January 8, 2025 • 25 mins
Anna Mae Duane is the director of the UConn Humanities Institute and is currently coordinating a year-long series of events to address the feeling of loneliness that some college students have. Anna was inspired to do this when she received a letter from a UConn student who had given up on companionship. Anna talks about events that happened in the fall semester and some that are planned for the spring. Listeners can email her at uchi@uconn.edu to find out more about the program. Anna also explains what parents can do for their younger children to fight loneliness, the role of the Humanities Institute on campus, and the value of a humanities degree to both a student and potential employers.
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Mike (00:10):
Well, hello everyone.
Welcome to the UConn 360podcast and happy 2025.
Izzy (00:17):
I can't believe we're already here.
Mike (00:18):
How does that sound, Izzy?
Izzy (00:21):
Just a little bit different than last year.
Mike (00:22):
A little bit different.
Did you make any New Year's resolutions?
Izzy (00:26):
Oh, did I make any New Year's resolutions?
I think I want to eat less box macand cheese and start making my own.
Mike (00:34):
So, same amount of mac and cheese, it's just not going to be boxed?
Izzy (00:37):
Yep, just me making it.
Well, that's a good
Mike (00:39):
resolution.
Izzy (00:39):
Right, right.
Yeah,
Mike (00:40):
okay.
I'm not going to say ifI've made any or not.
We'll see at the end of theyear if I stuck to them.
Izzy (00:44):
Oh, that's cheating.
Or the end
Mike (00:45):
of January.
Well, it's cheating, but
Izzy (00:47):
If you were smart, you could have started your New
Year's resolution in December.
Could have.
And gotten a kickstart.
Mike (00:52):
Could have, but why, you know, that would make, that would
not make December a fun month.
Izzy (00:56):
I guess it depends on your perspective.
Mike (00:58):
Absolutely.
Anyway, welcome to all our listeners.
Hope you all had a great holiday season.
Mike Enright from UniversityCommunications, along with Izzy
Harris from University Communications.
So we start 2025 on a veryimportant subject here at UConn.
Our guest is Anna Mae Dwayne.
She's the director of theHumanities Institute here at
UConn and a professor of English.
(01:19):
She teaches and writes in the fieldsof American studies, African American
literature, and the medical humanities.
And through the Humanities Institute,she is leading a year long focus
on loneliness and social isolation,which as we start the new year is,
is an important topic to tackle.
She ran a started thisin the fall semester.
There was a workshop, an election relatedevent took place, and more events are
(01:43):
coming in the spring semester, and welook forward to hearing about that.
So, Anna Mae, welcome to the podcast.
Anna (01:49):
Hi, thank you for having me.
Mike (01:51):
Thank you for coming.
Tell us for folks that aren'tknowledgeable, tell us what the
Humanities Institute is at UConn.
That might not be somethingeverybody knows about.
Anna (01:58):
Right.
We are in the fourth floor of thelibrary, which is like a personal
goal for me as an English major.
I get to live in the library now.
The way I describe the HumanitiesInstitute is really, A lab for the
humanities in many ways we do lotsof things, but one of the, our
main activities is providing spaceand structure for people who are
(02:20):
doing research in the humanities.
And we, we define thehumanities really broadly.
So it's also including the socialsciences that have a humanistic focus.
So every year between six and eightof our top faculty apply for and win
fellowships to spend a year studyingtheir topics, as well as dissertation
students, and as well as in the pasttwo years, we have four fellows who
(02:44):
are undergraduates who have topics ofresearch in the humanities, anything
from writing a play to investigatingsocial movements to exploring rituals
of medicine in other countries.
And what's really excitingabout it is that everyone shares
their work with each other.
. 30.
Every Wednesday, pretty much at 3.
(03:04):
30, one of our fellows gives, sharestheir research, usually a 20 30 minute
talk, and what's really great is tosay we had someone who was a poet doing
really beautiful work exploring, youThe translation of Dante's Purgatorio
and her own experience as a parentof a child with a chronic illness
(03:25):
and how that feels like Purgatory.
And it was just beautifulon its own right?
But then we had philosophers andhistorians and people who were translators
in the audience, really sort of givingher feedback and talking her through.
So it's a really collaborative model,and that's why I think it's a lab where
in the humanities Our collaboration isoften like looking at each other, talking,
(03:46):
really thinking through the things we findbeautiful or perplexing or infuriating.
So that's one of the things we do.
Some of the other aspects ofwhat we do is try to make the case
that the humanities are vital.
And Are essential for solving theproblems we face from everything from
the environment to economic problemsto social problems to sort of and what
(04:12):
we've been thinking about lately, like,how do we walk through the world and
engage with each other the humanitiesand again, if we're thinking of
philosophy and art and literature thisis where centuries of scholars Poets,
some of our greatest thinkers, thinkingabout what makes life meaningful,
how should we engage with one anotherwhat do we want and what do we value.
(04:36):
And you know, those are always importantaspects of what education should be.
But I think, you know, more importantthan ever right now thinking about
what we value and what actions wehave to take to enact those values.
Izzy (04:49):
I saw in one of your publications that loneliness and social isolation
can be as taxing on the bodyas smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Yes.
So as we mentioned earlier, you'releading a year long focus on
loneliness and social isolation.
Yes.
It sounds like you were inspiredto do so by a message you
received from a UConn student.
Can you tell us a littlebit more about that?
(05:10):
Sure.
. Anna (05:11):
And the 15 cigarettes a day, that's not my study.
I'm an English major.
That's from the SurgeonGeneral of the United States.
