The Postgraduate Teaching Assistant Award recognises and celebrates examples of innovative teaching and support of learning and is recognised as a mark of distinction within the University.  This annual award is open to all postgraduate research students who teach either individually, or as part of a group, at the University of Nottingham.  Applicants may support teaching and learning through a wide range of activities, including: demonstrating in laboratory classes, distance learning, leading seminars or tutorials, supporting project work, lecturing or assessing and giving feedback on student work.

Helen Wainwright (Art History)

Helen Wainwright – Department of Art History

Helen taught on two Art History modules for first years and has used feedback to improve the structure of the seminars.  She uses a variety of techniques to keep students engaged and participating in the seminar; including a cabinet of curiosity to develop skills of visual and material analysis.  Helen is an engaging teacher, has the ability to think on her feet and adapt activities if required and has a very good rapport with the students.

Peter Watts (TRS)

Peter Watts – Department of Theology and Religious Studies

Peter taught on two Introduction to Biblical Greek modules which have previously seen diminishing student numbers. Drawing on his own experiences he has shown students the benefits of learning Greek and used interesting and relevant examples to involve all students. Subsequently the numbers of students continuing with Greek has improved and he has received excellent SET feedback.  Peter is a wonderfully lucid expositor, is enormously positive and is highly committed to his students.

The post Celebrating Teaching successes in the Humanities. The Postgraduate Teaching Awards 2012 appeared first on Teaching Humanities.

Gabriele Neher

What is a perambulation? Apparently, it’s a leisurely walk with the purpose of looking and seeing. It implies poking about, taking your time, and taking in things to see.  That is the OED definition, but in the hands of art historians, it takes on another meaning, too, and it becomes a recce, a sniffing about and a process of discovery. For art historians, too, just the word perambulation evokes the name of one practitioner,  and one only: the architectural historianh Nikolaus Pevsner, whose multi-volume series of The Buildings of England remains an unsurpassed reference guide to the most remarkable architectural structures in England. The  Buildings of England were first published between 1951 and 1974, and have since then run through multiple editions, have been revised, reprinted and updated. But, they remain the essential starting point for an exploration of architectural gems. In fact, one can easily distinguish the ‘serious’ art historian from the amateur impostor by the very fact that one will be clutching a copy of Pevsnser, while the other won’t. Maybe the best parallel to draw is one with the character of E.M. Forster’s Charlotte Bartlett, the Baedeker-clutching traveller  so memorably played by Dame Maggie Smith in Merchant Ivory’s 1985 production of ‘A Room with a View’. In the same way an Edwardian lady needs her Baedeker, an art historian needs a copy of Pevsner. Just carrying a copy of Pevsner imparts an immediate sense of gravitas, dignitas and authority.

But what about the perambulation? For Pevsner, a perambulation is a slow, measured walk where the gentle, pondering  pace of the walk is commensurate with the need for looking. Only at walking pace and by stopping often and preferably in front of something nice to look at, will the most important artefacts and objects be noted. After all, he famously dedicates his Buildings of England  ‘To the driver who gave satisfaction’, presumably not for driving fast, but for patiently travelling through country lanes and facilitating countless perambulations. Or so I for one like to think.

So, is there still time for a perambulation in our fast-paced 2012? Moreover, what can be gained from a perambulation that Pevsner hasn’t already noticed? Well, one January morning three intrepid scholars from the School of Humanities set out to find out for themselves. The walking party was made up of Katharina Lorenz, a classicist and art historian with a strong interest in iconology and iconography;  Gabriele Neher, a Renaissance art historian working on space, gender and power, and finally Jeremy Wood, the School of Humanities resident Rubens supremo and expert on seventeenth- century English art. A motley crew we grant, but with interlocking and complementing interests, ready and eager to bring their joint interests and expertise to bear on a rather fascinating local church, St. Leonard’s in Wollaton. The motley three set out clutching not one but TWO copies of Pevsner (extra gravitas!) , a book on the genealogy of the local Willoughby family, builders of the magnificent neighbouring  Wollaton Hall and, most important of all,  some chocolate.

From the outside, St. Leonard’s is not the most pre-possessing looking church; in fact, Pevsner is quite shirty, and dare I say dismissive in describing it as of the ‘familiar type of this neighbourhood, that is with battlements and a much slimmer spire without broaches’. According to Pevsner, St. Leonard’s glory rests in the exceptional number [of monuments] in a county not rich in monuments. Richard Willoughby (d. 1471) and wife, two brasses of good quality … Henry Willoughby (d. 1528) and his wives, between chancel and s chancel chapel and visible from both sides. The tomb-chest has openwork arches between which statuettes of mourners of unusally fine quality and behind which a cadaver. On the chest the effigy of Henry Willoughby, and to his l. and r. his four (!!!!!) wives, portrayed half his size to fit them in neatly.

