The Course
Created by The University of Chicago Yuen Campus in Hong Kong, The Course is a compilation of personal conversations with professors from The University of Chicago. Each episode features one professor, where they talk about who they are outside lecture halls, the path that led them to become a professor, and all the ups and downs along the way. For curious students and anyone interested, here’s The Course on career stories as told by professors from UChicago.
Episodes
138 episodes
Episode 138— Ruth Bloch Rubin: "You are the captain of your own ship."
As an academic studying American politics at the University of Chicago, Assistant Professor Ruth Bloch Rubin recognizes she is living in an unprecedented time that future political historians will be studying intently. It is equally a gr...
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Season 2
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Episode 138
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27:59
Episode 137— Marco Garrido: "I kind of stumbled into being a professor."
With various interests, Associate Professor Marco Garrido was still determining his next steps after graduation and went off exploring the world. It was when he shared dinner tables with the poor and the rich that he finally found his re...
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Season 2
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Episode 137
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28:15
Episode 136—Molly Offer-Westort: "I was interested in exploring the world more and having different experiences."
From being an English teacher in Central Lesotho to being a Peace Corps Volunteer in Madagascar to working with the World Bank and the United Nations, Assistant Professor Molly Offer-Westort chose to experience various opportunities before emba...
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Season 2
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Episode 136
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24:45
Episode 135 - Robert A. Pape: "The goal here is to use social science to save lives."
Professor Robert A. Pape from the Department of Political Science discusses how his early research interest in air power and international political violence brought him to sit with military officers and policy decision-makers on various...
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Season 2
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Episode 135
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35:09
Episode 134 - Timothy Harrison: "I had $287 in my bank account ."
Associate Professor Timothy Harrison finished high school and ventured off to build his career as a model until he decided to pivot to a scholarly pathway and fulfill his dream as a novelist. Now as an author and co-author of multiple bo...
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Season 2
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Episode 134
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27:31
Episode 133 - Catherine Kearns: "Soak up your time in college."
Assistant Professor in the Department of Classics Catherine (Katie) Kearns is on The Course to talk about her study in Mediterranean archaeology and how her work crosses to reconstructing and studying ancient environments. Growing up, Pr...
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Season 2
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Episode 133
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26:23
Episode 132 - Andreas Kraft: "Being a student athlete..."
Assistant Professor of Marketing and Asness Faculty Fellow Andreas Kraft is on The Course this week to talk about his experience as a student-athlete. Professor Kraft came to the US as an undergrad with a scholarship to play wheelchair b...
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Season 2
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Episode 132
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25:54
Episode 131 - Victoria Saramago: "This is the challenge that I want to tackle right now."
Associate Professor Victoria Saramago of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures grew up fascinated by storytelling. From wanting to be a fiction writer to now an academic who studies novels, she digs into the relations between lite...
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Season 2
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Episode 131
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28:20
Episode 130 - Carolina López-Ruiz: "Expand your worldview and knowledge in university."
Professor Carolina López-Ruiz from the Divinity School and the Department of Classics shares how her passion for the ancient world started from a young age, and her determination to have a career related to this sector led her to appreci...
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Season 2
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Episode 130
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28:39
Episode 129 - Fred Ciesla: "I want to know if there is life elsewhere."
Professor Fred Ciesla from the Department of Geophysical Sciences is on The Course this week to share how his career path to becoming a geophysical sciences professor started when he was a child. He was inspired to study astronomy after ...
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Season 2
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Episode 129
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25:39
Episode 128 - Emily Lynn Osborn: "Not to pin your passion onto only one pathway."
Associate Professor Emily Lynn Osborn from the Department of History talks about how studying African History merged with her sense of rebellion with the French language and interest in history. Opportunities that brought her abroad made...
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Season 2
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Episode 128
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25:37
Episode 127 - Jasmine Nirody: "A career where I can learn things all the time."
In this week's episode, Assistant Professor Jasmine Nirody from the Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy revealed how studying snake movements in her undergraduate years inspired her to become an organismal and integrative biolog...