Yes.
Yes.
I remember seeing his report and he'ssort of the person who, who declared
this an epidemic, I think in 2023.
But that's something I was thinking aboutwhen I wrote a piece about and I was
really at first thinking about it fromthe artificial intelligence part of view,
(05:35):
which is another thing we're thinkingabout at the Humanities Institute.
And I wrote a piece saying,and again, from my perspective
it's, it's, it's I don't know.
I don't know if I want to use the wordcrazy, but like, it seems like a bad
idea to try to replace friends wholesalewith AI chatbots for lots of reasons.
(05:57):
My point was that You, you don'twant friends who can't ever say no
to you, because that's not a friend.
Right?
They have names for what thatis, and it's not friendship.
And, you know, it, it cameout and, and UConn Today was
kind enough to republish it.
And I, you know, got a nice response,but I got an email from a UConn student.
And this is where my sort ofperspective shifted a bit.
(06:18):
And this student who I correspondedwith via email and then we, we did
have a face to face conversation.
Smart, bright, engaging student said,you know, I agree with you that chatbots
can't really serve as friends, but Iunderstand the impulse because it's
just impossible to make friends.
This was a first year student when Iasked why, there were a few reasons.
(06:41):
One was the student was a STEMstudent, giant classes, heads down.
You don't look at other students.
A sense of pressure that allyour time should be spent getting
ahead and hustling and working.
And so taking the time to engageother students or to go to a social
event seems like not worth it.
(07:03):
And I just, you know, And I thought tomyself, well, this isn't sustainable.
This doesn't, there's certainly somethingwe need to do as educators and as
people who care about each other and ourstudents to sort of change this structure.
And then in talking to other students,what came across to me, and again, this
(07:24):
is informal and, and I'll be askingstudents and faculty to be emailing
me and tell me, their perspectives,because that's one of the things
we're really interested in doing.
But talking to other students onthis topic that keeps getting echoed
that both there's not spaces togather and a sense of I don't know
what to do if I go in that space.
(07:47):
And gather like it's so uncomfortablethat it is not worth it.
Like it is just pulling teeth.
And these are, you know, one of the I,I said in in the Yukon today piece, like
we all know we should do this stuff.
Like I know I should, you know, Ishould have had something besides black
coffee for breakfast this morning.
(08:07):
But we fall in ruts and we don't doit, and so I think that's part of what
we're exploring or wanting to do isboth think about how we can create
structures and skills that will facilitatesocial engagement, but also to find
out from students, from faculty, like,what are the obstacles they're seeing?
(08:27):
Because we all, again, we all sortof know the advice and what we
should do, but we're not doing it.
So I really want tohear from students why.
Mike (08:35):
If you're a parent of a high school student or elementary school
student even, this sounds a little scary.
What, what is your advice, what canparents do to prepare, help their children
at the current time but also prepare theirchildren for the future when, You know, so
much, especially in elementary school, theparents kind of set up the friendships.
(08:55):
Oh, yeah.
What can, what can parents do to preparetheir children for, for life in college
or, or, or whatever they decide todo after, after they leave the nest?
Anna (09:06):
Right.
And I, I have heard from a lot ofparents in talking about this as well.
And as a parent myself I know it's likeso uncomfortable to see your children and
to sort of see them experience what feelslike rejection is incredibly painful.
And I, you know, in terms ofadvice of how to prepare students,
(09:28):
I mean, I think that's part ofwhat we're trying to figure out.
But one thing I would say from my studiesso far and what I've read is that it's
not, and I think this is one of thethings that can just sort of help.
the cycle is the belief that there'ssomething wrong with you or your child.
And something that needs to befixed or there's something, you know
(09:51):
that there's some deficit there.
I'm, you know, Robert.
Putnam who wrote Bowling Alone, ifyou recall, and he came out with this,
I don't know, 20 or 30 years ago.
I should probably have the date offthe top of my head, but I don't.
He's a um, I believe a sociologist orpsychologist who famously said that,
like, we as a country, Like, don't gobowling anymore, we don't go to the
(10:12):
Elks Club, we don't go do things everyTuesday night with a bunch of friends.
And that, he made the case that notonly does it increase loneliness and,
and hurt our physical health and mentalhealth, but it's bad for democracy, right?
Because if we can't talk toeach other and we don't sort of
feel like we belong places, andthat's where we get polarization.
(10:35):
But even he's like, I don't go bowling.
He's like, I, you know, and he, hehas also said that, like, people
are convinced by his argument,but we haven't shifted things.
So all that to say that it's a structuralissue as well rather than sort of
thinking, Oh my gosh, it's me or my child,or I'm a bad parent, I'm a bad mother.
You know, that's a song that'sin my head all the time.
(10:56):
But apart from that, I mean, I really.
I think so much of loneliness orisolation is really being worried about
how other people are reacting to you.
And of course that can become a reallyvicious circle because you interpret
someone as looking at you strangely andthen you withdraw even more is to sort of
(11:17):
imagine how anxious or lonely or isolatedother people are, and see yourself as
extending your, your, your Friendshipto them, sort of to see it, see yourself
sort of facing out and helping others.
Right.
But again, it can be an easy thingto say and a harder thing to do, but
just that shift that you know, andthis does sound like a mom's advice
(11:38):
that people aren't thinking aboutyou as much as you might imagine.
What they want is what youwant is someone to see them.
as an interesting, likable person.
So going forward with that can atleast ease some of the tension of
like, how do I leave the house?
