Lilly awards to yield new, remodeled courses

New or revised courses in literature, women’s studies, popular culture, language acquisition and theater education will be options for students soon.

At the moment, the classes are starting development as Lilly Award projects. Seven faculty, already distinguished scholars and teachers, have been named Lilly Teaching Fellows.

The program, established nationwide by the Lilly Endowment Inc. in 1974 and now funded by the College of Letters and Science, offers one-year grants to promising assistant professors so that they can develop a new undergraduate course or redesign an existing one. Each fellow receives a small stipend for supplies and course release time. The new Lilly Fellows are:

Mark Csikszentmihalyi, East Asian Languages and Literature, Religious Studies
Forms that Asian writers have used to express religious ideas will be the focus of Csikszentmihalyi’s new course, “Genres of Asian Religious Writing.” Intended as a companion to the currently taught Genres of Western Religious Writing, the new class will focus on the type of writing — tales and history, revelation, commentary — rather than the religion or sect the work represents, Csikszentmihalyi says.

“As the American religious landscape becomes more diverse, having a literacy in Asian religious traditions will become more important. I think an even more important issue is how these traditions will be introduced. I’m trying to avoid teaching them as autonomous faiths and preserve the fact that, at many points in Asian history, they often were practiced and read across cultures,” he says.

David S. Danaher, Slavic Languages and Literature
Danaher will create the first course on Czech literature to be taught at UW–Madison. His subject will be Czech president Vaclav Havel, who ascended to the position in the 1990s.

After reading Havel’s speeches, plays, essays, students will keep journals recording their reactions to Havel’s work. “We will explore Havel’s analysis of life under a communist government, and how his observations apply to life in modern America,” Danaher says. “Students will find Havel’s writing has a great deal of relevance for contemporary Americans. I hope students will learn to think as critically and clearly about their own society as he did about his.”

Dionne Espinoza, Women’s Studies, Chicana/o Studies
The crucial role that women have assumed in social movements of the 1960s and ’70s will provide the nucleus of Espinoza’s new course, Race, Gender and Radical Social Movements.

Concentrating on African-American, American Indian, Puerto Rican, Chicana and Asian-American movements, the course will offer students a different perspective on social change, Espinoza says.

“The course will invite students to reflect upon their own world views,” she says. I hope it also will challenge them to ask themselves questions about the meaning of commitment and community and to explore their own ethical choices and perspectives.”

Students will examine primary documents, autobiographies and films to better understand periods of social upheaval that continue to shape social and political philosophy and policy.

Julia Evans, Communicative Disorders
“To watch a child learn language is a breathtaking experience,” says Evans. “While the technical ‘facts’ of language development can be taught in standard lecture format, much of what actually transpires during this process can be lost to students.”

Consequently, Evans will use her Lilly Fellowship to revise Language Development in Children, an introductory-level course designed to further understanding of language acquisition.

Evans says the class will be made more effective by including interactive small-group exercises based on videotaped sessions between a parent and child, highlighting key aspects of the child’s language acquisition process. Evans added that her revision will place small-group exercises before lectures, “allowing students to develop a preliminary understanding of the material before I present it in class, making lectures and discussions more salient.”

Nicole Huang, East Asian Languages and Literature
What messages do action films like “Fists of Fury” and “Enter the Dragon” teach the world about China and its people? And what impressions do Chinese in and out of the homeland glean about themselves from Bruce Lee? Such topics will be the meat of Huang’s new course on Popular Culture and Film in 20th Century China.

“We will examine several important themes including shifting boundaries between ‘popular’ and ‘serious’ cultural genres, the impact of media technology and the role of political discourse, among others,” she says.

A key concept Huang hopes to convey is the multifaceted notions of “China” and “Chineseness.”

“It is not enough to teach students about the rich heritages of Asian cultures,” she says. “There is a growing demand among students of Asian descent to understand the relevance of their heritage in establishing their individual ethnic identities. In addition, it’s important for all students to learn to grasp the process of circulating people, ideas, commodities and practices within a global context.”

Sabine Moedersheim, German
Survey of German Literature to 1750 aims to familiarize students with the earliest recorded works to those of the mid-18th century, the territory of such writers as Wolfram von Eschenbach and Walther von der Vogelweide. Moedersheim also would like to expand the list of authors students will study, especially women, including Hildegard von Bingen and Hrotswit von Gandersheim.

Plans also call for a wider scope for the class: “We will look at the relationship between text and image, media relations, printing history and the beginning of mass publication,” says Moedersheim.

In addition, she will introduce an important electronic component to the course, which she hopes will take students far beyond it. “The course Web page will provide materials and links to resources,” she says. “Students will learn to use the Internet to do research.”

Manon van de Water, Theatre and Drama, Curriculum and Instruction
Changing demographics in elementary schools has prompted van de Water to redesign Drama in Education, a required course for elementary education majors.

“It’s time to explore whether the course could be reorganized to attract a more diverse population, both with regard to enrollment of college students and public school students in the class labs,” she says, pointing out that research indicates that within 20 years, students of color will make up almost half of students in America.

More locally and immediately, access issues often preclude grade school children from taking part in course labs. “K-5 lab participation is limited to students who can come, physically, to Vilas Hall. This excludes, among others, latchkey children who often spend their afternoons in community centers.”

Consequently, van de Water proposes a special off-campus pilot section of the class to be held in the Bayview Community Center. She also will develop course materials that are more inclusive of and connected to a diverse student population.