Brian Britt. Religion Around Walter Benjamin. The Pennsylvania State UP, 2022.

Review of Brian Britt. Religion Around Walter Benjamin. The Pennsylvania State UP, 2022. xvii + 233 pp

Chapter 4- With Sustainability in Mind: Twelve Habits of Mind for a Successful Learning Experience in the Second-Language Classroom and Beyond

When Art Costa and Bena Kallick first developed their Habits of Mind framework, they conceived of their approach as a contribution to sustainable and ethical learning. The dedication opening in all four volumes of Habits of Mind: A Developmental Series is explicit about this trajectory: “Native peoples teach that the ultimate norm for morality is the impact our choices have on persons living seven generations from now. If the results appear good for them, then our choices are moral ones; if not, they are immoral. We therefore dedicate Habits of Mind: A Developmental Series to our children, our grandchildren, and their children’s children” (Costa & Kallick, 2000, p. iii). The same dedication prefaces Learning and Leading with Habits of Mind: 16 Essential Characteristics for Success (Costa & Kallick, 2008, p. v). The following chapter takes its cue from this inherent connection between sustainability and specific life-related problem-solving skills and strategies. I demonstrate how sustainability-related lessons, assignments, and course practices help students develop 12 Habits of Mind that will prepare them for success

Karin Baumgartner and Monika Shafi, editors. Anxious Journeys: Twenty-First-Century Travel Writing in German. Camden House, 2019.

Review of Karin Baumgartner and Monika Shafi, editors. Anxious Journeys: Twenty-First-Century Travel Writing in German. Camden House, 2019. viii + 276 pp

Habits of Mind: Designing Courses for Student Success

Although content knowledge remains at the heart of college teaching and learning, forward-thinking instructors recognize that we must also provide 21st-century college students with transferable skills (sometimes called portable intellectual abilities) to prepare them for their futures (Vazquez, 2020; Ritchhart, 2015; Venezia & Jaeger, 2013; Hazard, 2012). To “grow their capacity as efficacious thinkers to navigate and thrive in the face of unprecedented change” (Costa et al., 2023), students must learn and improve important study skills and academic dispositions throughout their educational careers. If we do not focus on skills-building in college courses, students will not be prepared for the challenges that await them after they leave institutions of higher education. If students are not prepared for these postsecondary education challenges, then it is fair to say that college faculty have failed them

Inquiring Minds - Aggies on Broomsticks

It wasn’t field hockey or Aikido or Pilates. I had watched from my office window in Old Main as students on the Quad carried a mysterious piece of equipment, a staff of some kind. Now they were back for some kind of game

Karin Baumgartner and Monika Shafi, editors. Anxious Journeys: Twenty-First-Century Travel Writing in German. Camden House, 2019.

Review of Karin Baumgartner and Monika Shafi, editors. Anxious Journeys: Twenty-First-Century Travel Writing in German. Camden House, 2019. viii + 276 pp

In einer Art Niemandsland

Im Zuge der topologischen Wende in den Kultur- und Sozialwissenschaften sind Ort und Raum als reale und virtuelle, physische, territoriale und symbolische Kategorien beleuchtet worden. Die Schichtungen, Verschachtelungen und Überlagerungen dieser Kategorien sind ebenso ins Blickfeld gerückt wie die Frage, in welcher Form individuelle und kollektive Erfahrung in öffentlichen Räumen zusammenlaufen, wie diese Räume von Macht- und Herrschaftskonstellationen durchzogen und wie sie rhetorisch gebunden sind. Zeitgleich mit dem sogenannten „Spatial Turn“ verlief der Aufschwung der kulturwissenschaftlichen Gedächtnisforschung, das intensivierte Interesse an Erinnerungskultur, kollektivem Gedächtnis und Traumatheorie („Memory Studies“). Beide Diskurse fließen zusammen im Erzählwerk des deutschen Autors W.G. Sebald (1944–2001)