But so that's sort of structural andpersonal advice, but I do think like in
(12:01):
general, it's being called an epidemic.
I think there's small thingswe can do, and I think that
there's big things we could do.
And I think educationis a Big part of that.
So I think advocating for social skills,social training, humanities here, right,
you know, in the classrooms, certainlyI, you know, I'm more familiar with
(12:23):
higher ed, but there's definitely atrend of putting technology in the
place of people, even in the classroom.
Elementary schools, and that's just Imean, it's it comes down to practice.
We're good at talking topeople when we talk to people.
So I think there's there's that's a longanswer, but there's lots of responses.
Both.
Some of it is internal, and someof it is, I think, looking around
(12:46):
and saying, Okay, we need tochange some structural things here.
Izzy (12:49):
So it sounds like a lot of these things are easier said than done.
And I know that you are advocatingfor the humanities here at UConn.
What are some of the events thatyou hosted in the fall and are there
any upcoming events in the spring?
Anna (13:02):
Yes, in the fall, we had a couple of events.
One was in partnership witha local non profit here in in
Connecticut called For All Ages.
And they are working statewide tocounter the loneliness epidemic.
They largely focus on the olderpopulation, but they do a lot of cross
generational work and they, they'redoing, I, they're Recommend everyone
(13:23):
going to their website and doing,they were really great to work with.
And what they did was come and, andwe had current students, we had former
students, we had faculty just basicallytell their stories, not just of how
they coped with loneliness but alsohow they found social connection.
And we had two students from theHumanities Institute who just
(13:47):
told incredible stories of sortof finding what they cared about.
One student, Krista Mitchell spoke ofreally struggling with feeling kind
of isolated in her hometown and it wasthrough photography and sort of looking
at her hometown through art and throughher own interpretation of the beauty that
(14:07):
she saw there that she was able to bothsort of make peace with her experience
in a small town and also realize thather people here at UConn were artists.
Someone else uh, Brianna really struggledwith stories of racial violence,
particularly against women, and felt veryisolated by the lack of attention it was
getting, and came here to UConn, and atthe, she was one of our fellows at the
(14:29):
Humanities Institute, and she createdan incredible project dedicated to to
thinking through this issue, not just sortof what's the problem, but how do we come
together as a collective and solve it?
And she's brilliant, and she alsoworked with a digital media artist,
and they put together a website.
So it was not as depressingas you might think.
Like, there was this case on youknow, this panel on loneliness, but
(14:51):
it was really about, okay, what works?
What works on the ground.
And again, we found that itwas art, conversation, debate.
We had an event the day afterthe election which I will say
I was a little skeptical of.
My team was really excited about it.
We worked with the WellbeingCollective, which is a really
incredible group of folks here oncampus faculty, staff students who are
(15:16):
really thinking about these issues.
It was called Pick Up the Thread.
I was like, I don't know what the dayafter the election is going to be like,
I don't know how it's going to feel.
I'm pretty sure whatever it is,I'm going to want to stay in bed.
You know, I was, I was theperson who wanted to be lonely.
I was like, yeah, I just don'twant to think it's going to be
a lot and we can't plan for it.
And they said, no, weneed a space to gather.
(15:38):
And it doesn't have to be political,whether you feel like you won or you lost.
And it turned out it was a beautiful day.
It was outside and beautiful.
We had fiber arts and students came alongand just sort of made art with string.
We had zines.
We had faculty there tojust answer questions.
We thought to like answerquestions if people had questions
(15:58):
about mechanics of the election.
But it was really just faculty talkingto each other, students talking to
each other and just hanging out.
And then Jonathan Huskyshowed up miraculously.
So it was a great day.
And that was.
That was less of a formal event where wewere sort of giving advice and was more
of an event in which we were creating thespace for these conversations to happen.
(16:20):
So that's what we've done in thefall, among some other smaller things.
In the spring.
We're really excited aboutwhat we're calling Story Slam.
And this Heather Cassano, who is theassistant director at UCHI, came across
this on a podcast, where we all goodthings come from and, It is, you know, if
(16:42):
you've heard of the moth or story core,it's that I did people cultivate their
personal stories and perform them, butthis comes out of Olin College, which is
an engineering school, and it's run byJonathan Adler, who is a psychologist who
is You know, sort of at the leading edgeof, of thinking about how our personal
(17:06):
narratives affect our mental health.
He's worked with people with disabilitiesand people who have experienced trauma.
But, you know, we all tell narrativesabout what happened to us, what it
means, what it makes us, who it makes us.
And really, rewriting that narrative canrewrite, you know so we're bringing and he
(17:27):
works with an English professor Jillian.
And what they do is work withstudents on their personal stories.
Students come with astory they want to tell.
So he's a psychologist, she's an Englishprof, they both have theater backgrounds.
and over the course of a semester.
They work with students to really figureout how they want to tell that story,
(17:49):
how they want to sell it publicly,how they're going to be performing.
And on March 27th at 3.
30 we'll be having that story slamthe Ballard, which is in the Black
Bucks theater in the Ballard, which isactually in the back of the bookstore.
Oh, the
Mike (18:03):
Ballard Museum.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anna (18:06):
And so we're really excited about that.
In the interim, we will be.
Doing some events trying tofind students where they are.
So for one thing I learnedthis semester is that we have a
really vibrant horticulture club.
A hundred students on this campus whereit's hard to get, you know, like when we
do events, it's hard to get 20 people.
So we're thinking of you know, inFebruary when it's dark and cold and
(18:29):
we're all miserable, having an eventin the greenhouse thinking about.
