J. Neuhaus, "Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts, and Nerds Who Want to Be Effective Teachers" (West Virginia UP, 2019)
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What is the premise of Jessamine Neuhaus’s “Geeky Pedagogy” and why does it matter for academics?
Hello everybody, this is Marshall Poe. I'm the editor-in-chief of the New Books Network, and we have a channel called the New Books Network Seminar, where we publish interviews about books that we think will be broadly interesting to our broad audience. In this case, it's an interview published on new books and public policy by Steve Pimpere with Jessamine Neuhaus about her book Geeky Pedagogy: A Guide for Intellectuals, Introverts and And nerds who want to be effective teachers. This is a terrific book because it confronts a problem that many of our listeners face. That is, you were probably trained to do research and other professor stuff, but you weren't trained to be a teacher. And Jessamine confronts this issue head on in her terrific book.
We hope that you find it valuable in your teaching, and we hope you enjoy the following interview.
Welcome to the New Books Network. I'm Steven Pimpera, host of the Public Policy Channel. And today I am pleased to welcome Jessamine Newhouse, who is the author of Geeky Pedagogy, a guide for intellectuals, introverts, and nerds who want to be effective teachers. Out recently from West Virginia University Press. Jessamine, welcome. Thank you. I'm happy to be here. Uh, it's lovely to have you. So so before we talk a little bit about the book itself, I wonder if you might just tell our listeners a little bit about who you are and how you got to this particular project.
Um, sure, sure. I teach history and pop culture at SUNY Plattsburg. I've been here since 2004. I earned my PhD in history in 2001, and I've taught as an adjunct, as a visiting professor, and now here at SUNY Plattsburgh on the tenure track, and I am a tenured professor. I have two other books in my field of uh gender, gender studies, history of gender, and and popular culture. This book grew out of my own personal experiences and then my scholarship on teaching and learning. And I'd have to say it started way, way back for as long as I can remember, because as long as I can remember, I've loved to read and to write. And I've always been a a huge introvert. I need a lot of solitude to function. And I've always done pretty well academically too.
But when my son was born in 2001, and he, like my significant other, uh, was an off-the-chart extrovert from infancy on. And then when he became school age, It really struck me how different his experience was in the education system as an extrovert and also as, let's just say, a a laxadaisical student. And thinking about how differently he he and I experienced school really got me to thinking and living in my in in my house, which is kind of a master class, in the difference between Between nerds like me and normals like them, I've really started thinking about how this might apply to the classroom. So it was on my mind for a long time.
So so let's let's let's talk a little bit about about uh you you early on talk about uh uh a a jin, is that how you would pronounce it, rather than a gin?
Yeah, yeah. I I I like the uh the boozy sound. Right.
It echoes the the gif gif argument.
That's right. Yeah, yeah. Plus a it's a magical being. It's a geek, introvert, nerd. And I definitely am not saying every single person in academia is all three of those things at the same level, but I do think it's pretty self-evident that people who earn d advanced degrees are by and large pretty nerdy, which is as it should be, because we're the experts and we are passionate about our, let's face it, strange. and esoteric at times topics. Introverts are also disproportionately represented in academia because it requires a lot of a lot of solitary work and and um intrinsic motivation to earn an advanced degree. So geek introverts and nerds, gins.
And And you you talk about that that that idea, that's that sort of that geekiness idea as as being in the way that it that it plays out in the popular culture, both both gendered and racialized. I wonder if you might talk a little bit about how you see that playing out and and we can then segue into the ways in which it might matter in the classroom.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the premise of Jessamine Neuhaus’s “Geeky Pedagogy” and why does it matter for academics?
0:00–8:20
2
How does Neuhaus’s personal journey—from introverted scholar to teacher—shape the book’s ideas?
8:20–12:39
3
Why does Neuhaus argue that being a nerd, introvert, or geek can be an asset rather than a liability in teaching?
12:39–23:42
4
How have stereotypes about nerds and geeks changed, and what impact does that have on classroom culture?
23:42–31:15
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from New Books in Philosophy
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