The sixth annual Humanities Podcast Network Symposium takes place in October!
“What to do now?”:
Humanities Podcasting Agency and Avowal
Conference Dates: Friday, October 23 – Saturday, October 24
Location: Virtual
Register to Attend (Free!): HPN Symposium 2026 on Eventbrite
Introduction
We are living through a moment that tests the nerve of anyone who makes things, says things, or puts ideas into the world. Public institutions are under pressure. Trust in expertise is fractured. The space for independent, thoughtful voices feels both more necessary and more precarious than at any point in recent memory.
For humanities podcasters — whether you work inside the academy, alongside it, or entirely beyond it — these pressures are personal as well as political. Who gets to speak? Who gets heard? What does it cost to say something true out loud, and what does it cost to stay quiet?
This year’s symposium takes those questions seriously. Agency is about finding and using our power — as creators, as scholars, as communicators — inside systems that were not always built with us in mind (cf. https://www.anthroencyclopedia.com/entry/agency). Avowal is about the harder, quieter work of believing that what we do matters: owning our values, claiming our expertise, and trusting that our audiences are worth showing up for (cf. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11543736/).
Together, these ideas form a practice. The 2026 HPN symposium is an invitation to explore that practice in community at our online gathering 23 and 24 October 2026.
SCHEDULE
Friday 23 October
– 1030am EST: Welcome!
– 1100am EST: Session A – Individual Presentation
- Making the Archive Speak: Mediating the artistic heritage through podcasting
Dhara Shah, Research Associate, Centre for Research in Media and Creative Industries and and Sneha Gore Mehendale, Associate Professor, Associate Professor, Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication Symbiosis, Symbiosis International, Deemed University - Who Speaks When AI Speaks? Agency and Accountability in AI-Mediated Podcasting
Temilade Adeeko, Phd Candidate, Penn State University - What We Can All Learn From Immigrants
Dr. Analía Gómez Vidal, C.P.C., Founder and Career Development Specialist, AGV Services LLC
– 1100am EST: Session B – How One University Uses Podcasting to Share Research and Creative Activity with Its Community
Chair: Christina M. Smith, Professor of Communication, California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA and Advisor of Dolphin Radio, with
- Dennis Downey, Professor of Sociology and Director of Faculty Development,
- Ayden Nolan, Alexys Jackson, and Elliana Escalera, Undergraduate Student Researchers,
- Evelyn Taylor, University Archivist,
- Emma Bibo, Undergraduate Student Researcher and Dolphin Radio Manager,
All panelists: California State University Channel Islands, Camarillo, CA
—- BREAK —-
– 1pm EST: HPN Soundbites – Mary Ellen Kubit
Mary Ellen talks about audio copyrights and permission
– 130pm EST: Session A – Individual Presentations
- Choreographing the Apocalypse: Podcasting as a Practice of Listening at the End of the World
Mine Kaplangı (they/them), Rose Choreographic School / Independent Researcher & Curator, Curator & Producer, Choreographing the Apocalypse - Different Together: Autoethnography, The Collaborative Process, and Utilized Privilege
Lynne Marie Rosenberg, Independent Researcher & Creative Practitioner with Dafe Pessu Orugbo - Podcasting under Constraint: Agency, Self-Censorship and the Turkish Context
Prof. Dr. Fırat Tufan, Istanbul University Faculty of Communication; Shakil Reja Efti, Curtin University, PhD Researcher and Casual Academic, School of Media, Creative Arts and Social Inquiry; Prof. Dr. Bilge Şenyüz-Marmara University Faculty of Communication; Dr. Yeşim Akmeraner Kökat, Istanbul University Faculty of Communication; Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ahsen Deniz Morva Kablamacı, Istanbul University Faculty of Communication; Assist Prof. Dr. Ezel Türk, Istanbul University Faculty of Communication. This study was supported by Scientific and Technological Research, Council of Türkiye (TUBITAK) under the Grant Number 224K952. The authors thank TUBITAK for their support.
– 130pm EST: Session B: Giving Voice, Giving Control: Agency in the Voices of Mather Podcast
Chair: Caroline E Sawyer, PhD, Southeastern Louisiana University, US with Alvesta Robertson, Mather Interpretive Center, US, Timothy James, PhD, University of South Carolina Beaufort, US and Rufus Pinckney, Mather Interpretive Center, US
—- BREAK —-
– 3pm EST: HPN Soundbites – Tyler D. Welch
Tyler’s technical tips for recording
– 330pm EST: Humanities Podcasting Handbook: Contributors and editors from the Palgrave Handbook of Humanities Podcasting discuss how the landscape of podcasting has changed since they began working on the Handbook.
Day 1 Close 4:30 EST!
Saturday 24 October
– 1030am EST: Welcome!
– 11:00 EST: Session A – Individual presentations
- Everyone Has Something to Say: Video Podcasting and the Remaking of Public Intellectual Authority in China
Angze Li, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Jinan University and Yifan Zhong, PhD Student, University of Macau - From Beirut to the World: Podcasting as a Practice of Repair in Post-Conflict Lebanon
Yara El Turk – Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Spain - The Voices Radio Left Behind: Disability and Podcasting’s Inclusive Turn
Shakil Reja Efti, PhD Researcher and Casual Academic, Curtin University, Australia
– 11:00 EST: Session B: Spanning the Airwaves: Podcasting as an Interdisciplinary & Collaborative Bridge
Chair: Marcus Funk, Professor of Media and Communication at Sam Houston State University with: Lindsey Sherrill, Associate Professor of Business Communication at the University of North Alabama, Rich Johnson, Associate Professor of Sports Media at Arizona State University, Ryan Broussard, Associate Professor of Mass Communication at Sam Houston State University.
—- BREAK —-
– 1:00pm EST: HPN Soundbites – Dan Dissinger
Dan looks at podcast marketing and promotion.
– 1:30pm EST: Session A – Individual presentations
- Finding Agency in the Commercial World: What Independent Podcasters Do When the Numbers Don’t Add Up
Hendrik Baird, Baird Media (Pty) Ltd - Sweet Medicine: The Structural Frictions and Personal Realities of Humanities Advocacy (through podcasting) in Nigeria
Rose Abba, Director, Studio Styles, Independent Research & Creative Practice, - Queering the Lone Star State: Podcasting About LGBTQ History in Hostile Territory
Wesley Phelps, University of North Texas, Professor of History
– 1:30pm EST: Session B Panel – Using Diverse Podcast Content for Teaching Critical Listening Skills
Chair: Amelia Chesley, Associate Professor of Professional Writing at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University with Caroline Koons, Assistant Professor of Communication at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
Day 2 Close 2:30pm EST!
All of our sessions will be recorded and uploaded to the HPN YouTube channel, and may be used in a future HPN podcast.
This year everyone who presents will receive the audio & video footage to post on their podcasts, websites, clips for social media, etc.
