In this episode VandyVox is featuring audio from a podcast titled “Black Tea”, that is produced by two Vanderbilt undergraduate students, JoHannah Valentin and Shay Milner, in collaboration with Vanderbilt Student Communications. In their episode, “Women, Religion, and Enslavement”, the women interview Vanderbilt Professor Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh from the Department of Religious Studies. While this podcast was not produced in response to a direct classroom assignment, JoHannah and Shay frequently introduce and expand on knowledge they cultivated from Professor Wells-Oghoghomeh’s course teachings. Shay and JoHannah produced this podcast because they wanted to address the discrepancy they saw between the campus demographics and the content produced by Student Media. The pair draws on knowledge from Dr. Wells-Oghoghomeh’s course teachings and her written articles to ask open-ended questions that create an informed dialogue between themselves and the Vanderbilt faculty member. The research and planning involved in the creation of this podcast is evident and is a beautiful representation of how learning can be extended through podcasting, and, in particular, the podcast-interview format. Links to the editing and distribution software Shay and JoHannah use, their podcast Black Tea, and a link to Professor Wells-Oghoghomeh’s discussed article, can be found in the episode show notes.

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VandyVox Episode 24-"Black Tea" by JoHannah Valentin & Shay Milner

Today, we’re featuring audio from a podcast called Novel Hand that was produced by Vanderbilt Alumna Alexa Bussman. Alexa studied Political Science, Economics, and Spanish while at Vanderbilt and interned at non-profits like International Justice Mission. Alexa is the founder and editor of Novel Hand, a project that aims to explore the best solutions to global humanitarian issues, and the podcast is an extension of this project. She created Novel Hand to address a disconnect she noticed between her generation’s passion for social issues and innovative solutions that exist to solve these problems. We are featuring episode 2 of the Novel Hand podcast titled Ethical Fashion with Connie Tsai. Connie is an executive assistant at Nisolo, a Nashville company that desires to push the fashion industry in a more sustainable direction through intentionally designed, ethically made, fairly priced clothing. Alexa’s podcast is just one aspect of how Novel Hand uses their values to move towards their goal, and this multi-level scaffolding can be applied to academia. Rather than entirely replacing an existing assignment or essay with a podcasting project, consider using a podcast in place of a traditional PowerPoint presentation with a podcasting assignment.

VandyVox Episode 23-"Novel Hand" by Alexa Bussman

This episode features an independently produced piece of audio by Vanderbilt undergraduate Zoe Rankin. Zoe produces a podcast called Your VU: Beyond the Classroom, where she highlights the passions and experiences of Vanderbilt students outside the classroom and brings light to social justice issues through education and storytelling. In Your VU Episode 6: Vanderbilt Prison Project, Zoe interviews Jenny Pigge, a Vanderbilt undergraduate who is the President of the Vanderbilt Prison Project. Because this is independently produced audio, Zoe told us she had to come up with her own goals, outline, and rubric. As you listen to this episode, take note of the three questions Zoe asks on each of her podcasts, “What is the issue?”, “What is your story or connection to the issue”, and “how can people get involved or take next steps to learn more?” Zoe started podcasting when she was the student host on the Dean of the Commons podcast titled Commons Cast. Through Commons Cast, she got to interview the commons Faculty Heads of House and RAs, amongst others. This opportunity ignited a spark to learn more about Vanderbilt students outside the classroom and the desire to use podcasting as a medium to educate. Then, with the help of Vanderbilt Student Media, Zoe created Your VU: Beyond the Classroom.

VandyVox Episode 22-"Your VU: Beyond the Classroom" by Zoe Rankin

In “The Peril of the Sonoran Desert” undergraduate Rebecca Dubin talks us through the changes happening in the Sonoran Desert in Arizona. This audio was produced for the Anthropology first-year writing seminar on Culture and Climate Change, taught by Professor Sophie Bjork-James. Rebecca incorporates the interview-style podcasting we’ve seen featured in previous episodes this season. In this format, she artificially conducts interviews with experts on this topic using real-life interviews she found online. The responses of her interviewees are the actual answers of each respective expert; however, these responses are voice acted by some of Rebecca’s friends. Professor Bjork-James said she chose to assign a podcast instead of a regular essay so that the students could experiment with both form and voice in a productive way. She indicated that, in particular, first-year students often stick to the five-paragraph essay format when tasked with a writing assignment. Shifting away from a general essay and into a new medium of expression encourages the student to think outside the box, experimenting with new ways of presenting information and discovering their own voice along the way. Further details on Professor Bjork-James’s intentions and Rebecca’s experience can be found in the episode show notes, along with helpful links for creating an interview-style podcast.

