Following Jelani Favors's description of how the second curriculum of HBCUs has been compromised since the 1980s, we look back at the origins of Howard University in the Freedman's Bureau [10:00], discuss the labor history of literature instruction [28:00], and mark the college football playoffs by discussing the dehumanization of athletic workers with the authors of "The End of College Football" [44:30].
Cast (in order of appearance):
Jelani Favors is Henry E. Frye Distinguished Professor of History at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University and Director of the Center of Excellence for Social Justice. He is the author of Shelter In A Time of Storm (UNC Press, 2020). He is also on the advisory commitee for the HBCU Digital Library Trust.
Laura Heffernan is Professor of English at University of North Florida and co-author of The Teaching Archive (U. Chicago, 2021)
Rachel Sagnar Buurma is Associate Professor of English at University of North Florida and co-author of The Teaching Archive (U. Chicago, 2021)
Nathan Kalman-Lamb is Assistant Professor of Sociology at University of New Brunswick, and the co-author of The End of College Football (UNC Press, 2024)
Derek Silva is Associate Professor of Sociology at King's University College at Western University, and the co-author of The End of College Football (UNC Press, 2024)
Matt Seybold is Associate Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College, as well as resident scholar at the Center For Mark Twain Studies and executive producer of The American Vandal Podcast.
All music for this season of The American Vandal Podcast comes from the Tennessee-based roots ensemble DownRiver Collective. Most of the tracks come from their most recent EP, Off The Shelf. You can purchase it direct from the band here. It's also available on Spotify and Apple Music.
Tracks featured in this episode include "Wasted Time," "As It Was," "Dead To Me," "Steam Whistle," & "Days Don't Stop."
Excerpts from Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner's The Gilded Age come from the audiobook edition produced by SNR Audio and narrated by Nathan Osgood. Available at Audible, as well as other audiobook retailers. SNR has an extensive catalog of professionally-narrated adaptations of 19th-century Anglophone fiction, including The Complete Mark Twain Collection.
Nathan Osgood is an actor and voice artist who has being appearing in films, scripted television, video games, podcasts, and audiobooks since the mid-'90s. In 2018, he played Mark Twain in the Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly vehicle, Holmes and Watson.
Excerpts in this episode come from chapter 45.
Episode Bibliography:
Michael Bennett (with Dave Zirin), Things The Make White People Uncomfortable (Haymarket, 2018)
Brown University, "Slavery & Justice Report" (2006)
Rachel Sagner Buurma & Laura Heffernan, The Teaching Archive: A New History For Literary Study (U. Chicago, 2021)
Grace De Rocha, "UNLV Film Students Hopeful As Warner Bros. Plans Expansion Into Las Vegas" Las Vegas Sun (November 15, 2024)
Cory Doctorow, “‘Enshittification’ is Coming For Absolutely Everything” Financial Times (February 8, 2024)
W.E.B. Du Bois, "The Field & Function of the American Negro College" (1933)
W.E.B. Du Bois, The Education of Black People: Ten Critiques, 1906-1960 (1973) [2001 Monthly Review Edition]
Jelani Favors, Shelter In A Time Of Storm: How Black Colleges Fostered Generations of Leadership & Activism (UNC Press, 2020)
Jelani Favors, "The Second Curriculum" The Point (August 15, 2021)
Bryant Morey French, Mark Twain & The Gilded Age: The Book That Named An Era (Southern Methodist UP, 1965)
Nathan Kalman-Lamb, "Sleep Pods, Plush Carpets, & The Dark Heart of the NCAA" Chronicle of Higher Education (August 6, 2019)
Nathan Kalman-Lamb, "Athletic Labor & Social Reproduction" Journal of Sport & Social Issues (December 2019)
Nathan Kalman-Lamb, "Imagined Communities of Fandom: Sport, Spectatorship, Meaning & Alienation in Late Capitalism" Sport in Society (June, 2021)
Nathan Kalman-Lamb & Derek Silva, The End of College Football (UNC Press, 2024)
Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Address at Dedication of Howard University Chemistry Building" (October 26, 1936)
Franklin D. Roosevelt, "Madison Square Garden Address on American Desire For Peace" (October 31, 1936)
Matt Seybold, "Astride The Dark Horse: T. S. Eliot & The Lloyds Bank Intelligence Department" T. S. Eliot Studies Annual (2017)
Matt Seybold et al, "Fake Work, Fucking Models, & The Archive of Empire" The American Vandal Podcast (December 23, 2024)
Matt Seybold et al, "Half Castle 'Gainst The Scott Walkers" The American Vandal Podcast (December 17, 2024)
Matt Seybold et al, "The Education Gospel, Enshittify.edu, & The Expansion of Lower Ed" The American Vandal Podcast (November 25, 2024)
Matt Seybold et al, "Philanthrocapitalism U" The American Vandal Podcast (November 12, 2024)
Matt Seybold et al, "The Black University Concept & The Second Curriculum" The American Vandal Podcast (October 31, 2024)
Matt Seybold et al, "The Historical Novel" The American Vandal Podcast (October 15, 2024)
Matt Seybold et al, “Ponzi Austerity in The Age of Cultural Abundance” The American Vandal Podcast (August 21, 2023)
Matt Seybold et al, “Ed Tech, AI, & The Unbundling of Research & Teaching” The American Vandal Podcast (November 2, 2023)
Peter Stallybrass,
Mark Twain & Charles Dudley Warner, The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) [2006 Modern Library Edition]
Raymond Williams, Marxism & Literature (Oxford UP, 1977)
Nathan Woolf, "First As Farce: Structures of Feeling in The Gilded Age" Quarry Farm Symposium Keynote (2024)
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