My students routinely think that I am crazy (heck, they are not really all that shy about spreading the news about my insanity---ratemyprofessor says so!). They especially think so at the end of the semester because it is now that I often repeat to them how much I love my job. I suppose I might be subconsciously doing this to try to influence the end-of-the-semester evaluations, but I try to get those over as early as possible and so most of my proclamations of adoration come post evaluation.
The reason for my semester's end infatuation is seeing the final work product of my students. This tuesday, I nearly burst with joy during class because of one of the final projects. This semester has me teaching a new course (for me) in visual cultural studies. The front end of the course was loaded with the theoretical work of folks like Althusser, Gramsci, Stuart Hall, Roland Barthes, W.J.T. Mitchell et al. My undergrads struggled through this material with frustration but hope. Frustration that it was hard (and considering the reputation of some of the courses in my field, that really took them by surprise), but hope that their moment or moments of epiphany would strike and the clouds would clear. I suppose I was asking quite a bit from them considering that some of this material is more appropriate for an intro grad seminar, but I had faith in them and was, at the end of the day, justified in that faith.
After trudging through the theoretical terrain, we turned to specific topics and forms of visual representation. Gender and advertising, for instance. The final project of the semester was to construct a visual essay (and take the term "essay" very broadly as the door was open for the students to build installations, create web sites, paint, perform, etc.) that combined the compositional strategies of Gregory Ulmer's mystoriography, with a Foucault-inspired sense of genealogy (with a dash of Joseph Roach's take on genealogies of performance) in order to analyze and critique a visual image drawn from a context of popular culture (not including moving images) for it's construction and visualization of race (paying particular attention to the intersections between and among race/gender/class/national identity).
My students have, for the most part, taken this idea and run with it. The first day was a classroom-sized installation that took on the cultural iconography of the Southern Lady. The second day included a beautifully and professionally constructed and edited powerpoint plus audio and video analysis of the continuing awful practice of visually associating African American male identity with various forms of animalistic primitivism (they started with a flyer for a protest event that, and this is so shocking it has to be real, juxtaposed Colin Powell with an ape-like image). This day also included an analysis of the creation of Native Americans as an exotic spectacle, and the whiteness of fashion and fashion discourse. I could go into detail about these projects (and I want to eventually write a pedagogy piece that deals with this), but suffice it to say that each day as they have been drawing to a close, I have both muttered and exclaimed how much I love my job. Not because I take credit for their work, but because it is so incredibly cool to see the wonderful work that my students are capable of.
As often as not, I believe that students rise to a challenge.
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4 comments:
As often as not, I believe that students rise to a challenge. Amen. A-frickin-men. There will usually be some who can't handle the challenge, but in almost every single case that I have chosen to teach a class with higher expectations than I think might be warranted, they have responded admirably. Good for you for eliciting that kind of work from them.
I agree, completely. In my experience, students *want* to learn, and get excited about learning when we're excited about them learning.
Your class sounds fun. I want to be in your class.
This sounds like a great idea! Having taught versions of your theoretical course myself "str8" (i.e. no fun), it can be a slog. But your experience reminds me of a time when I taught a class on race, gender, and sexuality that was focused on cultural production, and the final projects (creative) were amazing, including a video sequel to "Imitation of Life" and a website devoted to sex toys and racial imagery and stereotype. So, when projects and interested students meet, it can be heaven, not leaden :-)
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