Podcasts

What is the importance of the humanities to the future of our nation? Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of the Faculty at Buena Vista University, Dr. Jim Salvucci, offers this reflection on how the humanities bring meaning to our lives.

How can poetry strengthen community and offer new perspectives? Dr. Elizabeth Jones, Associate Professor of English at Wor-Wic Community College in Salisbury, offers up some concrete examples. She tells us about Echoes from the Margins, a speaker series celebrating the 30th year of the college’s literary magazine, Echoes & Visions.

Many people debate over how to categorize economics. It is science? Social science? Social studies? If it’s separated from the humanities, economist James D. Campbell asks, “don’t we neglect to show the next generation how to see and hear the humanistic as it relates to the organization of our economies, our world?” Amanda Cuocci of Stansberry Research talks about gender, confidence and financial literacy.

Redlining is the practice of denying a credit-worthy applicant a lone for housing in a certain neighborhood, even though the applicant may otherwise be eligible for the loan. Redlining on a racial basis has been held by the courts to be an illegal practice. What are the roots of redlining and what effects does it still have today? How can we begin to think about a solution to redlining’s impact? Howard County Library System hosts Undesign the Redline, an interactive exhibit, now through December 31. Christie Lassen, Director of Communications and Partnerships at Howard County Library System, tells us more about the history of redlining.

How can we honor significant Maryland women who may not show up in our history books? The Maryland Women’s Heritage Center offers one example with its Unsung Heroines exhibit. The Center is an outgrowth of the Maryland Women’s History Project that began in 1980 as a collaborative venture between the Maryland Commission for Women and the Maryland State Department of Education. Executive Director Diana Bailey tells us more about the exhibit.

Kara Harris has spent eight years researching Maryland culinary history. She travels the state and sometimes the country to research cookbooks from over a hundred years ago. Four years ago, she turned her hobby into a blog, Old Line Plate. Harris tells us more about what cookbooks can tell us about our state’s history.

How can we trace cultural history through dance? What can dance tell us about belonging to a culture or nation? Breai Mason-Campbell from Guardian Baltimore, a dance cooperative that performs, preserves and passes on African American folk traditions, tells us more.

Early this year, Dr. Kami Fletcher began researching and writing the history of slavery, indentured servants, and tenant farmers at Mount Harmon Plantation at World's End in Cecil County. When she began the project, only one enslaved person in the history of this plantation was known. Through her research, she has found 135. The Associate Professor of African American history at Delaware State University tells us more about her research.

Did you know that Maryland has its own journal and press dedicated to older writers? The mission of Passager, in residence at the University of Baltimore, is to empower the imagination in older people by giving a forum for creative expression. Kendra Kopelke, founding co-Editor of Passager, tells us more about the twenty-eight-year-old journal and press, and upcoming events.

This past spring, Josh Thomas and Caitlin Carbone wrote and produced a hip-hop adaptation of Shakespeare’s KING LEAR. The duo, who goes by “fools and madmen,” took their production to 6 Baltimore City Public Schools and performed for over 250 students. They also produced the show for the general public in Baltimore. Their next show, MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, premieres in May and will travel to 10 schools. Thomas and Carbone tell us more about their work.