Comments on: Education theater, old school style. (Really old school!)

By: Ellie

Ellie — Wed, 05 Dec 2012 02:17:35 +0000

Yeah, don’t rub it in! But glad you all get it instead of Sarkozy’s horrific “Maison de l’Histoire de France.”

By: Historiann

Historiann — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 16:04:52 +0000

At least one institution rewards those of us toiling in the relatively distant past.

Yesssssss!!!

By: Ellie

Ellie — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 05:26:05 +0000

@ Indyanna: The divide is the French Rev in the National Archives split, although I’m not sure where they ended up cutting it exactly (1789? 1792?) for this purpose. In this case, the early modernists definitely got the long straw–they get to stay in the Marais, while the modernists have to schlep out to Saint Denis. To be fair, though, even that will be a big improvement for the post-’45 folks who will no longer have to take the one, expensive, o-dark-hundred train out to Fontainebleau. (That’s post-1945, the “history of the present time” in French parlance.)

By: squadratomagico

squadratomagico — Fri, 30 Nov 2012 00:58:45 +0000

I should clarify that few colleagues in my department of History follow this model; I have heard it identified chiefly as a model for large courses in the most of the sciences as well as certain social sciences (Psych, Soc, Com). However, because those are large majors at OPU, it tends to be a dominant form of experience among many undergrads.

By: Z

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 03:43:12 +0000

P.S.

“I’m trying to decide if I would sound smarter or more interesting with “an enormous neoclassical mural” as my backdrop, and preceded by an appariteur, or even just a grad student, to introduce me and clean up afterwards.”

Maybe I am really old school. I had an assistant in a summer class and we did in fact project nice murals on one side of the room.

By: Z

Thu, 29 Nov 2012 03:40:43 +0000

In history I took courses like that from Natalie Davis, Leon Litwack, and Tulio Halperin. They were stellar and used the lecture hall to great advantage. In philosophy Hans Sluga, with two-toned German shoes, gave amazing lectures in a lecture hall. And yes, we had Foucault et al although they had much smaller audiences in US. There were other amazing lecturers slightly less famous, in French Denis Hollier and Leo Bersani. I fail to see what is wrong with any of this. I gave a brilliant co-lecture yesterday, one person then the break then me, and we were all brilliant (last day of the team taught class, lecture riffing from student questions submitted ahead).

By: Indyanna

Indyanna — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 03:30:25 +0000

They did this in London, where early Americanists who worked at Chancery Lane used to be able to snark at early Americanist colleagues who “only” worked out at Kew (and in the process disrupted some nice ecological connections fostered by temporal proximity between the Public Record Office and the British Library). They seem to have also done this at the National Archives in Washington, with the same potential severance between the NA and the Library of Congress. I guess that’s the deal now; make the scholars spend more time commuting, and less time executing. But where in France is the chronological break between early modern and modern?

By: Historiann

Historiann — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:36:05 +0000

Heh–do I sense a prejudice for the Dix-Septiemistes et les Dix-Huitiemistes in this? (If so I’m personally all for it!)

By: Ellie

Ellie — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 00:14:21 +0000

Somehow I managed to avoid the cours magistraux myself, but there was always something kind of fantastical about the idea that you could walk in and hear Foucault, Derrida, or Kristeva in a “seminar” of 200+.

@Indyanna, sadly the AN has abandoned the Hôtel de Soubise for good, so you’re not missing much scrumptiosity. Only the lucky early-modernists will be exempted from the schlep out to the ‘burbs at the very far end of the metro that will shortly await everyone else, thereby stripping archival research in Paris of one of its great appeals: lunch in the Marais! What toll will this take on French studies in the U.S., one can only guess, but it’s hard to imagine it won’t be insignificant.

(And yes, we were spoiled before, but come on–check out that Street View!)

By: Historiann

Historiann — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 17:02:30 +0000

Oh, my God!

A colleague who taught like that in my department would be schooled, at least if they taught that way before tenure

One of the things that makes it hard to teach the way you (and I) do is that in a culture in which it’s routine to skip classes, it’s difficult to get students to come to class without a battery of carrots and sticks. But, ya gotta do what you gotta do.