English 350a: Graduate Proseminar
Spring 2017
Rabb 119 (DuBois)
Class Schedule: alternating Tuesdays 9:30-10:50 (except 4/20)
January 24 On Teaching I: Laura Quinney
February 7 What is a field? How to think about field exams: Faith Smith
Gregory Semenza, “Exams” from Graduate Study for the Twenty First Century
[recc. From Ted Underwood, Why Literary Periods Mattered, (Intro, plus “The Invention of the Period Survey Curse”; “The Disciplinary Rationale for Periodization”)]
February 28 On Teaching II: John Burt
Erving Goffman, “The Lecture”
[recc. Gregory Semenza, “Teaching” from Graduate Study for the Twenty First Century]
March 14 Academic Labor: Caren Irr
from The Precariat TK
[also recc. Michael Warner, “Professionalization and the Rewards of Literature” on Fall Latte site]
March 28 Time management: Jerome Tharaud
Zerubavel, The Clockwork Muse Ch.3 (also rec. Ch 2, on the Fall Latte site)
Thursday April 20 Abstracts, fellowships, grant writing, grad conf. recap
[recc. Gregory Semenza, “The Seminar Paper” from Graduate Study for the Twenty First Century]
May 2 TBD
Discussion Forum: Same pattern as the Fall: post a comment or question to Latte before each session, no later than 10pm the night before. I have found the ongoing conversations on a single topic between classmates frequently very helpful, so do feel free to weigh in (even more than once) on other folks’ concerns…
Academic Intermurals: are back…..
Once again, the assignment is to pick any event that has a definite academic focus (the sort of thing you could imagine yourself or a Brandeis classmate giving, in the future) and attend it, then come back and tell us about it briefly. Possible dates: 2/7, 2/28, 3/14, 3/38, 4/20.
Required: ask a question at an event and tell us about that. If you feel truly disinclined to ask a question in person, you can instead email the speaker afterwards with a follow-up…