By Meredith Neuman
September 29, 2015
Recovering Literary Texts, One at a Time
In our third entry of our summer conference roundtable roundup, we look back to a workshop on teaching once-forgotten texts with Meredith Neuman. Neuman is Associate Professor of English at Clark University and author of Jeremiah's Scribes: Creating Sermon Literature in Puritan New England (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013).
It may have been the first panel slot on the first day of the conference, but the “Just Teach One” (JTO) workshop was standing room only. Perhaps half of the attendees had “At Least Taught Once,” but many had “Not Taught Any.” The room was full of enthusiasm for the project—now in its third year—that makes available pdf transcriptions of little-known early American texts and asks instructors to set aside just one day in their syllabus to experiment in the classroom. Neither the workshop facilitators (Duncan Faherty, Andy Doolen, and Ed White) nor the handful of “Have Taught Many” participants in the room claimed any special expertise on the use of JTO texts in the classroom. Rather, the entire session was marked by a spirit of open exchange and the desire for collaborative approaches to implementing the project in the classroom. Read More
