The Academic Life

Who dresses the astronauts for flight? Why are the suits orange? And how are they cared for? Sharon Caples McDougle joins us to talk about her work as a modern day hidden figure, a space suit technician responsible for processing the orange launch and re-entry pressure suit assemblies worn by all NASA space shuttle astronauts. She explains how she became one of only two women CEE Suit Technicians, led the first and only all-female suit tech crew, and how she made history when she suited up Dr. Mae Jemison.Our guest is: Sharon Caples McDougle, who began her aerospace career in the Air Force where she served proudly as an Aerospace Physiology Specialist at Beale Air Force Base, in California. She was the first female and first Black Crew Chief in CEE. As Crew Chief she had the honor of leading the first and only all-female suit tech crew. McDougle went on to become the first, and only female, and Black person, to become the Manager of the CEE Processing Department. She managed the team of more than twenty-five employees responsible for the equipment worn by the astronaut crews aboard the space shuttle. This team suited up the astronauts, tested the equipment, strapped the astronauts into the space shuttle before launch, and recovered the crew upon landing. McDougle is a United States Air Force (USAF) veteran, and the author of Suit Up for Launch with Shay.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the host and producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Listeners may also be interested in: Hidden Figures: The American Dream and the Untold Story of the Black Women Mathematicians Who Helped Win the Space Race, by Margot Lee Shetterly The 100 Year Starship, by Mae Jemison and Dana Meachen Rau Suit Up for Launch with Shay, by Sharon Caples McDougle NASA.gov Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Why are college programs offered in some prisons? How are the students selected? Where do the professors come from? What are the logistics of preparing to teach, and to learn, behind the wall? How does the digital divide affect these students?Today’s book is: Education Behind the Wall: Why and How We Teach College in Prison (Brandeis UP, 2022) edited by Mneesha Gellman, which is an edited volume reflecting on different aspects of teaching in prison and different points of view. This book seeks to address some of the major issues faced by faculty who are teaching college classes for incarcerated students. Composed of a series of case studies meant to showcase the strengths and challenges of teaching a range of different disciplines in prison, this volume brings together scholars who articulate some of the best practices for teaching their expertise inside alongside honest reflections on the reality of educational implementation in a constrained environment. The book not only provides essential guidance for faculty interested in developing their own courses to teach in prisons, but also places the work of higher education in prisons in philosophical context with regards to racial, economic, social, and gender-based issues. Rather than solely a how-to handbook, this volume also helps readers think through the trade-offs that happen when teaching inside, and about how to ensure the full integrity of college access for incarcerated students.Our guest is: Dr. Mneesha Gellman, who is the founder and director of the Emerson Prison Initiative, which brings an Emerson College bachelor’s degree pathway to incarcerated students at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution at Concord. Gellman is an associate professor of political science at the Marlboro Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary Studies at Emerson College.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the host and producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Listeners may also be interested in: An Academic Life conversation with the director of the Emerson Prison Initiative An Academic Life conversation about The Journal of Higher Education in Prison The Alliance for Higher Ed in Prison Academic Life conversation about racial injustice and the book Hands Up, Don't Shoot Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

The majority of PhDs won’t secure a tenure-track job. So how can you pivot, and find a new opportunity? Dr. Rachel Neff joins us to share her experiences post-grad, and offers her wisdom on how to turn “This wasn’t the plan!” into “Why not?”Today’s book is: Chasing Chickens: When Life After Higher Education Doesn't Go the Way You Planned (UP of Kansas, 2019), by Dr. Rachel Neff, which retraces the steps that took her from her moment of reckoning—aka “failure”—to a new way of seeing and grasping success. Each chapter takes us along her new, unlikely career path, from revealing how she ended up chasing chickens on New Year’s Eve, to explaining what happens when a PhD becomes an executive assistant. Written with the benefit of hindsight, Dr. Neff offers advice on how to see the bigger picture, find your next career, and ace an interview. She takes the uncertainty and stress out of reinventing yourself, and provides tools for finding and making your own way.Our guest is: Dr. Rachel Anna Neff, who is the owner of Exceptional Editorial, and has worked as a digital strategist, a copy editor, an adjunct instructor, and a tutor. She has written poetry since elementary school and has notebooks full of half-written novels. She earned her doctorate in Spanish literature, and holds two BAs, an MA, and a MFA. Her work has been published in JuxtaProse Magazine, Crab Fat Magazine and included in several anthologies. Her books include The Haywire Heart and Other Musings on Love, and Chasing Chickens: When Life after Higher Education Doesn't Go the Way You Planned.