Resources for Teachers and Students
We are pleased to offer the following online resources to encourage teachers and students to enhance their engagement with the Lowell Humanities Series. We encourage you to adopt our speakers' most recent book as well as shorter essays and contextual material as part of your syllabi. Additionally, the resources below can be paired or used separately to fit a single class or a longer unit. These links allow students to watch a Youtube video, or read a short essay or interview, before or after one of our events. Teachers might also consider using these resources in conjunction with evening reflection activities, or opportunities for reviews/reports during or beyond class-time. For speakers book titles, please see their bios. Articles in academic journals are available to members of the BC community through the library webpage.
Ed Yong
“What Pandemics Teach Us”
January 29, 2025
7 PM | Gasson 100
Interviews and Talks
- Here’s Where it Gets Interesting with Sharon McMahon (podcast): An Immense World with Ed Yong https://sharonmcmahon.com/podcast/an-immense-world-with-ed-yong
- Outside/In (podcast): Ed Yong and The Spoonbill Club https://outsideinradio.org/shows/ed-yong-and-the-spoonbill-club
- Audubon: A New Birding Club Wants to Help COVID Long-Haulers Safely Enjoy Nature Together https://www.audubon.org/magazine/new-birding-club-wants-help-covid-long-haulers-safely-enjoy-nature-together
- TED (video): Suicidal wasps, zombie roaches and other parasite tales https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfqO1U6lfDs
Reviews
- The Guardian: The astonishing ways in which animals experience our planet https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/20/an-immense-world-by-ed-yong-review-the-astonishing-ways-in-which-animals-experience-our-planet
Articles
- The New York Times: When I Became a Birder, Almost Everything Else Fell Into Place https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/30/opinion/birding-spring-merlin-ebird.html?ugrp=m&unlocked_article_code=1.gk0.hcze.YMhK6Sv4zpt1&smid=url-share
- The Atlantic: Fatigue Can Shatter a Person https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XlLLJ17Oc60qbzkWKRaNFwSTf96Vk8kX/view
- The Atlantic: Long COVID Is Being Erased—Again https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ADmb7vo4INOHNG46mk-y4F_iWf3XpkGG/view
Ed Yong
“What Pandemics Teach Us”
January 29, 2025
7 PM | Gasson 100
Interviews and Talks
- Here’s Where it Gets Interesting with Sharon McMahon (podcast): An Immense World with Ed Yong https://sharonmcmahon.com/podcast/an-immense-world-with-ed-yong
- Outside/In (podcast): Ed Yong and The Spoonbill Club https://outsideinradio.org/shows/ed-yong-and-the-spoonbill-club
- Audubon: A New Birding Club Wants to Help COVID Long-Haulers Safely Enjoy Nature Together https://www.audubon.org/magazine/new-birding-club-wants-help-covid-long-haulers-safely-enjoy-nature-together
- TED (video): Suicidal wasps, zombie roaches and other parasite tales https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CfqO1U6lfDs
Reviews
- The Guardian: The astonishing ways in which animals experience our planet https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jun/20/an-immense-world-by-ed-yong-review-the-astonishing-ways-in-which-animals-experience-our-planet
Articles
- The New York Times: When I Became a Birder, Almost Everything Else Fell Into Place https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/30/opinion/birding-spring-merlin-ebird.html?ugrp=m&unlocked_article_code=1.gk0.hcze.YMhK6Sv4zpt1&smid=url-share
- The Atlantic: Fatigue Can Shatter a Person https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XlLLJ17Oc60qbzkWKRaNFwSTf96Vk8kX/view
- The Atlantic: Long COVID Is Being Erased—Again https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ADmb7vo4INOHNG46mk-y4F_iWf3XpkGG/view
Graham Ward
“Loneliness: A Theological Appraisal”
February 5, 2025
7 PM | Gasson 100
Interviews
- The Other Journal: The Academy, the Polis, and the Resurgence of Religion: An Interview with Graham Ward https://theotherjournal.com/2008/11/the-academy-the-polis-and-the-resurgence-of-religion-an-interview-with-graham-ward/
- For the Life of the World (podcast): Restlessness, Christ, and Belonging https://open.spotify.com/episode/0RFaipijW7tMVCXF3g3oBk?si=k1O68U5ATcW40bjooFk3RA, https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-the-light-gets-in-restlessness-christ-belonging/id1505076294?i=1000639522250
- European Academy on Religion and Society: Through the apocalypse: Graham Ward on religion’s future in the wake of migration
Javier Zamora
“Solito: Home, Identity, and the Immigrant Experience”
February 26, 2025
7 PM | Gasson 100
Interviews
- The Guardian: ‘Now the chances of me crossing the border and surviving would be slim’ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/sep/10/javier-zamora-solito-interview-now-the-chances-of-me-crossing-border-and-surviving-would-be-slim
- Up Next (podcast): A Child's Story of Migration https://www.npr.org/2022/10/21/1130581338/solito-a-childs-story-of-migration
Reviews
- The New York Review of Books: Journey to the North https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2023/06/08/journey-to-the-north-solito-javier-zamora/
- The New York Times: Javier Zamora Carried a Heavy Load. He Laid It to Rest on the Page. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/05/books/javier-zamora-solito-migration.html
