The Gradlings Podcast

Episode 5.1: Perception Yes, Production No

The GradLings kick off the fifth(!!) season of the program with a throwback interview with Ane, who is now an Assistant Professor at California State University Northridge where she teaches Spanish linguistics and translation. Boden and Robbie chat with Ane in the summer of 2020 as she was unwinding from finishing her dissertation and transitioning to start her career as a professor. Ane reflects about her years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and discusses how she formed different support systems that got her through her time as a graduate student. Just having finished a particularly challenging academic job market, Ane has a lot of advice about how to deal with those those frustrating application materials, managing expectations of the job market, and—most importantly—how to process and deal with failure. Especially for our listeners embarking on their own journey into the job application season, we hope you join us for this episode and season 5!

Episode 4.3: Opening Pandora's Box

Have you ever considered the importance of an origin story? Or have you ever been curious (confused) about where to draw the line between breakfast and lunch time? In this episode of GradLings, Boden and Robbie tackle both of these topics with Matthew, a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who is studying mass neuter interpretations in Asturian, a minoritized language spoken on the Iberian Peninsula. Matthew shares what it’s like to research “Pandora’s Box” and how he arrived there through a journey of happy little accidents in his time working, teaching, and researching in Florida and Wisconsin. In this episode, they also talk a bit about the importance of mentorship in being both a student and an educator during grad school. Matthew also leaves the GradLings with some very timely advice to “go with the flow”.

Episode 4.2: How do you become a scholar?

Like a lot of linguists, Lupe researches how language gets things done. However, her dissertation has implications beyond language use alone. As a PhD student in the Applied Linguistics program at Penn State, Lupe studies how interactions contribute to how graduate students in the Humanities are socialized into their profession, an uphill battle that has been frequently overlooked until now. Language, she finds, is the key to effective mentorship and, ultimately, good scholarship. Lupe also shares some of her experiences of being a student, instructor, and researcher across the country (and many timezones) that have informed her work. As Robbie likes to say, come get meta with us in this amazingly insightful episode of the GradLings podcast!

Episode 4.1: Bothered about Basque

Robbie has met her pop culture match! In this episode of the GradLings Podcast, she sits down with Ander, a 2nd year Hispanic Linguistics PhD student at UIUC (and her Basque instructor!). In addition to talking about his awesome research (NASA might or might not have been mentioned), Ander discusses his passion for teaching Spanish and Basque language courses and how he sees cultures coming to life for his students. He also brings up an intriguing point of tension that has become more prevalent in the evolving foreign language classroom: when it comes to teaching about cultural awareness, social justice, and activism, are there limitations to the instructor being a native speaker? To hear more about how Ander approaches teaching with respect, check out this wonderful episode of GradLings!

Episode 3.7 - When did 'explicit' become such a dirty word?

For most US university students, that pesky foreign language requirement can be the worst part of any semester. Despite strides language educators and researchers have made in communicative language teaching, some of these students feel like they cannot speak a new language because they cannot nail down its ‘sound’. Camille, a PhD Candidate in French and Second Language Acquisition and Teacher Education at UIUC, has set out to study the benefits of explicit pronunciation instruction and self-reflection in the acquisition of foreign languages for these students completing the FL requirement. In what she presents as the Awareness Continuum Hypothesis, Camille looks at how students notice and become aware of their speech and pronunciation as they learn a new language. Camille also talks with the GradLings about her experiences with researching, writing, and all the components of the ABD (All But Dead!) life. Similar to how her work examines how self-reflection aids students in their foreign language studies, Camille values the skill of taking a step back and looking at where she is and where she is headed. Being able to reflect on her work and life, Camille has conquered the obstacles of conducting a longitudinal study, successfully combatting conference snipers, and, most importantly, learning how to say 'no'. Please join us for this very wonderful GradLings Summer Special!