Angus Fletcher, a professor in the Ohio State University Department of English, discusses his unconventional journey from studying neuroscience at the University of Michigan to obtaining a PhD in literature at Yale. He shares how his background in neurophysiology, which involved studying neuronal communication, informed his unique approach to literature. Listen in to hear about his experiments that measure the impacts of narrative elements on empathy and problem-solving.
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Tanya Berger·Wolf directs The Ohio State University’s Translational Data Analytics Institute and is a professor in the Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology. She discusses translational data analytics, interdisciplinary research, and the intersection of computer science with ecology and biology. Berger Wolf describes the importance of data analytics in addressing societal challenges, the role of computational ecology in understanding animal behavior and conservation, and the development of imageomics as a new field of science.
Professor of history Christopher McKnight Nichols is the Wayne Woodrow Hayes Chair in National Security Studies at the Ohio State University. He specializes in the history of the United States and its relationship to the rest of the world. He discusses with David Staley isolationism, internationalism, the impact of crises on societal change, the study of ideas and ideologies in history, and the concept of grand strategy in shaping national and international policies. He also draws parallels between the 1918 influenza and 2020 COVID pandemics.
Professor Dorothy Noyes studies folklore from its different views in American and European contexts to its role in representing marginalized cultures and the interplay between high and low culture. Profs. Noyes and Staley discuss the idea of exemplarity and the significance of interdisciplinary collaboration in academia, drawing from her experience at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies and sharing insights from her book projects on exemplarity in liberal politics.
Dr. Sahar Heydari Fard, a professor of philosophy, researches at the intersection of philosophy, ethics, and social movements. She discusses the evolving nature of ethics in complex societies, the concept of strategic injustice, the role of social movements in driving progress, and the importance of diversity in shaping norms and values in society.