Digital Humanities Center and College of Education Team Up for Podcasting

Interest in podcasting as an innovative approach to teaching and learning has exploded in popularity across the curriculum at San Diego State University in recent years, with faculty, staff, and students in the University Library's Digital Humanities Center providing podcasting services to academic departments including Africana Studies, Chicana and Chicano Studies, English and Comparative Literature, Engineering, History, Nursing, Theatre, and others. In a new store and video, the College of Education has highlighted a partnership between the Digital Humanities Center and an Ed.D. course in the Community College Leadership (CCLEAD) concentration taught by Associate Professor Tanya Gaxiola Serrano (Administration, Rehabilitation, and Postsecondary Education), whose students have created a podcast about the history of higher education using critical race counterstory methodology. Working at the DH Center, these doctoral students learned how to tell compelling audio stories, resulting in a six-episode season of "Resisting Erasure: Critical Race Counterstories of Higher Education." 

"Over the past year, we have highlighted several ways in which the resources, services, and expertise made available to the SDSU community through the SDSU Library are essential to sustaining the distinctive mission of an "R1" university," said Scott Walter, Dean of the University Library, "and the growing interest in employing podcasts as an innovative pedagogical approach and as a means of promoting student engagement with the scholarship of their fields as well as public engagement with the work going on around the university is another perfect example of the library's contribution to the teaching and research infrastructure. Like investment in research collections," Walter continued, "the investment in spaces and services that make opportunities to pursue innovative and creative work accessible to all members of the SDSU community is an essential part of the library's mission."

In 2025, DH Center staff member Patrick Flanigan was honored with the Presidential Staff Excellence Award for Innovation and Creativity, and the continuing impact of his work, along with that of Pamella Lach, Digital Humanities Librarian and DH Center Director, can be seen in this new project from the College of Education. Faculty, staff, and students with an interest in podcasting, whether for academic, co-curricular, or personal reasons, are encouraged to contact the Digital Humanities Center to learn more about how the library can help them to meet their goals.