Take a trip with Geoff Hilsabeck through "Educated: A Memoir," by Tara Westover, West Virginia University's 2019-2020 Campus Read book. Join Geoff as he talks about the themes of "Educated," and discusses key points with colleagues and experts.
Geoffrey Hilsabeck is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of English at West Virginia University and the Community Outreach Fellow at the WVU Humanities Center. He is the author of Riddles, Etc. (The Song CCave, 2017). His poems and essays have appeared in the New York Times Magazine, The Believer, Paris Review Daily, and elsewhere.
This week Geoff talks to Dr. Rosemary Hathaway about her new book, "Mountaineers Are Always Free: Heritage, Dissent, and a West Virginia Icon" (WVU Press).
10 Feb 2020
WVU Reads: Teaching Reconstruction
This week, Geoff talks to Dr. Tiffany Mitchell Patterson from the College of Education and Human Services about teaching reconstruction and citizenship, black power, voting rights, and related topics. For further reading, check out Dr. Patterson's recent article in The Conversation, as well as Black Lives Matter at School, Teaching Tolerance, and Rethinking Schools.
24 Jan 2020
WVU Reads: WV Innocence Project
In the spring season of WVU Reads, Geoff will continue to interview people from around campus but move away from Educated. This week, Geoff talks to Melissa Giggenbach and Hope DeLap from the West Virginia Innocence Project, which is affiliated with WVU College of Law.
If you enjoy the conversation and want to learn more about the WV Innocence Project, you can visit their website: wvinnoceneproject.law.wvu.edu. You can also follow them on Twitter @WVInnocence. If you're a student and are interested in helping them screen for clients, they are currently open for applications.
9 Dec 2019
WVU Reads Episode 14: Bye (For Now)
In this episode, Geoff wraps up the fall semester and looks ahead to the future. WVU Reads will take a brief hiatus for the holidays. See you in January!
2 Dec 2019
WVU Reads Episode 13: Home School
In this episode, Geoff talks with Melissa Sherfinski, associate professor of Early Childhood and Elementary Education, about Tara Westover's experiences as a home school student. They discuss what's lost and gained in that experience, not just for Tara but for her brothers. The conversation ranges across public and private education, knowledge funds, distance mentors, ideology, and other topics.
18 Nov 2019
WVU Reads Episode 12: The First Gen Experience
In this episode, Geoff talks with Dr. Christina Fattore from the political science department about the ways her experience as a first gen student were and were not like Tara Westover’s. Topics covered include student loans, imposter syndrome, work-study and work/study, power and wealth, and the importance of feeding your soul.
11 Nov 2019
WVU Reads Episode 11: Reading Educated "Behind the Fence"
In this episode, Geoff talks with Delia Trickett about reading Educated with a group of incarcerated men at the federal prison in Hazelton, WV. They read from the men's responses to the book and discuss the sometimes surprising points of contact the men found with Tara Westover's story.
4 Nov 2019
WVU Reads Episode 10: Midwifery
In this episode, Geoff talks with Lena Cerbone, Director of Midwifery Services in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at WVU. Geoff and Lena talk about midwifery as it's depicted in Educated and as it is practiced here in West Virginia and elsewhere. They also talk about what it means to be called to a profession, the secret strength that good work gives us, home births and hospital births, catching babies, and many, many other things. Enjoy!
29 Oct 2019
WVU Reads Episode 9: Horses
In this episode, Geoff talks with Dr. Crystal Smith from the Equine Studies program at WVU. Dr. Smith is a Teaching Associate Professor in the Division of Animal and Nutritional Sciences with the Davis College of Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Design. She leads the Equine Studies minor and manages the horse unit at the JW Ruby Research Farm. They talk about horsemanship and the human-equine relationship in light of Educated, paying particular attention to chapter 11 (“Instinct”), in which Westover writes beautifully and somewhat problematically about horses.
You can learn more about the program and the farm at horses.wvu.edu.
