Episode 58: The Social Science of Reading with Dr. Tamara Bhalla & Jean Kim

Amy Barnes28min

Dr. Ian Anson00:04

Hello and welcome to Retrieving the Social Sciences, a production of the Center for Social Science Scholarship. I'm your host, Ian Anson, Associate Professor of Political Science here at UMBC. On today's show, as always, we'll be hearing from UMBC faculty, students, visiting speakers, and community partners about the social science research they've been performing in recent times. Qualitative, quantitative, applied, empirical, normative. On Retrieving the Social Sciences we bring the best of UMBC's social science community to you.

Dr. Ian Anson00:40

One thing that unites most academics is our love for reading. In fact, one of the weird frustrations of the job of a professor is that we're often so busy researching, teaching, and sometimes even podcasting that we find we don't have much time to engage in this delightful pastime. And no, not all of us spend our evenings curled up on the couch with a relaxing linear algebra textbook. Don't knock it if you haven't tried it, though. Linear Algebra is pretty cool.

Dr. Ian Anson01:15

But academics also read, dare I say it, fiction and nonfiction that isn't directly related to their own fields. I actually have a pension for sci fi and speculative fiction among many other genres. If you want some recommendations, maybe I'll throw a few of them in the shownotes. But while professional scholars are understandably enamored with reading, the social context of reading and the general public is a far more complex topic. While we might have some stereotypes in our heads about the nation's bookworms, the social reality, as usual, is far more complex. Take the BookTok trend on social media, which has served to overturn assumptions that Gen Z Americans are too preoccupied with their smartphones and video games to pick up something by Nabokov or Jane Austen or Octavia Butler.

Dr. Ian Anson01:58

To better understand the social science of reading for pleasure, it is my pleasure to bring you today's conversation with Dr. Tamara Bhalla and our very own production assistant Jean Kim. Dr. Bhalla is an associate professor and the chair of the department of American Studies and an affiliate faculty member in the Asian Studies program at UMBC. Her work has focused on the social, cultural, and community building uses and values of multi-ethnic literatures. Other research interests include Asian American and South Asian American literary and cultural studies, Afro-Asian feminisms, ethnic American reading communities, and literary reception. Her forthcoming book project is all about how social context interacts with reading habits in the American public. Jean has contributed to this work by serving as an undergraduate research assistant, all while doing this very podcast. Impressive work Jean, I'm delighted to bring you our conversation right now.

Dr. Ian Anson03:07

All right, today, we have two wonderful guests to the podcast, one that you're very familiar with. If you're a longtime listener to the show, we have Jean Kim here, our wonderful production assistant. And then we also have Dr. Tamara Bhalla, who is here to join us from the American Studies Department at UMBC. Thanks to both of you so much for being here.

Dr. Tamara Bhalla03:29

Thank you.

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