Teaching Tools

Tips, Tricks, and Tools of the Trade

Human-Animal Studies – The ASB Editors’ Favorite Picks (Part II)

By Maria Moss

Clau­dine André with a bonobo. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_language#/media/File:Claudine_andre.jpg

When we think about rela­tion­ships between human ani­mals and non-human ani­mals, we often think of the rela­tion­ship between guardians and pets. How­ev­er, there’s so much more to the top­ic. This week, I’ll con­tin­ue our series on Dig­i­tal Amer­i­can Stud­ies by shar­ing with you some won­der­ful videos on human-ani­mal stud­ies I found use­ful for under­grad­u­ate class­es. When­ev­er I teach eco­crit­i­cal the­o­ry – for instance my project sem­i­nar, “Study & Save: Eco-Crit­i­cal The­o­ry in Action” – I make sure it always has a prac­ti­cal com­po­nent. And even in sem­i­nars on North Amer­i­can cul­ture, eco­crit­i­cal top­ics (e.g. frack­ing, plas­tic oceans, defor­esta­tion, and loss of species) are always part of the deal.

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Digital American Studies – The ASB Editors’ Favorite Picks (Part I)

By Sabrina Völz

Cred­it: “Netiquette1” by Helen DeWaard

Every­one is writ­ing about the shift to dig­i­tal teach­ing in wake of the coro­n­avirus cri­sis. The focus on Twit­ter and diverse blogs seems to be main­ly on how to use var­i­ous con­fer­enc­ing and dig­i­tal tools, such as Zoom, Flip Grid, and Padlet. Since both Maria and I live in some­what rur­al areas with unbe­liev­ably poor inter­net con­nec­tions, com­plete home office is not a pos­si­bil­i­ty for us, and we are won­der­ing how many stu­dents will have prob­lems to use tools that require a high-speed inter­net con­nec­tion. Those stu­dents won’t have the oppor­tu­ni­ty, though, to make use of uni­ver­si­ty resources as we can. For that rea­son alone – and we are sure there are many oth­ers – most of the advice columns say to keep dig­i­tal class­es sim­ple and syn­chro­nous learn­ing lim­it­ed. We would, there­fore, like to offer our read­ers a few sug­ges­tions for the teach­ing of Amer­i­can Stud­ies that may ease the bur­den. Why re-cre­ate the wheel when you don’t need to?

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Teaching Human-Animal Studies: An Interdisciplinary Symposium

Ani­mals are all around us. But what do we actu­al­ly mean when we say “ani­mal”? We are, of course, also ani­mals: human ani­mals.  

In recent years, ani­mals have entered uni­ver­si­ty life, and  schol­ars in fields as diverse as art, philos­o­phy, and reli­gious stud­ies approach ani­mals from dif­fer­ent angles and method­olo­gies. Ani­mals are to some extent invis­i­ble until they enter the realm of the human. Then they become pets, cat­tle, or lab­o­ra­to­ry ani­mals.  

Are you curi­ous? Could this sub­ject enrich your teaching cur­ricu­lum? Then why don’t you join us at Leuphana Uni­ver­si­ty from Jan­u­ary 23 to 25. For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, includ­ing reg­is­tra­tion details, see the pro­gram.

German American Day – Celebrate 336 Years of German American History

By Sabrina Völz

Pho­to cred­it: “Herr und Frau” by Phil Davis NY

Although the Unit­ed States has great­ly impact­ed pol­i­tics and pop­u­lar cul­ture around the world, it should not be for­got­ten that Ger­man immi­grants have also influ­enced Amer­i­can cul­ture since the found­ing of Ger­man­town, now part of Philadel­phia, 336 years ago. Octo­ber 6, 1683, marks the first Ger­man set­tle­ment in North Amer­i­ca. Instead of cel­e­brat­ing the pop­u­lar hol­i­days famil­iar to most stu­dents, such as Hal­loween or Christ­mas, per­haps it is now more than ever impor­tant to remem­ber the close ties between our two nations. I have put togeth­er a few ideas for a les­son on Ger­man Amer­i­can Day.

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Introduction to Literature: Robert Coover’s “A Sudden Story”

By Sibylle Machat

Intro­duc­tion to Lit­er­a­ture. Fic­tion. The ses­sion on nar­ra­tive per­spec­tives – some­thing that teach­ers often love, but first year lit­er­a­ture stu­dents just as often dread (close to the hor­rors of met­ri­cal feet in poet­ry). Nev­er­the­less, the syl­labus calls for a dis­cus­sion of either Franz Stanzel’s nar­ra­tive sit­u­a­tions, Ger­ard Genette’s nar­ra­tion and focal­iza­tion, or both.

What can we do to make all of this at least a lit­tle exciting?

Sibylle Machat’s per­son­al copy of Robert Coover’s “A Sud­den Sto­ry.” In: Robert Shep­ard, Ed. Sud­den Fic­tion. Amer­i­can Short-Short Sto­ries. Gibb M. Smith: Lay­ton, 1986.

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American Studies Blog Contest

“pen_mesh_bw” by Sean Bid­dulph is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

As we approach the 5th anniver­sary of the Amer­i­can Stud­ies Blog (http://blog.asjournal.org/), we decid­ed to cel­e­brate by ask­ing you – our read­ers – to par­tic­i­pate in the joy­ful occa­sion of our first blog competition.

Although blog­ging has changed over the years, it’s still a great plat­form to voice your ideas and share con­tent with peo­ple around the world. Now choose a top­ic that fits into at least one of three zeit­geisty cat­e­gories and try your talents:

  • Access Amer­i­ca (Pop­u­lar Cul­ture, His­to­ry, and Cur­rent Events)
  • Best Books & Fab­u­lous Films (Reviews and More)
  • Teach­ing Tools (Tips, Tricks, and Tools of the Trade)

And remem­ber: The sky’s the limit.

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