Lecturer Devan Lindey publishes chapter in new book aimed at incorporating popular culture in the classroom

Dr. Devan Lindey, Lecturer in the Department of History at Purdue University, recently published a chapter in a new book exploring various forms of popular culture as teaching tools. “Teaching Popular Culture in the Humanities Classroom,” published by Rowman & Littlefield, aims to promote popular culture as a powerful teaching tool that is familiar and accessible.

Lindey’s chapter, The Many Stories of Hugh Glass: From the Frontier to the Big Screen and Leonardo DiCaprio’s First Oscar, examines three retellings of frontiersman Hugh Glass, including the Oscar-winning The Revenant (2015) starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

While recounting Glass’s ordeal of surviving a grizzly bear attack and crawling more than 200 miles to civilization to take revenge on the men who left him to die, Lindey (left) compares Glass’s real-life experiences with their retellings in popular culture.

“By analyzing and comparing the retellings, I am encouraging other instructors how to use the story to teach the skills of practicing history through popular culture accounts,” says Lindey.

Lindey earned his PhD in Purdue’s Department of History in 2023 with graduate advisor Dr. Yvonne Pitts. He is currently an adjunct professor in the department teaching two undergraduate courses, American History to 1877 and History of the United States Since 1877. His research area interests include American Legal and Constitutional History, Political History, and Educational History.