Nature, plants we're not quitesure yet, but that'll be something
we'll be doing in February.
And then we'll also hopefully be workingwith students, both who are in the
Story Slam and who have come to us withother stories whether it's going to be a
podcast or panel, but we'll be focusing onstudents stories throughout the semester.
Mike (18:52):
So back in December, you had a you had a great piece in The
Conversation at theconversation.
com, called, How HumanitiesClasses Benefit Students in the
Workplace and Combat Loneliness.
What's your elevator pitch to a studentwho wants to Major in the humanities,
one of the humanities fields, buthere's from their friends and parents,
you know, you're never gonna geta job How are you gonna pay rent?
(19:12):
How are you gonna pay food?
What why should a studentlook at the humanities?
Anna (19:16):
Right that old.
Yeah, you're a philosopher, you know,do you want fries with that joke?
Right?
Well, the first is that that's that'sbeen disproven over and over again
that you know, it's not, yes, it'snot necessarily like a nursing degree
or a comp sci degree where we knowexactly the jobs we're going to get.
That our humanities studentsget hired at very similar
(19:37):
rates to our students in STEM.
And after a few years salaries aredefinitely within the same range.
That's part of the pitch, or maybethat's the pitch to the anxious
parents or the anxious student.
The pitch I make in that piece and thenI would that certainly partially in
that piece, I did speak a little bitmore about employers and it got cut.
The employers, right, this lonelinessepidemic, this struggle to really connect,
(20:02):
collaborate, feel like you belong.
It's going to, you know, it's hurtingthe workplace to where we need people
to work in teams to work well together.
We know that if, if you feel likeyou have a friend at your workplace,
you're going to be happier there.
You're going to show up more.
So having the capacity tothink empathetically, to work
collaboratively, collaboratively,to have deep or even just, you know,
(20:26):
Prickly or difficult conversations.
Well these are skills.
And I think one of the mistakes we'vemade, especially, you know, in our
excitement about STEM and AI, which areall great things I'm not right, but in
our sort of desire to, to stress thoseor put those new shiny pieces of, of
technology and innovation in our studentsclass schedules, again from K through
(20:53):
12 through, through the university.
We have, it's a lot,it's an opportunity cost.
We don't spend that time readingabout the emotional experiences of
others and then reflecting on our own.
We don't spend time reading or thinkingabout someone in a very different
(21:13):
social, economic or even historicalsituation from us and having to think,
why did they make these choices?
It's so different from me having to be ina class where the teacher doesn't sort of
let you just take, you know, again lotsof great things are happening in lots
of classes, but in, I know, you know,in a small W class where I teach about
(21:35):
disability and narratives of people withdisabilities often to pre med students.
The students say, I've never thoughtabout what that cancer patient
experiences when I come in for 20 secondsbecause I'm, I've been taught to, to
focus on the math and the medicine.
And that's all really important.
(21:55):
But you know, again, study afterstudy proves that if the, if the
clinician, the nurse, the psychologist
has developed the skills of readingother people's experiences, both sort of
literally and physically, and empathizing,and at taking on different perspectives.
You're going to be moresuccessful at any job.
And this is the humanities part of me.
(22:17):
There's more to lifethan your job as well.
You're going to be able to sortof Both sort of engage with others
but also have a sense of reflectionabout your own place in the world.
That I think just makes life moremeaningful and that's as important as
any other reason you take any major.
Izzy (22:34):
Anna, another quote that I found really interesting from your UConn Today
article is how friendships have becometransactional, that it's not necessarily
just about having a friend anymore.
It's all about, if I do somethingfor you, can you do something for me?
What piece of advice can you give topeople that we can do on a day to day
basis to ease the problems of loneliness,both for ourselves and for other people?
Anna (22:57):
Great.
Thank you.
And the the transactional piece,again, has come out of conversations
with students and parents of studentsbecause that was one of the issues
that they were coming up against.
And I think, right, we're, we can bevictims of our own success here we,
you know, we're stressing the student'sneed to network and that is really,
really important, but that can't beour only form of social interaction.
(23:18):
But I think, again, if wehave such an emphasis on
everything is about your career.
Or, vanishing you in some way, and so theonly reason it's worth to go to a social
event is if you get a referral, if youget someone who's going to help you out.
And that's just miserable way to live,honestly and I think people feel it when,
(23:39):
you know, again, like, seeing a personas valuable in themselves Is really
the only way to form real connections.
And so I think again, we want students,you know, we all want to get ahead in our
careers, but I do think coming to a personwith a sense of, I see value in you.
I see that you are uniqueto be curious about them.
(24:01):
And of course, the irony of thatis if you come to someone with
legitimate curiosity and interest,and if you find a way to like them
they're going to help your career.
They're also going to like you inreturn which sounds now like that
I'm being mercenary, but I do think.
If you're coming to a person Seeing themonly as what they can provide, that's
(24:25):
not going to create a real friendship.
So I do think and again, partiallythat may be on us as educators and
but also I think in a larger societythat we need to be thinking about
people as either, like, not someonewho looks good on our Instagram,
or is going to give us a referral.
But that is interestingin their own right.
And again, I think that's askill that we need to practice.
(24:49):
We need to spend time on it.
And I think again, studying theideas and thoughts and art of other
people is one way we practice that.
Mike (24:57):
Well, you know, thank you very much for joining us on the podcast today.
This is such important information.
And like we said, as we head into thenew year, we're all trying to make
ourselves better and improve ourselves.
So thank you for your your time.
Thank you for your time today.