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Season 2
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Episode 127
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30:55
Episode 126 - Andrew Ferguson: "Fortune favors a prepared mind."
Professor of Molecular Engineering and Vice Dean for Education at the UChicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, Andrew Ferguson, talks about his parents encouraging him to pursue the path he wanted, studying chemical engineering...
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Season 2
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Episode 126
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29:54
Episode 125 - Lewis Shi: "I am committed to what I am doing."
Associate Professor Lewis Shi from the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery & Rehabilitation Medicine shares his determination to be a doctor from a young age. After spending 12 years at Harvard as a "Preparation H," he found his niche ...
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Season 1
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Episode 125
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26:06
Episode 124 - Simeon Chavel: "Embrace the chaos."
Associate Professor Simeon Chavel from the Divinity Schools shares how he found his way to becoming a Hebrew Bible scholar at the University of Chicago through multiple chances. As he continues his research, teaching, and administrative ...
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Season 1
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Episode 124
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27:14
Episode 123 - Martha Feldman: "Follow your passions and interests."
Ferdinand Schevill Distinguished Service Professor in the Department of Music and the College, Professor Martha Feldman, joins us in this episode. Professor Feldman talks about her career journey from training as a professional guitarist...
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Season 2
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Episode 123
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25:32
Episode 122 - Gabriel Richardson Lear: "What kind of person do I want to be?"
Professor Gabriel Richardson Lear of the Department of Philosophy and the Chair of UChicago's Committee on Social Thought joins us on The Course in this episode to talk about how her parents' early observation encouraged her to dip her t...
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Season 1
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Episode 122
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26:08
Episode 121 - Allison Squires: "If you're torn on a decision..."
Neubauer Family Assistant Professor of Molecular Engineering, Allison Squires, describes her experiment-filled childhood and all the joy science brought her. By walking through various opportunities, she found her place poking and pertur...
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Season 1
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Episode 121
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27:58
Episode 120 - Haresh Sapra: "Be a student. Experiment. Learn. Better yourself."
Haresh Sapra is the Charles T. Horngren Professor of Accounting at the Chicago Booth School of Business. Originally from a sugar factory on the island of Mauritius, Professor Sapra dreamed big with his family's encouragement and found hi...
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Season 1
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Episode 120
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26:25
Episode 119 - Michael K. Bourdaughs: "Go study abroad!"
In this episode, Michael K. Bourdaghs, Professor of Modern Japanese Literature and Culture at the University of Chicago, discusses his life and professional paths. His interest in Japanese literature and culture began when, out of the bl...
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Season 1
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Episode 119
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30:31
Episode 118 - Michele Friedner: "Thinking through disability expertise and questions of access."
| In this episode, Medical Anthropologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Comparative Human Development Michele Friedner discusses her path to becoming a UChicago Professor. She describes an early interest in Indian cu...
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Season 2
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Episode 118
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34:10
Episode 117 - Anthony Fowler: "Every academic faces a lot of rejection."
Professor Anthony Fowler, from the Harris School of Public Policy, researches econometric methods for causal inference to questions in political science, with particular emphasis on elections and political representation. In this episode...
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Season 2
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Episode 117
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24:09
Episode 116 - Nancy Kawalek: "What we do is a little bit quirky."
Professor Nancy Kawalek, from the Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering, is the Director of STAGE: Scientists, Technologists, and Artists Generating Exploration, a laboratory that creates and develops new theater, film, games, and oth...
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Season 2
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Episode 116
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25:26
Episode 115 - Amie Wilkinson: "I love communicating math."
Professor Amie Wilkinson, from the Department of Mathematics, studies smooth dynamical systems, ergodic theory, and mathematical chaos. Although she met an unsupportive advisor in college, her love for pure maths stayed strong, and she s...
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Season 2
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Episode 115
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23:03
Episode 114 - John Mark Hansen: "Bringing shadowed things to light."
Professor John Mark Hansen is one of the nations leading scholars of American politics. His research focuses on interest groups, citizen activism, and public opinion, and he has written two books: Mobilization, Participation, and D...
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Season 2
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Episode 114
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31:27
