriculum to strategizing for improvement. She is the Chair of the National Council of English Teacher's Committee Against Racism and Bias in the Teaching of English and she's a co-founder of #DisruptTexts. She's also Director of Pedagogy at EduColor. ROBERTO: Roberto Germán is a Dominican-American native of Lawrence, Massachusetts. He is a product of Lawrence Public Schools, Central Catholic High School, and the Boys and Girls Club in Lawrence. As Director of the Middle School at Headwaters School, he brought inclusivity and social justice ideas into every aspect of his work there. Before that, he supported the opening of Magnolia Montessori For All, Austin's First Public Montessori School, serving as Director of Student Affairs and Services. Previously, Roberto served as Assistant Principal at the Guilmette Middle School in Lawrence, MA. Prior to that, he served as Director of Multicultural Affairs and Community Development for seven years at St. John's Preparatory School in Danvers, MA, where he led the school in fostering a culture that promoted social justice and equity. During his tenure at SJP, he was also a basketball coach and Spanish teacher. Mr. Germán is an alumnus of Andover Bread Loaf and an active member of the Bread Loaf Teacher Network. His role within ABL and with the BLTN is at the center of ABL's educational justice work within the public schools, youth, and community organizations. When he was twenty years old, Roberto introduced and co-led a spoken word movement in the city of Lawrence that took the city by storm from 2001-2003. This movement became the beginning of a writing revolution that inspired young people in the city of Lawrence to find their voices through the arts, particularly spoken word poetry and rap. He accomplished this with his former performing arts group, the Soul Kaliber Movement, and by his ability to collaborate with diverse organizations and individuals. Roberto's teaching experience includes serving as an English teacher at Lawrence High School and as a Spanish teacher at St. John's Preparatory School. He holds a Master's Degree from Boston College's Lynch School of Education in Educational Administration and a Bachelor of Arts, majoring in English, from Merrimack College. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/identitytalk4educators/support
Award-winning author Annie Hartnett and UNLIKELY ANIMALS. Annie's first novel, RABBIT CAKE was listed as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2017. RABBIT CAKE is currently under option with Amazon Studios. Annie's second novel, UNLIKELY ANIMALS published this April, was Good Housekeeping magazine and Amerie's Book club April selection. And an April Indie Next pick. Annie is a writer with a passion. Sometimes you stumble across the unexpected. For Annie that stumble resulted in UNLIKELY ANIMALS. Annie has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. She holds degrees from the MFA program at the University of Alabama, Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English, and Hamilton College. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.
Annie Hartnett is the author of novels RABBIT CAKE (Tin House Books, 2017) and UNLIKELY ANIMALS (Ballantine/Random House, 2022). Unlikely Animals was the April 2022 book club selection for Good Housekeeping magazine and Amerie's Book club. It received starred reviews from Booklist and Bookpage, and was an April Indie Next pick. Rabbit Cake was listed as one of Kirkus Reviews' Best Books of 2017, was a finalist for the New England Book Award, an Indies Introduce and an Indie Next Pick, and was long-listed for the Center for Fiction's First Novel Prize. It received starred reviews from Publisher's Weekly, Kirkus, and Library Journal, and was People magazine's Book of the Week. It is currently under option with Amazon Studios (more on that here!).Annie has been awarded fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Sewanee Writers' Conference, and the Associates of the Boston Public Library. She holds degrees from the MFA program at the University of Alabama, Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English, and Hamilton College. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband, daughter, and dog.Visit anniehartnett.com Here to Save You podcast: @HTSYpodIntro roll for WTPC
Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses by James Joyce
