Podcasts about challenging the canon

In this episode, guest interviewer Anne Helmreich (Getty Foundation) speaks with Niall Atkinson, associate professor of art history at the University of Chicago, and Min Kyung Lee, assistant professor of Growth and Structure of Cities at Bryn Mawr College, to reflect on the canon of art history. They discuss how the canon as a narrative offers a shared framework for discussion, analysis, and exchange, but problems arise when the canon becomes fixed or an imposition. Niall and Min describe how they approach using archives in more varied ways, to capture “different voices,” and they revel in the collaborative nature of computational practices, the scale of which – both zooming out and zooming in – demands that scholars work across disciplines and as a team. Finally, both  emphasize the importance of being aware of how we define the data we use, and how we in fact produce the data we use – a reflexive approach that may allow us to confront and correct implicit biases, building a more inclusive and heterogeneous approach to data and "the canon.”This fourth season of In the Foreground is a special series of five roundtable conversations dedicated to “the Grand Challenges” – a phrase frequently adopted in the sciences to refer to the great unanswered questions that represent promising frontiers – of bringing together digital and computational methods and the social history of art. This series grows out of a colloquium on this topic convened by Anne Helmreich (Associate Director of the Getty Foundation) and Paul B. Jaskot (Professor of Art History at Duke University) at the Clark's Research and Academic Program in April 2019. Anne and Paul serve as the guest interviewers for this podcast series, for which they have invited back colloquium participants to reflect further on how digital art history might help us explore social history of art's future, and which digital methods might be effective at analyzing large scale structural issues and modes of visual expression. 

In this episode, we learn about Project Lit, which was started by teacher Jarred Amato and his students at Maplewood High School. We hear from Jarred and his former student/Co-founder, Jakaylia about the need to rethink how we create readers and writers. Jarred has since switched schools and Jakaylia is now a Freshman in College, but Project Lit is still going strong.

In this episode, we learn about Project Lit, which was started by teacher Jarred Amato and his students at Maplewood High School. We hear from Jarred and his former student/Co-founder, Jakaylia about the need to rethink how we create readers and writers. Jarred has since switched schools and Jakaylia is now a Freshman in College, but Project Lit is still going strong.

Who decides what books are worthy of study and which voices are included in the literary canon? Interviews with Tricia Ebarvia and Jack Hill.

Who decides what books are worthy of study and which voices are included in the literary canon? Interviews with Tricia Ebarvia and Jack Hill.

60 years since the publication of the series' final volume, a distinguished panel explore Tolkien's literary legacy. To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the publication of the final volume of Tolkien’s fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings, the Bodleian Libraries and TORCH hosted a panel discussion on reactions to Tolkien’s work, then and now. The discussion was introduced by Elleke Boehmer (Acting TORCH Director and Professor of World Literature, University of Oxford), and chaired by Stuart Lee (Lecturer in English Literature, University of Oxford). In a series of three short talks, scholars considered Tolkien's legacy from a range of perspectives. Patrick Curry (Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Lampeter) addressed the question: “Is the Lord of the Rings a good book?”, describing Tolkien as a counter-culturalist who focused on the “primacy of storytelling”. Dimitra Fimi (Lecturer in English, Cardiff Metropolitan University) discussed the challenges and opportunities of teaching Tolkien's work, and examined why his work is rarely a compulsory part of the university curriculum in the UK. Andy Orchard (Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford), who holds the same chair at the University of Oxford that Tolkien held from 1925 – 1945, explored Tolkien's contribution to academia, which he suggested rivals his contribution to fiction. The panel also discussed a range of topics, including uptake of Old Norse, the literary canon and Tolkien's work with DPhil students, in response to audience questions. Please visit www.torch.ox.ac.uk/tolkien for more information, or www.torch.ox.ac.uk/tolkien-review for a review of the discussion.

60 years since the publication of the series' final volume, a distinguished panel explore Tolkien's literary legacy To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the publication of the final volume of Tolkien’s fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings, the Bodleian Libraries and TORCH hosted a panel discussion on reactions to Tolkien’s work, then and now. The discussion was introduced by Elleke Boehmer (Acting TORCH Director and Professor of World Literature, University of Oxford), and chaired by Stuart Lee (Lecturer in English Literature, University of Oxford). In a series of three short talks, scholars considered Tolkien's legacy from a range of perspectives. Patrick Curry (Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Lampeter) addressed the question: “Is the Lord of the Rings a good book?”, describing Tolkien as a counter-culturalist who focused on the “primacy of storytelling”. Dimitra Fimi (Lecturer in English, Cardiff Metropolitan University) discussed the challenges and opportunities of teaching Tolkien's work, and examined why his work is rarely a compulsory part of the university curriculum in the UK. Andy Orchard (Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford), who holds the same chair at the University of Oxford that Tolkien held from 1925 – 1945, explored Tolkien's contribution to academia, which he suggested rivals his contribution to fiction. The panel also discussed a range of topics, including uptake of Old Norse, the literary canon and Tolkien's work with DPhil students, in response to audience questions. Please visit www.torch.ox.ac.uk/tolkien for more information, or www.torch.ox.ac.uk/tolkien-review for a review of the discussion.

60 years since the publication of the series' final volume, a distinguished panel explore Tolkien's literary legacy To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the publication of the final volume of Tolkien’s fantasy epic, The Lord of the Rings, the Bodleian Libraries and TORCH hosted a panel discussion on reactions to Tolkien’s work, then and now. The discussion was introduced by Elleke Boehmer (Acting TORCH Director and Professor of World Literature, University of Oxford), and chaired by Stuart Lee (Lecturer in English Literature, University of Oxford). In a series of three short talks, scholars considered Tolkien's legacy from a range of perspectives. Patrick Curry (Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Wales, Lampeter) addressed the question: “Is the Lord of the Rings a good book?”, describing Tolkien as a counter-culturalist who focused on the “primacy of storytelling”. Dimitra Fimi (Lecturer in English, Cardiff Metropolitan University) discussed the challenges and opportunities of teaching Tolkien's work, and examined why his work is rarely a compulsory part of the university curriculum in the UK. Andy Orchard (Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon, University of Oxford), who holds the same chair at the University of Oxford that Tolkien held from 1925 – 1945, explored Tolkien's contribution to academia, which he suggested rivals his contribution to fiction. The panel also discussed a range of topics, including uptake of Old Norse, the literary canon and Tolkien's work with DPhil students, in response to audience questions. Please visit www.torch.ox.ac.uk/tolkien for more information, or www.torch.ox.ac.uk/tolkien-review for a review of the discussion.

Dr Nicholas Perkins of St Hugh's College, Oxford, discusses his current research and proposes why we should still study medieval romance.