Principal Investigators: Megan Musgrave, Associate Professor, Department of English, School of Liberal Arts; Carrie Sickmann, Assistant Professor, Department of English, School of Liberal Arts
Project Title: Redesigning a Literature Program Curriculum for Twenty-First Century Students
Funding Level: $5000
Abstract: This grant will support the redesign of the undergraduate Literature program curriculum in the Department of English in both curricular and pedagogical terms. Declining enrollments in this program are on trend with the national crisis in the humanities, but are indicative of a local problem as well: we have failed to maintain student interest in a field that hasn’t adapted to twenty-first-century demands. The current curriculum is based on a historical coverage model, rather than a model that allows us to cover the breadth of literary forms, histories, and theories as a means of engaging our students in active, student-centered learning activities that feel relevant and useful to them. Moreover, the structure of the program inhibits diversity and inclusion across the curriculum; the curriculum segregates our diversity courses from survey courses in American and British literature. We need a curriculum that integrates minority history and perspectives into every course, intentionally and by design, and makes that inclusion more visible to students. Finally, while the program has a set of learning outcomes that align with IUPUI Profiles of Learning for Undergraduate Success (PLUS), our various faculty members do not approach individual course design with a clear, unified pedagogical strategy to help our students attain these outcomes. As the Program Director, I need a set of pedagogical guidelines that will help me to train faculty to integrate more of these practices across the curriculum with an eye toward consistent implementation and scaffolding of high-impact teaching practices from introductory through advanced courses.