| Presentation:
Introduction to Humanities
Dr. Woods began the session by asking all those present to explain
the reasons and motivations for their attending this particular
session. Although the responses revealed a wide range of interests,
the common theme expressed by most in attendance was a desire to
successfully implement (or improve an existing) undergraduate-teaching-focused
postdoctoral program in writing and the humanities at their respective
institutions.
Dr. Woods explained how the first-year curriculum at Stanford is,
in many ways, intended to be an integrated introduction to the possibility
of undergraduates becoming research partners with faculty throughout
their four years at Stanford. The Introduction to the Humanities
Program (IHUM) at Stanford is one of three programs offered to Stanford
freshman intended to achieve this goal. The IHUM Program at Stanford
was set up specifically as an interdisciplinary, team-taught program
with the intention (among other things) of disabusing freshman of
the notion that there exists one single authority who will provide
them with the “right answers.” The idea in IHUM is to
model for students the interrogation of texts from an interdisciplinary
perspective in an effort to engage students as “beginning
partners in research” as they move through their undergraduate
careers, nurturing a sense of critical inquiry, independent questioning,
and the development of their own “voice of authority”
in the introductory core curriculum. The two other components of
this integrated freshman program include the Program in Writing
and Rhetoric, a program that emphasizes research-based writing skills
and which complements the core curriculum, and the Introductory
Seminars Program consisting of undergraduate seminars, taught by
(and centered around the research of) senior faculty, intended to
cultivate mentoring relationships between faculty and undergraduates.
The IHUM Program’s postdoctoral fellowships differ somewhat
from traditional postdoctoral fellowships in the humanities. Postdoctoral
fellowships in the humanities have traditionally included either
(a) programs at liberal arts colleges, or (b) Mellon Foundation-sponsored
research fellowships at research universities.
Figure 1
From its inception, the IHUM Program—created in 1987 as part
of the Stanford Undergraduate General Education Core Requirement—specified
the integration of postdoctoral teachers. The utilization of postdoctoral
teaching fellows was seen as the most effective way to carry out
and achieve the goals of Stanford’s freshman core curriculum.
Figure 2:
The IHUM freshman core curriculum—required of all 1600 incoming
freshman—is a full-year (i.e., three-academic-quarter) curriculum.
The fall quarter offers a ten-week, interdisciplinary, team-taught
course chosen by the student from a field of eight to ten course
offerings. The winter and spring quarters provide an integrated
two-quarter (twenty week) sequence with a disciplinary focus. In
its search for postdoctoral teaching fellows, the IHUM Program looks
for individuals who are scholars in their respective fields, have
demonstrated the abilities to effectively teach freshman, teach
in teams, and work across disciplines outside their areas of specialization.
The courses are designed by members of the senior faculty and reviewed
and vetted by the IHUM Governance Board. IHUM employs 34-36 postdoctoral
fellows, each on three-year terms, about one-third of whom are replaced
each year.
Figure 3:
One reason that the IHUM postdoctoral fellows are indispensable
to the mission of the IHUM Program is that the curriculum, rather
than being text-focused, is focused on the development of the students’
skills in relation to inquiry, oral presentation, writing, and the
“big questions” in the humanities that affect students
on both the personal and intellectual levels. Though students attend
the faculty lectures two hours a week, the predominant mode of instruction
in the IHUM Program are the seminars—led by an experienced
postdoctoral teaching fellow—that meet three hours per week.
The topics studied over the course of the year often focus on controversial
questions surrounding issues of race, religion, moral development,
etc.—all of which are encouraged by the governance board.
But, such topics require experienced postdoctoral teaching fellows.
The national search for the IHUM postdoctoral fellowship is very
competitive. In the last two years, the IHUM Program has received
over 700 applications for the fifteen available positions. Both
the IHUM administration and the senior faculty who design and teach
the courses review the applications. This allows the faculty to
get good matches for the courses across disciplines. Once the quarters
begin, the faculty who teach and design the courses meet weekly
with the postdoctoral teaching teams to discuss the progress of
the course and exchange ideas regarding things such as pedagogical
strategies, the effectiveness of materials chosen for the course,
etc.
Figure 4:
Dr. Woods considers the IHUM postdoctoral program a training program.
The IHUM orientation training, which Dr. Woods sees as both an educational
experience and an investment in the professional careers of the
“transitional scholars” from the graduate level to their
first professional assistant professor job, is centered on discovering
exactly who the freshmen are, where they come from, and what issues
they bring to a freshman humanities requirement. For example, twenty
to twenty-five percent of Stanford freshman end up with degrees
in engineering, a high percentage indeed. Also, Stanford has an
internationally recognized and highly competitive intercollegiate
athletics program. This means that these recruited athletes, many
of whom are bound for professional athletics, are also found in
classes. These student-athletes have a tremendous time pressure
and so the IHUM Program assigns them schedules that do not conflict
with their athletic schedules. Issues such as these are the subject
of IHUM training in an effort to insure that the postdoctoral teaching
fellows gain sensitivity to the circumstances surrounding freshman
within the environment particular to Stanford.
