A podcast dissertation? Speaker to discuss creative ways to present research

Working on her doctoral dissertation on Gothic novels, Anna Williams found herself living in one. Her end product, My Gothic Dissertation, focuses on the intersection of literature and life - and is the first-ever dissertation to be submitted and approved in podcast form.

Williams, who earned her PhD in English at the University of Iowa, is coming to the Binghamton University campus Oct. 9 and 10 to share her experiences and lead a creative workshop.

Events include:

• A creative workshop from 4 to 6 p.m. Oct. 9 in the Alpern Room (LN2200). Williams will talk about the techniques she used planning and structuring her 5-episode podcast narrative and lead participants through exercises that can help them think about their research in new ways. Note: this is not an audio-editing workshop.
• A Coffee & Chat session with Williams from 1 to 2 p.m. Oct. 10 in the Pilot Digital Scholarship Center in SL-209.
• A Q&A from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Oct. 10 in University Union Room 111. Williams discuss how she learned how to podcast, her experience getting her university to accept a podcast dissertation, and other topics regarding the academy, storytelling and podcasting.

The events are sponsored by the Digital Storytelling Initiative in partnership with Harpur Edge, the Writing Initiative and the Binghamton Libraries' Digital Scholarship Center. They are open to undergraduates, graduate students and Harpur College faculty.

A podcast dissertation isn't any less laborious than the traditional format. My Gothic Dissertation, available on platforms such as Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and Spotify, clocks in at more than 5 hours total, including the epilog.

"It's basically a dissertation with audio editing and sound production and a slightly different lens of how to tell a story and consider yourself an academic," said Chelsea Gibson, coordinator for the Digital Storytelling Initiative and director of the Binghamton Codes! program.

Williams' workshop won't address the rudiments of podcasting itself; for those wanting to learn, Gibson and the libraries' Digital Scholarship Center offer regular tutorials. Rather, it will focus on the creative side: how to integrate your own experience into research and craft a compelling story, Gibson said.

Academics have been writing theses and dissertations for centuries, Gibson pointed out.

"A lot of our models of the academy date back to the 19th century, when we created the current understanding of higher education," she said. "But many of the oldest universities began as seminaries, where they would train people to go into religious practice.

Technologies have changed since then, of course. Is the classic concept of academia - writing articles and books for print publication - the only way to go about it? Or do developments such as podcasting give academics new and equally valid ways to present their research? The Digital Storytelling Initiative aims to answer these questions, in part by bringing in compelling speakers such as Williams.

"There's a group of people in the last 20 years who are trying to show that scholarship can be something that isn't just written," Gibson said.