VandyVox Episode 21-“The Peril of the Sonoran Desert” by Rebecca Dubin

In this episode of VandyVox, we feature a stellar piece of audio, produced by Audrey Scudder for the History of Cryptography in the department of mathematics, taught by Professor Derek Bruff. Professor Bruff is the creator of VandyVox and hosted seasons 1 and 2 of the podcast. Three years ago, he replaced a paper assignment in his first-year writing seminar with an audio assignment and has been refining the art of assigning podcasts ever since. Professor Bruff asked students to take a code or cipher from history and describe its origin, use, influence, and mechanics. Audrey fully delivered with a captivating piece the bridges the worlds of mathematics and music. Audrey told us at VandyVox that she’s always had a passion for music theory, and in particular, how music intersects with math, science and linguistics, and I think that passion shines through in this audio. She provides historical context, explains cryptography nuances, and uses music itself to augment and support the content of the podcast, and if you listen closely, you’ll hear a couple Easter eggs she hides in her audio. This is such strong, high quality student-audio because of Audrey’s research and passion for the subject matter combined with Professor Bruff’s thoughtfulness and intentionality behind the assignment. For the past three years he’s been assigning a podcast, and each year produces another iteration of project goals, rubric, and expectations. Professor Bruff said he noticed that as he built more scaffolding into the assignment, the quality of the student podcasts became stronger. Each year, he updates a blog he writes titled “Building a Better Podcast Assignment”, where he breaks down the expectations, timeline, and process of building a podcast assignment. A link to this blog, his rubric, and the project description, along with a detailed summary of his iterative process, can be found in the show notes.

VandyVox Episode 20-“Musical Cryptography” by Audrey Scudder

Transport yourself back to the 1960s and rediscover what it means to be a “beautiful woman” by Hollywood’s standards and meet the woman who contested those ideals. In “Pretty Funny: How Barbra Streisand Challenged Hollywood Conventions”, undergraduate student Erica Simpson analyzes the beauty and gender roles prevalent in Hollywood in this time period through a modern lens for a class in Cinema and Media Studies taught by Professor Megan Minarich. Professor Minarich supplied a plethora of information on how she structures and grades podcasting assignments, which are explored more thoroughly in the show notes. Approaching the assignment through the lens of podcasting allowed Erica to take a more personal and fluid approach to discover the content she wanted to discuss, and she provided VandyVox some helpful insight into the world of podcast creation, which raise the questions, where can one find royalty free audio? How do I use GarageBand or iMovie to edit my podcast? What software is available for PCs? Luckily, VandyVox has looked into it, and the answers can be found in the show notes.

VandyVox Episode 19-"Pretty Funny" by Erica Simpson

In this week’s episode, VandyVox veteran Tanya Tejani unpacks the complexity of personal agency within 15th century female concubines under Islam, focusing on the Kano Empire in West Africa. The audio for Historical Feminism was developed for the course History of Sub-Saharan Africa taught by Professor Tasha Rijke-Epstein. Tanya uses an interview format to discuss this niche topic with Dr. Solano, a fictional scholar who embodies the semester-long research Tanya conducted. Her unique approach to this assignment gives a taste for the wide range of opportunities that podcasting can provide.

VandyVox Episode 18-“Historical Feminism” by Tanya Tejani

Student athletes are a huge part of campus life at any university, but especially here at Vanderbilt. On this episode of VandyVox, Max Schneider tackles the implications of the NCAA Fair Pay to Play Act in California by interviewing USC defensive tackle, Trevor Trout, through his sports podcast Flag on the Play. Max dives right in, allowing Trevor to immerse the audience in the day-to-day life of a college athlete and the double-standards that accompany that contract. Not afraid to address controversy head-on, Max creates a space that allows Trevor to speak freely about his experience with the NCAA that brings a sense of gravitas, frustration, and authenticity to the topic. Max, who is also involved with Hustler Sports 30 and 615 Sports Drive on VandyRadio, used Flag on the Play for a course in Communication Studies taught by professor Claire Sisco King. Professor King highlights the interconnectivity of what we communicate and how we communicate and encourages her students to focus on human-centered design while “creating their own public-facing communicative artifacts.” To read the full excerpt from Professor King’s Syllabus, or if you want to be directed to more of Max’s audio work, please refer to the show notes.