Pages 494 - 499 │ Nausicaa, part VI │ Read by Patrick HastingsPatrick Hastings is the English Department Chair at Gilman School in Baltimore, Maryland, where he lives with his wife, Martha, and his three young sons, Pierce, Bradley and Renwick. He is the author of The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses and the creator of UlyssesGuide.com. He attended Washington & Lee University and received his Masters degree from Middlebury College's Bread Loaf School of English. In the summer of 2003, he lived and worked at Shakespeare and Company Bookstore, an experience that spurred his interest in Joyce and was otherwise formative and inspirational.Follow on Twitter: www.twitter.com/PMHastingsFollow on Instagram: www.instagram.com/patrickhastings19Buy The Guide to James Joyce's Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9781421443492/the-guide-to-james-joyces-ulysses*Looking for our author interview podcast? Listen here: https://podfollow.com/shakespeare-and-companySUBSCRIBE NOW FOR EARLY EPISODES AND BONUS FEATURESAll episodes of our Ulysses podcast are free and available to everyone. However, if you want to be the first to hear the recordings, by subscribing, you can now get early access to recordings of complete sections.Subscribe on Apple Podcasts here: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/channel/shakespeare-and-company/id6442697026Subscribe on Patreon here: https://www.patreon.com/sandcoIn addition a subscription gets you access to regular bonus episodes of our author interview podcast. All money raised goes to supporting “Friends of Shakespeare and Company” the bookshop's non-profit.*Discover more about Shakespeare and Company here: https://shakespeareandcompany.comBuy the Penguin Classics official partner edition of Ulysses here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/d/9780241552636/ulyssesFind out more about Hay Festival here: https://www.hayfestival.com/homeAdam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. Find out more about him here: https://www.adambiles.netBuy a signed copy of his novel FEEDING TIME here: https://shakespeareandcompany.com/S/9781910296684/feeding-timeDr. Lex Paulson is Executive Director of the School of Collective Intelligence at Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique in Morocco.Original music & sound design by Alex Freiman.Hear more from Alex Freiman here: https://open.spotify.com/album/4gfkDcG32HYlXnBqI0xgQX?si=mf0Vw-kuRS-ai15aL9kLNA&dl_branch=1Follow Alex Freiman on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/alex.guitarfreiman/Featuring Flora Hibberd on vocals.Hear more of Flora Hibberd here: https://open.spotify.com/artist/5EFG7rqfVfdyaXiRZbRkpSVisit Flora Hibberd's website: This is my website:florahibberd.com and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/florahibberd/ Music production by Adrien Chicot.Hear more from Adrien Chicot here: https://bbact.lnk.to/utco90/Follow Adrien Chicot on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/adrienchicot/Photo of Patrick Hastings by Anne Stuzin See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Dr. Andrew T. Weller is the Dean of Enrollment and Strategic Marketing at St. Stephens & St. Agnes School in Alexandria Virginia. Previously he was the Director of Admissions for Avenues: The World School, the Executive Director of Advancement at Ridley College (Canada) and the Director of Admissions at Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia. Andrew was a board member of the East Bay School for Boys, served on the inaugural Admissions Leadership Council, served four years on the planning committee of the TABS/NAIS Global Symposium, and now serves as an advisor to the Admission Directors Institute of the Enrollment Management Association. Andrew has B.S. from Alfred University (NY), M.S. from Marymount University (VA), and an doctorate in education from the University of Pennsylvania. Jonathan Downs is the seventh headmaster of Millbrook School, a role for which he began preparing while he was a student at Millbrook. After graduating in 1998, Jon went on to earn undergraduate and advanced degrees from Middlebury College, the Bread Loaf School at Middlebury, and Harvard University. For the past 20 years, he has been immersed in teaching and leadership roles in independent schools including Northfield Mount Hermon, Newark Academy, and Providence Day School. Jon returned to Millbrook in 2010 as director of admission before adding development and communications responsibilities in his new role as assistant head of school in 2017. He served on the board of trustees of two local schools—Dutchess Day School and Millbrook Early Childhood Education Center—and he currently serves on the board of Whitby School in Greenwich, Connecticut.
