Seminar Directors

Jillian Sandell
 Associate Professor of Women and Gender Studies
San Francisco State University


Charlie Bertsch Writing Program
Arizona State University


Seminar Description

The seminars on pedagogy at the 2011 meeting of the Cultural Studies Association in Chicago were both well attended and very rewarding for their participants. Despite significant differences in the institutional context and disciplinary training of those involved, it was clear how much they had in common. Wishing to build on this recognition of our solidarity as teachers and the realization that our diverse backgrounds and situations are a significant advantage, we aim to pursue one of the most discussed topics from last year’s seminars in greater depth: how to produce a syllabus commensurate with students’ experience, interest and financial realities without sacrificing what we think makes Cultural Studies worthwhile.
Since the 2011 pedagogy seminars were especially productive when participants discussed how they identified and solved problems of both a practical and theoretical nature, we are calling for teachers of Cultural Studies to think hard about what has and hasn’t worked for them in the classroom and detail two problems they have had with syllabus construction: one which they have adequately resolved and one which continues to give them difficulty. In both cases, the emphasis should be on presenting the problem in such a way that other participants are encourage to provide their input.
Possible topics include – but are in no way restricted to – those broached in last year’s pedagogy seminars:
• How to integrate theoretical background materials into an introductory course;

• How to determine what constitutes a “canonical” text in Cultural Studies and then use it effectively;

• How to responsibly teach sensitive or challenging content;

• How to determine the proper amount of work to assign week-to-week, given the reality of students’ lives and schedules;

• How to integrate New Media into the classroom without dispersing attention;

• How to balance the need for contemporary relevance with the fact that older course materials are often more accessible;

• How to manage the institutional pressure to do a traditional discipline justice with the desire to reimagine it in a Cultural Studies framework;

• How to include a range of media without allowing technological considerations to determine a course’s intellectual core.

Application Process

Please send a paragraph summarizing what you would like to share in the seminar and a brief biography to Jillian Sandell and Charlie Bertsch. Those selected for the seminar will be asked to flesh out their two problems with syllabus construction at greater length.