Heidegger the Obscure and Heraclitus the Obscure

Heidegger’s works are useful in teaching undergraduates in a variety of ways besides simply introducing Heidegger as an important figure in the history of philosophy. This paper outlines the role of Heidegger in the structure of my Ancient Philosophy course, an intermediate level requirement in the history of philosophy for the philosophy major at Goucher College. The thematic role of Heidegger in the course is illustrated with the intersection of Heidegger’s and Heraclitus’ philosophies and their related pedagogy of following language in a polysemic movement that can break the spell of sclerotic ordinary language about beings. Both Heraclitus and Heidegger move from the ordinary opining of the natures of things to the enigma at the heart of language. The paper also references the effect of this pedagogy on students with writer’s block, or graphophobia, when faced with their first attempts at serious philosophical writing. I conclude with describing the outcome of overcoming the fear of writing.

The Framework for Information Literacy for Higher Education (in prison): Using the frames to teach incarcerated students

As a sophomore at Goucher College—with a growing awareness of the connections between race, class, education, and incarceration in the United States—I decided to volunteer as a writing tutor with the Goucher Prison Education Partnership (GPEP). GPEP “provides men and women incarcerated in Maryland with the opportunity to pursue an excellent college education” in classes where “students are held to the rigorous academic standards for which Goucher is known.”

Reading, Voice, and Performance

Anne Sexton delivered her last public reading at Goucher College, Baltimore, MD, on October 1, 1974, three days before she took her own life. The high quality, eighty-minute long performance was recorded, but remained unknown until 2005. “Reading, Voice, and Performance” brings the last reading into conversation with some of the better known biographical aspects of Sexton’s last months and days—already familiar to readers of her obituaries and Diane Wood Middlebrook’s biography—as well as with other recordings (Caedmon (1974); Voice of the Poet (2000), etc.) and the work of scholars Derek Furr, Jo Gill, Christopher Grobe and J. D. McClatchy who have written on the nature of Sexton’s self-presentation and public persona(e).