Academics

Learn You a Thing Episode 1: Dr. Steve Hess Explains Chinese Politics Listen on Soundcloud Transcript TRISTAN REYNOLDS: Hi. Welcome to the Learn You a Thing podcast. I’m Rambler editor in chief, Tristan Reynolds. In each episode, I’m going to talk to an expert about their expertise, and by the end of it, we’ll all be smarter. This week, Dr. Steven Hess explains politics in China. [MUSIC PLAYING] So I’m here with Dr. Steve Hess who is an expert on Chinese politics. And as a mark of respect for that expertise, I’m going to ask you to explain Chinese politics in 30 seconds from a 3,000 foot level. STEVE HESS: OK. Well, when you’re looking at Chinese politics, you look at the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. You know, the fact that China functioned as a Communist single party state from then until the present. But that doesn’t really tell you the whole story. We’ve seen China really evolve from Maoism from 1949 all the way up to 1976, which you had a totalitarian state, mass campaigns. People lived and breathed politics. You know, the party was really intrusive and controlled every part of your life up until the late 1970s in which China has maintained that same single party political structure, but has implemented market reforms. And so we still have this same basic political structure in which you have a single party state led

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Tristan Reynolds ’19 in conversation with Dr. Bethany Packard about her focus on the early modern period of English literature. Listen on Soundcloud Transcript SPEAKER: Welcome to another Campus Conversation– Discussions with Transylvania University Faculty, highlighting their interest, passions, and pursuits. Here is Tristan Reynolds. TRISTAN REYNOLDS: I’m here with Dr. Bethany Packard who is an English professor here at Transy, focusing on the early modern period of English language literature. What is that, exactly? BETHANY PACKARD: The early modern period and what people consider it to be can vary depending on your discipline. As I’ve, for example, if I were in French literature or history, I might extend the time period a little later. So in English literature, the early modern has come to be the standard term that’s used often for 16th and 17th century literature. It’s sort of become the replacement for the Renaissance. So before I entered graduate school, in the past, the more common term– and a term that’s still used quite a lot interchangeably with early modern– is Renaissance when you’re talking about the English Renaissance. Of course, the people who work on Italian and even some northern European folks might differ with that. But over time, that term has shifted. But if I were working in, like I said, something like French literature, I might extend that into the 18th century or I might extend it a little bit earlier. So it’s kind

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