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the host and producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Listeners may also be interested in: Three Things I Wish I Knew When I Went on the Academic Job Market, by Rachel Neff The Employability Journal, by Babara Bassot Independent Scholars Meet the World: Expanding Academia Beyond the Academy, edited by Christine Caccipuoti and Elizabeth Keohane-Burbridge Academic Life episode "Should I Quit My PhD Program?" How to Leave Academia and Find a Good Job Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey—and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Professor Ruchira Gupta joins us to share her young adult novel I Kick and I Fly (Scholastic, 2023), which was inspired by her experience making the Emmy-award winning documentary The Selling of Innocents. I Kick and I Fly is set on the outskirts of the Red Light District in Bihar, India, where fourteen year old Heera is living on borrowed time until her father sells her into the sex trade to help feed their family and repay his loans. It is, she’s been told, the fate of the women in her community to end up here. But watching her cousin, Mira Di, live this life day in and out is hard enough. To live it feels like the worst fate imaginable. And after a run-in with a bully leads to her expulsion from school, it feels closer than ever. But when a local hostel owner shows up at Heera’s home with the money to repay her family’s debt, Heera begins to learn that fate can change.Content note: this episode addresses the subjects of sexual exploitation, sex trafficking, familial and intracommunity violence, anti-indigenous violence, poverty, food insecurity, housing insecurity, and violence against women and girls.Our guest is: Professor Ruchira Gupta, who is a writer, feminist campaigner, professor at New York University and founder of the anti-sex-trafficking organization, Apne Aap Women Worldwide. She won the Clinton Global Citizen award in 2009, the Sera Bangali Award in 2012 and an Emmy for outstanding investigative journalism in 1996. She has helped more than twenty thousand girls and women in India exit prostitution systems. She has edited As If Women Matter: The Essential Gloria Steinem Reader, and has written manuals on human trafficking for the UN Office for Drugs and Crime. Professor Ruchira divides her time between Delhi and New York. I Kick and I Fly is her debut novel.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the host and producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Listeners also may be interested in: Apneaap.org Discussion Guides for I Kick and I Fly Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey--and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Imposter syndrome. Intellectual fatigue. Feeling like you have nothing interesting to say. Not liking your topic or your research anymore. Wondering if anyone even cares if you write a book. Is a pile of emotional luggage getting in the way of your progress? On this episode of the Academic Life, Dr. Leslie Wang joins us to talk about emotional blocks that arise when turning a dissertation into a book, and what to do about them.Inside most scholars are the criticisms and judgments we’ve carried since graduate school (and a few we’ve carried longer than that), many of which have made a space inside us as our “inner critics,” and some of which leave us questioning our claim to being a writer at all. Dr. Wang takes us through three key questions we need to ask ourselves, offers suggestions for how to handle our inner critics, helps us imagine a generous reader awaiting our new book, and invites us to interrogate how the grind mentality is affecting our creativity.Our guest is: Dr. Leslie Wang, who is a former Associate Professor of Sociology, at the University of Massachusetts Boston. She holds a PhD and Master’s Degree in Sociology, from the University of California Berkeley, and an International Coach Federation Certification. She is the author of Outsourced Children, and Chasing the American Dream in China, and the founder of Your Words Unleashed. When she is not working with high-achieving scholars, she enjoys cooking, international travel, and spending time with her husband and son.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the host and producer of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Listeners to this episode may be interested in: Why it’s so hard to turn your dissertation into a book, by Dr. Leslie Wang Academic Life episode on book proposals Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle R. Boyd Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey--and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Today’s book is Minorities in Shark Sciences: Diverse Voices in Shark Research (CRC Press, 2022), edited by Jasmin Graham, Camila Caceres and Deborah Santos de Azevedo Menna, which showcases the work done by Black, Indigenous and People of Color around the world in the fields of shark science and conservation. It highlights important research by people who were historically excluded from STEM, and the unique perspectives these scientists bring to their field. The contributors to this book hope to stimulate innovation and transformative change in the field of shark conservation and marine science.Today’s other book is Sharks (A Day in the Life) (Neon Squid, 2022), by Carlee Jackson, which is set over a 24-hour period, undersea. Marine biologist and shark conservationist Carlee Jackson weaves the story from whale sharks to tiny epaulette sharks in the style of a nature documentary. She also includes shark science facts perfect for future biologists. Readers witness incredible moments including a giant hammerhead hunting stingrays, and a nurse shark asleep in a coral reef. Beautifully illustrated by Chaaya Prabhat and packed with animal facts, Sharks (A Day in the Life) encourages humans to look at sharks as endangered animals who play a key role in the ocean’s ecosystem.Our guest is Carlee Jackson-Bohannon, who is a marine biologist studying sharks and sea turtles in Florida. She is a co-founder and the Director of Communications for Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), an organization dedicated to increasing diversity and accessibility in shark sciences. Carlee was the recipient of the 2022 Justice in Equity, Diversity & Inclusion award by the Florida Marine Science Educators Association and makes appearances in National Geographic Channel’s Sharkfest. She is the author of Sharks (A Day in the Life), and Green Sea Turtle: A First Field Guide to the Ocean Reptile from the Tropics. Her research interests mainly revolve around the different ways sharks and humans interact and how this affects shark behavior and diversity. She is passionate about her field work and research, and sharing this with marginalized communities. Carlee hopes to inspire more diversity in marine science and spark a passion for sharks in others.