Anna (25:09):
Thank you.
This was really fun.
Thanks so much.
Mike (25:11):
And thanks everybody for listening.
Izzy, Happy New Year again.
Anna (25:14):
Thanks, Mike.
Mike (25:14):
And we'll catch everybody on the next UConn 360 podcast.
Well, hello everyone.
Welcome to the UConn 360podcast and happy 2025.
Izzy (00:17):
I can't believe we're already here.
Mike (00:18):
How does that sound, Izzy?
Izzy (00:21):
Just a little bit different than last year.
Mike (00:22):
A little bit different.
Did you make any New Year's resolutions?
Izzy (00:26):
Oh, did I make any New Year's resolutions?
I think I want to eat less box macand cheese and start making my own.
Mike (00:34):
So, same amount of mac and cheese, it's just not going to be boxed?
Izzy (00:37):
Yep, just me making it.
Well, that's a good
Mike (00:39):
resolution.
Izzy (00:39):
Right, right.
Yeah,
Mike (00:40):
okay.
I'm not going to say ifI've made any or not.
We'll see at the end of theyear if I stuck to them.
Izzy (00:44):
Oh, that's cheating.
Or the end
Mike (00:45):
of January.
Well, it's cheating, but
Izzy (00:47):
If you were smart, you could have started your New
Year's resolution in December.
Could have.
And gotten a kickstart.
Mike (00:52):
Could have, but why, you know, that would make, that would
not make December a fun month.
Izzy (00:56):
I guess it depends on your perspective.
Mike (00:58):
Absolutely.
Anyway, welcome to all our listeners.
Hope you all had a great holiday season.
Mike Enright from UniversityCommunications, along with Izzy
Harris from University Communications.
So we start 2025 on a veryimportant subject here at UConn.
Our guest is Anna Mae Dwayne.
She's the director of theHumanities Institute here at
UConn and a professor of English.
(01:19):
She teaches and writes in the fieldsof American studies, African American
literature, and the medical humanities.
And through the Humanities Institute,she is leading a year long focus
on loneliness and social isolation,which as we start the new year is,
is an important topic to tackle.
She ran a started thisin the fall semester.
There was a workshop, an election relatedevent took place, and more events are
(01:43):
coming in the spring semester, and welook forward to hearing about that.
So, Anna Mae, welcome to the podcast.
Anna (01:49):
Hi, thank you for having me.
Mike (01:51):
Thank you for coming.
Tell us for folks that aren'tknowledgeable, tell us what the
Humanities Institute is at UConn.
That might not be somethingeverybody knows about.
Anna (01:58):
Right.
We are in the fourth floor of thelibrary, which is like a personal
goal for me as an English major.
I get to live in the library now.
The way I describe the HumanitiesInstitute is really, A lab for the
humanities in many ways we do lotsof things, but one of the, our
main activities is providing spaceand structure for people who are
(02:20):
doing research in the humanities.
And we, we define thehumanities really broadly.
So it's also including the socialsciences that have a humanistic focus.
So every year between six and eightof our top faculty apply for and win
fellowships to spend a year studyingtheir topics, as well as dissertation
students, and as well as in the pasttwo years, we have four fellows who
(02:44):
are undergraduates who have topics ofresearch in the humanities, anything
from writing a play to investigatingsocial movements to exploring rituals
of medicine in other countries.
And what's really excitingabout it is that everyone shares
their work with each other.
. 30.
Every Wednesday, pretty much at 3.
(03:04):
30, one of our fellows gives, sharestheir research, usually a 20 30 minute
talk, and what's really great is tosay we had someone who was a poet doing
really beautiful work exploring, youThe translation of Dante's Purgatorio
and her own experience as a parentof a child with a chronic illness
(03:25):
and how that feels like Purgatory.
And it was just beautifulon its own right?
But then we had philosophers andhistorians and people who were translators
in the audience, really sort of givingher feedback and talking her through.
So it's a really collaborative model,and that's why I think it's a lab where
in the humanities Our collaboration isoften like looking at each other, talking,
(03:46):
really thinking through the things we findbeautiful or perplexing or infuriating.
So that's one of the things we do.
Some of the other aspects ofwhat we do is try to make the case
that the humanities are vital.
And Are essential for solving theproblems we face from everything from
the environment to economic problemsto social problems to sort of and what
(04:12):
we've been thinking about lately, like,how do we walk through the world and
engage with each other the humanitiesand again, if we're thinking of
philosophy and art and literature thisis where centuries of scholars Poets,
some of our greatest thinkers, thinkingabout what makes life meaningful,
how should we engage with one anotherwhat do we want and what do we value.
(04:36):
And you know, those are always importantaspects of what education should be.
But I think, you know, more importantthan ever right now thinking about
what we value and what actions wehave to take to enact those values.
Izzy (04:49):
I saw in one of your publications that loneliness and social isolation
can be as taxing on the bodyas smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Yes.
So as we mentioned earlier, you'releading a year long focus on
loneliness and social isolation.
Yes.
It sounds like you were inspiredto do so by a message you
received from a UConn student.
Can you tell us a littlebit more about that?
(05:10):
Sure.
. Anna (05:11):
And the 15 cigarettes a day, that's not my study.
I'm an English major.
That's from the SurgeonGeneral of the United States.
Yes.
Yes.
I remember seeing his report and he'ssort of the person who, who declared
this an epidemic, I think in 2023.
But that's something I was thinking aboutwhen I wrote a piece about and I was
really at first thinking about it fromthe artificial intelligence part of view,
(05:35):
which is another thing we're thinkingabout at the Humanities Institute.
