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Being Human

Being Human aims to create conversations between the humanities and other disciplines -- conversations that let humanists and scholars in other fields learn from each other and create new forms of understanding as the 21st century unfolds.
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All Episodes
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Now displaying: 2017
Dec 1, 2017

An interview with author John Edgar Wideman. The interview focuses on Wideman's life and career, particularly connections between his writing and the various communities of which he has been a part. The conversation also features Leon Ford, a social activist in Pittsburgh. Ford was shot by police in 2012 and is paralyzed as a result. He currently works for social justice in Pittsburgh, and has developed a relationship with Wideman based on their mutual investment in writing. For more on Leon's story see here: http://www.leonfordspeaks.com/

Nov 3, 2017

An interview with Tommie Shelby, Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy at Harvard University. The interview focuses on Dr. Shelby's life and career, particularly his work on race and justice.

Oct 30, 2017

An interview with Janet Marstine, Academic Director of the Art Museum and Gallery Studies program at the University of Leicester. The interview focuses on Dr. Marstine's life and career, particularly her work on museums and ethical practice. For information on Theaster Gates' piece "To Speculate Darkly," see here: www.chipstone.org/exhibitionframe.…peculate-Darkly/. Robert Fontenot's "Recycle LACMA": www.robertfontenot.com/new-page-1/. Ansuman Biswas's "Manchester Hermit": www.manchester.ac.uk/discover/news/…ticle/?id=4711.

Sep 2, 2017

An interview with Eric Dorfman, director of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. The interview focuses on Dr. Dorfman's life and career, particularly the his thoughts on the roles that natural history museums can play in communities. The website for the conference we discuss at the end of the interview is here: 2017.icom-nathist.org/.

Aug 6, 2017

An interview with Jay Aronson, professor of science, technology, and society at Carnegie Mellon University. The interview focuses on Professor Aronson's life and career, particularly his recent book Who Owns the Dead? The Science and Politics of Death at Ground Zero.

Jul 29, 2017

In the final episode of Imprints, media fellow Matt Moret interviews Julie Beaulieu, a lecturer in Pitt's Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies program. The conversation focuses on the program's new major and ways that educational institutions can become more diverse, inclusive spaces.

Jul 7, 2017

An interview with Rudolph Ware, professor of history at the University of Michigan. The interview focuses on Professor Ware's life and career, particularly his recent book The Walking Qur’an: Islamic Education, Embodied Knowledge, and History in West Africa. The novel we discuss during the conversation is Ambiguous Adventure, by Cheikh Hamidou Kane.

Jun 2, 2017

Rafael Campo is an award-winning poet and professor of medicine at Harvard University. This interview focuses on Professor Campo's life and career, particularly his belief that poetry has an important role to play in providing effective medical care.

May 23, 2017

In the second episode of Imprints, Humanities Media Fellow Matt Moret features a panel discussion titled "More Just Communities--From Stories to Action." The panel was part of the 2017 Pittsburgh Humanities Festival, and featured Lindsay Houpt-Varner, director of Greater Carlisle Heart and Soul, Chris Ivey, documentary filmmaker and director of the East of Liberty series, and Jason Schupbach, who oversees placemaking partnerships with the NEA.

May 5, 2017

An interview with Mabel Wilson, architect, designer, and professor of architecture at Columbia University. The interview focuses on Professor Wilson's life and career, including her 2012 book "Negro Building: Black Americans in the World of Fairs and Museums." The website for Who Builds Your Architecture?, which we discuss in the interview, can be found here: whobuilds.org 

Apr 12, 2017

In the first episode of Imprints, Humanities Media Fellow Matt Moret profiles the Pennsylvania Humanities Council and how it is working to revitalize some of Pennsylvania's most vulnerable communities.

Apr 7, 2017

Jane Ward is a professor of gender and sexuality studies at the University of California, Riverside. The interview focuses on Professor Ward's life and career, particularly her newest book, "Not Gay: Sex Between Straight White Men" and the controversy it's caused since it's publication in 2015.

Mar 3, 2017

An interview with Lawrence Liang, legal scholar and activist based on Bangalore, India. The interview focuses on Liang's work as a lawyer and activist, particularly the way he brings his background as a scholar of literature and film to bear on his work. The speech that Dr. Liang gave at the JNU Alternative Classroom, and which we discuss at 21:51, can be seen here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRwXJmtE2SM&t=392s.

Feb 3, 2017

An interview with George Gopen, professor emeritus of the practice of rhetoric at Duke University and creator of the Reader Expectation Approach to writing. The interview focuses on Professor Gopen's life and career, and the innovations he brought to teaching writing by focusing on the reader rather than the writer.

Jan 6, 2017

Michael Chabon published his first novel, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh, in 1988. Since then he has published an incredible array of fiction and non-fiction, including novels, young adult fiction, detective stories, screenplays, short stories, and essays. He is rightly viewed as one of our country's most versatile writers, and has also been recognized with some of our most prestigious awards, including the Pulitzer Prize for The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay in 2001. His new novel is titled Moonglow.  This interview was conducted publicly, in front of more than a thousand fans of his work, at the Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh. 

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