You Can Teach Empathy with Dan Watkins

Today our guest is Dr. Dan Watkins, associate professor of history and co-director of the digital humanities initiative at Baylor University.  Dan’s work sits at the crossroads of religion, culture, and politics in early modern Europe. His first book examines how the Jesuits engaged with and responded to the intellectual debates of the French Enlightenment. Dan is currently pursuing two exciting new projects: a digital history study on how missionary writings shaped European views of the wider world, and a monograph on religion and emigration in the borderlands of eastern France during the French Revolution.

In addition to his research, Dan is deeply invested in pedagogy and the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, where he explores how we teach history and how students engage with it.

We are delighted to have Dr. Watkins on the show to discuss teaching empathy through history, bringing historical documents to life, and gamifying the less-exciting elements of your course.

Authority, Passion, and Subject-Centered Teaching