pedagogy

Call for Papers: Society of Early Americanists 2019 Biennial Conference

February 27-March 3, 2019 in Eugene, Oregon

Panel 1) Teaching Teachers How to Teach Early American Literature

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Panel 2) Teaching Early American Literature in High Schools

Experiential Learning has been described as an innovative approach to pedagogy in the fields of literature, language, and composition. Proponents argue that integrating Experiential Learning opportunities such as public projects, the production of publications, partnerships with local organizations, volunteering, and field trips into the curriculum enable students to connect what they've learned in the classroom to the wider world. But the significance of the concept of experience in the scholarship on experiential learning, although far from self-evident, remains largely untheorized. In Songs of Experience, Martin Jay points out that in modern philosophy the concept of experience has taken on a range of meanings, sometimes to conflicting ends.

Securing a position as a fulltime tenure track professor is difficult but even more so for people with a disability. Despite an increased call for applicants from marginalized populations, people with a disability are more quickly eliminated as potential candidates for fulltime positions, either through direct discrimination or from ablest conventions of the job interview process.

When invited to speak in “the Personal and the Political Panel" as a respondent at the New York University Institute of Humanities conference, Audre Lorde begins with indicating the arrogance of feminist theory to assume that black, third world, queer women would have nothing to contribute to the white , non-queer, privileged, first world discussion. When she uttered her now famous – so famous that one can order a t-shirt , a mug, various paraphernalia with this sentence on it- master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house, Audre Lorde is standing in the most controversial of places and times, confronting the very master in their own house.

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is an approach to education that emphasizes inclusivity in the design of curricula, instructional strategies, and assessment. Inspired by a movement in architecture to create accessible built environments, the UDL framework is intended to foster learning environments that provide welcoming spaces for learners of all types, according to the premise that structural “accommodations” intended to benefit particular students (closed captioning on videos, digital copies of print documents, alternative assessments, etc.) enhance the learning environment for all students. Increasingly, the UDL model is influencing public policy and the pedagogical climate of educational institutions from elementary schools to colleges.