Instructor approval required. This seminar satisfies a University-wide requirement that all first-time Graduate Student Instructors take a pedagogy course. It can be taken concurrently with a first teaching assignment or in the semester before beginning teaching. The class will encourage you to think in larger terms about the function of pedagogy in art history–what we learn, what we teach, who we are as teachers in this field. You should learn how to lead a good section and how to grade exams effectively, but also how to help students think and write in visual terms, how to guide them to a more critical mode of reading, how to direct them in independent research, and how to ensure that they work to the best of their potential.
Beyond that, this class is a pre-professional workshop, designed to help you plan what your teaching will be like when you are designing and instructing courses on your own. Throughout the semester you will be thinking about a class that you would like to teach some day in your field. You will make up paper assignments and exams for that class, and eventually you will draft a syllabus and part of your first lecture for that class. Your final project will be a “teaching portfolio” which will incorporate your syllabus, assignments, and a “teaching statement” explaining your personal philosophy of teaching. We will also be talking about the job market, interviewing, and job talks.