The Purdue English Big Read Podcast

In this episode, Assistant Director of the Purdue English Big Read, C.J. Tenniswood, speaks with Dr. Stephanie Masta (College of Education), Dr. Michael Johnston (College of Liberal Arts), and Juanita Crider—PhD candidate, Assistant Director of the Black Cultural Center, and instructor in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. Together, they discuss how each has incorporated Braiding Sweetgrass into their teaching, how the book has shaped their pedagogical approaches, and the range of assignments and learning experiences the text has inspired.

In this episode, Assistant Director of the Purdue English Big Read, C.J. Tenniswood, sits down with Dr. Matt Morgenstern and PhD candidate, Rochel Bergman, to explore how Robin Wall Kimmerer’s Braiding Sweetgrass invites readers to rethink their relationship with the natural world. Together, they discuss what it means to learn from the land rather than simply about it, weaving perspectives on ecological ethics, Indigenous knowledge, and the power of language and story.

In this episode (hosted by Emily Pearson), guests Debora Borba and Matt Morgenstern discuss cozy mysteries and how Ovidia Yu's Aunty Lee's Delights fits into the genre.

In this episode (hosted by Emily Pearson), guests Sarah Jaran and Dr. Mindy Tan discuss Singaporean food culture and it's role in Ovidia Yu's Aunty Lee's Delights.

In this episode (hosted by Alex Anderson), guests Benjamin Lathrop, Chenchen Lu, and Emily Pearson discuss best practices for teaching Julia Lovell's adaptation of Monkey King: Journey to the West.

In this episode, host Alex Anderson and guests Veronica Ahmed, Narim Kim, and Frankie Knuckles discuss how Silvia Moreno-Garcia's novel Mexican Gothic (2020) nuances the literary genre of the Female Gothic.

In this episode, host Alex Anderson and guests Débora Borba, Jehu Laniog, and Marybeth Perdomo discuss colonialism's haunting presence in Silvia Moreno-Garcia's novel Mexican Gothic (2020).

Tune in as host Erika Gotfredson and guests Jason Abad and Emily Pearson discuss how names, language, and storytelling function as magic in Naomi Novik's novel Spinning Silver (2018).

In this episode, host Erika Gotfredson and guests Juanita Crider and Malik Raymond explore Africanfuturism, character development, and the collision of STEM and literature in Nnedi Okorafor's trilogy Binti.