Episode 34: Approaches to Teaching with Historian Brandon Bloch
Guest: Brandon Bloch
In this episode, we speak with Brandon Bloch, Assistant Professor of History and winner of the 2026 William H. Kiekhofer Distinguished Teaching Award at UW-Madison. He shares how he engages students in their own areas of interest while teaching challenging subjects in the age of AI. He also discusses the many influences on his teaching practice and recommends resources for other instructors.
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Unpack This Episode
Grab a drink, gather your colleagues, and discuss.
- What have been your main challenges and successes when engaging students in research or assignments that connect to their own interests?
- Is your course content relevant to current political or social issues? How do you support students in productive learning around these topics?
- How do you think the courses you teach are perceived by the broader public? What would you like others to know about the courses you teach?
- What experiences, people, books, or podcasts have influenced your teaching?
Further Reading
In this episode we mentioned, were inspired by, or wondered about the following resources and topics.
- Madison Teaching and Learning Excellence (MTLE) program from the Center for Teaching, Learning, and Mentoring at UW-Madison.
- The Discussion Project program at UW-Madison.
- The book Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts, by Samual Wineburg.
- The book Thinking the 20th Century, by Tony Judt with Timothy Snyder.
- The book Where Research Begins, by Thomas Mullaney and Christopher Rea.
- Tom Mulaney’s YouTube Channel, First Gen Professor.
- UW-Madison English professor Ramzi Fawaz’s podcast, Nerd from the Future (Spotify).
- The podcast The Academic Edge (Spotify).
- UW-Madison Subject Librarians are experienced instructors and disciplinary experts who can design and facilitate “discovery” sessions for a class.
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Acknowledgements
The L&S Exchange Podcast is brought to you by L&S Teaching, Learning, & Academic Planning and produced by the Instructional Design Collaborative. This podcast is recorded on ancestral Ho-Chunk land, a place their nation has called Teejop (day-JOPE) since time immemorial.
Production Credits
- Producer: David Macasaet
- Associate Producer: Molly Harris
- Audio Engineer: David Macasaet
- Audio Editor: David Macasaet
- Website Support: Laura Schmidli & Molly Harris
- Development Producer: Jonathan Klein
- Planning Group: Jonathan Klein, David Macasaet, Molly Harris, Laura Schmidli, Antonella Caloro, Maria Widmer
- Communications: Maria Widmer
- Executive Sponsorship: Shirin Malekpour