Since the teaching fellows are the ones who see freshman more than
most other instructors or advisers, the fellows are more likely
than others to identify early on problems that a student may have.
The central infrastructure of IHUM provides a resource for teaching
fellows to communicate concerns they might have regarding potential
problems with a particular freshman, in an effort toward early intervention.
IHUM teaching fellows are also trained in working successfully in
teams, in grade-norming within teams, and are exposed to some of
the possible pitfalls they may encounter in teaching outside of
their particular areas of specialization. In addition, the IHUM
Program offers administrative opportunities that also act as professional
development. For example, each course has both a Course Coordinator
and a Technical Coordinator—both paid administrative positions—that
insure that each course runs as smoothly as possible.
Figure 5:
The IHUM Program has three primary benefits for undergraduate education
at Stanford. One benefit is that the IHUM Program offers proven
teaching expertise to work with freshman rather than less-experienced
graduate students. A few years into the creation of the IHUM Program,
a second, unforeseen benefit emerged: that the teaching fellows
could act as a resource in identifying potential at-risk students
early in their freshman year. Third, after their first year of the
fellowship, a number of the IHUM teaching fellows take advantage
of the opportunity to make contributions to the academic advising
of freshman.
Figure 6:
One concern facing the IHUM administration is that of job placement
for its teaching fellows. How can we further support postdoctoral
teaching fellows so that they can go on to secure academic jobs?
After some analyses, the program has discovered that the teaching
fellows have quite a successful placement record with larger, public
universities. This appears to be due to the fact that the teaching
demands placed upon fellows in the IHUM Program are very much in-line
with what assistant professors face in the larger, teaching-centered
public universities, thus making the IHUM postdoctoral teaching
fellow an attractive and more competitive candidate in these markets.
Though highly trained and skilled teachers, the IHUM teaching fellows
are also young scholars. Thus, a second challenge facing IHUM fellows
is that of gaining professional development beyond teaching. In
an effort to promote this development, the IHUM Program nurtures—both
formally and informally—connections between teaching fellows
and faculty members outside of the teaching team. This is particularly
beneficial given the nature of Stanford as a premiere research university.
Nurturing the connections includes funding (from an outside foundation)
for a research leave quarter offered to teaching fellows one quarter
in each of their second and third years of the fellowships. Thus,
the IHUM teaching fellowship is characterized neither as solely
a teaching fellowship nor a research fellowship, but rather as a
hybrid postdoctoral fellowship with an emphasis on teaching.
Teaching Fellow Experiences
Dr. Jones started his presentation by addressing the question of
how, in the face of the teaching demands of the IHUM fellowship,
the fellowship contributes to the professional development of young
scholars in the humanities. He pointed out that despite the somewhat
teaching-heavy nature of the IHUM fellowship, by taking advantage
of the funded research leave quarters, he was able to accomplish
quite a bit in the way of research during his time as an IHUM teaching
fellow. The hybrid nature of the fellowship definitely has advantages
for young scholars who seek the opportunity to gain invaluable teaching
experience while keeping their feet in the research waters. Also,
the IHUM Program supports its fellows with funding for professional
development. These monies can be used for a wide range of activities
including professional association dues, the purchase of research
materials, the deferral of the costs of attending professional conferences,
etc. Further, the IHUM Program also helps fund the costs of the
mailing of professional dossiers during job-hunting season. In addition,
the University provides reimbursement to all regular staff for training
activities related directly to career development through their
Staff Training Assistance Program (STAP). There are a number of
professional advantages to having access to top researchers at Stanford,
and the IHUM Program fosters these relationships and professional
connections between IHUM fellows and senior faculty. Further, all
of the teaching fellows have the opportunity to present their research
at an annual conference of IHUM fellows in which those fellows returning
from research leave get the chance to share their research in a
scholarly forum, further nurturing the professional aspects of the
teaching fellows’ experiences within the IHUM Program in preparation
for professional “job talks”.
For early-career scholars in the humanities it is important to
have an exemplary teaching portfolio when going on the academic
job market. IHUM fellows receive significant support in this area
through the many resources available to them through the both the
IHUM Program itself and through the University’s Center for
Teaching and Learning (CTL) and Career Development Center. In addition,
the experience the fellows gain from the intensity of team teaching
and from leading student-focused seminars three hours per week provides
IHUM fellows with valuable, hands-on teaching experience, making
them that much more attractive to potential employers in the academic
job market.
