I’ve updated my Bard faculty website with some information about my current courses. In particular, I’m excited about a new seminar class called “The Talking Cure: Podcasts as Exploration of Disordered Experiences”, which you can read more about here.

The course takes advantage of the fact that folks have recorded their own experiences and those of others, and shared them in the context of audio recordings—podcasts. You’ll find the complete list of podcasts and academic readings that are assigned if you click through. I’m excited about a couple of things here:

• Getting to really engage with students in terms of understanding others’ experiences of mental illness and treatment. Listening to podcasts that describe what it’s like to be in (good) therapy, or what it’s like to experience an illness that many of them won’t have personal connections to, provides a really valuable perspective that reading an empirical article may not.
• Getting to introduce undergrads to making a podcast. The course has two major assignments: proposing a research study and then, in small groups, making a podcast or audio recording. I don’t have much experience with audio editing myself, but we have some great folks at Bard who do, and also I think that this is something best learned by doing.
• Sharing some really good podcasts. Some of the ones we’re listening to have stayed with me for years because they’re genuinely interesting and memorable; others were recommended by friends or colleagues. But I think all of them will generate interesting conversations, and I’m excited for that.