Subject
Re: Corinne Scheiner shines (fwd)
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Date
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---------- Forwarded Message ----------
Date: Sunday, July 25, 2004 11:20 AM +1200
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
Subject: RE: Scheiner shines
Dear All,
You may be amused to read a long and wry outsider's look at the San Diego
MLA convention ("In the Penthouse of the Ivory Tower") by Gideon Lewis-Kraus
in the July issue of the e-zine Believer, at
http://www.believermag.com/issues/july_2004/lewiskraus.php
This is of interest to Nabokv-L because Nabokovian Corinne Scheiner, a
University of Arizona colleague of Lewis-Kraus's guide, Charles Bertsch, is
about the only person in the article to shine. I have pasted in the
pertinent paragraph. Those who know her will agree that Lewis-Kraus captures
Corinne well.
Brian Boyd
------------------------------------------------
One of the first things I hear about that night, however, is that issues of
tenure are inseparable from issues of pedagogy. Charlie complains that it
doesn't seem fair that your ability to continue working as a teacher depends
on how your tenure committee evaluates you as a scholar. Charlie's colleague
Corinne Scheiner of Colorado College-who has just effervesced for an
uninterrupted half hour about a course on Lolita and butterflies she
cotaught with a lepidopterist, complete with extended camping trips and
campfire Nabokov-reading-sympathizes, but counters that she still thinks
that you have to be actively engaged in the creation of new knowledge, as a
scholar, to take a respected role in its university-level dissemination.
That seems true: from our high-school teachers, we expect only a reasonable
mastery of the basic subject matter, but from our college professors we
demand a substantive personal contribution in their field. It's not an easy
issue to navigate; there's lots to be said on both sides. These tenure
questions throw long shadows over most of the convention's conversations,
and seem integral to understanding what's at stake in San Diego. The big
issue of the Presidential Forum was how to justify the profession to
outsiders; tenure is the process through which a professor justifies herself
to other insiders. Corinne suggests I attend a panel the next morning on
tenure-related issues.
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L
Date: Sunday, July 25, 2004 11:20 AM +1200
From: "Brian Boyd (FOA ENG)" <b.boyd@auckland.ac.nz>
To: "'D. Barton Johnson '" <chtodel@gss.ucsb.edu>
Subject: RE: Scheiner shines
Dear All,
You may be amused to read a long and wry outsider's look at the San Diego
MLA convention ("In the Penthouse of the Ivory Tower") by Gideon Lewis-Kraus
in the July issue of the e-zine Believer, at
http://www.believermag.com/issues/july_2004/lewiskraus.php
This is of interest to Nabokv-L because Nabokovian Corinne Scheiner, a
University of Arizona colleague of Lewis-Kraus's guide, Charles Bertsch, is
about the only person in the article to shine. I have pasted in the
pertinent paragraph. Those who know her will agree that Lewis-Kraus captures
Corinne well.
Brian Boyd
------------------------------------------------
One of the first things I hear about that night, however, is that issues of
tenure are inseparable from issues of pedagogy. Charlie complains that it
doesn't seem fair that your ability to continue working as a teacher depends
on how your tenure committee evaluates you as a scholar. Charlie's colleague
Corinne Scheiner of Colorado College-who has just effervesced for an
uninterrupted half hour about a course on Lolita and butterflies she
cotaught with a lepidopterist, complete with extended camping trips and
campfire Nabokov-reading-sympathizes, but counters that she still thinks
that you have to be actively engaged in the creation of new knowledge, as a
scholar, to take a respected role in its university-level dissemination.
That seems true: from our high-school teachers, we expect only a reasonable
mastery of the basic subject matter, but from our college professors we
demand a substantive personal contribution in their field. It's not an easy
issue to navigate; there's lots to be said on both sides. These tenure
questions throw long shadows over most of the convention's conversations,
and seem integral to understanding what's at stake in San Diego. The big
issue of the Presidential Forum was how to justify the profession to
outsiders; tenure is the process through which a professor justifies herself
to other insiders. Corinne suggests I attend a panel the next morning on
tenure-related issues.
---------- End Forwarded Message ----------
D. Barton Johnson
NABOKV-L