Seminar Introduction

Jeffrey P. Smith

Hi! Nice meeting you! Could you introduce yourself? What department are you from? What courses are you teaching or have been teaching? What are the classes you teach like, such as format or class size? Is there anything you want to tell us about your teaching, research, or other projects

Hi, my name is Jeffrey Smith and I teach in the Department of Modern Languages and Comparative (CMP). I’ve been at Baruch since roughly 2015 and taught CMP 2800 and CMP 2850. CMP 2800 is Great Works of Literature I, is from ancient times to 1600 and CMP 2850 is Great Works of Literature II, is from 1600 to the present.

These courses combine notions of great works, or the pedagogical philosophy of the “Great Books” with a notion of World Literature, diverse works produced around the globe which express both our collective human identity and the distinct characteristics of diverse times, places, cultures, religions and national identities.

Classes are typically around 30 students. The class format combines powerpoint lectures with the Socratic Method of question-answer, in addition to reading portions of the text aloud as a point of departure for group discussion. Occasionally students are broken into groups to present certain texts, or present prepared portions individually as an oral presentation to the class.

My research interests which are occasionally reflected in course content center around literature as a source of moral knowledge and the intersection of literature and politics. Additionally I am interested in the historical trajectory of the development of accounts human beings have collectively provided for themselves starting with the ancient development of poetry and myth, to the birth of philosophy and history, and then to the development of modern natural science which has served as the dominate means of explaining phenomena to ourselves up to the present. Today, literature is no longer the source of truth about the world as it was in ancient times. I am interested in the role and place of literature today, particularly as a source of truth, in the face of the dominance of the scientific world-view, or scientism, with its mathematical language and its Method.

Could you talk a little bit about that course you’ll be working on during this seminar?

I will be working with CMP 2800 Great Works of Literature I, from ancient times to 1600 because it is the primary course I teach at Baruch.

What are the listed learning goals of your course? They could be ones provided by the department, or ones that you have written for your syllabus?

The central goal of this course is twofold. First, is to expose students to great works of literature, including historical context, common themes, specific genres, and an understanding and analysis of narrative and its structure. Second, is the cultivation and development of the students’ ability to read and interpret texts generally, whether they are “great works”, a scientific study, or the Sunday newspaper. Developing these skills involves breaking down what reading and interpretation are, and providing different strategies to approach a text and determine its meaning.

What class materials are you planning to develop? What goals do you have for them?

At this stage it is an open question. My courses primarily depend on texts, powerpoints and video presentations. I think the specific materials I adapt depends on the type of enhanced student-involved assignments I am able to develop. Certain materials, including certain texts, are more amenable to adapting them to student group or interactive projects, or related forms of enhanced participation.