"How do we make people feel known and loved? How do we demonstrate that in our actions?" // Kevin J. O'Brien is an English teacher and lacrosse coach at University School in Hunting Valley, Ohio. // On Episode #58 of the Path to Follow Podcast (recorded 17 June 2021), Jake and Kevin discuss picking up the sport of lacrosse for the first time, attending Phillips Academy Andover, Fitzgerald and 'The Great Gatsby,' windows and mirrors, candid conversations, the power of journaling, empathy for students, gratitude, yoga, the Bread Loaf School of English, Western Reserve Academy, mental health and well-being, and some of Kevin's several book recommendations: 'Permission to Feel' by Marc Brackett, Ph.D., 'Fear Less: How to Win Your Way in Work & Life' by Dr. Pippa Grange, and 'The Advice Trap: Be Humble, Stay Curious & Change the Way You Lead Forever' by Michael Bungay Stanier. //
OTTO: A GERMAN SOLDIER FROM THE TRENCHES OF WWI TO THE EISENSTAEDT TRIALS AT NUREMBERG by Katherine V. Stevens Otto is a German farm lad who runs away to World War I at sixteen, is wounded before the end of the war, and believes in the very soil and soul of Germany. He follows the man who led him in trenches, into the brown shirts, and into the black garb of the Nazi SS, vowing to serve his country. He does what his country asks, following each command to the letter, and in the end, cannot understand why his country is on trial. He believes it is all a sham, another victor's punishment like the Treaty of Versailles, until he learns that priests were sent to camps and his world collapses around him, and then Otto himself is on trial. Katherine V. Stevens is a poet, photographer, author, and retired high school teacher of English and history. She is also the facilitator of Brush Creek Writers in Hillman, Michigan. She has published a book of poetry, Dusting by Stars, and a previous historical novel, Tucks and Me. She earned a BS in English/history from the University of Dubuque and an MA in English at the Bread Loaf School of English, Middlebury College. Katherine resides in Northern Michigan with her ninety-eight-year-young mother, who has permission to shovel snow. https://www.amazon.com/Otto-Soldier-Trenches-Eisenstaedt-Nuremberg/dp/1643459023/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=8-1 www.stratton-press.com https://chickadeehillinc.com/ http://www.bluefunkbroadcasting.com/root/twia/kathstevenssp.mp3
Ms. Beth Knapp is an English teacher, enthusiastic Jesmyn Ward disciple, graduate of the Bread Loaf School of English, “steward of belonging” and co-director of the Finney-Greene Program, head of the One Love Foundation at Gilman School, and an absolute rockstar of a podcast guest. In Episode #10 of the Path to Follow Podcast, Jake and Beth discuss the entrenched role of education in Beth's life, her philosophy on giving and receiving criticism, her experience as a woman teaching at an all-boys school, the expensive process of teaching students to write clearly, Gilman School's Finney-Greene Program, the benefits to rereading literature, and how “What's your favorite book?” is a blasphemous question to ask a literature lover. // Enjoy the episode? Please follow the Path to Follow Podcast (@pathtofollowpod) on YouTube, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Twitter, and Instagram. // A special thank you to our technology specialist, Mr. Cesare Ciccanti.
Marcella Pixley and I talk about her new novel TROWBRIDGE ROAD, currently on the long list for the National Book Award. We discuss the many parallels between that story set in 1983 (now considered historical fiction!), her own similar childhood and how she separated the two to create a “soul book” We also chat about editing, teaching 8th grade language arts during the time of COVID-19, launching books virtually, being visited in your dreams by the dead, flying saucers, simulation theory, and so much more. Marcella Pixley teaches eighth grade Language Arts at the Carlisle Public Schools. Her poetry has been published in literary journals such as Prairie Schooner, Feminist Studies, Sow’s Ear Poetry Review and Poet Lore, and she has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize. Ms. Pixley has written three acclaimed young adult novels: Freak, Without Tess, Ready To Fall. and most recently, Trowbridge Road. Freak received four starred reviews and was named a Kirkus Best Book of the Year, Without Tess was a Junior Library Guild Selection, Ready to Fall was named a Bank Street Best Book of the Year. Her forthcoming novel, Trowbridge Road is a Junior Library Guild Selection and has been named a Best Book of the Year by Prenille Ripp. Ms. Pixley lives in an antique farmhouse in Westford, Massachusetts with her husband and two sons. She is a graduate of Vassar College, University of Tennessee and Bread Loaf School of English.