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcasts. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Listeners to this episode may be interested in: Bugs: A Day in the Life by Jessica Ware This conversation with Dr. Ware about Bugs: A Day in the Life Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey--and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Considering trying ungrading? Assigning the unessay? What helps, and what hinders student progress? Today’s guest shares her own interrupted journey to her degree, and considers how different assignments and assessment methods helped her connect in the classroom.Today’s article is: "The Benefits of Nontraditional Assessments for Historical Thinking ," by Haley Armogida, published in 2022 in Teaching History: A Journal of Methods (47)1. In it, Haley Armogida considers which types of assessments benefited her as a student, and why. You can read a pdf of the full article here or find it online in free open access.Our guest is: Haley Armogida, who was a nontraditional undergrad at Ball State University. She recently graduated with a History Bachelor’s in Science. During her second go at academia from 2020 to 2022, she presented her work at such conferences as the Johns Hopkins Macksey Symposium for undergraduate research and the Student History Conference at Ball State. She was published in Teaching History: A Journal of Methods in an article which discussed the benefits of nontraditional forms of assessment in history classrooms, and hopes that her contributions to the field will be to make the study of history more accessible to people outside the realm of academia. She and her husband Nick (both Ball State alumni) and their dog Luna recently moved to Colorado, where she plans to start a podcast of her own, and search for the perfect grad program.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcast. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Listeners to this episode may also be interested in: Assessment in the History Classroom, in Teaching History 44(2) Fall 2019 p. 51-56, by Richard Hughes and Natalie Mendoza Ungrading: Why Rating Students Undermines Learning and What to do Instead, by Susan D. Blum This episode on teaching digital history This conversation with Dr. Dunbar about reclaiming voices and recovering history This conversation about researching and writing a book, with Polly E. Bugros McLean This conversation about the role of artifacts and archives in the writing of Selling Anti-slavery Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey--and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Today’s book is Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s First Capital (Georgetown UP, 2023), by Dr. Elizabeth Rule, which is the first and fullest account of the suppressed history and continuing presence of Native Americans in Washington, DC. Washington, DC, is Indian land, but Indigenous peoples are often left out of the national narrative of the United States and erased in the capital city. To redress this myth of invisibility, Indigenous DC shines a light upon the oft-overlooked contributions of tribal leaders and politicians, artists and activists to the rich history of the District of Columbia, and their imprint—at times memorialized in physical representations, and at other times living on only through oral history—upon this place. Inspired by Dr. Elizabeth Rule’s award-winning public history mobile app and decolonial mapping project Guide to Indigenous DC, this book brings together the original inhabitants who call the District their traditional territory, the diverse Indigenous diaspora who has made community here, and the land itself in a narrative arc that makes clear that all land is Native land. The acknowledgment that DC is an Indigenous space inserts the Indigenous perspective into the national narrative and opens the door for future possibilities of Indigenous empowerment and sovereignty. This important book is a valuable and informational resource on both Washington, DC, regional history and Native American history.Our guest is: Dr. Elizabeth Rule, who is Assistant Professor of Critical Race, Gender, and Culture Studies at American University. She is an enrolled citizen of the Chickasaw Nation. Her research on Indigenous issues has been featured in the Washington Post, Matter of Fact with Soledad O’Brien, The Atlantic, Newsy, and NPR. She has published scholarly articles in the American Quarterly and in the American Indian Culture and Research Journal; and is the author of Indigenous DC: Native Peoples and the Nation’s Capital (Georgetown University Press). Beyond the classroom, Dr. Rule continues her work as an educator by presenting her research and delivering invited talks on Native American issues. Dr. Rule has held posts as Director of the Center for Indigenous Politics and Policy and Faculty in Residence at George Washington University, Director of the Native American Political Leadership Program and the INSPIRE PreCollege Program, MIT Indigenous Communities Fellow, Postdoctoral Fellow at American University, and Ford Foundation Fellow. She received her Ph.D. and M.A. in American Studies from Brown University, and her B.A. from Yale University.