Seminar Presentations

 On two consecutive Wednesdays, 12 and 19 October, Andrew and Jeanne gave public seminars at Egerton University: "The Future of Literature in 21st Century Education" and "The Rise of Interdisciplinary Studies and Their Impact on Literary Studies in the US," respectively.

First, the obvious, we use our hands a lot when giving public presentations. We both were actively pointing out features on our Prezi projections, so we have an excuse. If you want to see Andrew's Prezi, it's available at http://prezi.com/jkloldt1jvlv/edit/#0. You may have to sign up to see it, but it should be free.

More important, the talks went well and had excellent audiences of fellow faculty members and students. We followed the format of giving an hour-long talk and then taking questions for 45 minutes to an hour. It seems like a long time, but the presentations sped by, especially because the questions were so engaging.

Andrew talked a lot about the digital humanities and how they are changing our understanding of literature, which translates into new practices for teacher training in the language arts. Jeanne's topic was more expansive. She first introduced the history of disciplinarity (which, going back to Aristotle, was already infused with interdisciplinarity) and then showed how the inter-/multi-/cross-discipline movement in the U.S. is offering new challenges and opportunities for literary studies. Her work in Global Studies over the past two years provided a distinct perspective for seeing this change.

 Now that our presentations are done, we are going to Nairobi this weekend to visit friends and the Nairobi National Park, where we'll do a mini-safari (cameras only). Stay tuned for animal postings!