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My Syllabus, My Self My Syllabus, My Self
(about 7 hours later)
Something unusual has happened in the American university system in recent months: The syllabus, long seen as little more than an obligatory academic to-do list, has become a highly charged politicized space.Something unusual has happened in the American university system in recent months: The syllabus, long seen as little more than an obligatory academic to-do list, has become a highly charged politicized space.
As the trigger warning debate rages on, I am tempted to step back and rethink this strange genre of document. As a site where politics, law, logistics and intellect meet, and where the soul of a teacher is most visible to his or her students, the syllabus is not a mere reading list. It is the interface between the institution, the instructor and the student. To me, the new urgency surrounding the syllabus makes sense.As the trigger warning debate rages on, I am tempted to step back and rethink this strange genre of document. As a site where politics, law, logistics and intellect meet, and where the soul of a teacher is most visible to his or her students, the syllabus is not a mere reading list. It is the interface between the institution, the instructor and the student. To me, the new urgency surrounding the syllabus makes sense.
If you are a syllabus fetishist like me, you have a great nostalgia for those days you received your syllabus on the first day of class. The object was endowed with an almost numinous power. From the first moment you held it in your hands (before the digital era when printing out a syllabus didn’t seem to be an environmentally relevant question), your future for the semester crystallized. To nearly all course-related questions posed by the students the answer was, “It’s in the syllabus,” as though it were a holy book.If you are a syllabus fetishist like me, you have a great nostalgia for those days you received your syllabus on the first day of class. The object was endowed with an almost numinous power. From the first moment you held it in your hands (before the digital era when printing out a syllabus didn’t seem to be an environmentally relevant question), your future for the semester crystallized. To nearly all course-related questions posed by the students the answer was, “It’s in the syllabus,” as though it were a holy book.
I’ve been a syllabus-maker since the early 2000s and still get all kinds of thrills from devising these humble documents I hope others will find just as thrilling.I’ve been a syllabus-maker since the early 2000s and still get all kinds of thrills from devising these humble documents I hope others will find just as thrilling.
Syllabus-making is a kind of composting process, a vegetal reworking of the old into the new. Dead authors are resurrected through this process, perhaps put alongside living ones. Indeed, the syllabus operates according to a logic of combinatorics and reprocessing: How can all the knowledge about a particular topic be reconfigured to the benefit of each new generation of students?Syllabus-making is a kind of composting process, a vegetal reworking of the old into the new. Dead authors are resurrected through this process, perhaps put alongside living ones. Indeed, the syllabus operates according to a logic of combinatorics and reprocessing: How can all the knowledge about a particular topic be reconfigured to the benefit of each new generation of students?
A syllabus should have an ageless quality to it. Its themes should be renewably relevant and timeless even when addressing some contemporary problem that has just crept up. The good syllabus does not expire.A syllabus should have an ageless quality to it. Its themes should be renewably relevant and timeless even when addressing some contemporary problem that has just crept up. The good syllabus does not expire.
It is also a historical document. Imagine if we had access to the syllabuses of all of the great thinkers who ever made one. We would be able to take a course with them privately, separated by time but nonetheless plugged into their brains and hearts. (The syllabus is an affair of both.) We could see whom they prioritized intellectually and through which texts or other cultural artifacts they believed a conceptual problem could best be addressed. This unattainable dream haunts me at times. It is also a historical document. Imagine if we had access to the syllabuses of all of the great thinkers who ever made one (for the record, I prefer syllabi, but this paper’s style rules dictate otherwise). We would be able to take a course with them privately, separated by time but nonetheless plugged into their brains and hearts. (The syllabus is an affair of both.) We could see whom they prioritized intellectually and through which texts or other cultural artifacts they believed a conceptual problem could best be addressed. This unattainable dream haunts me at times.
What is a syllabus supposed to do? What are its parts? What is political about it?What is a syllabus supposed to do? What are its parts? What is political about it?
First, it sets parameters and expectations, ties up logistical strings, and establishes an implicit ethic for the course. One quickly gets a sense of the laxness or rigidity of the instructor, of his or her attitude toward hierarchy and punctuality and respect. One might detect a cryptofascist element in the very genre of the syllabus, given its non-negotiability and implicit contempt for democracy. The contents of a syllabus are not voted upon.First, it sets parameters and expectations, ties up logistical strings, and establishes an implicit ethic for the course. One quickly gets a sense of the laxness or rigidity of the instructor, of his or her attitude toward hierarchy and punctuality and respect. One might detect a cryptofascist element in the very genre of the syllabus, given its non-negotiability and implicit contempt for democracy. The contents of a syllabus are not voted upon.
Another way to see it is as a kind of constitution, a set of guiding principles for the community at hand. This binding document is idealist in its belief in an ideal collective. The tone of the syllabus lets us know whether the founding mother or father believes the ideal is actually achievable. How much faith in the people does this constitution display?Another way to see it is as a kind of constitution, a set of guiding principles for the community at hand. This binding document is idealist in its belief in an ideal collective. The tone of the syllabus lets us know whether the founding mother or father believes the ideal is actually achievable. How much faith in the people does this constitution display?
The basic elements of the syllabus: name of the course and its semester, year, meeting place, and time; instructor name, contact info and office hours; required texts or materials; course objectives; weekly schedule; grading distribution, policy and scale. For students, the grading scale feels at times like a quantification of your self-worth. A+ equals “I’m awesome,” C- equals “I suck.” The metrics of your life are represented in the syllabus: how your time will be distributed, how your performance will be evaluated. It is unnerving.The basic elements of the syllabus: name of the course and its semester, year, meeting place, and time; instructor name, contact info and office hours; required texts or materials; course objectives; weekly schedule; grading distribution, policy and scale. For students, the grading scale feels at times like a quantification of your self-worth. A+ equals “I’m awesome,” C- equals “I suck.” The metrics of your life are represented in the syllabus: how your time will be distributed, how your performance will be evaluated. It is unnerving.
