SyndicateMizzou Video Podcast

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: James Keller - Fuzzy Logic Origins

Fri, 12 May 2006 16:37:00 GMT

The history of fuzzy logic and why it didn't catch on right away in the U.S., in contrast to its quick adoption in other countries.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Marilyn Rantz - Introduction to TigerPlace

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 16:20:16 GMT

The history of how TigerPlace came to into being.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Michael Ugarte - Exile and Spanish Literature

Fri, 12 May 2006 17:00:46 GMT

Making connections between his intellectual work and his political work, Ugarte has explored how being in exile has had a significant impact on important Spanish writers.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Michael Ugarte - Afro-Hispanic Relations

Fri, 12 May 2006 17:01:22 GMT

Ugarte's current project: Looking at the relationship between Spain and Africa from the late 19th century through the 21st century.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: John Kerns - FMRI in Psychology Resesarch: History

Fri, 12 May 2006 17:16:29 GMT

Kerns discusses how FMRI technologies started to be used in psychology research.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Michael Ugarte - African influence in Spain

Wed, 17 May 2006 19:49:49 GMT

Ugarte discusses the relationship of various ethnic groups in Spain throughout history and how the African "Other" is absorbed in the consciousness of Spaniards.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Timothy Langen - How Langen was first drawn to Russian studies

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:37:05 GMT

A language requirement in college caught Langen at a crossroads where he decided to give Russian a try. He soon discovered that he enjoyed studying the language and decided to major in Russian history and literature, a combination that allowed him to make connections between a scholarly field and other things he cared about.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Timothy Langen - Gearing up for the next research project

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:40:44 GMT

Langen is gearing up for his next research project that will focus on late nineteenth-century Russian intellectual history. “These people thought of literary studies as something you could do scientifically,” Langen explains, and he plans to begin by exploring “the rules for responsible, scholarly discourse.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Timothy Langen - Langen’s research process

Fri, 27 Apr 2007 15:41:36 GMT

Teaching a general course on Russian civilization has helped Langen’s research process by allowing him to connect literary studies to other aspects of Russian life.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Daniel Hooley - Hooley’s personal philosophy about studying the classics

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 20:25:14 GMT

Through Hooley’s work in classical studies he has developed a philosophy about why one should study the classics: “Classics is just good material. The historical distance makes it more refreshing because you see the difference and how we’re the same animals. These texts don’t dictate our ethics and laws, but help our imaginations, which I think is a good reason to study them.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Nancy M. West - West’s first book, Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia (2000)

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 21:26:20 GMT

The fact that Nancy M. West finds herself focusing so heavily on the visual in her research and teaching may at first seem to be “a sort of a curious thing,” but for the associate professor of English this fascination for photographs, and especially snapshots, extends all the way back to a childhood devoid of photographs. Traveling to Rochester, New York, home of the George Eastman House, West spent a week digging through boxes of advertisements (both published and unpublished) and documents ranging in date from 1888 to 1932. Her research eventually resulted in _Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia_ (2000), an interdisciplinary study that examines the advertising campaigns of the Eastman Kodak Company and reveals certain key fascinations in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century American culture.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: SyndicateMizzou - How did you come to this research or creative activity?

Tue, 06 May 2008 15:44:41 GMT

When asked about why they were drawn to this area of research or creative activity, MU faculty provide interesting and compelling responses. In some cases, they continued in school because the drive to learn new things was so great, because family provided a sense of identity and career direction, or because of initial interest in a related field. In other cases, they stumbled upon the field quite by accident. Regardless of the reason, the passion they hold for their work is obvious.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Lampo Leong - History behind the Art of Chinese Calligraphy

Tue, 19 May 2009 01:56:29 GMT

“Wild cursive calligraphy” is a millennia-old Chinese art form. “It is not a written language for the general public to write every day,” Leong notes, “but rather an expressive art form used by the artist.” Brief History

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Steven Watts - Overview of Watts’ Research

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:22:04 GMT

Originally specializing in American cultural and intellectual history, Steven Watts’ first books addressed aspects of the American republic in the late 18th and early 19th century. He later became more interested in modern American history and began a series of biographies on issues related to consumer capitalism in a culture obsessed with self-fulfillment, entertainment, and leisure.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Steven Watts - On Walt Disney

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:22:37 GMT

“Most people look at Disney as merely a kind of entertainer, as the creator of children’s entertainment,” Watts notes. “What I found really interesting about Disney is that his creations were connected to some very serious historical issues and the American experience.” Likewise, he discovered that the theme park “connects to broader issues and developments as well. In this very creative way,” says Watts, “Disney spun this picture of happiness that was connected to the American way of life and material plenty.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Steven Watts - On Hugh Hefner: Bogeyman for the Reagan Era

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:23:15 GMT

Watts’ most recent research resulted in a biography of Hugh Hefner—Mr Playboy: Hugh Hefner and the American Dream (2008). “Hefner has been a very significant historical figure in American popular culture.” At the front edge of the sexual revolution in the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s, Hefner signified liberation—sexual and otherwise. “In that sense,” explains Watts, “in the 1980s and ‘90s, Hefner became a kind of foil for the Reagan administration; the Meese Commission on pornography went after him very strongly. He became the bogeyman in the age of Reagan.”

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Steven Watts - Choosing Topics and Gathering Data

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:23:37 GMT

Selecting history research projects, according to Watts, is a combination of careful assessment and serendipity. For this historian, gathering data is sometimes like hunting for treasure. Watts has had a string of good luck, as it turns out, since Henry Ford, Walt Disney, and Hugh Hefner all compiled archives through which Watts was allowed to dig.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Steven Watts - How Watts Became an Historian

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:27:47 GMT

“That’s where it all started,” says Watts, pointing to the bust on his bookshelf. “I was born and grew up in Springfield, Illinois, in the shadow of Abraham Lincoln. From the time I was a little kid, Lincoln and the Civil War were just kind of alive, almost.” Moreover, he recalls, his great aunt, a schoolteacher, took young Watts under her wing. Discovering that he was good at history, and encouraged by his college professors, Watts decided to pursue a career in history.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Steven Watts - Courses Taught

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:30:28 GMT

While many of his colleagues prefer to teach more specialized courses in their specific areas of research, this 1995 winner of the William T. Kemper Fellowship for Teaching award prefers freshman-level courses such as “Survey of American History.” Watts also teaches a series of upper-division classes in American culture. Perhaps the most “fun” course he offers is, not unexpectedly, on Walt Disney.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Steven Watts - Research and Teaching

Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:05:41 GMT

When thinking about research universities like MU, Watts is perplexed by people who are skeptical about the value of research at a teaching institution. Looking at his own department, he observes that “the research activity of our faculty, without question, invigorates the teaching mission of the department. It is my experience that the best teachers…are the best publishers.” Uncovering new knowledge in the field, he says, helps to “get the juices running and overflows the bounds of research alone,” enabling new perspectives in the classroom.

SyndicateMizzou Podcast: Robert Baum - Shrines of the Slave Trade

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 05:31:40 GMT

Baum’s first book, Shrines of the Slave Trade: Diola Religion and Society in Precolonial Senegambia (1999), examines the history of Diola religion during the pre-colonial era, with particular attention to the impact of the Atlantic slave trade and family spirit cults. This work received a prize from the American Academy of Religion for the best first book in the history of religions.