人文中心研究界
This past summer, the 德国 faculty applied For a 人文中心 summer research circle to support each other in projects related to both teaching and research (and the connections between them). 在这篇文章中, we share the specific gains made on individual projects and the broader benefits we found in the collaborative process. 谢谢菲律宾十大彩票平台酒店 人文中心 感谢他们的支持!
研究项目
Kiley今年夏天，我对人文圈的计划是重新审视并重振一个自去年夏天以来一直处于休眠状态的项目. 有机会与我的两位同事讨论正在进行的工作，这有助于我在会议召开前的几周内专注于大大扩展之前的草稿. 在论文中, I analyze a 德国 novel from 2017 that tells multiple stories of people who all live in the same apartment building, focusing on the multispecies interactions between people, 植物, 以及每间公寓里的动物. I originally wrote a version of the paper For a conference panel on 植物 in literature, 但是Juliane和赛斯的反馈让我意识到，对于这个扩展的项目来说，我的分析方法过于狭隘地集中在植物上，还有其他重要的主题可以让分析更有成效. 在他们的帮助下, I have been able to reconceptualize the project and will submit the article For a special issue of a journal in 德国 studies. 在早期阶段分享我的工作，与同事讨论不同的研究和写作方法，这是非常有帮助的.
集h: For the session in which we discussed my summer research, I decided to focus on an article I have been preparing about two documentary films, 追逐冰 (2012)和 徒手攀岩 (2017), in relation to ideas from digital film theory and environmental humanities scholarship. I had been planning the article For over a year as part of a collected volume of essays about Global Mountain Cinema, but until this summer it was never my top priority. 当我今年夏天终于写完这篇文章的时候, I was able to plan a discussion with Juliane and Kiley two weeks beFore the deadline, which gave me a strong incentive to have a complete draft ready with some time remaining For editing. 我们讨论的草案很粗糙, but it was enough to help me hear from Juliane and Kiley about what aspects were working, 似乎还需要更多的工作, and what seemed to be too far afield and should be deleted. 具体地说, it became clear that I was spending too much time discussing secondary literature and theoretical background. 朱莉安娜和基利都发现，最有效的部分是仔细阅读特定的电影片段，这些片段使用数字技术来创造看似自然的环境的非凡描绘. Beyond trimming away excess background discussion so that these passages are more in focus, the input from Juliane and Kiley helped me to refocus on the central argument that seemed to lie at the core of my paper, which (as is often the case) was not the same argument I had thought I was making when I had begun writing the paper. 简而言之, 协作写作的过程给我带来了一个最初的好处，它迫使我完成初稿，以满足我们(自己设定的)截止日期, and then proved enormously beneficial at figuring out exactly what I was trying to say, 以及我怎样才能更有效地表达出来.
Juliane: The research-focused sessions had a dual purpose For me: on the one hand, 我渴望听到我的同事们是如何进行他们的研究活动的，这样我就可以深入了解其他学者的最佳实践. After publishing four articles in the last two years, I had run into a writing block that made it very hard For me to find it rewarding to work with the material I had in front of me. 另一方面, I needed concrete feedback on my current research agenda to prepare a grant proposal For an upcoming sabbatical. In this context, I sought my colleagues’ guidance to connect my activism better with my writing. While listening to Kiley and 赛斯 talk about their research, I appreciated their insights into how they moved from the idea to the project state. I learned about resources that had not yet been familiar to me, such as certain institutions that could support someone in their writing journey. 在会议期间致力于我的工作, 我向赛斯和Kiley展示了我关于德意志民主共和国职业母亲及其子女的研究问题，并将这些想法与我对当代母亲身份的兴趣联系起来. Then, they both helped me to hone in on a theme that seemed to pervade my inquiry into the topic. Brainstorming out loud with my colleagues allowed me to put the many pieces into a coherent whole. Kiley和赛斯指出了我之前和现在讨论的研究议程之间可行的联系，并For下一步提出了建议. I immediately felt invigorated to return to my writing desk. While I came into the session considering multiple ways to approach my topic, 赛斯和Kiley的问题和评论让我找到了一个具体的方法，然后在考虑我的拨款申请时，我把这个方法具体化了, which I will have submitted by the time this post is online.