N. Pevsner, The Buildings of England. Nottinghamshire (Penguin Books, first published 1951), pp. 273-4.

Sounds all very nice, but my word, how very  dull. I really can’t see the crowds flocking to St. Leonard’s clamouring for a view of their tomb monuments after that; tantalising descriptions of openwork arches and mourners of exceptionally fine quality don’t necessarily attract everybody.

But read between the lines, have a look for yourself and discover a true marvel. It is in fact quite remarkable how Pevsner can reduce some of the most intriguing, puzzling and exciting monuments within the church to prose that is so remarkably lacking in fizz. Ok, never mind the fizz, what is he actually describing? He is in fact looking at a little church that served as the family mausoleum of local gentry, most particularly, the eminent Willoughby family. The Willoughbys’ inexorable rise to the top of the Nottinghamshire gentry- tree followed quite well-established patterns: a series of advantageous marriages, accumulating a series of royal grants, and all this led to the need for expressing their elevated status through buildings to house their living bodies and monuments to commemorate their immortal souls.

Henry Willoughby’s tomb is exquisite, and even poorly used as the monument has been, this tomb still sings. The effigies on the tob of the tomb slab have, at first glance, lost their colour, but look, only take the time to look, and you can catch a glimpse of its former polychrome glory. Sir Henry’s brown hair contrast beautifully with the blues and reds of his tunic; his golden double-S collar still glints, and the spurs on his feet look as sharp  as ever. St. Leonard’s only gives up its treasures to those who are willing to look, and look at leisure.

And it holds one more ace up its sleeve: the commemorative epitaph for Robert Smythson (1536- 1614), the architect who built both Wollaton Hall and nearby Hardwick Hall, the Derbyshire home of the rather formidable Bess of Hardwick.

Nikolaus Pevsner may have stopped perambulating and might have gone back into his car; he may have been in a rush to go on to see the more obvious attraction of Wollaton Hall, but just for once, the master of the perambulation was clearly in a rush.

Smythson’s epitaph is a gloriously understated marvel of sophistication and elegance. Visually, his epitaph seems deceptively modest, but oh so erudite.

 Conceptually though, it is a world apart from the flashier and more accessible monuments of the Willoughbys. Where the local gentry seek to celebrate their true ‘magnificence’, in the Aristotelian sense of fulfilling their civic duties, Smythson draws attention to his achievements. He is the architect and surveyor of note, whose achievements have earned him a resting place next to his illustrious patrons. Truly, art, intellectual endeavour and the ambition to know has ennobled him.

Art matters. Quite an appealing message to a bunch of academics, really….

P.S.: The motley three have Strelley in their sights, and have been spotted consulting maps for a way to Bottesford. Watch this space…..

 Gabriele Neher

gabriele.neher@nottingham.ac.uk

The post Perambulations with Pevsner: the local art treasures of Wollaton appeared first on Teaching Humanities.

Amongst many things, Teaching Humanities  wants to celebrate the rich diversity of initiatives, projects and ideas that characterise the lively scholarly community of the School of Humanities. Today’s blog builds on previous discussions of the digital humanities and the rich and diverse links between universities and the creative sector.

The author of this contribution  is Helen Wainwright, currently a PhD candidate within The Department of Art History at The University of Nottingham. Helen is interested in how space and place are cut apart and re-evaluated through certain photographic/filmic practices. Through focusing on the work of Gordon Matta Clark, Anthony McCall and Stephen Shore, the link between early conceptual influences and the ideas associated with the sculptural, cinematic and pictorial, are expanded. As a result, the 1970s in New York can be seen as a particularly diverse moment in Art History, and ideas which were previously disassociated can be joined. The working title of her thesis is:

“To Convert a Place into a State of Mind”[1]

Gordon Matta Clark, Stephen Shore and Anthony McCall: Splitting Surfaces

A New Public Engagement Initiative

Building on the ideas discussed in Gaby’s previous blog posts, in which the links between the Humanities, digital media, job prospects and cultural events have been explored, I thought it might be a good time to introduce you to a project I’m currently developing: Think Tank: The Flash Journal. Whilst the motivations behind the project link-in with the above mentioned ideas, we are ultimately aiming to engage a broader general public with their local galleries and museums, too.

This year, Georgie Payne and I (PhD Candidates from Loughborough University and The University of Nottingham, respectively) are working in collaboration with Nottingham Contemporary, a young but highly influential art institution based in the heart of Nottingham city. After noticing that many of the exhibitions held at the gallery came and went without leaving much of a trace, I felt concerned that the memory of influential exhibitions, such as Huang Yong Ping and Star City, would soon dissolve into thin-air. Preservation is a going concern for any art gallery, but Georgie and I wanted to think about it in a more creative way, and hey-presto, Think Tank was born!

