Teaching and Learning the Apocalypse: A First-Year Seminar Study
Abstract
Two faculty in English and Speech Communication, along with two of their students, will describe their seminar "Reading and Writing the Apocalypse,” overviewing pedagogy with evidence-based examples of student essays. Our talk explores how some fundamentalists enforce identity around the threat of end times, a rhetorical method for securing adherence to group values. Rhetors typically work within such identifications to foster more tolerant beliefs. However, as Sharon Crowley writes in Toward a Civil Discourse, “it is hard to imagine… counter[ing] those who take [their values as] universal and nonnegotiable” (200). The U.S. tolerates pre-millennial beliefs, though rising fears of apocalypse polarize public discourse. Among other topics, students debate such identifications through deliberative ethics, research, and persuasive writing. Learning outcomes: 1) to help faculty design interdisciplinary seminars with scholar/ teacher research; 2) to share evidence/results; 3) to connect with other faculty/institutions interested in the scholarship of learning focused on the apocalypse.
Location
Room 1005
Recommended Citation
Jackson, Jennifer; Stanley, John; and Depino, David, "Teaching and Learning the Apocalypse: A First-Year Seminar Study" (2013). SoTL Commons Conference. 27.
https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/sotlcommons/SoTL/2013/27
Teaching and Learning the Apocalypse: A First-Year Seminar Study
Room 1005
Two faculty in English and Speech Communication, along with two of their students, will describe their seminar "Reading and Writing the Apocalypse,” overviewing pedagogy with evidence-based examples of student essays. Our talk explores how some fundamentalists enforce identity around the threat of end times, a rhetorical method for securing adherence to group values. Rhetors typically work within such identifications to foster more tolerant beliefs. However, as Sharon Crowley writes in Toward a Civil Discourse, “it is hard to imagine… counter[ing] those who take [their values as] universal and nonnegotiable” (200). The U.S. tolerates pre-millennial beliefs, though rising fears of apocalypse polarize public discourse. Among other topics, students debate such identifications through deliberative ethics, research, and persuasive writing. Learning outcomes: 1) to help faculty design interdisciplinary seminars with scholar/ teacher research; 2) to share evidence/results; 3) to connect with other faculty/institutions interested in the scholarship of learning focused on the apocalypse.