Articles
- Granta: A Wider Patch of Sky https://granta.com/wider-patch-of-sky-zamora-cantu/
- The Bare Life Review: Revisiting the Border During a Pandemic https://www.barelifereview.org/thelatest/revisiting-the-border-during-a-pandemic
- Literary Hub: Reading Neruda and Learning to Heal My Diasporic Wounds https://lithub.com/reading-neruda-and-learning-to-heal-my-diasporic-wounds/
Excerpts
- Penguin Random House Common Reads: An excerpt from Javier Zamora’s Solito https://commonreads.com/2023/08/09/excerpt-from-solito/
Arthur Frank
“Shakespeare’s Catalog of Sufferings: Resources and Consolations for Vulnerable Readers”
March 12, 2025
7 PM | Gasson 100
Interviews
- Shakespeare Anyone? (podcast): Interview with Dr. Arthur Frank https://www.shakespeareanyone.com/episodes/twelfth-night-synopsis-px395-whhmn-8l267
Articles
- Art’s Blog: Locked Down With Lear https://arthurwfrank.wordpress.com/2020/11/14/locked-down-with-lear/
Excerpts
- Folger Shakespeare Library: Excerpt: "King Lear: Shakespeare's Dark Consolations" by Arthur Frank
Katherine McKittrick
“A Poetics of Declension”
March 19, 2025
7:00 p.m. | Gasson Hall 100
Interviews
- Women’s Studies Quarterly: Strategies for Liberation: A Conversation with Katherine McKittrick
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/ypfvoxmcvr44rrm2a2xxe/McKittrick-and-Moriah_WSQ.pdf
- dweller: Katherine McKittrick, a conversation on Black Dreamcatchers
https://dwellerforever.blog/2023/05/katherine-mckittrick-a-conversation-on-black-dreamcatchers - The CLR James Journal: The Geographies of Blackness and Anti-Blackness
https://www.pdcnet.org - Public Books: Katherine McKittrick on Black Methodologies and Other Ways of Being
https://www.publicbooks.org/public-thinker-katherine-mckittrick-on-black-methodologies-and-other-ways-of-being/ - The Wall Street Journal: ‘Secrets of the Octopus’ Review: Nat Geo’s Tentacle Spectacle https://www.wsj.com/arts-culture/television/secrets-of-the-octopus-review-tentacle-spectacle-national-geographic-hulu-disney-e2c0aeec
- The New York Times: What Can Writers Learn From Turtles https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/05/books/review/of-time-and-turtles-sy-montgomery.html
- NPR: In 'Soul Of An Octopus,' An Invertebrate Steals Our Hearts https://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2015/06/25/417043191/in-soul-of-an-octopus-an-invertebrate-steals-our-hearts
- The Guardian: A Fond Study of the Elusive ‘Alien’ https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/jun/05/soul-of-an-octopus-sy-montgomery-review
- Yankee: The World of Sy Montgomery https://newengland.com/living/the-world-of-sy-montgomery/
Excerpts
- Literary Hub: Familiar Yet Strange: Why Turtles Are Worth Saving https://lithub.com/familiar-yet-strange-why-turtles-are-worth-saving/
- Literary Hub: What Animals Can Show Us About More Meaningfully Encountering the Wider World https://lithub.com/what-animals-can-show-us-about-more-meaningfully-encountering-the-wider-world/
John McNeill
“The Industrial Revolution as Global Environmental History”
Wednesday, April 2, 2025
7 PM | Gasson 100
Interviews
- Infectious Historians (podcast): Environmental History: Past, Present, and Future https://infectioushistorians.com/2020/12/06/environmental-history-past-present-future/
- Burning Ambulance: Interview: John McNeill https://burningambulance.com/2014/10/06/interview-john-mcneil/
- Perspectives on History: Embracing Fearlessness: An Interview with New AHA President John R. McNeill https://www.historians.org/perspectives-article/embracing-fearlessness-an-interview-with-new-aha-president-john-r-mcneill-january-2019/
- E-International Relations: Interview: John R. McNeill https://www.e-ir.info/2015/10/27/interview-john-r-mcneill/#google_vignette
Articles
- Seeing the Woods: The Uses of Environmental History https://seeingthewoods.org/2017/03/01/the-uses-of-environmental-history/
Anne Berest
“Family Fictions: The Postcard, Gabriële, and Writing True Novels”
April 23, 2025
7 PM | Devlin 110
Interviews
- The Literary Life (podcast): Anne Berest on Diving Into Her History for The Postcard https://lithub.com/anne-berest-on-diving-into-her-history-for-the-postcard/
Reviews
- The New Yorker: The Anonymous Postcard that Inspired a French Best-seller https://www.newyorker.com/culture/persons-of-interest/the-anonymous-postcard-that-inspired-a-french-best-seller
- The New York Times: An Autobiographical Novel Reclaims a Jewish History in Occupied France https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/16/books/review/anne-berest-the-postcard.html
- Literary Hub: Anne Berest’s Best Story Came From Deep in Her Family’s Past https://lithub.com/anne-berests-best-story-came-from-deep-in-her-familys-past/
- The Guardian: An autofictional tale of family survival https://www.theguardian.com/books/2023/oct/04/the-postcard-by-anne-berest-review-an-autofictional-tale-of-family-survival
- The New York Times: An Unsigned Postcard Named Four Family Members Who Died in the Holocaust. Why? https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/15/books/anne-berest-the-postcard.html
- Lilith: Tragedy and Discovery, Braided Together https://lilith.org/articles/tragedy-and-discovery-braided-together/
Excerpts
- The Millions: I’m the One Who Survives: An Excerpt from ‘The Postcard’ https://themillions.com/2023/05/im-the-one-who-survives-an-excerpt-from-the-postcard-myriam.html