Guidelines for humanities faculty participants in Humanities Hyperlink’s Course Incubator:
Interested in being part of the pilot? Contact [email protected]
1: Craft a syllabus on “The Good Life” (title can vary) which is structured as a response to or interaction with specific ideas drawn from the following books:
[Note: As part of satisfying this step, you may but need not assign these as course texts–it would also work to have students read select sections or perhaps you will opt to create you own PPT to help expose students to the ideas in question]
Faculty will also be invited to connect their individual course pilot to Harvard’s School of Education’s “Project Zero” which places ethics at the center of higher education; faculty wishing to participate in this partnership will be asked to have students complete a portfolio and other assignments focused on the importance of ethics in the good life; more details will be provided.
2: Drawing on your own expertise, select a number of humanities texts and thinkers that you think would pair well with the above ideas. Think of the “pairing” in terms of one or more of the following:
COMPARE | CONTRAST | CRITIQUE | COMMENT | EXPAND
Please work also to ensure diversity in readings (e.g. please avoid all and only White Male Christians, etc.)
3: As part of your course arc, include at least two guest lectures/visits from other humanities faculty–ideally other humanities faculty at your own university, and ideally not solely from your own department. For example, if you are a philosophy professor, consider a guest lecture from someone in history, or someone who works on poetry, etc.
[Your invite can be broad or narrow: On the broad version, since your class is about themes of life and purpose and living well, you can simply ask them to talk with your class about anything in their own discipline related to “living well” or “good life” or “life of purpose”. On the narrower version, perhaps you have a more specific sub-topic on which you know they work related to some particular aspect of your course arc (e.g. perhaps you will be talking about the idea of generosity, and perhaps you’d like your anthropology colleague to speak about Mauss’ work on the gift).]
4: As part of their final (or some other significant) assignment, students will work (individually or in groups, at your discretion) to create user-friendly public materials (some of which–if they grant permission–will be posted on a public-facing digital resource). The materials can range from short 250 word fact sheets or comments to short videos or other short-form content. In particular, they are creating learning materials for readers of the above books, and their goal is to help add value for the reader by highlighting for them humanities insights from the material covered in your class.
5: Additionally, faculty will be invited to a few Zoom chats with the other pilot faculty, and will receive occasional emails and survey links seeking input or guidance on topics as they arise. For example, we will work in a range of synchronic and/or asynchronic ways to discuss some shared assessment outcomes, to assemble some takeaway reflections and ‘next step’ plans (Pessin will oversee), and also to determine answers to questions like: Should we try to have at least one or two shared readings across all the pilots? Can we find ways for the students to learn a bit about all the students involved across the campuses (even if there is no synchronic aspect per se)? Should we guest lecture in each others’ classes (at least by Zoom)? Should we convene for a late Spring panel conversation (which we could record, edit, and put online)? etc.