The Professor Is In now says that this phrase has been overused to death. And while there have been times that teaching has inspired my research--teaching The Secret History and Flannery O'Connor's work together, for example, inspired a conference paper--generally the expectation with literature is that you teach things based on your current work, in order to spend more time with those texts in general.
Nevertheless, as I'm thinking through my new teaching statement, I'm struck by this statement in "Towards Desegregating Syllabuses: Teaching American Literary Realism and Racial Uplift Fiction" by Michele Birnbaum, that her essay assumes that "teaching is not simply the effluvia of research. In fact, we must consider the classroom as the source rather than the aftermath of critical practice."(1)
What does this mean, that teaching is not simply the effluvia of research? What happens if we consider the classroom the source of critical practice? I'm going to ponder this further, but I welcome comments here.
(1) Birnbaum, Michele. "Towards Desegregating Syllabuses: Teaching American Literary Realism and Racial Uplift Fiction." Teaching Literature: A Companion. Ed. Tanya Agathocleous and Ann C. Dean. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2003.
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Showing posts with label research. Show all posts
Sunday, May 22, 2016
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Post-Summer
Normally, I'd title this something about a new semester or new school year, but this was such an eventful summer, that it more feels as if the newness of fall semester is more an outgrowth of my summer activities, rather than a new chapter. Despite my intentions to be less busy than I was last summer, there were so many opportunities this summer that I struggled with figuring out which I should pursue and which to let go of.
I think I made good choices. After a whirlwind tour for my birthday (friends, family, mountains, and spending my birthday covered in bubbles dancing to My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult), I taught a five-week course in Southern Women Writers, did research in the new Dorothy Allison archive at Duke, and spent a week in the redwoods of Santa Cruz, immersed in the Dickens Universe.
There are way too many stories to tell to even begin telling them here. However, the end result has been, weirdly enough, that I have adopted a lot of new, incredibly different, weirdly healthy habits after all of these adventures. Before this summer, I tended to work upstairs, in front of the tv, staying up until two or three in the morning, and sleeping until afternoon if I could. Since I've been typically teaching after noon, I could sleep as late as eleven on teaching days, even. I'd go to jazzercise two or three times a week. I drank three or four diet soft drinks a day, and ate a lot of sweets.
Some combination of new environments and challenging (yet thoroughly enjoyable) schedules and--what, magic?--has had the end result of completely resetting my habits. Since I've been home, I think I've slept as late as ten once. Mostly, I get up between eight and nine, make some cafetierre (which I think sounds much fancier than "French press") coffee, and start the day working. I work much better now downstairs with music, rather than upstairs with television. I have at most one soft drink a day, if that. I'm working out five times a week. And the only sweets I have now are part of my bedtime ritual--chamomile tea and two Biscoff cookies, and I'm ready for bed. I've very quickly pavloved myself into feeling sleepy after this nightly ritual.
I've had similar responses to retreat-like experiences in the past--I quit smoking after one, and made the commitment to finish my bachelors and go to graduate school after another. It's definitely increasing my productivity, which I'm quite pleased with. And which is a good thing, as the threat of the job market and finding fifth year funding is looming large at the moment--I need all of the productivity I can get!
I think I made good choices. After a whirlwind tour for my birthday (friends, family, mountains, and spending my birthday covered in bubbles dancing to My Life with the Thrill Kill Cult), I taught a five-week course in Southern Women Writers, did research in the new Dorothy Allison archive at Duke, and spent a week in the redwoods of Santa Cruz, immersed in the Dickens Universe.
There are way too many stories to tell to even begin telling them here. However, the end result has been, weirdly enough, that I have adopted a lot of new, incredibly different, weirdly healthy habits after all of these adventures. Before this summer, I tended to work upstairs, in front of the tv, staying up until two or three in the morning, and sleeping until afternoon if I could. Since I've been typically teaching after noon, I could sleep as late as eleven on teaching days, even. I'd go to jazzercise two or three times a week. I drank three or four diet soft drinks a day, and ate a lot of sweets.
Some combination of new environments and challenging (yet thoroughly enjoyable) schedules and--what, magic?--has had the end result of completely resetting my habits. Since I've been home, I think I've slept as late as ten once. Mostly, I get up between eight and nine, make some cafetierre (which I think sounds much fancier than "French press") coffee, and start the day working. I work much better now downstairs with music, rather than upstairs with television. I have at most one soft drink a day, if that. I'm working out five times a week. And the only sweets I have now are part of my bedtime ritual--chamomile tea and two Biscoff cookies, and I'm ready for bed. I've very quickly pavloved myself into feeling sleepy after this nightly ritual.
I've had similar responses to retreat-like experiences in the past--I quit smoking after one, and made the commitment to finish my bachelors and go to graduate school after another. It's definitely increasing my productivity, which I'm quite pleased with. And which is a good thing, as the threat of the job market and finding fifth year funding is looming large at the moment--I need all of the productivity I can get!
Monday, July 22, 2013
Today's research
I arrive in Durham yesterday (yay US Air! So much better than Delta!) and went to the Rubenstein Library today, where I started my week long research in the Dorothy Allison papers. I'm here through the generosity of a Mary Lily Research Grant, for which I'm quite grateful.
The archive is a gold mine so far. There is so much already that speaks to my work.
Seeing her sequence of manuscripts for Bastard Out of Carolina has also been incredibly inspiring and impressive. So. many. drafts. And so much tightening up, and moving things around, and cutting entire scenes. A big reason why the novel is so good is that there is a hell of a lot of work in it. Good writing really does come from process--and commitment to that process, and feedback on your process--so much writing that never made it to the page.
The other day, when I reached that block in my writing, where I hit a question that I didn't know the answer to, a lot of my online writing community encouraged me to try to write through the block--and while I know that sometimes works, it wasn't the right answer at the moment. I was having an emotional reaction to hitting the block, and as long as the frustration was there, the block was going to remain. Instead, I got up and did something else for a while--and then I wrote in my dissertation notebook about the frustration, and then I was able to return to my chapter. (So I guess I sort of wrote through my block, but what was more useful was taking the break to let the emotion simmer down a bit.
Tomorrow, back to the archives. Duke is so lovely--and today was really something, as I don't think I've ever been in a special collections library that had so many people! I had to share a table for most of the day. I'm very happy to know that the collection is so appreciated.
The archive is a gold mine so far. There is so much already that speaks to my work.
Seeing her sequence of manuscripts for Bastard Out of Carolina has also been incredibly inspiring and impressive. So. many. drafts. And so much tightening up, and moving things around, and cutting entire scenes. A big reason why the novel is so good is that there is a hell of a lot of work in it. Good writing really does come from process--and commitment to that process, and feedback on your process--so much writing that never made it to the page.
The other day, when I reached that block in my writing, where I hit a question that I didn't know the answer to, a lot of my online writing community encouraged me to try to write through the block--and while I know that sometimes works, it wasn't the right answer at the moment. I was having an emotional reaction to hitting the block, and as long as the frustration was there, the block was going to remain. Instead, I got up and did something else for a while--and then I wrote in my dissertation notebook about the frustration, and then I was able to return to my chapter. (So I guess I sort of wrote through my block, but what was more useful was taking the break to let the emotion simmer down a bit.
Tomorrow, back to the archives. Duke is so lovely--and today was really something, as I don't think I've ever been in a special collections library that had so many people! I had to share a table for most of the day. I'm very happy to know that the collection is so appreciated.
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