putting together a course

...can either be a very simple task of cutting & pasting from notes or a challenging experience on par with preparing for a qualifying exam! for me it has generally been the latter, mostly because the courses i apply to teach for tend to be just outside of my primary area. so putting together a course outline and syllabus for the Cultures & Images course has been yet another challenge. here are some tips and insights i acquired through the experience and from talking to some wise folks.

1) look at other people's syllabus: if you can get a hold of a previous syllabus, that's great! if not, then find a comparable one for reference and to "borrow" ideas. many academics have their course syllabi online and departments sometimes post an entire syllabus for some of their courses on their website. browse through key scholars and departments in your course topic. E.g. Loic Wacquant posts his syllabi on his personal website: http://sociology.berkeley.edu/faculty/wacquant/#courses

2) go down the memory lane: for ideas on assignments and to write your cover letter, it's also good to remember the courses you enjoyed as a student and reflect on what made those classes unique. was it the pedagogical method? types of discussions? fun assignments? readings?

3) ask for help: send an email to previous instructors for the course and ask for advice. i happen to know a previous instructor for C&I fairly well and she sent me one of her syllabi which is amazing! not everyone will do this as syllabi are like gold, as are journal article drafts... but it's worth asking to get any advice, such as student attitudes in the past offerings of the course.

4) do more than asked: call-outs for sessionals/instructor contracts vary from position to position and department to department... but they're all looking for the same thing---a cover letter, a detailed outline AND syllabus (with weekly breakdown), detailed assignments, letters of reference, curriculum vitae and evalutions from previous teaching. my home department tends to omit one or more of these from their call-out but at the committee meetings all of these components count. so make sure you have everything in your application, even if they're not specifically asking for it in the call-out.

5) ...but don't do too much!: remember that this is an application and that you'll have time to tweak the weekly contents if and when you are hired. don't write the lectures, don't read too much in the area. just read enough to get the gist of the debates and the key players.

and some more wise words for the everyday scholar...

6) categorize your everyday reading into syllabi: this is an advice from my senior advisor. when you read anything (books, articles, reviews, etc.) categorize it as you would in a course syllabus. for example, if you read something in science studies, mentally or in writing, document where it fits in a weekly syllabus for an imaginary class called "Science Studies"---perhaps in "Postcolonial Science Studies" week, or in "Actor Network Theory" week? i really wish i had done this more... because this is very useful when it comes to putting together a real syllabus for a course.

all in all... putting together a course is a lot of fun! it's a lot of work and there are no guarantees... but extremely satisfying when you're done!