Typical syllabuses also include a series of what might be called “institutional statements” about such things as plagiarism or trigger warnings or services for students with disabilities. These sentences move the syllabus into the realm of the legal and the biopolitical. Many high schools and universities have strict policies about how such statements should read, presumably as a way to preserve academic integrity and fairness toward all students but also as a defensive measure against potential lawsuits. The not-so-invisible hand of the institution leaves its fingerprints all over the syllabus.Typical syllabuses also include a series of what might be called “institutional statements” about such things as plagiarism or trigger warnings or services for students with disabilities. These sentences move the syllabus into the realm of the legal and the biopolitical. Many high schools and universities have strict policies about how such statements should read, presumably as a way to preserve academic integrity and fairness toward all students but also as a defensive measure against potential lawsuits. The not-so-invisible hand of the institution leaves its fingerprints all over the syllabus.
The weekly schedule is the meatiest part of the syllabus, the part students hunger for on the first day. One might use the gastronomic metaphor of “pairings” (of food with wine) to describe the clusters of texts that teachers put together in one session to tempt the palate of their students. In my syllabuses, I’ve paired Joan Didion with William James, Voltaire with Italo Calvino, Angela Davis with Chantal Akerman, Montaigne with Vico, Jean-Paul Sartre with Franz Fanon, Descartes with Walt Whitman, and Simone de Beauvoir with “Thelma and Louise.” What is opened up by these pairings — especially the unexpected ones — is a field of hidden correspondences, frictions and affinities. Voltaire read alone tastes very different from Voltaire read alongside Calvino. He tastes a little better, I dare say.The weekly schedule is the meatiest part of the syllabus, the part students hunger for on the first day. One might use the gastronomic metaphor of “pairings” (of food with wine) to describe the clusters of texts that teachers put together in one session to tempt the palate of their students. In my syllabuses, I’ve paired Joan Didion with William James, Voltaire with Italo Calvino, Angela Davis with Chantal Akerman, Montaigne with Vico, Jean-Paul Sartre with Franz Fanon, Descartes with Walt Whitman, and Simone de Beauvoir with “Thelma and Louise.” What is opened up by these pairings — especially the unexpected ones — is a field of hidden correspondences, frictions and affinities. Voltaire read alone tastes very different from Voltaire read alongside Calvino. He tastes a little better, I dare say.
There is also the issue of the syllabus as physical artifact. I pay some attention to the visual elements (Garamond font, justified paragraphs), but I know teachers who put extreme care into the design of their syllabus-as-aesthetic-object. We care about books, about their textures and smells, so why shouldn’t we also care about the beauty of this document whose job it is to care about other books?There is also the issue of the syllabus as physical artifact. I pay some attention to the visual elements (Garamond font, justified paragraphs), but I know teachers who put extreme care into the design of their syllabus-as-aesthetic-object. We care about books, about their textures and smells, so why shouldn’t we also care about the beauty of this document whose job it is to care about other books?
The syllabus-maker is a kind of artist: a maximalist or a minimalist, Baroque-style or modernist, with a penchant toward color or black on white. A few creative syllabuses by famous people have surfaced over the years, and among them, those of David Foster Wallace are probably the most well-known. His syllabuses from the English courses he taught at Pomona College are filled with signature Wallace delight, like this caveat, for example: “For a variety of reasons, I probably will not put specific grades on your work when I hand it back to you. Anyone who has a problem with this should come speak to me personally; I may make an exception for someone with a professionally diagnosed anxiety disorder or something.”The syllabus-maker is a kind of artist: a maximalist or a minimalist, Baroque-style or modernist, with a penchant toward color or black on white. A few creative syllabuses by famous people have surfaced over the years, and among them, those of David Foster Wallace are probably the most well-known. His syllabuses from the English courses he taught at Pomona College are filled with signature Wallace delight, like this caveat, for example: “For a variety of reasons, I probably will not put specific grades on your work when I hand it back to you. Anyone who has a problem with this should come speak to me personally; I may make an exception for someone with a professionally diagnosed anxiety disorder or something.”
Because the process is such a creative one, I had the idea that it would be cool to write a collection of imaginary syllabuses for courses that could never exist. I probably won’t actually write it, but you could imagine the playful glee of putting together syllabuses for courses with strange titles like “Novels by Authors Whose Last Name Begins With B” or “The Aesthetics of Allergies” or “Popular Representations of Cats on Film” or “Famous Men Named Richard” or the three-part course “The ’90s: 1790-1890-1990.”Because the process is such a creative one, I had the idea that it would be cool to write a collection of imaginary syllabuses for courses that could never exist. I probably won’t actually write it, but you could imagine the playful glee of putting together syllabuses for courses with strange titles like “Novels by Authors Whose Last Name Begins With B” or “The Aesthetics of Allergies” or “Popular Representations of Cats on Film” or “Famous Men Named Richard” or the three-part course “The ’90s: 1790-1890-1990.”
As a thought experiment, try putting together your own syllabus. What would your ideal course be called? What would its themes be? What books or films or cultural artifacts would find their way onto your syllabus? What special rules would you make? At the end of it all, I can guarantee it: Your syllabus will be a portrait of yourself.As a thought experiment, try putting together your own syllabus. What would your ideal course be called? What would its themes be? What books or films or cultural artifacts would find their way onto your syllabus? What special rules would you make? At the end of it all, I can guarantee it: Your syllabus will be a portrait of yourself.