Humanities Now

Apr 16 2024 1
Humanities Now Podcast artwork

Humanities Now is the official podcast of the Humanities Center at Texas Tech. Each month, we feature conversations with members of the humanities community at Texas Tech University. With every episode, these varied voices help us realize the Center’s mission: asking out loud, “What does it mean to be human?” and demonstrating how can we answer that question from so many different perspectives.

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On the Value of the Avant-Garde: Jerry Hunt Visits Lubbock

Apr 16 2024 25 mins  
In this episode, Michael Borshuk looks back on our February art exhibition, Jerry Hunt: Transmissions from the Pleroma, which the Humanities Center hosted in collaboration with Brooklyn's Blank Forms and the TTU School of Art. In thinking about Jerry Hunt's career and activities by those artists who influenced him, we contemplate the value of the avant-garde as another co

On Censorship: Conversations with Rob Weiner and Belinda Kleinhans

Dec 22 2023 46 mins  
On this episode, we continue our Value/Values theme by thinking about the value of confronting works of art that challenge our values. Michael Borshuk speaks with Rob Weiner from Texas Tech libraries about transgressive cinema and the "video nasties" scandal of the 1980s in the United Kingdom, and then talks to Dr. Belinda Kleinhans, Associate Professor of German Studies,

Our Theme for 2023-2024 is Value/Values!

Oct 19 2023 23 mins  
On the first episode of our new season, Michael Borshuk introduces our programming theme for 2023-2024, Value/Values. Speaking about recent volatile debates in American universities about fiscal responsibility and academic programming, we find our way into some of the questions we will be pursuing this year. Next we hear from Paul Reinsch, who previews the film series we will host

Living with #longcovid: A Conversation with Dr. Bill Poirier

May 11 2023 31 mins  
On this episode, Michael Borshuk speaks with Dr. Bill Poirier, Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Joint Professor of Physics, and Chancellor’s Council Distinguished Research Awardee at Texas Tech. In a very personal conversation, Bill shares his experience with Long COVID Syndrome, including his own research and approach to recovery, and how his symptoms have affected his a

A Conversation about Art and The Body with Ghi Fremaux and Lando Valdez

Mar 13 2023 29 mins  
As we continue the Humanities Center's year-long Health theme we move to a conversation about art and the body with Texas Tech School of Art faculty member Ghi Fremaux and her collaborative partner Lando Valdez. As As Ghi and Lando discuss with Michael Borshuk, the paintings they produce extend a long history of visual examination of the body as they put critical pressure on w

A Conversation on Public Health with Dr. Paul Bjerk and Dr. Heri Tungaraza

Dec 31 2022 22 mins  
On this episode, a special feature to continue our ongoing conversation about health: a conversation between one of the members of our Health programming theme this year, TTU History professor Dr. Paul Bjerk, and Dr. Heri Tungaraza, a Tanzanian oncologist committed to the well-being of low-income earners, and an activist practitioner in matters of public health.

Our Theme for 2022-2023 is Health!

Oct 28 2022 35 mins  
As we return from hiatus to begin a new season, we introduce the Humanities Center's programming theme for 2022-2023: "Health." This year, we will imagine multiple ways of being healthy, and critique definitions of wellness or ability. We will close the gap between the mind and the body. We hear from multiple members of this year's programming theme: Dr. Julie Z

Happy Anniversary to Women's and Gender Studies: Elissa Zellinger and Julie Willett in Conversation

May 09 2022 54 mins  
On our season finale, we wish a happy fortieth anniversary to Texas Tech's Women's and Gender Studies program by talking at length with two WGS-affiliated faculty members about their recent books. Dr. Elissa Zellinger from the Department of English speaks with us her book Lyrical Strains and its attention to nineteenth-century American poetry and the figure of the "p

A Conversation with Dr. Bryan K. Hotchkins: "My Black is Exhausted"

Feb 18 2022 44 mins  
On this first episode back from winter break, we sit down with Dr. Bryan K. Hotchkins, a faculty member in TTU's College of Education, to hear about his new book My Black is Exhausted: Forever in Pursuit of a Racist-free World Where Hashtags Don't Exist. Extending our year-long conversation about anti-racism in scholarship and the arts, Hotchkins shows us how writing auto

Dr. Sebastian Ramirez on the Importance of Philosophy to Anti-Racism

Dec 15 2021 44 mins  
For our final fall episode before our winter break hiatus, Michael Borshuk sits down with Dr. Sebastian Ramirez, the Humanities Center's 2021-2022 Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Humanities. Sebastian speaks with us about his research on white supremacy and "white backlash" and how his scholarship builds on the work of W.E.B. Du Bois, Charles Mills, and others. Over the