Could a gaggle of monkeys randomly typing produce a literary classic? Could they by chance produce the complete works of Shakespeare, as many have speculated in an ongoing thought experiment for over a century now.

These questions are the starting point for a post-script conversation to our 2023-2024 Value/Values programming. On this episode, Michael Borshuk chats with TTU faculty members Dr. Heather Warren-Crow, Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Arts, and Dr. TJ Geiger II, Associate Professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric, to talk about their recent research projects. In a wide-ranging conversation that begins with Dr. Warren-Crow’s newest book and its attention the idea that monkeys might randomly write the works of Shakespeare, we discuss animals, culture, the divine, how to define humanity, and whether the act of producing that definition continues to matter at all?

Click here for more on Dr. Warren-Crow's latest book Shakespeare and Nonhuman Intelligence.

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 component of our year-long Value/Values conversation.

Some of the material Borshuk mentions in this episode:
Blank Forms Editions 08: Transmissions from the Pleroma
Stephen Housewright, Partners
Michael Schell's The Jerry Hunt Home Page

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, about censorship activities in Nazi Germany and an ironic tie to the practice of banning books in our contemporary moment.

Some of the contexts Michael Borshuk references in this episode:
Kat Eschner, "The Bowdlers Wanted to Clean Up Shakespeare, Not Become a Byword for Censorship"
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/bowdlers-wanted-clean-shakespeare-not-become-byword-censorship-180963945/

American Library Association, "2023 Preliminary Data Shows Record Surge of Challenges in Public Libraries"
https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/book-ban-data

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 this year at Alamo Drafthouse in Lubbock, before we move to a brief note of introduction from our new Post-Doctoral Fellow in the Humanities, historian Kevan Q. Malone.

Some of the sources Michael Borshuk cites in the episode:
Liam Knox, "Slimming Down to Stay Afloat," https://www.insidehighered.com/news/business/cost-cutting/2023/05/03/slimming-down-stay-afloat

Lisa M. Corrigan, "The Evisceration of a Public University," https://www.thenation.com/article/society/wvu-cuts-higher-education/

Lora Kelley, "How Corporate Jargon Can Obscure Reality," https://www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/archive/2023/09/corporate-jargon-layoffs-workplace/675430/

Kasey Turman and Taylor Stumbaugh, "Miami University considers eliminating majors in the humanities," https://www.journal-news.com/news/miami-university-considers-eliminating-majors-in-the-humanities/KZFLPVB4X5BCNLBBI2SDNMT7XU/

Madison Montag, "Gettysburg College Ends Award-winning Literary Publication of 35 Years," https://www.pennlive.com/news/2023/10/gettysburg-college-ends-award-winning-literary-publication-of-35-years.html

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 academic career. As the conversation reveals, Bill is a very local representative of the global patient-driven community that helped all of us understand the complexities of the coronavirus these past few years.

Some of the material discussed in this episode:

• Felicity Callard and Elisa Perego, "How and why patients made Long Covid"
• Amali U. Lokugamage and Clare Rayner, "The Rehabilitation of Long Covid Requires Understanding of Not Just the Biomedical Dimensions But All Aspects of Being Human"
• The Mayo Clinic on Post-COVID Syndrome (An interactive course)

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 why we’re often so quick to separate the medical from the aesthetic in how we think about our physical selves.

See images of Ghi and Lando's work here. For some of the research mentioned at the beginning of the episode, see here and here.

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.

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 Zook (Architecture), Dr. Jacob Baum (History), Dr. Victoria Sutton (Law), Dr. Emily Skidmore (History), and Dr. Paul Reinsch (Theatre and Dance). Across these five conversations we see the range of humanities perspectives we will bring to our theme this year, and the variety of questions that will shape our events.