scholarly journals Narrativising a Department of English

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (3) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
M M Padmakumar ◽  
J Gaana ◽  
Mohan Kunjukrishnna Pillai

The Department of English in a country like India too often witnesses contestations of varied kinds. Debates range from Macaulay's prod to the madness of the method and beyond. Identity crisis - that of the department and that of its members - is one such problematic context. Sidestepping desires to sing notes of self-congratulation, this paper attempts to self-reflexively critique the values, aspirations, practices and its resultant consequences in the Department of English, Christ University, Bangalore. Such a critique will look at specific issues, concerns of, and about English Studies at Christ, based on three experience-enabled narratives. The first narrative aims at exploring 1. complexities of a fresh “pocopomo” (postcolonial-postmodern) English Studies teacher in such a reputed, metropolitan institution, 2. complexities of locating Cultural Studies within an English Studies framework in the institution, and 3. complexities of studentship in such a context. The personal is always treated with a sense of suspicion and accompanied by a supposition that it may not be authentic. Humanities - despite the growing disrespect it faces - is one of the last bastions where the personal is not looked downupon. However, when it comes to research, even Humanities expects the shedding of the experiential and the personal, assuming that critical rigour is likely to get compromised. As the authors of this article, it is our firm belief that listening to personal experience will open doors to unexplored critical insights. We are deeply aware of the dangerous terrain we are treading in and hence we have titled it as "narrativising...", signifying the subjective takes involved. Further, the idea of giving multiple accounts coming from different standpoints (that of a new faculty, a moderately experienced faculty and a student) is to highlight the plural nature of experiences and perspectives. Keywords: English Studies; Higher Education; Cultural Studies; English Departments

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 87-113
Author(s):  
María José Gómez Calderón

This paper examines students’ perspectives on the challenges raised by their first encounter with EMI pedagogy in higher education. The research was conducted with a group of beginner students with no previous experience in monolingual instruction in English. The case studied is based on two English Cultural Studies subject courses of the English Studies Program at a Spanish university and taught in a learning environment of total linguistic immersion. By activating their metacognitive and metalinguistic awareness, students were encouraged to take ownership of the stages of their learning process and assess it critically. Set at the intersection of EFL, ESP, and EAP, the specificities of these courses comprising linguistic and non-linguistic contents shed light on the teaching procedures employed in English Departments training programs, whose goals are to turn undergraduates into expert linguists and philologists and maximise their communicative proficiency in academic English.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Rizki Setyo Nugroho ◽  
Muhammad Taufiqurrohman ◽  
Lynda Susana Widya Ayu Fatmawaty

This research is aimed to figuring out the fanaticism from the members of an action figure community in Purwokerto called “Figure Purwokerto”. “Figure Purwokerto” community is an action figure community located in Purwokerto, Central Java, Indonesia. The total of the member is about 241 people from different age and culture. The researchers use focus group discussion and interview as the method to gain the information that the researcher needed for research purposes. The researchers applies some theories in order to obtain further analysis related to the issue. Fanaticism theory is used to figure out the fanaticism of “Figure Purwokerto” community’s members. Another theory, the Cultural Studies: Cultural Consumption Research, is added to make a deeper analysis about the consumption of culture from the members of the community. The scope of this research is cultural studies under the umbrella of English Studies which relates to  American culture and supremacy with action figure as the media. Furthermore, the disscussion of this study is divided into two main parts which correspondent with the fanaticism happened in Figure Purwokerto community. The first part explains the portrayal of the fanaticism from the members of the community. The characteristics of a person can be said as a fanatics are included in this part. The second part explains the cultural relation between the members and the action figure as a culture. The result of this research concludes that the members are fanatic based on several aspects and characteristics of a fanatic. This research was also conducted to make another prespective of fanaticism which is seen as a bad term due to it’s relation to religion fanaticism. 


