Looking to learn more about the Vatican Film Library, Carol Hogan-Downey sits down with Amy Nelson to talk about her role working with The Metascripta Project, biblioclasms, and very large, very old books. Bridging media technologies of the 21st, 20th, and much, much earlier centuries, Amy shows how an often-overlooked library resource can be valuable to multiple disciplines.

In our final episode of the (Witch)Craft of Writing, a Pentacle of perspectives from Amy Nelson, Anessa Kemna, Natalie Whitaker, Carol Hogan-Downey, and Byron Gilman-Hernandez is brought together around a fire on a chilly October night to discuss the power and practices of rituals. As the finale of our series, this episode ranges from mystical cults of Missouri, the rituals of essay writing in Freshman composition, expressions of grief, and mystic practices to defeat Hitler.

In our second episode of The (Witch)Craft of Writing, Byron Gilman-Hernandez has a conversation with Natalie Whitaker about magic as a language act and what assumptions that brings of an able body. In her experiences teaching contemporary Young Adult authors like Nnedi Okafor, Tomi Adeyemi, and J.K. Rowling, as well as historical attitudes towards witchcraft, Natalie looks to how magic, even as a liberating force, can reinforce assumptions of the Other.

In our first episode of our October series, "The (Witch)Craft of Writing," Byron Gilman-Hernandez has a conversation with Carol Hogan-Downey on The Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn's influence on Irish theatre in in the 19th Century. Their discussion looks at the Order's mystical practices of tarot and word vibration in philosophy, theatre, and Irish nationalism, and how rhetoricians from Gorgias to Kenneth Burke understood the relationship between Rhetoric and Magic.

For our first episode of Season 3, Carol Hogan Downey and Natalie Whitaker enjoy a brief discussion on the use of incorporating social media into the classroom and rhetoric assignments. They cover the opportunities and potential pitfalls associated with discussions from audience awareness in the composition of a text message to the language choices of dating profiles created for hypothetical characters.

In this episode, Matt Holder and Dr. Toby Benis continue their conversation about the Reacting to the Past pedagogy in an English 1900 context. For part two, they turn to discussing the specific assignments and rhetorical principles at play in the game, its strengths and limitations, and potential adaptations for future classes. Dr. Benis closes by providing some useful resources for any instructors looking to incorporate the games into their own courses.

In this episode, Matt Holder sits down with Dr. Toby Benis to discuss her use of the Reacting to the Past curriculum in her English 1900 course. During Part 1, Dr. Benis describes her inspiration for choosing the method and presents an overview of the specific game played by her students, including the typical prep, scaffolding, and time requirements, and provides examples of the ways in which her students embraced the role-playing experience.

The English Department's Resident Jesuit, Colten Biro, S.J., sits down with Byron Gilman-Hernandez to discuss his work writing for the Jesuit Post—and developing their web content, engaging the community across multiple platforms, moderating discussion, and using his own writing in the classroom. In this episode, Colten discusses his experiences with composition in an internet-mediated dialogue with his audience.

In this episode, Lauren Terbrock returns to the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis to interview Tim Youd (http://timyoud.com/) about his exhibition St. Louis: Retyped (http://camstl.org/exhibitions/front-room/tim-youd-st-louis-retyped/). Lauren talks with Tim about the ways machines, sound, and video transform his process, as well as the necessary physicality of reading and writing.

In this episode, Byron Gilman-Hernandez schedules a quick conference with Natalie Monzyk to discuss conferencing. Natalie shares how she's made use of early-semester student conferences in teaching her Literature and Rhetoric classes, as well as some tips and best practices she's picked up from her experience.