Providing a Path for Lifelong Learning
John and Tara talk about the tragic fire at the National Museum in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. What does it mean to lose these records of human knowledge, and how do historians approach the reality of limitations to the knowledge we have collected? What are archives and how do historians use them? We talk broadly… Continue reading Centre Trail Podcast 17: Archives and Records of Human Knowledge
Following the passing of Senator John McCain, we discuss the history of social conventions honoring the passing of public figures, particularly in political office. In the United States, the importance of lowering flags can become the center of huge discussions and arguments regarding respect; furthermore, John McCain's passing and the trajectory of his political career… Continue reading Centre Trail Podcast 16: Passing Away of Public Figures
This past spring, I taught a class on Popular Sport & the Modern World, with a pretty wide brief... the basic outlines of the class held our discussions to the mid-nineteenth century and later, but we read and discussed topics from the emergence of association football in industrial England to segregation in American baseball to… Continue reading Chasing History: Industrialization and Sport
Tara and John discuss the Winter Olympics in Pyeonchang, South Korea and some wider historical questions around the Olympic Games. Where does this idea come from, how does it translate into a type of “Olympic ideal” and what are some of the ramifications of this for how countries interact with each other?
Tara and John talk about St. Valentine’s Day and Ash Wednesday, which this year fall on the same day, raising interesting comparisons about their broader cultural impact. Come for the discussion of historical context of two juxtaposed cultural practices, stay for the sweet Anne of Cleves references.
Tara and John get together as the spring semester at Centre College starts to get underway. John is teaching the history of modern popular sport, and he talks a little about how to define sports and what kind of interesting historical questions that activity raises. Tara revisits her blog post on Founding Fathers, and talks… Continue reading Centre Trail Podcast 12: When is a sport a sport, and what’s a Founding Father?
Tara and John get together to discuss their upper division classes in the spring of 2018. Tara is teaching classes on the American Revolution and the history of American slavery, while John is teaching a class on popular sport in a modern, global context. The conversation moves on to some pedagogy pretty quickly: how do… Continue reading Centre Trail Podcast Episode 11: Sport and Slavery
Tara and John get together to talk about the intensive term coming to an end. Warning: we are very tired in this episode! John talks about his recent op-ed in the “Made by History” blog in the Washington Post about American policy in East Asia, and Tara talks about the steampunk genre and its relationship… Continue reading Centre Trail Podcast Episode 10: Steampunk and Talking to the Public
Tara and John return for our first podcast in 2018 to talk about how they utilize the intensive “CentreTerm” class as a platform for experimenting with topics and pedagogy. Tara discusses her brand new class on alternative histories and John discusses his class on history and video games, which he is teaching for the third… Continue reading Centre Trail Podcast 9: Experimenting in Intensive Winter Terms
We hand things over pretty quickly to some alumni from our program! We recently had homecoming at Centre and at a History program coffee get-together we had some lovely conversations with people roaming the earth with Centre College degrees in History. We wish we could have recorded everyone, but we do have great chats here… Continue reading Centre Trail Podcast 8: Homecoming!
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