Global Modernist Pedagogies: A Workshop
Friday, 4 December, 2020
12:30-2:30pm EST / 9:30-11:30am PST / 5:30-7:30pm GMT / 6:30-8:30pm CET
Scholarship in modernist studies has, for several decades now, been pushing at modernism’s historical and geographic boundaries. Revising and challenging the field’s coordinates, though, is one thing when we’re producing a piece of scholarship aimed at colleagues who already know the field, its debates, and its boundaries; it’s quite another when we’re introducing modernism to students for whom the field’s historical boundaries, canons and terms cannot be taken as given. This workshop seeks to provide a forum to discuss the challenges and possibilities of incorporating the global turn in modernist studies into college-level courses on modernism, at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. We will ask: how can we design a global modernism syllabus? Is it possible to expand modernism as currently taught, or does global modernism involve the wholesale re-evaluation of teaching in the field? How do we introduce students to texts in foreign languages or from unfamiliar literary traditions, while emphasizing the transnational links that characterize this subfield? How does global modernism look different when taught in English departments, versus area studies departments, versus art history departments (among others)? What classroom strategies and forms of syllabus design and assessment are effective for global modernism?
The workshop will focus on knowledge-sharing among university-level teachers, and is open to anyone who has taught or who is considering teaching modernism, whether or not your teaching to date has taken a “global” turn. Much of the session will be given over to small-group discussions, where we will workshop syllabi and share experiences and ideas. Although our expertise is in literature, we are keen to share ideas with scholars in other disciplines that engage modernism from other angles.
To register for this event, please write to Alys Moody (amoody@bard.edu) and Stephen J. Ross (stephen.ross@concordia.ca) with (1) a short paragraph outlining your experience and background in teaching modernism, and the questions and concerns you hope to explore, and (2) if available, a modernism syllabus for workshopping, by Thursday, 3 December (note extended deadline). Note that the workshop is open to anyone with an interest in teaching modernism; this information is requested to facilitate the running of the workshop and not to select participants. The Zoom link will be provided to registered participants the day before the event.
This event is the final in a series of three events on global modernism, to celebrate the launch of Global Modernists on Modernism: An Anthology. Attendance at previous events is not required to participate in this one, but those who are interested can watch recordings of past events at http://www.centreforexpandedpoetics.com/global-modernism. All events in this series are jointly sponsored by the Centre for Expanded Poetics at Concordia University, and the Literature Program at Bard College.