Eric Darnell Pritchard is an award-winning writer, cultural critic, and an Associate Professor of English at the University at Buffalo. He is also faculty at the Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College. Eric is the author of Fashioning Lives: Black Queers and the Politics of Literacy and editor of “Sartorial Politics, Intersectionality, and Queer Worldmaking,” a special issue of QED: A Journal in GLBTQ Worldmaking. Pritchard’s writings on fashion, popular culture, literacy, rhetoric, and pedagogies have been published in multiple venues including the International Journal of Fashion Studies, Harvard Educational Review, Visual Anthropology, Literacy in Composition Studies, and ARTFORUM. Currently, he is completing two books: a historical ethnography of Black queer feminist literacy activism and a biography of 1980s international fashion superstar Patrick Kelly. In this episode, Eric shares a story about his family who suffered two house fires (one when he was an infant) and how family photographs gained an even more important significance his my elders that has been passed down in various ways. Learn more about Eric's work here: https://www.ericdarnellpritchard.com/ Original music by Sean Bempong.
BIO: I am a writer, teacher, director, and editor. And now I am a widow. I was married for just under thirty years to Steve “Sproutman” Meyerowitz. Originally from NYC, we moved to the Berkshires in western Massachusetts where we raised our three children: Gabrielle (31 years old), Ari (29 years old), and Noah (20 years old). The summer after Steve’s death I attended Oxford University. It was there that I found my voice as a writer. Or, perhaps, rather, recognized it. I began to play with form. I discovered the permeability of once-perceived boundaries. I began to put my voice in conversation with John Keats, with Walt Whitman, with Emily Dickinson. I began to explore in my writing the liminal. The difference between an intellectual or emotional response to a work of art, and an imbibing of it––this is not only possible but necessary. In 2017, the Bread Loaf Journal published my personal essay––“Fragments in Liminality: A Lover’s Discourse.” This has since been expanded into a book, A Grief Sublime, published in December of 2019 by Keats & Company Publishers. I have been a high school English and drama teacher in a Waldorf school for the last 15 years. I have worked as an editor for a small publishing house. I have always believed in the necessity for an authentic engagement with literature and the development and validity of every one’s voice. My work with my students has been punctuated by dialogue and passionate debate, and with a focused effort on crafting writing that speaks both to the texts studied and in a voice that is true to the student. In our increasingly fragmented chaotic world, connection is ever more important. The fragmentation of our world begs for conversation, reconnection, dialogue. I have developed curriculum around the Romantics and Transcendentalists, among many other subject areas including Beowulf and Chaucer, Dante and Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf, Jorge Luis Borges, and many others. Keats and the Romantic poets have always been favorites, but after my husband’s unexpected death I entered into Keats’s poetry and the notion of liminality in a life-changing way. From that moment, romanticism and liminality have been touchstones for me, informing my work in my teaching and in the projects I’ve done at Bread Loaf School of English at Middlebury College, and subsequently. This became the way I moved from incomprehension and confusion to some sense of peace and acceptance. Or, at least, an ability to live, as Keats would say in his so-called Negative Capability letter, “in uncertainties, mysteries, doubts, without any irritable reaching after fact and reason.” Keats helped me remain somehow if not content, well then at least okay with half-knowledge. To be with what was rather than what was not. I have discovered a vibrant living experience of literature. I have learned to quiet the self to allow the truth of the other (whether living or nonliving) to speak. Words and experiences become portals to transformation and, possibly, reconfiguration that renews and recreates. https://www.keatsandcompanypublishers.com/books --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/deathdialogues/message
