Reimagining CIE through sound: Working at the nexus of art, entertainment, and research

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Awakening CIE Knowledge Production: A Conversation to Revitalize the Field

Proposal

Ideas have the power to inspire and solve global challenges, but much new knowledge remains trapped inside universities. Academic journal articles are locked behind paywalls; academic conferences rarely engage public audiences; and students who can access university are treated like customers rather than future thought leaders. How can academic knowledge become more accessible to the public? And how can new voices be heard in an ever-silencing academy?

For the past four years, FreshEd has worked with graduate students to answer these questions through its Flux project. Flux is an internationally recognized series where master’s and PhD students transform their research interests into narrative-style podcasts. Flux expands graduate students’ academic horizons by pushing the boundaries of research publication and dissemination beyond the written word and half-empty conference rooms. As academic theories and methodologies are lifted from the page, they become embedded in stories and described via sound. Through deep-dive storytelling, Flux introduces the CIE community to global perspectives on under-represented places while enabling new voices in education podcasting to be widely heard.

This presentation explores the power of podcasting within CIE. It explores the types and functions of podcasting, situating the medium at the intersection of the research are, and entertainment. Podcasting offers an important medium through which scientific impact and knowledge dissemination can reach new and wider audiences. It also has several limitations around who is allowed to speak and in which language. The presentation will use various examples of podcasting to initiate a conversation about the promises and perils of the medium in CIE and provide space to participants to brainstorm ways podcasting can be integrated not only into teaching and learning but also used as a research method, tool, and practice.

Author

• Will Brehm, University of Canberra