Nearly everyone who works, teaches, or takes classes at McMurry University knows about Dr. Paul Fabrizio, one of our most well-respected faculty working in the Department of Political Science. At the start of the spring 2024 semester, Dr. Fabrizio debuted his newest project, McMurry Minds, a podcast exploring the intellectual vibrancy of McMurry’s talented faculty via on-air interviews.
Now 16 episodes deep, McMurry Minds has become a kind of archaeological deep-dive into the current political, academic, social, and spiritual temperament of the McMurry campus community. Dr. Fabrizio has interviewed a series of faculty from the Division of Humanities, Religion, and Social Sciences, exploring everything from upcoming elections to the ins and outs of wrongful criminal conviction.
“I once had a law school dean tell me that McMurry’s job is to teach students ‘how to think,’” Dr. Fabrizio says. “So, without taking away from the very important and necessary work that any other division or department does on campus, we wanted to highlight the professors who are teaching students how to think. Whether that be how to think through languages like English or Spanish, or through history, political science, religion, servant leadership, sociology, or communication, at the core, our students should graduate knowing about thinking.”
The line-up of guests that have interviewed with Dr. Fabrizio is comprehensive. Division of Humanities, Religion and Social Sciences Chair Dr. Mark Waters kicked off the first episode, and following guests included Dr. Annette Wren, Professor Cole Thompson, Dr. Stephen Hardin, and even two accomplished students – McMurry Student Government Treasurer Garrison Shin, and Juan Nava, a May 2024 graduate who has political aspirations of his own.
“Our next step is to go back to these professors and follow up with pressing issues that confound them. I am looking forward to an in-depth conversation with Dr. David Wahl about sex and human trafficking. Dr. Annette Wren is intrigued by the question of death in mysteries like those of Sherlock Holmes. Dr. Mark Waters studies the question of bad things happening to good people. I am looking forward to talking with Beth Laurence, who runs our Writing Center, about what makes for good writing. So, season two of the podcast, starting later in 2024, will go into the subjects that drive McMurry professors.”
In discussing these future plans for McMurry Minds, Dr. Fabrizio clearly sees the value of storytelling as a means to create stronger relationships among faculty and students.
“I think that we have absolutely fascinating people teaching at McMurry. But most of us don’t know their stories,” Dr. Fabrizio notes. “So our effort this spring and summer is to have these professors tell their stories. I want them to explain how they went from kids from the oil field, New Mexico, East Texas, or Abilene, and ended up with terminal graduate school degrees teaching at McMurry. What drives them to teach? What drives them to do research?”
Check out McMurry Minds for yourself.