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcasts. She holds a Ph.D. in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey--and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Which stories are left out of the history books? What’s in the documents omitted from the “official” record? And what happens when we go in search of people’s hidden lives?Today’s book is  No Way, They Were Gay? Hidden Lives and Secret Loves (Zest Books, 2021), by Lee Wind, in which he reminds us that “history” was crafted by the people who recorded it. And sometimes, those historians were biased against, didn’t see, or couldn’t even imagine anyone different from themselves. That means that history has often left out the stories of LGBTQIA+ people: men who loved men, women who loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. Historians have even censored the lives and loves of some of the world’s most famous people, from William Shakespeare and Pharaoh Hatshepsut to Cary Grant and Eleanor Roosevelt. Throughout the text, Lee Wind shares primary sources—poetry, memoir, news clippings, and images of ancient artwork—and explores the hidden (and often surprising) Queer lives and loves of two dozen historical figures. No Way, They Were Gay was honored as a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection, and was selected for the Chicago Public Library’s 2021 Best of the Best Books list.Our guest is: Lee Wind, who writes stories that center marginalized kids and teens and celebrate their power to change the world. Closeted until his 20s, Lee writes the books that would have changed his life as a young Gay kid. His Masters Degree from Harvard didn’t include blueprints for a time machine to go back and tell these stories to himself, so Lee pays it forward with a popular blog with over 3 million page views (I’m Here. I’m Queer. What The Hell Do I Read?) and books for kids and teens. He is the author of No Way, They Were Gay? His day-job is for the Independent Book Publishers Association (as their Chief Content Officer), and for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (as their official blogger).Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell. She is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcasts.Listeners to this episode may be interested in: Read These Banned Books: A Journal and 52-Week Reading Challenge, by the American Library Association Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep, edited by Melissa Stewart Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators This conversation with Dr. Anya Jabour about Sophonisba Breckinridge Gay on God's Campus: Mobilizing for LGBT Equality at Christian Colleges and Universities, by Jonathan Coley Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey--and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life

Procrastination. Writer’s block. Feeling stuck. Are you struggling with the blank page? Today’s guest shares her methods that help writers move past these blocks by turning inward to discover their own writing process, and become the writer they already are.Today’s book is Becoming the Writer You Already Are (Sage, 2022), by Dr. Michelle R. Boyd, which helps scholars uncover their unique writing process and design a writing practice that fits how they work. In it, Dr. Boyd introduces the Writing Metaphor as a reflective tool that can help you understand and overcome your writing fears: going from “stuck” to “unstuck” by drawing on skills you already have at your fingertips. She also offers an experimental approach to trying out any new writing strategy, so you can easily fill out the parts of your writing process that need developing. The book includes a number of helpful features: Real Scholars’ Stories provide insights into overcoming writing barriers; Wise Words from other scholars capture the trials of writing as well as avenues through those trials; and Focus Points highlight important ideas, questions, or techniques to consider. The book is ideal for dissertation writing seminars, graduate students struggling with the transition from coursework to dissertation work, scholars who are supporting or participating in writing groups, and marginalized scholars whose write struggles have prompted them to internalize the bias that others have about their ability to do exemplary research.Our guest is: Michelle Boyd, PhD, who is an award-winning writer, and a former tenured faculty member. Her book Jim Crow Nostalgia: Reconstructing Race in Bronzeville won a Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association. After earning tenure, Michelle focused her research and service on helping scholars better understand their writing process. In 2012 she cofounded and coached a dissertation writing retreat for graduate students studying race and ethnicity. Three years later, she left academia and founded InkWell, where she specializes in helping stuck, scared scholars free themselves from fear and build a satisfying, sustainable writing practice.Our host is: Dr. Christina Gessler, who is the producer and show-host of the Academic Life podcasts. She holds a PhD in history, which she uses to explore what stories we tell and what happens to those we never tell.Listeners to this episode may be interested in: Becoming the Writer You Already Are, by Michelle Boyd Jim Crow Nostalgia: Reconstructing Race in Bronzeville by Michelle Boyd How We Do It: Black Writers Craft, Practice, and Skill edited by Jericho Brown This behind the scenes look at writing Shoutin in the Fire, with Dante Stewart This conversation about researching and writing a book, with Polly E. Bugros McLean Welcome to Academic Life, the podcast for your academic journey--and beyond! Join us to learn from experts inside and outside the academy, and around the world. Missed any of the 175+ Academic Life episodes? You’ll find them all archived here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesSupport our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/academic-life