教学大纲车间
赛斯今年秋天我要教一门新的a&I seminar about the idea of “home” that includes an Academic Civic Engagement (ACE) project. 这门课需要大量的写作, 包括各种元素，以支持学生发展新的学术技能，并意识到可以在菲律宾十大彩票平台支持他们的资源, and involves various activities through the ACE project that engage with the broader community in Northfield. Juliane和Kiley帮助我理解了这门课程对一年级学生的看法:它可能会让人觉得课程太多了, 而且可能被视For势不可挡. 事实上, 我以这种方式设计课程的目的是向学生展示许多不同的方式，让他们找到支持，并参与多个社区，以便在菲律宾十大彩票平台茁壮成长。因此，与朱莉安娜和基利的对话对思考如何清晰地沟通期望非常有帮助, 支持, and scaffolding that the course includes in order to make sure that students can succeed. 让他们以局外人的眼光看我的教学大纲——以及他们在课程规划和作业设计方面的专业知识——对那些没有花整个夏天时间思考我的课程的学生来说，这对他们了解我的课程会是什么样子非常有帮助!
Kiley今年秋天，我将在柏林的OCS项目中教授一门名For“动态德语:移民”(德国 in Motion: Migration)的课程，我渴望得到关于课程大纲的反馈, 的地方, 和位移. 在规划这门课程时，我没有预料到的一个主要挑战是，如何将我们阅读的不同文本与参观的不同博物馆结合起来, 远足, 客座演讲, 戏剧表演, 以及柏林的其他活动. 我已经预定了很多这样的活动，我觉得我是在试图把文本塞进一个预先设定的难以访问的顺序. Juliane and 赛斯 clearly picked up on the muddled trajectory of the class; its somewhat chronological order seemed to suggest a narrative about migration that could have contradicted the main thesis of the course! 我聪明的同事建议围绕不同的车站和地点重新组织课程，而不是以前的结构. This cleared an immense roadblock I was having in planning the course and I am so grateful For their input. They also helped me think through some assignment designs, 这在这门课上尤其棘手，因For我有只学过一年德语的学生在上200级的课程，而有将要上300级课程的学生. Now I can’t wait For the first day of class in Berlin!
Juliane: For the syllabus part of this summer research circle, I hoped to get insights from 赛斯 and Kiley on two courses I will teach again in the near future, 细菌320, an advanced course in 德国 about life under socialism that I had only taught online during the first year of the pandemic, 和GERM 221, a course in translation about life in Vienna around 1900 that centers around representations of women. I had reworked this class from its first iteration with a focus on inclusion, diversity, and equity. 我的同事们发现，我把教学大纲上的每一篇课文都放在语境中，并给出了我For什么把它们分配给某个主题的理由，这对我很有帮助. Both reinForced that I should always think about scaffolding, not only in the assignment structure but also in giving examples and providing guidance For skill acquisition. 他们建议改进作业结构，以澄清学生在写作过程中可能遇到的一些问题，并使任务更清晰. 当提到阅读清单时, I particularly grappled with the question of connecting readings from a different era (East 德国y, 维也纳，1900年)和当代文本. 赛斯和Kiley就如何在保持比较方法的同时支持学生在两个时间框架内获得扎实的知识给了我有用的建议. 其中一个建议——根据主题而不是按时间顺序提供课程的方法——帮助我更深入地思考我的课程材料，并开发出能够帮助学生更有效地将课堂材料与他们自己的生活联系起来的课程. 在一般情况下, 我发现与同事讨论教学大纲非常有帮助，因For设计课程常常是一项孤独的任务，我不确定我是否充分满足了学生的需求和兴趣，以及我的教学目标和愿望.