VandyVox Episode 17-"Flag on the Play" by Max Schneider

For some of us, climate change is something we worry about for our kids or grandkids, that global warming will make this planet a hard place to live 50 or 100 years from now. But for some people around world, climate change is having an impact on their lives right now. On this episode of VandyVox, we feature a short audio documentary by Vanderbilt undergraduate Tanya Tejani that takes the abstract threat of climate change and makes it relevant and personal. She uses Bangladesh as a case study, a country where two-thirds of the land has an elevation of 5m above sea level or less, a country where people are already being displaced from their homes due to rising oceans. Tanya uses the stories of climate refugees in Bangladesh to shed light on the impact climate change is having right now around the world. Tanya produced this piece as a class assignment in a course on culture and climate change taught by Vanderbilt anthropology professor Sophie Bjork-James. We featured another piece of student audio created by one of Sophie’s students back on Episode 1 of VandyVox. In this episode, we feature the audio documentary “Local Impacts” by Tanya Tejani. Links Sophie Bjork-James on Leading Lines Episode 56: http://leadinglinespod.com/uncategorized/episode-56sophie-bjork-james/ 

Vandy Vox Episode 16-“Local Impacts” by Tanya Tejani

Episode 15 – “Language Learning through Digital Games” by Meghan McGinley How can games help someone learn a second language? Vanderbilt graduate student Meghan McGinley was interested in exploring that question this past spring. Meghan, who is pursuing a PhD in French with a certificate in Second Language Studies, was a student in a course on second language acquisition taught by my Center for Teaching colleague Stacey Margarita Johnson. Stacey regularly asks the students in her graduate courses to conduct interviews with language teachers or language learning experts. Meghan was planning to do her semester project on that question – How can games help someone learn a second language? – so for her interview, she reached out to University of Arizona linguistics professor Jonathan Reinhardt, who had recently published a scholarly book on games and language learning. Meghan’s interview with Professor Reinhardt covers a lot of ground, from his path into game studies, to the problems when we think of work and play as two separate things, to the connection between Harry Potter and a 1961 book on games by a French sociologist. Stacey Johnson found the interview so interesting that she featured it on her podcast, We Teach Languages, and we’re excited to feature it here on VandyVox, too. Links Meghan McGinley’s website: https://my.vanderbilt.edu/meghanmcginley/ @MeghanKMcGinley on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MeghanKMcGinley We Teach Languages podcast: https://weteachlang.com/ Stacey Johnson’s blog post on her podcast and her teaching: https://staceymargarita.wordpress.com/2019/08/05/my-podcast-my-students-interviews-and-public-scholarship/ Jonathan Reinhardt’s website: https://english.arizona.edu/users/jonathon-s-reinhardt    

VandyVox Episode 15-“Language Learning through Digital Games” by Meghan McGinley

José Cossa taught in Vanderbilt’s leadership, policy, and organization department the last few years. José regularly gives his students the option to produce a podcast in lieu of a traditional research paper, and his students often take him up on the opportunity. This past spring, José was teaching in Vanderbilt’s international education policy and management program, or IEPM, and four of the students in his graduate-level course on Africa and education put together a seven-episode podcast as their final project. The four students—Kelley Lach, Kenta Nagasawa, Sabirah Oniyangi, and Shashank Poudel— drew on course readings and class discussions to plan their podcast and identify guests to interview. They spoke with several African students on campus, as well as Vanderbilt faculty with relevant expertise, to explore such topics as the history of education in Africa, early childhood education, technical and vocational training, and more. The students’ podcast, which they called IEPM African Education, stuck to an interview format for most episodes. Choosing the right interview subjects is critical to this format, and the IEPM students selected some really lively subjects for Episode 6 of their podcast, which we’re sharing here on VandyVox. This episode features three African students currently studying at Vanderbilt, including one of the podcast hosts, reflecting on their educational experiences in Africa and elsewhere. Their stories connect with many of the themes explored on earlier podcast episodes and in José Cossa’s course. Links IEPM African Education podcast: https://soundcloud.com/user-468245252/tracks José Cossa’s website: http://mozambicanscholar.blogspot.com/ José Cossa on Twitter: https://twitter.com/zeca72  

VandyVox Episode 14-"IEPM African Education" by Lach, Nagasawa, Oniyangi, and Poudel

