For the second year, GradFUTURES support enabled five graduate students to attend "Podcasting for Humanities Graduate Students: Storytelling for a Modern Audience," which is part of the National Humanities Center Virtual Institute for Graduate Students.

Podcasting continues to grow as a vehicle for scholarly communication, and this virtual institute provided immersive, practical training in how to create a podcast from start to finish. In just five days, the graduate students--drawn from a pool of applicants from all humanities and humanistic social science departments--all worked in cross-disciplinary and intra-university groups to create a podcast episode. 

Click here to listen to the episodes they created! Topics include: Motherhood in Academia, the Concept of Space, interdisciplinary work, and more!

The graduate students learned from scholars who are also podcasting experts, including Princeton Graduate Alum Barry Lam *07 (PHI). A frequent contributor to GradFUTURES programs, Lam shared lessons from his years at the helm of Hi-Phi Nation.

The program's goals align well with those of GradFUTURES. As their website notes, it is crucial to "[e]ncourage emerging humanities scholars to embrace a sense of responsibility for sharing stories of the human experience with diverse American publics."

Dylan Blau Edelstein (GS, SPO) noted that "The workshop condensed into just a few days what it looks like to podcast as an academic. We went over the nuts and bolts of audio editing, learned to collaborate with an intimate group, and even had discussions with academics, attempting to forge opportunities for peer-reviewed podcasting scholarship."

Vinicius Reis (GS, ANT) noted that "[a]s a Ph.D. student without previous experience in podcasting, the Institute allowed me to really understand the full potential of this medium. I am an avid consumer of podcasts, but now I finally feel like I have the skills to start a project of my own."

Reis touched on a theme common to the first two cohorts that have attended the Institute, noting that "I wish to bridge the gap between my academic research at Princeton and broader communication opportunities, using podcasts to share stories and findings in a meaningful and interesting way." 

Pria Garcelle (GS, CLA) noted that the institute "was a whirlwind week of learning the in's and out's of how to make a podcast. While I wouldn't want to go from zero to "fully fledged podcast" in one week again, I can't wait to use the skills I learned at this workshop in my next project!"

Blau Edelstin summed up the spirit of the institute, noting: "[g]iven the frequently solitary nature of academic research, it was very refreshing to be surrounded by a group of people so dedicated to collaborative intellectual pursuits."

GradFUTURES also has its own podcast, hosted by Graduate Student Hellen Wainaina (GS, ENG). The GradFUTURES podcast centers on the futures of PhDs: both those in training at Princeton, and Princeton graduate alums who are in and beyond academia. We tell the professional development stories of graduate students, graduate alums, and those who partner and collaborate with them! 

Download, Listen, and Subscribe: Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify, Audible, and Pocket Casts!