Teaching the Literature Survey Course

Do you teach a survey course? Read on! As the “Crisis in the Humanities” continues, English departments and faculty in turn find themselves in "crisis mode" as waning major numbers, rising tuition, unmanageable course scheduling, and the vestiges of COVID seem to be shifting the foundations of our pedagogy. Take the standard literature survey course as a case study of this multivalent phenomenon.  The goal of this roundtable aims to both interrogate the apparent demise of these foundational literature classes and brainstorm ways to resuscitate the "survey" in order to democratize the working and teaching conditions for all faculty and students. What texts should now be used? What authors should be covered? How do we rethink the breadth and depth of course assignments for students from a variety of backgrounds and experiences? What do we owe our courses, our histories, our students, ourselves?

If you are an instructor teaching a survey course at your institution and are interested in participating, please send a 200–300-word blurb about what you'd like to approach at the roundtable along with a short bio to Michael Modarelli (mmodarelli@walsh.edu) by August 5th. Prepare for a ~15 minute talk with discussion.

Chosen participants will be notified by 8/10.