Online Coursework, Here We Come!
I’ve received official word that classes at Bemidji State University will switch over to remote learning for an undefined amount of time starting on Friday (3/20). I’d assuming this was going to happen when I talked about this stuff a few days ago, so it wasn’t a surprise. And that means all my little preparations for such an eventuality were spot on. Not that I planned to have in-person classes during a pandemic that has a decent likelihood of killing me (asthma FTW!). With that in mind, I’m scrambling to rework my syllabi, put together online resources for instruction and for student activity, and doing my best to work with the technologies I have available to me. So far, I’ve got the following in the pocket:
The Space Opera Project Continues!
Some of you may recall that I began a database project last year containing space opera novels by women. To date, the list includes nearly 700 novels in the space opera genre. This has come through a combination of my own knowledge and the knowledge of the science fiction community, who have suggested numerous works for inclusion via this form. The goal for this project is two-fold:
Academia During a Pandemic: Hunker Down Philosophy 1B
Almost as soon as I released yesterday’s post on things I’m planning to do in order to survive this pandemic we find ourselves in, things got made real at my university: classes have been cancelled entirely until March 30th. This presents some real challenges. For one, it looks like we’re going to lose two full weeks of classes. That’s a lot of classes. That’s a lot of interesting topics and conversations gone. Poofed out of existence by a totally reasonable response to an absolutely bananapants situation. And so here I am contemplating the types of changes I’ll need to make so the class still…functions. What assignments can I drop? What assignments can I move to “do it on your own”? What things must stay so students meet the intended learning outcomes?
Academia During a Pandemic: Hunker Down Philosophy 1A
COVID-19 is upon us in the good old United States of America. Like many totally great countries, we are really prepared for a global pandemic involving a virus for which there is no direct treatment and which kills vulnerable populations a tad too easily. We’re super prepared. Mega prepared. So prepared it’s like this country is run by very competent people. Believe me. Of course, the only true statement in that paragraph is the first one. COVID-19 is upon us. It is upon many people. And it’s here to stay for a while. In my dreams, the world rallies and kicks this ugly virus to the curb, minimizing the loss of life and paving the way for a glorious future where peoples and nations work together in harmony. They’ll build a new United Nations and form a global exploratory and scientific space organization and band together to revert climate change and pave the way for an era of nearly endless prosperity. We’ll discover new worlds, create amazing new technologies and art, and look back on the past as a shameful and pathetic time. Dream dream dream.
On Space Opera: The Heart of Genre, Forgotten by Scholars
A few years ago, I taught an upper division literature course on American space opera. There were a couple reasons I chose that angle over many other possible science fiction topics I could have taught: It gave me an excuse to teach Ann Leckie, Tobias S. Buckell, and Star Wars. The course was marked as “American literature,” so I had to stick with U.S.-American writers. I snuck some other stuff in, though. It was a subject that I particularly loved (but, as I discovered, which scholars had largely ignored up to that point). It’s that last piece I will talk about here.
On the “Right” Kind of Reviews
One of the things that often bothers me about the reviewing process is the idea that some reviews are inherently more valuable than others. By this, I don’t mean in the sense of the quality of the writing itself; after all, some reviews really are nothing more than a quick “I liked it” or are borderline unreadable. Rather, I mean “more valuable” in the sense that different styles of reviewing are worth more than others. While I think most of us would agree that this is poppycock, there are some in the sf/f community who would honestly claim that the critical/analytical review is simply better than the others (namely, the self-reflective review).