22 Oct 2019
WVU Reads Episode 8: Strengths and Weaknesses of 'Educated'
This week, Geoff welcomes Lynne Stahl into the studio to discuss Westover's book. Lynne Stahl is the Humanities Librarian at WVU. She has a PhD in English from Cornell. Prior to coming to WVU, she worked for the Portland Public Library. Geoff and Lynne talk about some of the book's blind spots, as well as its strengths. Topics covered include the logic of misogyny, negative spaces in reading, what makes a "good" book, and whether memoirists have a responsibility not only to tell their story but to connect it to other stories.
As sometimes happens, the discussion of Educated leads to a discussion of several other books as well. Here are the titles of those books, should you want to read them: Down Girl (Kate Manne); Are You My Mother? (Alison Bechdel); Heartland (Sarah Smarsh).
14 Oct 2019
WVU Reads Episode 7: Memoir
This week Geoff talks to Cutter Wood, author of Love and Death in the Sunshine State: The Story of a Crime, about the unreliability of memory and the constraints of narrative. Cutter talks about the obligations that memoir imposes and the possibilities it affords. A recipient of an NEA fellowship, Cutter Wood attended Brown University and the Iowa Writers Workshop.
5 Oct 2019
WVU Reads Episode 6: The Book as Object and Commodity
This week Geoff talks to Derek Krissoff, director of WVU Press, about how books are made and marketed, what kinds of labor goes into making a book, and why we value them. Check out the press at wvupressonline.com.
27 Sept 2019
WVU Reads Episode 5- Westover’s Psychic and Emotional Struggles
This week, Geoff talks to Jessica Johnston-York, Ph.D., and Brian Quigley, M.D. from the Carruth Center, which offers psychiatric and psychological services for the WVU community, about some of Tara Westover’s psychic and emotional struggles as both an undergraduate and graduate student. This episode will be of particular interest to undergraduate and graduate students, students studying psychology, anyone feeling caught between different worlds, and lovers of psychological insight.
If you’re interested in learning more about the Carruth Center’s many services, you can find them on the web at https://carruth.wvu.edu/ or call them at 304-293-4431.
20 Sept 2019
WVU Reads Episode 4 - Images and Texts
This week Geoff talks to Bob Bridges, curator of the WVU Art Museum, about the Campus Read art show currently on exhibit in Stewart Hall, entitled “Constructing a Life: A Visual Response to Educated.”
Find out more about the exhibit by visiting https://campusread.wvu.edu/attend-our-events
Thanks to our producers, Nick Kratsas and SeVohn Hunter, and to Sean Graham for the music you heard at the beginning and end of the episode.
13 Sept 2019
WVU Reads Episode 3- The Power of Interpretation
This week, Geoff talks with Johanna Winant, assistant professor of English at WVU, about the power of interpretation and the role reading played in Tara Westover's intellectual and personal development. Along the way, Professor Winant explains the ways in which close reading and analysis--the skills learned in English class--are eminently transferable to disciplines as diverse as forensics and medicine.
Learn more about the WVU English Department at https://english.wvu.edu/
Thanks as always to our producers, Nick Kratsas and SeVohn Hunter, and to Sean Graham for the music you heard at the beginning and end of the episode."
6 Sept 2019
WVU Reads Episode 2- A Mountain Education
This week, Geoff talks with Marion Holmes, director of AdventureWV, about adventures big and small. They look at two passages from "Educated" about the author’s experiences growing up in the mountains of Idaho and use them to think through the powerful and surprising ways we can be educated by the outdoors. Interested in taking a trip with AdventureWV? In leading one? Check out their website: adventurewv.wvu.edu.
Thanks to our producers, Nick Kratsas and SeVohn Hunter, and to Sean Graham for the music you heard at the beginning and end of the episode.
3 Sept 2019
WVU Reads Episode 1- An Introduction to the Series
In episode 1 of WVU Reads, Geoff Hilsabeck introduces you to "Educated: A Memoir," by Tara Westover, the 2019-2020 WVU's Campus Read book. Learn more about what to expect in this podcast series, as well as why this important book was chosen as the Campus Read. Learn more about WVU's Campus Read at https://campusread.wvu.edu.
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