I walked by a stretch of grass and saw a shriveled figure among the stems. I called out to it. “What has happened to you?” The mishapen body cried back, “There are other worlds inside of my world.” I approached the creature. I took its hand up in my grasp. “There is only this world,”Continue reading “I’m Scared There Are Other Worlds inside of My World”
Category Archives: British Literature I
Ms. Beth
Act 1, Scene 5 Enter Lady Macbeth. She’s alone, reading a letter. LADY MACBETH (reading the letter) They met mein my glory days, and they knew more thanmortal men. I wanted to know what they knew,but they turned into nothing more than nothingness.While I stood wondering, hailed as this“Thane of Cawdor”, as the Weird SistersContinue reading “Ms. Beth”
Things that Work
Go home, 2020, you’re an apocalyptic cascade of oppressive systems freshly exposed (again) by a global pandemic, worldwide #BLM protests, and a corresponding surge in public conversations about Racial Justice and Disability Justice. In other news, I haven’t been blogging in awhile. I have been active on Twitter (@nrhelms), and I’ve been quite busy withContinue reading “Things that Work”
Brit Lit I: the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries
As the start of the fall semester looms closer, my attention has been drawn away from syllabus construction and blogging and toward a lot of the nitty gritty details of teaching: course schedules, Blackboard shells, writing assignments, and of course scheduling service commitments. In the midst of all that, here’s what I currently have forContinue reading “Brit Lit I: the 16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries”
Brit Lit I: The Middle Ages
As I select texts for the Middle Ages portion of my Brit Lit I syllabus, I’ve drawn inspiration from Rebecca Futo Kennedy’s site and from episodes 51 and 52 of The Endless Knot. I find myself continually humbled by how much I need to learn and grateful for the work that others have done. MyContinue reading “Brit Lit I: The Middle Ages”
Minmaxing the Syllabus
Before I continue with my Brit Lit I syllabus recreation, I want to quickly import a concept from my hobby, gaming: minmaxing. Simply put, to min-max is to take a game, system, or scenario, lay out all the possible options, and to assemble the most streamlined set of options for your particular goals. In role-playingContinue reading “Minmaxing the Syllabus”
New Recommendations for EN/Brit Lit I
As my title suggests, the biggest change for the EN Lit I survey this year at UA English is the shift from “requirements” to “recommendations.” Here are the new recommendations I promised to talk about in my last post: British Literature Survey (EN 205, 206) Recommended Guidelines The first thing I’d like to close readContinue reading “New Recommendations for EN/Brit Lit I”
Old RollTide Requirements: Teaching English Lit I at The University of Alabama
As I promised earlier this week, today I’d like to talk about the old requirements for teaching English Literature I at The University of Alabama. I taught my first English Literature I survey (EN 205) in Morgan Hall the fall of my first year as a Ph.D. student back in 2009. I had taught fourContinue reading “Old RollTide Requirements: Teaching English Lit I at The University of Alabama”
Decolonizing MY Syllabus
It’s summer! Or rather, it’s four days until the summer solstice and about smack dab in the middle of the awkward, anxious pause between spring and fall semesters. For those outside of academia, the summer is often seen as a perk of teaching, a pure vacation from the stress of classes and students. As aContinue reading “Decolonizing MY Syllabus”
Sprockets and Springes 