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Teaching Philosophy

As an instructor of literature and composition, I aim to cultivate intrinsic motivation to learn. I want students to appreciate the aesthetic and practical value of literary works and rhetorical theories, even those written centuries ago. As I aim to demonstrate in each course I teach, the benefit of studying literature and theory lies not only in marketable skills such as the ability to write rhetorically effective prose, but also in less tangible measures such as intellectual curiosity, intercultural awareness, and a deeper understanding of complex political, social, and intrapersonal issues. In guiding students to take an interest in literary studies, I can then encourage them to make a lifelong investment in improving and applying their skills in close reading, analysis, and composition.

My literature courses explore the significance of texts for their original audiences, as well as the connections between those texts and many contemporary issues. Throughout each course, I trace connections between early period themes and aesthetics and those of contemporary literature, music, and film. In my heroic literature course, for instance, students select a film that can be construed as “epic” and analyze how the film represents and adapts course themes such as honor (kleos), homecoming (nostos), hospitality, and heroism. Evaluating such films as Star Wars, Gladiator, Harry Potter, and Princess Mononoke, students bring to bear course themes on their understanding of films familiar to them and share their insights with the class. My Shakespeare course, meanwhile, highlights the relationship between political and social issues of early modern England and contemporary society. Especially in the recent election season, I have found that this approach can help to bring to life plays such as Richard II, 1 Henry IV, and Julius Caesar and the ideological and aesthetic issues behind them, while generating interest in Shakespearean drama for itself.

Reflecting my interest in literary theory and the sublime in particular, I also focus several of my courses on the wide variety of purposes that literature can have. Especially in my general education courses, including my Shakespeare course and Western literature survey, I find that students may be familiar with certain canonical works of literature, but tend to read under the assumption that those works simply reflect the dominant cultural beliefs in which they were written. Through close readings of key passages, I encourage students to expand their conceptions of literature and think differently about works they may have studied elsewhere—to consider the ways writers use literary works to challenge their culture’s predominant views, to promote in readers an emotional experience akin to Aristotelian catharsis, or to cultivate terror and wonder as ends in themselves.

While lecture and instructor-guided discussion remain essential to my courses, I find it beneficial to include a component of student-led discussion to ensure that every student has a voice and a strong measure of control over his or her learning. In my literature courses, students are regularly assigned to take leadership of a group discussion—whether of the entire class or a smaller subset. For a short segment of an assigned class period, each student offers observations and questions about a literary text, exploring facets that interest him or her. Students minoring in world religion or anthropology, for instance, regularly offer new insights that enhance our exploration of a text. Not only does this assignment bring out a variety of perspectives, but it also fosters deeper learning by requiring students to express their ideas. Students tend to gain confidence that they have distinctive contributions worth further exploration.

In my composition courses as well, I include a version of this activity to help students to internalize course principles and gain confidence in applying them. Since students are generally able to critique essays written by someone outside the classroom more objectively than they can critique their own work, this assignment gives them deeper insight into principles covered in course lectures. In discussing a variety of examples, the class develops an arsenal of effective writing and revision strategies based on concrete examples, while honing their skill in close reading.

In every class, I aim to meet students at their current level of knowledge and skill, and lead them to enhance their capacity for reading and writing. To that end, it is always my hope that students will leave the class with a renewed passion for learning will advance them far beyond the knowledge and skill level they achieve in my course.

 

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