The Pedagogy of Listening
An interdisciplinary teaching lab
How do you teach listening?
When thinking about the role of listening in education, we typically conceptualize teachers as speakers and students as listeners. However, scholars in several disciplines—including oral history, narrative medicine, and social work—have demonstrated that listening can have a much more complicated (and beneficial) role in pedagogy.
Directed by Liza Zapol, The Pedagogy of Listening: An Interdisciplinary Teaching Lab will bring together faculty, researchers, and students from different disciplines at Columbia University to advance understandings of pedagogies of listening. In practice, this will include monthly meetings between faculty, fostering oral history exchanges with students and alumni, observing peer teaching, engaging in interdisciplinary discussions, and developing a pedagogical toolkit.
At the core of this lab is an understanding that teaching is an experiment in equality—not in the sense that teachers must forfeit their knowledge or authority, but that teachers can approach teaching from a place of mutuality and transparency. With this understanding, the lab will explore practices of listening that value the knowledge and experience of the learner and contribute to more inclusive teaching practices.
Coming out of the relationships and learnings from this year, the lab hopes to grow course cross-listings at Columbia and host ongoing programming for faculty across disciplines and schools.
The Pedagogy of Listening is funded by a 2023 Office of the Provost’s Teaching and Learning Grant. To learn more about The Pedagogy of Listening, reach out to Liza Zapol (ebz2103@columbia.edu).
Participating programs and centers
Director and advisors
Liza Zapol
Director
Contact: ebz2103@columbia.edu
Liza Zapol is an artist and oral historian who explores themes of creativity, memory, and place through sound, multimedia, and performance. She has worked with renowned institutions such as the Archives of American Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, and more. She has also taught and lectured on the intersection of oral history and art at Columbia University and The New School.
Sayantani DasGupta
Advisor
Sayantani DasGupta is a faculty member at Columbia University's School of Professional Studies with research interests in issues of narrative humility in medical education, racial justice, diaspora studies, and science fiction.
Ovita F. Williams
Advisor
Dr. Ovita Williams is an antiracist social worker committed to justice and facilitating critical conversations on intersecting identities. She has extensive experience in field education and clinical practice, and has authored a book on justice-based field education. Dr. Williams also conducts workshops on courageous dialogues and is involved in decolonizing social work curriculum at Columbia School of Social Work.
Amy Starecheski
Advisor
Amy Starecheski is a cultural anthropologist and oral historian who focuses on oral history in social movements and the politics of history and property in cities. She is the Director of the Oral History MA Program at Columbia University and leads several oral and public history projects.
Faculty
Nyssa Chow
Nyssa Chow is an oral historian, multidisciplinary artist, and writer. She has served as core faculty at the Oral History Masters Program at Columbia University for seven years, teaching oral history theory and practice, literary nonfiction, and documentary arts.
Kaoukab Chebaro
Kaoukab Chebaro is the Head of Global Studies at Columbia University Libraries and is interested in oral history as a tool at the service of expanding the politics of knowledge production and representation, specifically around the Global South, the Middle East, and human rights.
Suchitra Vijayan
Suchitra Vijayan is an essayist, lawyer, and photographer with a focus on oral history, state violence, and visual storytelling. She has written critically acclaimed books and her work has been featured in numerous publications. Additionally, she is an award-winning photographer and the founder of the Polis Project.
Mary Sormanti
Mary Sormanti is an social worker with expertise in various areas such as serious illness, bereavement, and intimate partner violence. She has worked with organizations like the Open Society Institute and the National Institute of Mental Health. She currently works at the Center for Complicated Grief, supervising interns and participating in research projects.
Mario de la Cruz
Mario de la Cruz is a Founding Editor of Intima: A Journal of Narrative Medicine and an Associate Director for Columbia University's Division of Narrative Medicine. He focuses on advancing narrative medicine education and addressing health inequities through visual and performance-based narratives.
Researchers and students
Lindsay Szper
Researcher
Lindsay is a conflict mediator and language teacher with a background in translation and traumatic brain injury law. She is interested in exploring the intersection of oral history and language education.
Sam Nash
Researcher
Sam Nash holds a dual Bachelor of Arts degree in English and Education with honors from Brown University. Currently pursuing a graduate degree in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University, specializing in Disability Studies. Sam has worked for five years as an executive function specialist for students ages 4-22. Sam is also involved in disability advocacy and pedagogy. She serves on curriculum committees at various academic institutions and presents on accessible classroom design. Sam is currently collaborating with an architecture team to design sensory-inclusive playgrounds for children with learning disabilities.
Saanya Advani
Student
Saanya Advani is a second-year MSW candidate at Columbia University School of Social Work, specializing in contemporary social issues. She has a bachelor's degree in Criminal Justice from Michigan State University. Saanya is interning at the Action Lab for Social Justice and focuses on creating programs for BIPOC and economically underresourced students. Her interests include healing from violence, community organizing for social justice, and exploring intersecting oppressions. In her free time, she co-leads The SWEET Caucus, a student group prioritizing self-care and bonding at CSSW.
