On this week’s episode of Campus Voices, we welcome English Professor Ben Yagoda to talk about his recent retirement from teaching. In this farewell interview, Ben discusses his career as a prolific writer and as a professor at the University of Delaware.
Ben found himself gravitating towards journalism because he thought he wasn’t good at much else–but he is so good at talking and thinking about language! His passion for writing has made him one of the most knowledgable and adept journalism professors in the country.
The Interview
Ben Yagoda, recorded Dec. 22, 2016. First aired Feb. 16, 2017.
32:05
59 MB
About our guest
Ben Yagoda is an accomplished author and editor of several books, articles, essays, and reviews for renowned publications such as the New York Times, Esquire, Rolling Stone, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and many others. He has degrees in English and American Civilization from Yale and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively. Ben joined the University of Delaware in 1992 and, in December of 2016, retired as a full-time professor. Before he retires from UD completely, he will lead two study abroad trips in 2017 and 2018. With his English Department colleague Prof. Phil Mink, Prof. Yagoda appeared on a previous Campus Voices episode about language use and changes in students’ writing.
About our co-host
Rachel Curry is an English major at the University of Delaware, planning to graduate in May 2017. Like Prof. Yagoda, she left the Newark campus in January 2018 to study abroad. Rachel’s been managing editor for The Main Street Journal, an editor of the Mosaic section of The Review (UD’s student newspaper), and an intern in UD Information Technologies where she helped develop a pilot curriculum for University freshmen about cyber citizenship and helped found the UD IT Technology Ambassador program. She is one of Prof. Yagoda’s former students and has appeared in a previous Campus Voices episode about The Main Street Journal.
Learn More
- Ben Yagoda’s website
- Ben Yagoda’s English Department bio page
- Ben Yagoda’s Lingua Franca blog posts at The Chronicle of Higher Education
- Ben Yagoda’s Twitter feed
Credits:
Richard Gordon: Producer, recording engineer, co-host, audio editor
Rachel Curry: Co-host
Rachel Silva: Web page author, editor