Robert Lee is a recent graduate of Vanderbilt with a degree in human and organizational development. During his junior year, he realized he was constantly having fascinating conversations with a diverse set of friends on campus. He had a vision for sharing some of those stories with people outside the Vanderbilt bubble. The result was Blackademics, a podcast Robert launched in the spring of 2019. Robert is black, and that has certainly shaped his experience as a student here. He’s brought that lens to his podcast, which features relaxed and engaging interviews with friends as they navigate their last semester of college. They talk about relationships, finding their passions, figuring out life after college, and more. Here on VandyVox, we’re happy to share a recent episode of Blackademics. In this episode, Robert interviews Lucy DK, a Vanderbilt student from the UK who has launched a music career while living here in Nashville. Lucy DK performs R&B and hip-hop, and her story about finding and growing her passion for music in this town on this campus is compelling. Links BlacKademics: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/blackademics-podcast/id1460759696 Robert Lee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robert-lee-3819b7126/ Robert Lee on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tyrone16_96/ Lucy DK on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lucyydk/ Lucy DK on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/1LPED1l7rNF5AAORbY6UyI Lucy DK’s Tiny Dorm Concert, via the Vanderbilt Hustler: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xo29IQx-Bq0&list=PL6c8MZj2AXnkfKlZgAQcWIIY09T7ylf1V&index=2&t=0s 

VandyVox Episode 13-"BlacKademics" by Robert Lee

What comes to mind when you picture an anthropologist? Kellie Cavagnaro is a doctoral student in anthropology at Vanderbilt, and she’s preparing to launch a new public anthropology podcast called Dispatches from the Field. The podcast will explore intersections between Kellie’s fieldwork in an Andean highland community of Peru and a mysterious 70-year-old ethnography produced by a Harvard anthropologist who claimed to have been bewitched. In the 1940s, Harry Tschopik, Jr., studied shamanism among indigenous people 14,000 feet above sea level along the shores of Lake Titicaca in Peru. In her new podcast, Kellie will revisit Tschopik’s work and connect it to today through conversations with the grandchildren of community members who participated in his research. Kellie told me that these cross-generational conversations will explore the adventurous but also problematic past of anthropology, while also demonstrating contemporary approaches to navigating and understanding cultural differences. Here on VandyVox, we’re happy to share Kellie’s pilot episode, “What Pachamama Can Teach Us about #Feminism.” Links Kellie Cavagnaro’s website: https://kelliecavagnaro.com/ Kellie Cavagnaro on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KellieCavagnaro Dispatches from the Field: https://www.missinglink.studio/dispatches 

VandyVox Episode 12-"Dispatches from the Field" by Kellie Cavagnaro

 How do you teach a child to read? Not a generic child, but a specific child with specific challenges. Belle Raim and Becky Marder are students in the reading education Master’s program at Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College of Education and Human Development. As part of the program, each of them spent an academic year working with a student whose literacy behaviors were seen as a puzzle to their classroom teacher. In the fall they assessed their students to determine literacy strengths and areas for improvement, and in the spring they implemented a targeted instructional plan with the classroom teacher. And at the end of this “Puzzle Child Project,” they were asked by their instructor, Justine Bruyère, to reflect on the entire process in an audio project for Justine’s course, “Literacy for Diverse and Special Needs Learners.” On this episode of VandyVox, we’re sharing an excerpt from Belle and Becky’s “Puzzle Child Podcast.” The two students produced the audio by developing questions they wanted to address, then answering those questions and discussing their puzzle children on tape. 

VandyVox Episode 11-"Puzzle Child" by Belle Raim & Becky Marder

 This episode of VandyVox shares another podcast produced by a Vanderbilt student. Out Loud: LGBT Stories of Faith features interviews with Vanderbilt students about their experiences coming out to their church communities. The podcast, now in its second season, is the creation of Greg Thompson, a recent graduate of the Master of Theological Studies program at the Vanderbilt Divinity School.  Greg recently launched season 2 of Out Loud, featuring more thoughtful interviews exploring the intersection of faith, gender, and sexuality. 

VandyVox Episode 10-"Out Loud" by Greg Thompson

VandyVox showcases the best of student-produced audio at Vanderbilt University. Each episode features student work from a curricular or co-curricular project, including audio documentaries, radio dramas, spoken word essays, and ongoing podcasts. VandyVox is a production of the Vanderbilt Center for Teaching and Vanderbilt Student Media. To find show notes and past episodes, visit vandyvox.com.

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