And I wrote a piece saying,and again, from my perspective
it's, it's, it's I don't know.
I don't know if I want to use the wordcrazy, but like, it seems like a bad
idea to try to replace friends wholesalewith AI chatbots for lots of reasons.
(05:57):
My point was that You, you don'twant friends who can't ever say no
to you, because that's not a friend.
Right?
They have names for what thatis, and it's not friendship.
And, you know, it, it cameout and, and UConn Today was
kind enough to republish it.
And I, you know, got a nice response,but I got an email from a UConn student.
And this is where my sort ofperspective shifted a bit.
(06:18):
And this student who I correspondedwith via email and then we, we did
have a face to face conversation.
Smart, bright, engaging student said,you know, I agree with you that chatbots
can't really serve as friends, but Iunderstand the impulse because it's
just impossible to make friends.
This was a first year student when Iasked why, there were a few reasons.
(06:41):
One was the student was a STEMstudent, giant classes, heads down.
You don't look at other students.
A sense of pressure that allyour time should be spent getting
ahead and hustling and working.
And so taking the time to engageother students or to go to a social
event seems like not worth it.
(07:03):
And I just, you know, And I thought tomyself, well, this isn't sustainable.
This doesn't, there's certainly somethingwe need to do as educators and as
people who care about each other and ourstudents to sort of change this structure.
And then in talking to other students,what came across to me, and again, this
(07:24):
is informal and, and I'll be askingstudents and faculty to be emailing
me and tell me, their perspectives,because that's one of the things
we're really interested in doing.
But talking to other students onthis topic that keeps getting echoed
that both there's not spaces togather and a sense of I don't know
what to do if I go in that space.
(07:47):
And gather like it's so uncomfortablethat it is not worth it.
Like it is just pulling teeth.
And these are, you know, one of the I,I said in in the Yukon today piece, like
we all know we should do this stuff.
Like I know I should, you know, Ishould have had something besides black
coffee for breakfast this morning.
(08:07):
But we fall in ruts and we don't doit, and so I think that's part of what
we're exploring or wanting to do isboth think about how we can create
structures and skills that will facilitatesocial engagement, but also to find
out from students, from faculty, like,what are the obstacles they're seeing?
(08:27):
Because we all, again, we all sortof know the advice and what we
should do, but we're not doing it.
So I really want tohear from students why.
Mike (08:35):
If you're a parent of a high school student or elementary school
student even, this sounds a little scary.
What, what is your advice, what canparents do to prepare, help their children
at the current time but also prepare theirchildren for the future when, You know, so
much, especially in elementary school, theparents kind of set up the friendships.
(08:55):
Oh, yeah.
What can, what can parents do to preparetheir children for, for life in college
or, or, or whatever they decide todo after, after they leave the nest?
Anna (09:06):
Right.
And I, I have heard from a lot ofparents in talking about this as well.
And as a parent myself I know it's likeso uncomfortable to see your children and
to sort of see them experience what feelslike rejection is incredibly painful.
And I, you know, in terms ofadvice of how to prepare students,
(09:28):
I mean, I think that's part ofwhat we're trying to figure out.
But one thing I would say from my studiesso far and what I've read is that it's
not, and I think this is one of thethings that can just sort of help.
the cycle is the belief that there'ssomething wrong with you or your child.
And something that needs to befixed or there's something, you know
(09:51):
that there's some deficit there.
I'm, you know, Robert.
Putnam who wrote Bowling Alone, ifyou recall, and he came out with this,
I don't know, 20 or 30 years ago.
I should probably have the date offthe top of my head, but I don't.
He's a um, I believe a sociologist orpsychologist who famously said that,
like, we as a country, Like, don't gobowling anymore, we don't go to the
(10:12):
Elks Club, we don't go do things everyTuesday night with a bunch of friends.
And that, he made the case that notonly does it increase loneliness and,
and hurt our physical health and mentalhealth, but it's bad for democracy, right?
Because if we can't talk toeach other and we don't sort of
feel like we belong places, andthat's where we get polarization.
(10:35):
But even he's like, I don't go bowling.
He's like, I, you know, and he, hehas also said that, like, people
are convinced by his argument,but we haven't shifted things.
So all that to say that it's a structuralissue as well rather than sort of
thinking, Oh my gosh, it's me or my child,or I'm a bad parent, I'm a bad mother.
You know, that's a song that'sin my head all the time.
(10:56):
But apart from that, I mean, I really.
I think so much of loneliness orisolation is really being worried about
how other people are reacting to you.
And of course that can become a reallyvicious circle because you interpret
someone as looking at you strangely andthen you withdraw even more is to sort of
(11:17):
imagine how anxious or lonely or isolatedother people are, and see yourself as
extending your, your, your Friendshipto them, sort of to see it, see yourself
sort of facing out and helping others.
Right.
But again, it can be an easy thingto say and a harder thing to do, but
just that shift that you know, andthis does sound like a mom's advice
(11:38):
that people aren't thinking aboutyou as much as you might imagine.
What they want is what youwant is someone to see them.
as an interesting, likable person.
So going forward with that can atleast ease some of the tension of
like, how do I leave the house?
But so that's sort of structural andpersonal advice, but I do think like in
(12:01):
general, it's being called an epidemic.
I think there's small thingswe can do, and I think that
there's big things we could do.
And I think educationis a Big part of that.
So I think advocating for social skills,social training, humanities here, right,
you know, in the classrooms, certainlyI, you know, I'm more familiar with
(12:23):
higher ed, but there's definitely atrend of putting technology in the
place of people, even in the classroom.