Fellows receive a number of benefits from being a part of a large,
multi-disciplinary fellowship group. Working closely with colleagues
from other disciplines broadens fellows’ understanding of
the humanities, and exposes them to new works of literature, history,
and art. Teaching in such an interdisciplinary setting enhances
the ability to teach interdisciplinary courses and makes fellows
more attractive on the academic job market. The team-teaching format
provided by the IHUM fellowship also provides an opportunity to
cultivate important people skills through working closely with colleagues
on a common pedagogical purpose.
Dr. Jones concluded his portion of the presentation by addressing
the question of what special qualities, from the perspective of
undergraduate education, the postdoctoral fellow brings to the general
education classroom. IHUM fellows act as models and sometimes mentors
to young future scholars, and serve as bridges between the accomplished
senior faculty and the fledgling students.
Discussion:
Much of the discussion focused on fiscal concerns. It was disclosed
that the cost of IHUM fellows’ salaries was around $45,000
(plus benefits) per fellow. Aside from a financial incentive for
new courses, faculty participating in the IHUM Program are paid
though their respective departments’ budgets. The budgetary
demands of such a hybrid program were discussed and it was acknowledged
that the funding for such programs is somewhat difficult to secure,
even at such a high-powered research university as Stanford. The
importance of the health benefits provided IHUM fellows (as University
employees) was also discussed, and Dr. Woods pointed out how these
health benefits are often the first full-coverage health benefits
the fellows have ever received, an important fact given that many
IHUM fellows come to this postdoctoral fellowship during their child-bearing
years. Thus, the IHUM postdoctoral fellowship can be seen as a way
for the fellows to start both a career and a family. The discussion
continued about further budgetary specifics and it was disclosed
that the fellows receive $800 annually for professional development,
up to $100 towards the costs of the mailing of professional dossiers
during job-hunting season, and $800 in STAP funding.
Though mandatory classes in theories of learning and pedagogy are
not a formal part of the IHUM fellows’ training, the fellows
are required to attend a formal two-week IHUM training seminar that
covers various salient aspects of the IHUM teaching experience.
Also, fellows are encouraged to participate in numerous seminars
provided weekly by the CTL. IHUM fellows are also required to attend
meetings with their teaching teams, held at the beginning of each
quarter, in which they discuss issues and potential challenges specific
to their particular courses.
It was made clear that the CTL provides numerous seminars directed
at the preparation of teaching dossiers including seminars on how
to prepare teaching statements, curriculum vitas, etc. As to the
issue of whether the IHUM Program requires teaching portfolio preparation
for the job market, Dr. Woods pointed out that since the demands
of each discipline (with regard to the job market) are so varied,
the IHUM program cannot reasonably take on this responsibility administratively,
but instead encourages the fellows to prepare their teaching dossiers
on their own. The IHUM Program does, however, facilitate dossier
preparation by offering numerous seminars focused on the preparation
of the dossier under the guidance of the folks at the CTL.
It was noted that though the design and content of each course
is dictated by the faculty in conjunction with the IHUM Governance
Board, the approach to course materials is determined largely by
the background, professional and personal experience, and expertise
that each individual teaching fellow brings to his or her particular
course via the seminars. This gives the teaching fellows a unique
level autonomy not usually found in the graduate teaching assistant
experience. It was further noted that the role of the faculty members
in mentoring the teaching fellows through weekly meetings acts as
a sort of unspoken professional development that is far more valuable
than the faculty/grad assistant relationship.
The nature and demands of the individual IHUM courses dictate which
fellows from which backgrounds will be hired into the program. Current
courses offered in the IHUM Program include classics, English, French,
Italian, religious studies, and philosophy, among others. In their
initial online applications to the fellowship hiring committee,
the teaching fellows are required to list a number of courses they
feel that they are qualified to teach. This allows IHUM administrators
and faculty to assess the applicants’ qualifications and match
the proper number of teaching fellows from various disciplines with
the appropriate courses offered in the IHUM Program. As to the level
of teaching experience of the incoming teaching fellows, it was
explained that most of the IHUM fellows have extensive experience
as graduate teaching assistants, though many have experience in
teaching their own classes in writing programs and core interdisciplinary
general education courses at various colleges and universities.
There are numerous opportunities for the students to interact with
the faulty members one-on-one. These opportunities include meetings
in faculty office hours, course social events, movie nights, pizza
parties, teas, etc. However, since most IHUM students do not go
on to become humanities majors, most faculty members do not end
up working in a research-mentoring relationship with the typical
IHUM student. However, for those students who do go on in the humanities,
there is quite often a strong and early research relationship made,
a connection encouraged by the IHUM administration, the teaching
fellows, and the faculty members themselves.
References/Resources:
Websites
- Stanford University Introduction to the Humanities Program
(IHUM): http://www.stanford.edu/dept/undergrad/ihum
- Stanford University Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL):
http://www.stanford.edu/dept/CTL
- Stanford University Career Development Center:
http://cardinalcareers.stanford.edu/default.htm
- Stanford University Homepage:
http://www.stanford.edu
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