English 350a: Graduate Proseminar
Fall 2016 (paired with ENG 350a, Spring 2017)
Rabb 119 (DuBois)
Class Schedule: alternating Wednesdays (with a few variants), 9:30-10:50
Beginning September 7th
Prof. Plotz ()
office hours: Rabb 264. Wed 12-2 and by appointment
This proseminar addresses social and professional aspects of academic work in literary and cultural studies. Our series of discussions and workshops will cover skills useful for scholarship, practical issues involving graduate school, and institutional questions about academic and related work. Our discussion format is intended to be flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of student concerns and interests, so I invite you to help shape our conversations throughout the year.
Attendance: Expectations for participation in 350 includes all department-organized talks during the year (they will be discussed in 350). If for some reason you are unable to attend a given talk, please let me know why, and how you plan to get caught up on what you missed (eg get a friend’s notes and read an article by the speaker).
Schedule:
Sept 7 Graduate Student Lifeworlds and Academic Communities
Getting to know one another—Using graduate seminars — Participating in local academic and intellectual communities — Taking advantage of local research resources — Telling your intellectual story — Identifying other concerns about graduate student life and work. Time management: short medium and long-term issues.Writing a succinct persuasive abstract: please spend some time before class thinking about an already completed paper that you may want to present at a conference or submit to a journal someday. We will discuss and workshop ways of producing a successful abstract.
Sept 21 9:30-10:30: Primary Sources Workshop
A workshop facilitated by the library’s research and special collections staff, especially Anne Woodrum (). Meets in Goldfarb library, Special Collections.
October 5 9 – 10:30 am (note tweaked time) Intellectual Communities, cont. Formulating Compelling Research Questions (guest: Professor Targoff)
Time management revisited: short medium and long-term issues.
October 19 : (meets in DuBois as usual)
Databases and Research Techniques
Presentation with Zoe Weinstein, Library and Technology Services
Monday November 7 9:30-11 [note changedday] Philip Steer: “From North Carolina to Palmerston North, via Singapore: Academic Odysseys”
Oral presentations
Thursday November 17 9:30-11 (note changed day)
How to Write a Seminar Paper (Anjaria)
“The Clockwork Muse” [ch.2; Latte]
More oral presentations
November 30:
Oral presentations; and open session for student concerns and questions
Assignments
(subject to modification based on student input and emerging conversations)
Discussion Forum: Please post (at least) once prior to every session (by 10 pm the previous night; please make sure to read everyone else’s posts before coming to class on Wednesday mornings). The expectation is very open-ended: a comment or a question is welcome; so is a recommendation for an article or a way of thinking that has proved helpful for you in thinking about your work, or abut the profession/vocation of scholarship. Thoughtful responses to others’ posts are also welcome. The point is to have an ongoing conversation that spills out beyond the short time we have with one another every two weeks.
Academic Intermurals: From the Mahindra Humanities Center to the Boston College Irish Studies Center to [your favorite Boston seminar or center here] there are a wide range of events organized all over Boston: free-standing talks, one-day conferences, and ongoing seminars where scholars present their work in brief form and discuss it at length with an interested audience. Pick a single event and attend it, then come back and tell us about it briefly. Ideally (extra credit): ask a question and tell us about that. Reports due back to the class: any day between October 2 and November 30.
Oral Presentation: A 7-10 minute presentation, from notes, on a recent conversation or debate in a field that interests you. The point being not so much the substance of what you present on as getting practice in sharing your ideas in public with classmates and getting helpful feedback. Identify a question or problem, explain how it emerged, trace various responses to it, and make a claim for what is at stake in these different responses. Bring a handout with helpful passages or an outline for your presentation. Sign up to present on 11/2, 11/16 or 11/30.
Potential Spring Topics:
Academic Labor; Teaching: Converting Seminar Papers into Conference Papers; What is a Field?;Field Exams; Abstract, Fellowship, and Grant-writing; Conference-going (and Grad Conference debrief); Seminar Paper Workshop (redux)
English 350a: Graduate Proseminar
Spring 2017
Rabb 119 (DuBois)
Class Schedule: alternating Tuesdays 9:30-10:50
(Provisional)
January 24 On Teaching I [Laura Quinney]
February 7What is a field? How to think about field exams [Faith Smith]
February 28 On Teaching II [John Burt]
March 14 Academic Labor (reading from The Precariat) [CarenIrr]
March 28Time management: studying reading notetaking, etc. [Jerome Tharaud]
Thursday April 20 Abstracts, fellowships, grant writing, grad conference recap….
May 2 TBD