Elementary schools, and that's just Imean, it's it comes down to practice.
We're good at talking topeople when we talk to people.
So I think there's there's that's a longanswer, but there's lots of responses.
Both.
Some of it is internal, and someof it is, I think, looking around
(12:46):
and saying, Okay, we need tochange some structural things here.
Izzy (12:49):
So it sounds like a lot of these things are easier said than done.
And I know that you are advocatingfor the humanities here at UConn.
What are some of the events thatyou hosted in the fall and are there
any upcoming events in the spring?
Anna (13:02):
Yes, in the fall, we had a couple of events.
One was in partnership witha local non profit here in in
Connecticut called For All Ages.
And they are working statewide tocounter the loneliness epidemic.
They largely focus on the olderpopulation, but they do a lot of cross
generational work and they, they'redoing, I, they're Recommend everyone
(13:23):
going to their website and doing,they were really great to work with.
And what they did was come and, andwe had current students, we had former
students, we had faculty just basicallytell their stories, not just of how
they coped with loneliness but alsohow they found social connection.
And we had two students from theHumanities Institute who just
(13:47):
told incredible stories of sortof finding what they cared about.
One student, Krista Mitchell spoke ofreally struggling with feeling kind
of isolated in her hometown and it wasthrough photography and sort of looking
at her hometown through art and throughher own interpretation of the beauty that
(14:07):
she saw there that she was able to bothsort of make peace with her experience
in a small town and also realize thather people here at UConn were artists.
Someone else uh, Brianna really struggledwith stories of racial violence,
particularly against women, and felt veryisolated by the lack of attention it was
getting, and came here to UConn, and atthe, she was one of our fellows at the
(14:29):
Humanities Institute, and she createdan incredible project dedicated to to
thinking through this issue, not just sortof what's the problem, but how do we come
together as a collective and solve it?
And she's brilliant, and she alsoworked with a digital media artist,
and they put together a website.
So it was not as depressingas you might think.
Like, there was this case on youknow, this panel on loneliness, but
(14:51):
it was really about, okay, what works?
What works on the ground.
And again, we found that itwas art, conversation, debate.
We had an event the day afterthe election which I will say
I was a little skeptical of.
My team was really excited about it.
We worked with the WellbeingCollective, which is a really
incredible group of folks here oncampus faculty, staff students who are
(15:16):
really thinking about these issues.
It was called Pick Up the Thread.
I was like, I don't know what the dayafter the election is going to be like,
I don't know how it's going to feel.
I'm pretty sure whatever it is,I'm going to want to stay in bed.
You know, I was, I was theperson who wanted to be lonely.
I was like, yeah, I just don'twant to think it's going to be
a lot and we can't plan for it.
And they said, no, weneed a space to gather.
(15:38):
And it doesn't have to be political,whether you feel like you won or you lost.
And it turned out it was a beautiful day.
It was outside and beautiful.
We had fiber arts and students came alongand just sort of made art with string.
We had zines.
We had faculty there tojust answer questions.
We thought to like answerquestions if people had questions
(15:58):
about mechanics of the election.
But it was really just faculty talkingto each other, students talking to
each other and just hanging out.
And then Jonathan Huskyshowed up miraculously.
So it was a great day.
And that was.
That was less of a formal event where wewere sort of giving advice and was more
of an event in which we were creating thespace for these conversations to happen.
(16:20):
So that's what we've done in thefall, among some other smaller things.
In the spring.
We're really excited aboutwhat we're calling Story Slam.
And this Heather Cassano, who is theassistant director at UCHI, came across
this on a podcast, where we all goodthings come from and, It is, you know, if
(16:42):
you've heard of the moth or story core,it's that I did people cultivate their
personal stories and perform them, butthis comes out of Olin College, which is
an engineering school, and it's run byJonathan Adler, who is a psychologist who
is You know, sort of at the leading edgeof, of thinking about how our personal
(17:06):
narratives affect our mental health.
He's worked with people with disabilitiesand people who have experienced trauma.
But, you know, we all tell narrativesabout what happened to us, what it
means, what it makes us, who it makes us.
And really, rewriting that narrative canrewrite, you know so we're bringing and he
(17:27):
works with an English professor Jillian.
And what they do is work withstudents on their personal stories.
Students come with astory they want to tell.
So he's a psychologist, she's an Englishprof, they both have theater backgrounds.
and over the course of a semester.
They work with students to really figureout how they want to tell that story,
(17:49):
how they want to sell it publicly,how they're going to be performing.
And on March 27th at 3.
30 we'll be having that story slamthe Ballard, which is in the Black
Bucks theater in the Ballard, which isactually in the back of the bookstore.
Oh, the
Mike (18:03):
Ballard Museum.
Yes.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Anna (18:06):
And so we're really excited about that.
In the interim, we will be.
Doing some events trying tofind students where they are.
So for one thing I learnedthis semester is that we have a
really vibrant horticulture club.
A hundred students on this campus whereit's hard to get, you know, like when we
do events, it's hard to get 20 people.
So we're thinking of you know, inFebruary when it's dark and cold and
(18:29):
we're all miserable, having an eventin the greenhouse thinking about.
Nature, plants we're not quitesure yet, but that'll be something
we'll be doing in February.
And then we'll also hopefully be workingwith students, both who are in the
Story Slam and who have come to us withother stories whether it's going to be a
podcast or panel, but we'll be focusing onstudents stories throughout the semester.