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Michał Organ

The study is focused on translation technology within the system of higher education in Poland, specifically English Studies offering translation specialization at BA and MA level, as well as postgraduate studies aimed at translators of English. The conducted analysis of translation curricula of Polish universities investigates the presence of courses devoted to the use of translation technology and seeks to determine whether such courses are offered at a given level of higher education, where in the system most of the courses are placed, and when they are mostly organized. First, however, a brief overview of different aspects determining the inclusion of translation technology in curricula are discussed. Here, the main stress is placed on its importance for the translation markets, the skills and knowledge obtained by students entering the market which are desired by translation agencies, elements affecting the selection of given translation software, the necessary infrastructure to run such courses, the costs of the programmes, ‘human resources’, the policies of universities, etc. The short discussion is followed by an analysis of the available courses, with each section devoted to one of the levels of the Polish higher education system, namely BA, MA and postgraduate studies. The courses within each level are briefly compared to provide some general tendencies for each type of studies. The final, concluding part of the study summarizes the results and stresses the need for further introduction of translation technology into translation curricula.


boundary 2 ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (1) ◽  
pp. 139-176
Author(s):  
Joe Cleary

Though canons and faculty have greatly diversified in recent decades, English departments around the world fundamentally prioritize English and American literatures. To this extent, they resemble the Anglo-American imperial commonwealths that some toward the end of the nineteenth century advocated for in order to stave off the decline of the British Empire and to shore up a permanent Anglo-American supremacy against all threats. Still, as the English language becomes “global,” English departments today founder for a variety of reasons and convey a persistent sense of crisis. Has the time come radically to decolonize the English department, not only at the level of curriculum but also in terms of its basic organizational structures to facilitate the study of anglophone literatures now planetary in reach? If so, how might this best be achieved in the British and American core countries and also in the more peripheral regions of Anglophonia?


Author(s):  
Lenora M. Hayes

Contingent faculty are an important part of the workforce in higher education because they are mainly tasked with teaching entry-level undergraduate courses. However, there is not much knowledge regarding their rise to majority faculty appointments in U.S. colleges and universities, the constitution of this new faculty, the past and present issues they face regularly, or what the future holds for them. This chapter will review the literature about the historical growth of non-tenure-track hiring in U.S. colleges and universities, provide a description of the composition of this faculty, and outline specific issues they deal with while addressing opportunities advancement as well as their overall satisfaction with their work conditions.


Author(s):  
Sonya Borton ◽  
Alanna Frost ◽  
Kate Warrington

As Jacqueline Jones Royster articulated at the 2006 Conference on College Composition and Communication, English departments are already assessing themselves and should resist suggestions by the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education that a standardized method of assessing students and programs in higher education is needed. In the fall of 2006, the University of Louisville was due to be reviewed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The First-Year Composition program chose to conduct an internal assessment in the fall of 2004. This chapter details the Composition program assessment conducted at the University of Louisville and includes a comprehensive analysis of its rationale, theoretical foundations, methodologies, and results. This chapter also articulates the difficulties of such a large-scale assessment as well as the uniquely local challenges faced during the process.


2020 ◽  
Vol 14 (3/4) ◽  
pp. 209-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer Van Allen ◽  
Stacy Katz

Purpose Open Educational Resources (OER) are learning materials openly licensed so that others may retain, reuse, revise, remix or redistribute (the 5Rs) these materials. This paper aims to raise awareness of OER by providing a rationale for using these learning materials and a strategy for educators to get started with OER during the collective crisis and beyond. Design/methodology/approach Using a broad research base and anecdotes from personal experience, the authors make the case that OER improves student access to learning materials and improves the learning experience in both PK-12 and higher education contexts. Findings The authors define and describe the benefits of OER to provide practical suggestions educators can implement during the pandemic and beyond. Practical implications To support educators in finding and using OER, this paper highlights repositories that include a breadth of various learning materials across subject areas and educational contexts. The authors provide specific suggestions for finding, personalizing and contextualizing OER. Originality/value This work not only provides an overview of OER with particular considerations for educators during the COVID-19 pandemic but also makes the case that OER should be integrated into classrooms beyond the pandemic.


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