Darby Vickers believes in the importance of academic communication and outreach.
Outreach/Academic Communication
Darby is also passionate about outreach and public pedagogy. She has a public-facing component to her work on information literacy, Debunking 101 . She works with a program called TH!NK, which brings philosophy graduate students into local elementary schools to teach 5th graders critical thinking. In 2018, she won the People’s Choice Award for a presentation of her work on intellectual pleasure for a public audience (at UC Irvine’s AGS Symposium). She has been interviewed on two podcasts: This Grad Life hosted by Dr. Ted Yoo (December 3, 2019) and The Wonders of the World Pocast (1, 2). She and Sara Rodriguez (MFA, Directing) created the short podcast, Odyssey & Chill to introduce the public to the Odyssey in an accessible manner (which debuted December 5, 2019). The podcast has already been used in classrooms both at UCI and elsewhere. A sequel is forthcoming. She also runs a podcast, currently on hiatus: The History of Greece Podcast.
Podcasts
Darby has worked on two podcasts, both of which have to do with the ancient world. Her most recent podcast, Lit & Chill, was co-created with Sara Rodriguez (MFA Directing student, UCI) and gives a millennial take on classical literature. Season 1, “Odyssey & Chill,” Homer’s Odyssey (on which Darby wrote her MA thesis). Season 2, “Oresteia & Chill” debuts on December 1, 2020. Her other podcast is The History of Greece, which is an ancient history podcast currently on hiatus. Darby also attended a week-long podcast institute through the National Humanities Center in summer 2020.
Oresteia & Chill
Follow us on social media @oresteiaandchill (Instagram) and @oresteiaandchill (Facebook)
Odyssey & Chill
Odyssey & Chill: This three-episode podcast will cover Homer’s epic The Odyssey. Whether you’re a student, professor, a literature or poetry fan, or even if you’re just curious about the piece, this podcast is for you. Listen to Sara and Darby on-the-go, as they take you through the plot of the poem and speak with classicists who’ve made their life’s work around it. It’s going to be epic! In each each episode, they summarize a few books and then discusses it with a fancy person.
For more information, see the Odyssey & Chill Page.
Sara and Darby are in the process of working on a follow-up project to Odyssey & Chill. Stay tuned!
The History of Greece – on hiatus
I started conceiving this podcast in 2013.
Darby Vickers, Ph.D. 