Mike (18:52):
So back in December, you had a you had a great piece in The
Conversation at theconversation.
com, called, How HumanitiesClasses Benefit Students in the
Workplace and Combat Loneliness.
What's your elevator pitch to a studentwho wants to Major in the humanities,
one of the humanities fields, buthere's from their friends and parents,
you know, you're never gonna geta job How are you gonna pay rent?
(19:12):
How are you gonna pay food?
What why should a studentlook at the humanities?
Anna (19:16):
Right that old.
Yeah, you're a philosopher, you know,do you want fries with that joke?
Right?
Well, the first is that that's that'sbeen disproven over and over again
that you know, it's not, yes, it'snot necessarily like a nursing degree
or a comp sci degree where we knowexactly the jobs we're going to get.
That our humanities studentsget hired at very similar
(19:37):
rates to our students in STEM.
And after a few years salaries aredefinitely within the same range.
That's part of the pitch, or maybethat's the pitch to the anxious
parents or the anxious student.
The pitch I make in that piece and thenI would that certainly partially in
that piece, I did speak a little bitmore about employers and it got cut.
The employers, right, this lonelinessepidemic, this struggle to really connect,
(20:02):
collaborate, feel like you belong.
It's going to, you know, it's hurtingthe workplace to where we need people
to work in teams to work well together.
We know that if, if you feel likeyou have a friend at your workplace,
you're going to be happier there.
You're going to show up more.
So having the capacity tothink empathetically, to work
collaboratively, collaboratively,to have deep or even just, you know,
(20:26):
Prickly or difficult conversations.
Well these are skills.
And I think one of the mistakes we'vemade, especially, you know, in our
excitement about STEM and AI, which areall great things I'm not right, but in
our sort of desire to, to stress thoseor put those new shiny pieces of, of
technology and innovation in our studentsclass schedules, again from K through
(20:53):
12 through, through the university.
We have, it's a lot,it's an opportunity cost.
We don't spend that time readingabout the emotional experiences of
others and then reflecting on our own.
We don't spend time reading or thinkingabout someone in a very different
(21:13):
social, economic or even historicalsituation from us and having to think,
why did they make these choices?
It's so different from me having to be ina class where the teacher doesn't sort of
let you just take, you know, again lotsof great things are happening in lots
of classes, but in, I know, you know,in a small W class where I teach about
(21:35):
disability and narratives of people withdisabilities often to pre med students.
The students say, I've never thoughtabout what that cancer patient
experiences when I come in for 20 secondsbecause I'm, I've been taught to, to
focus on the math and the medicine.
And that's all really important.
(21:55):
But you know, again, study afterstudy proves that if the, if the
clinician, the nurse, the psychologist
has developed the skills of readingother people's experiences, both sort of
literally and physically, and empathizing,and at taking on different perspectives.
You're going to be moresuccessful at any job.
And this is the humanities part of me.
(22:17):
There's more to lifethan your job as well.
You're going to be able to sortof Both sort of engage with others
but also have a sense of reflectionabout your own place in the world.
That I think just makes life moremeaningful and that's as important as
any other reason you take any major.
Izzy (22:34):
Anna, another quote that I found really interesting from your UConn Today
article is how friendships have becometransactional, that it's not necessarily
just about having a friend anymore.
It's all about, if I do somethingfor you, can you do something for me?
What piece of advice can you give topeople that we can do on a day to day
basis to ease the problems of loneliness,both for ourselves and for other people?
Anna (22:57):
Great.
Thank you.
And the the transactional piece,again, has come out of conversations
with students and parents of studentsbecause that was one of the issues
that they were coming up against.
And I think, right, we're, we can bevictims of our own success here we,
you know, we're stressing the student'sneed to network and that is really,
really important, but that can't beour only form of social interaction.
(23:18):
But I think, again, if wehave such an emphasis on
everything is about your career.
Or, vanishing you in some way, and so theonly reason it's worth to go to a social
event is if you get a referral, if youget someone who's going to help you out.
And that's just miserable way to live,honestly and I think people feel it when,
(23:39):
you know, again, like, seeing a personas valuable in themselves Is really
the only way to form real connections.
And so I think again, we want students,you know, we all want to get ahead in our
careers, but I do think coming to a personwith a sense of, I see value in you.
I see that you are uniqueto be curious about them.
(24:01):
And of course, the irony of thatis if you come to someone with
legitimate curiosity and interest,and if you find a way to like them
they're going to help your career.
They're also going to like you inreturn which sounds now like that
I'm being mercenary, but I do think.
If you're coming to a person Seeing themonly as what they can provide, that's
(24:25):
not going to create a real friendship.
So I do think and again, partiallythat may be on us as educators and
but also I think in a larger societythat we need to be thinking about
people as either, like, not someonewho looks good on our Instagram,
or is going to give us a referral.
But that is interestingin their own right.
And again, I think that's askill that we need to practice.
(24:49):
We need to spend time on it.
And I think again, studying theideas and thoughts and art of other
people is one way we practice that.
Mike (24:57):
Well, you know, thank you very much for joining us on the podcast today.
This is such important information.
And like we said, as we head into thenew year, we're all trying to make
ourselves better and improve ourselves.
So thank you for your your time.
Thank you for your time today.
Anna (25:09):
Thank you.
This was really fun.
Thanks so much.
Mike (25:11):
And thanks everybody for listening.
Izzy, Happy New Year again.
Anna (25:14):
Thanks, Mike.
Mike (25:14):
And we'll catch everybody on the next UConn 360 podcast.
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