Faculty Development Plan: Humanities, Classics and Comparative Literature

Faculty Development Plan
Humanities, Classics and Comparative Literature
2008

1. Self-Assessment

I received my Ph.D. from Yale University in 2006 and have now been at BYU for two years. During these two years, I feel that I have largely met expectations regarding teaching, scholarship, and citizenship as detailed below. At the same time, there are significant areas in which I could improve in each of these three aspects, as evidenced by feedback from students, professional colleagues, and my own self-evaluation. In order to meet and surpass BYU’s minimum expectations, there are several goals and strategies that I wish to implement, as I will explain more fully in the sections that follow.

My specialty is seventeenth-century French theater. I am the only scholar working in this field at BYU and, to my knowledge, in the entire state of Utah. Considering the importance of playwrights such as Molière, Corneille, and Racine both to the history of theater and to overall world culture, it is important that I demonstrate enthusiasm in my teaching, rigor in my scholarship, and encouragement and support for those within and without the university who have an interest in this field. The continued relevance, insights, and enjoyment produced by this corpus of plays allows me the chance to prepare myself to serve as a unique resource for my department, university, and community.

2. Teaching

A. Current State

Since arriving at BYU in 2006, I have taught four courses: Humanities 201, 202, 250, and 420. These constitute core courses for our degree program and I anticipate that they will continue to constitute the majority of my teaching in the future. While the overall reaction to these courses has been positive, as demonstrated by student feedback, there are certainly ways in which I would like to adapt these courses to better fit the needs of the students and the learning goals of my department.

In each of these courses, I feel that I am adequately meeting the department’s stated goals of helping students to acquire knowledge and master content. I also think that the students have been encouraged to grapple with the large questions and concepts raised by an interdisciplinary study of the humanities, and have been motivated to continue a lifelong pursuit of humanistic learning. I consider my evaluative methods fair and have been satisfied with the overall classroom performance of the majority of my students. However, I am not satisfied with the role that writing plays in my classes, the level of student writing, or my own evaluation of student writing. I also feel that many writing assignments that I have received demonstrate a lack of critical reasoning skills, appropriate conventions, or even sustained effort. These deficiencies do not necessarily involve content, but instead seem more concerned with higher orders of thinking and learning. My conclusion is that my courses need to move away from a focus on content to a greater emphasis on active learning and critical thinking, larger issues that I wish to address within each of the courses that I teach.

B. Goals

I wish to promote active learning and critical thinking in my courses, and improve the quality and evaluation of my students’ writing assignments. To achieve this, I will:

1. Study pertinent literature on the subject of active learning for ideas in how to develop appropriate classroom activities and assignments.

2. Attend the GE symposium in July and use it as an opportunity to make initial revisions to my Humanities 202 class, which I will teach in the fall. I will specifically work on revising written assignments and classroom activities.

3. Apply to attend the Writing Matters symposium in May 2009 and attend relevant Writing Matters luncheons in order to hear from campus colleagues about how to improve student writing.

4. Develop clearer grading rubrics to be distributed on the first day of class for each of my courses.

The result of these steps should be that my students increasingly fulfill my department’s expected learning outcomes related to effective communication, critical analysis, and clear thinking.

3. Scholarship

A. Current State

An article of mine was selected for inclusion in a book published in November 2007. I had an article accepted for publication in Acta, the journal of the North American Society for Seventeenth-Century French Literature (NASSCFL), scheduled to appear this year. I have also submitted an article to be included in the Cahiers du dix-septième, the journal of the Society for Interdisciplinary Seventeenth-Century French Studies (SE17). All of these venues are peer-reviewed.

My research agenda for at least the next couple of years will build on the work that I already have begun regarding Molière and the evolving notion of authorship in the French seventeenth century. Within this large framework, I will examine more specifically the role and representation of writing and writers within Molière’s plays, the ways that the plays themselves explore notions of originality and influence, and the manner in which Molière plays the role of author in his prefaces and theater. Key to this exploration will be a mastery of the current literature regarding the verbal/visual distinction and the studies examining “page to stage” relationships in theater.

I feel confident that the area in which I am working is relevant and provides further opportunities for publication. Pressing needs, though, include further networking with colleagues outside of BYU, and publication in other, more varied, venues.

B. Goals

My short-term goals in order to address these needs are:

1. Submit three articles for publication to journals other than those in which I have previously published. The three articles I am currently working on are as follows:

i. An article discussing the connection between Molière and Terence.

ii. An article examining the unpublished papers of Jacques Guicharnaud, recently deceased Molière scholar, in which I discuss Guicharnaud’s contribution to Molière studies and his later attempts to reconcile Molière’s late plays with his previous work.

iii. An article examining the role and portrayal of writers and writing within the theater of Molière.

2. Have a paper accepted for presentation at the 2009 NASSCFL conference in New York. If these steps are accomplished, then I will be in good standing to accomplish my longer-term goal, which is to have 8 published articles or book chapters before my CFS review, with a book project developed from my dissertation.

C. Plan

To help me accomplish these goals, I plan on implementing the following:

1. A strict daily work schedule that limits the amount of time that I spend on course preparation

2. Daily research and writing goals

3. Specific focus on networking with colleagues at BYU and beyond for feedback and suggestions

C. Resources Needed

Work on my current articles will necessitate a trip to New Haven, Connecticut, to consult the Pforzheimer Molière collection. I will be applying for funds through the Humanities College. Beyond that, my department has been generous in its support of conference attendance.

4. Citizenship

As a junior faculty member, my service assignments have been light. I have served as a member of the Britsch Lecture committee and continue to do so. I am also currently advising Abbie Rufener’s Master’s thesis on French seventeenth-century gardens and theater. I regularly attend department and college meetings. I am also an affiliate faculty member of the French Department.

I certainly can do more to foster working relationships with colleagues in my own department and other relevant disciplines, as well as interact productively with the wider university community. My plan to accomplish this includes the following items:

1. Weekly attendance at university forums and devotionals

2. Service on the Britsch Lecture Committee, particularly in connection with Howard Bloch’s visit

3. Support for the BYU Theater Department’s production of Racine’s Bérénice in Winter Semester 2009

4. Development of a Theater and Dance emphasis within our degree program

5. Creation of some organizational structure that allows for discussion of scholarship and research with faculty colleagues, either an early modern studies group or a readings group

5. Summary

My first two years at BYU have been stimulating and enjoyable. I greatly value the opportunity to work with my students and colleagues here, and to represent the university in my interactions with the larger scholarly community. I look forward to improving the contributions that I am making in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and citizenship in conjunction with my department’s goals and the overall mission of the university. It is a rare privilege and an honor to work in such a supportive and collegial academic environment, dedicated to the development of academic excellence and spiritual enlightenment.