| Popis: |
American studies is in part characterized by long-standing debates over what the field is, was, or can be, but such debates are temporarily resolved the moment we each enter the classroom to actually teach it. We may introduce the contours and history of those disciplinary debates in our courses, but when we stand before our students on that very first day of class, we are pressed to start teaching American studies in a way that makes the most sense to us individually. Whatever academic department or grade level we may call home, if we consider ourselves to be American studies teachers, then our particular syllabus and our teaching style in effect become American studies for the students sitting in that room during that semester. Given this shared experience, it is surprising that our field s penchant for asking "What is American studies?" does not lead us more often to the related question, "How do you teach American studies?" Both questions, of course, raise the specter of having to define a discrete methodology for a field that may or may not have a method. Both questions also oblige us to draw distinct boundaries between what American studies is and what it decidedly is not. But because the question "How do you teach American studies?" necessarily focuses the discussion around concrete classroom practice rather than abstract conceptualization, it |
