EP 32 - Pedagogy of Kindness: Fostering it Online with Cate Denial

In this episode, John and Jason talk with Cate Denial, author of “Pedagogy of Kindness” about kindness to self and students in the online classroom. See complete notes and transcripts at www.onlinelearningpodcast.com

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Guest Bio:

Cate Denial is the Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Her new book, A Pedagogy of Kindness, is now available from the University of Oklahoma Press. Her historical research has examined the early nineteenth-century experience of pregnancy, childbirth and child-rearing in Upper Midwestern Ojibwe and missionary cultures, research that grew from Cate’s previous book, Making Marriage: Husbands, Wives, and the American State in Dakota and Ojibwe Country (2013). From July 2022 to December 2023, Cate was the PI on a $150,000 Mellon-funded grant bringing together thirty-six participants from across higher education in the United States to explore “Pedagogies, Communities, and Practices of Care in the Academy After COVID-19.” Cate consults on teaching in higher education with individuals, departments, and institutions in the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, and Australia.

Connecting with Cate:

• https://www.linkedin.com/in/catherine-denial-8869a115b/
• https://bsky.app/profile/cjdenial.bsky.social
• https://catherinedenial.org/

Links and Resources:

• Critical Digital Pedagogy: A Collection (free access)
• A Pedagogy of Kindness (book)
• Michelle Miller’s post on Same Side Pedagogy
• Rethinking Rigor (Kevin Gannon)
• Annotate Your Syllabus (Remi Kalir)
• Digital Pedagogy Lab 2025

Theme Music: Pumped by RoccoW is licensed under an Attribution-NonCommercial License.

Transcript

We use a combination of computer-generated transcriptions and human editing. Please check with the recorded file before quoting anything. Please check with us if you have any questions or can help with any corrections!

False Start

[00:00:00] Jason: good Well, thank you. Yeah, that was a great conversation

[00:00:02] Cate Denial: Yeah. Let me know, you know, if you need anything from me and otherwise I'll look forward to listening in when you get it all done.

[00:00:10] Jason: Okay, our our timeline is usually somewhere between two weeks and six months

[00:00:18] Cate Denial: Okay.

Start

[00:00:19] John Nash: I'm John nash here with Jason Johnston.

[00:00:22] Jason: Hey, John. Hey, everyone. And this is Online Learning, the second half, the Online Learning Podcast.

[00:00:28] John Nash: Yeah, we're doing this podcast to let you in on a conversation we've been having for the last two years about online education. Look, online learning has had its chance to be great and some of it is, but. A lot of it still isn't. So how are we going to get to the next stage?

[00:00:43] Jason: That's a great question. How about we do a podcast, John, and talk about it?

[00:00:48] John Nash: I think that's a perfect idea. What do you want to talk about today?

[00:00:51] Jason: Well, today we have a special guest with us. With us is Catherine Denial. Cate is the Bright Distinguished Professor of American History and Director of the Bright Institute at Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois. Welcome, Cate.

[00:01:07] Cate Denial: Thanks for having me.

[00:01:09] Jason: Can we call you Cate?

[00:01:10] Cate Denial: Of course.

[00:01:12] Jason: Sometimes I take that liberty when people have that on their little thing in the video screen.

I say, well, if it's there, then I guess we can call them that.

[00:01:20] Cate Denial: Yeah, absolutely.

[00:01:22] Jason: Yeah. Well, good. Well, it's so great to have you here. One