Thread by @raulpacheco

My definition of a great Sunday morning: reading @WmGermano ‘s “Syllabus” with a coffee and a small pack of index cards and my Sharpie pens.

NOW I get why “Syllabus” by @WmGermano and Nichols resonates so much with me:

I, too, have written about the importance of storytelling and narrative as strategies to structure syllabi.

Many of you may recall my 2016 piece in @ua_magazine

In this piece I explained how I construct a syllabus as a narrative - where are we right now and where do I want to take my students?

My own thinking resonates with Germano and Nichols' approach, and I'm delighted that wrote about this.

universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/… via @ua_magazine

I love how @WmGermano and Nichols talk about a syllabus as “a pedagogical contract”.

And yes, syllabi are documents with social and political force.

I have written about the political and social choices we make when we develop syllabi.

raulpacheco.org/2020/02/on-the…

I very clearly and openly and systematically diversify my syllabi.

Doing so is a political statement: "my syllabi/classrooms are spaces of diversified learning"

I've been diversifying my students for years. This has been a conscious decision that often goes "against canon". I don't give much thought about who people think should be the canon. Canonical authors are canonical insofar we construct them into being.
raulpacheco.org/2015/07/integr…

One day somebody asked me: "can you teach an Economic Geography for Public Policy/Regional Planning Development class with only-or-majorly women authors?"

I said: "Well, I don't know, can I?"

Spoiler alert: yes, I can. I've done so in Public Policy, Economic Geography.

raulpacheco.org/teaching/teach…

What an absolute delight to be reading "Syllabus" by @WmGermano and Nichols.

An engaging, kind, generous, sweet read on one of the most bedeviled and at times, hated documents of them. A book that can be read at leisure, but also taken as a workbook.

press.princeton.edu/books/hardcove…

Germano and Nichols' writing resonates with my own thoughts on the topic of syllabus construction and development.

I actually now think syllabi are scholarly products that could and should be taken into account in evaluations. They can also be public goods for other professors.

I share my own syllabi publicly (though I need to be more systematic about this) precisely because I think that there are others coming behind me who might benefit from reviewing how I have taught courses.

I am particularly keen in sharing my syllabi with early career scholars,

... and more importantly, with contingent faculty and graduate students who have a responsibility to teach a course as instructors of record.

I'm a senior professor. It's on me now to make the path of those coming behind me more accessible, easy to traverse. That's why I share.

Really a delightful way to spend the morning. I've corresponded with @WmGermano quite frequently as I've read and written about his two previous books, and I've used them in the courses and worskhops I teach on how to do academic writing.

Grateful.

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NEW BLOG POST: Syllabus: The Remarkable, Unremarkable Document That Changes Everything (Germano and Nicholls) - my reading notes raulpacheco.org/2020/10/syllab…

This thread, in handy blog post form.