For more information on the Rhetoric Society of America's Andrea A. Lunsford Diversity Fund, which is discussed in the introduction to this episode, click here. This episode of Rhetoricity features an interview with Andrea Lunsford, interviewed by Ben Harley as part of the Rhetoric Society of America Oral History Initiative. Over the past year and a half, Rhetoricity host and producer Eric Detweiler has been coordinating that initiative. At its 2018 conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the Rhetoric Society of America (RSA) celebrated its 50th anniversary. As a part of that celebration, the organization sponsored the Oral History Initiative, which recorded interviews with 25 of RSA’s long-time members and leaders. In those interviews, they discuss their involvement in key moments in the organization’s history, the broader history of rhetoric as a discipline, and their expectations and hopes for the field’s future. Since then, Eric has been working with Elizabeth McGhee Williams, a doctoral student at Middle Tennessee State University, to transcribe and create a digital archive of those interviews. The two of them wrote an article about the materials that just came out in Rhetoric Society Quarterly. And the archive of the interviews and transcripts themselves is now available for you to peruse. To help promote that project, this episode features Lunsford's interview from the RSA Oral History Initiative. Dr. Lunsford is the Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor of English, Emerita, at Stanford University. She was the Director of Stanford’s Program in Writing and Rhetoric from 2000 to 2013 and the founder of Stanford’s Hume Center for Writing and Speaking. Dr. Lunsford also developed undergraduate and graduate writing programs at the University of British Columbia and at The Ohio State University, where she founded The Center for the Study and Teaching of Writing. She’s designed and taught courses in writing history and theory, feminist rhetorics, literacy studies, and women’s writing and is the editor, author, or co-author of 23 books. Those books include Essays on Classical Rhetoric and Modern Discourse; Singular Texts/Plural Authors; Reclaiming Rhetorica; Everything’s an Argument; The Everyday Writer; and Everyone’s an Author. She’s won awards including the Modern Language Association’s Mina Shaughnessy Prize, the Conference on College Composition and Communication award for best article, which she's won twice, and the CCCC Exemplar Award. A long-time member of the Bread Loaf School of English faculty, she is currently co-editing The Norton Anthology of Rhetoric and Writing and working on a new textbook called Let’s Talk. Ben Harley, her interviewer, is an assistant professor in the Department of Languages, Literature, and Communication Studies at Northern State University in Aberdeen, South Dakota. His classes provide students with high-impact writing situations that let them compose useful and interesting texts for their own communities, and his research focuses on pedagogy, sound, and the ways that everyday texts impact the public sphere. He’s published work in The Journal of Multimodal Rhetorics, Present Tense, and Hybrid Pedagogy. The transition music after this episode's introduction is "Creative Writing" by Chad Crouch.
Bianca Giaever ’12.5 is a storyteller. She has produced audio pieces for This American Life and Radiolab; video pieces that have gone viral and won Emmys; and magazine pieces for The Believer and this humble publication. And her conversation—recorded just after Bianca finished her first summer of study at the Bread Loaf School of English—is a story all its own.
"Harriet Scott Chessman is the author most recently of the acclaimed novel ""The Beauty of Ordinary Things"", the story of the unexpected love between a young Vietnam veteran and a Benedictine nun. Her other books include the novels ""Someone Not Really Her Mother"", ""Lydia Cassatt Reading the Morning Paper"", and ""Ohio Angels"" as well as ""The Public Is Invited to Dance"", a book about Gertrude Stein. Her fiction has been translated into ten languages. She has taught literature and writing at Yale, the Bread Loaf School of English, and Stanford Continuing Studies. She received a PhD from Yale. Join Hilton Obenzinger, an accomplished fiction and nonfiction writer and lecturer in the Stanford Department of English, American Studies Program, and Stanford Continuing Studies, as he engages Harriet Scott Chessman in conversation, focusing on the techniques, quirks, and joys of writing. This program is co-sponsored by Stanford Continuing Studies and the Hume Center for Writing and Speaking."
Heather Brook Adams explores the recent history of unwed pregnancy in the United States and the rhetorics of shame and rhetorical silences that are part of this gendered history. Her talk focuses are the stories of the women themselves and the rhetorical implications of this history. Heather Brook Adams teaches in the UAA English Dept.. She earned a Ph.D. in English from Penn State University and holds Master's degrees from the Bread Loaf School of English (Middlebury College) and the University of Maryland, College Park.
Robert W. Hanning (Ph.D., Columbia, 1964) has been a member of the Columbia Faculty since 1963 and Professor of English since 1971. He was visiting Professor at Yale, Princeton, Johns Hopkins, and NYU; and taught at Bread Loaf School for English, Middlebury and Lincoln College, Oxford. His books include The Vision of History in Early Britain (1966); The individual in Twelfth-Century Romance (1977); and he is co-translator, with Joan Ferrante, of "The Lais" of Marie de France (1978). His research has been on Old and Middle English literature; Chaucer; medieval romance; Boccaccio, Castiglione, Ariosto, etc. Other teaching interests are 'race' and racism in American literature.