Think Tank: The Flash Journal is a collaborative, postgraduate-led e-journal aimed at engaging people (age 16+) from the East Midlands area with the themes and issues on display at Nottingham Contemporary. We actively aspire to involve gallery visitors to think creatively about what is on display; how people may interact with it, and the environment surrounding the gallery, by submitting their own projects to our ‘journal’. We consciously decided to move away from our safety-zone of academic-style journals in order to encourage alternative and imaginative responses to art and gallery environments, with the hope that people will utilise new social media, photography, film, poetry and prose, as first points-of-call for their submissions. So far our contributors have not failed to disappoint, offering us photographs, films, interactive essays and even a sculpture (to be photographed for online publication).

We’re really looking forward to seeing where this project leads, so why not get yourself along to Nottingham Contemporary and see if there’s something there to inspire you? If so, visit our website; submit your idea and we’ll be in touch. Best of all, at our launch event (scheduled for June of this year) the projects will be judged by the audience, with prizes being awarded to 1^st (£100), 2^nd (£50) and 3^rd places (£50). So get your Think Tank caps on and give it a go, what have you got to lose?

Think Tank is also backed by a great team – a committee made-up of postgraduate students from Universities across the East Midlands, and a postgraduate placement holder from The University of Nottingham. They are available to offer support and encouragement to all our submitters, so if you need some advice – let us know!

http://www.thinktankflashjournal.com

http://www.twitter.com/#thinktankflash

I’ve also included a few links we’ve used for inspiration, for those interested in what Think Tank may look like as a finished website:

http://www.aestheticamagazine.com/

http://www.theartsdesk.com/

http://www.seesawmagazine.com/index.html

Helen Wainwright

adxhw1@nottingham.ac.uk

The post Digital Humanities revisited: Public Engagement and the Think Tank Initiative appeared first on Teaching Humanities.

It’s been an interesting morning, talking to Lorraine Blakemore, the research assistant involved in collating information for the next volume of the History of the University. The original publication, written by Brian Tolley and published in 2 volumes, covers the period up to 1988. A lot has happened since 1988, and the decision has now been taken to bring the story of the University up to date.
Talking to Lorraine about the history of the Department of Art History in particular was quite an experience, because it invited reflection on decisions taken and strategies decided on over the past couple of decades. And you know what? While at the time of taking a particular set of decisions it often looked as if those decisions were made in reaction to a specific set of circumstances, and had very limited and short- term implications, looked at over a longer time period, many small decisions have added up to quite a series of major changes since 1988. A small department of a handful of people with very strong interests in ‘traditional’ forms of art history such as painting and architecture, focussing on ‘traditional’ periods of study such as the Italian Renaissance and British Romanticism, has transformed into a unit twice that size. That unit still retains its core emphasis on traditional media and core periods, but that is balanced with, supplemented by and enriched by approaches incorporating a variety of new media such as digital photography, film and installation art. The scope of the Department’s activities has similarly expanded exponentially, and hand in  glove with this expansion in research areas has gone a growth in student numbers. With greater student numbers has come greater reach regionally and nationally; the department is now involved in a range of activities involving Nottingham Contemporary, New Art Exchange and Lakeside here in the University. In 1988, Art History was located in the Trent Building; since then, the Department has moved from a location at the University’s South Entrance, in the Lakeside Complex, into its new and current home, the still-shiny and sparkly purpose-built Humanities building which is shared with 4 other departments (Archaeology, Classics, Philosophy and Theology and Religious Studies), and located next to the Georgian glory of Lenton Grove, the venerable home of the Department of History. The move certainly marks a new chapter in the history of the Department of Art History, its sister departments in the School of Humanities and, arguably, the history of the university itself.

Spatially, the Humanities departments now form a lively node of activity in a hitherto quite marginal area of campus (with the exception of History, most departments occupied a more central zone of campus). Relocating 5 departments with their staff and students to the West Entrance, bringing them together in a highly visible, high-status, modern building, speaks clearly of the central importance of the Humanities in the perception of the University as a modern, 21st century institution.

Certainly, my morning of looking at just one thread of the rich tapestry of stories and developments that make up the History of the University, has left me with a taste for what is yet to come. When did they say that book was going to be finished? May be some time? The story continues to write itself? Well, there may be few better places to reflect on this than in the Humanities.

The post Writing the History of the University appeared first on Teaching Humanities.

One of the stories dominating quite a few Twitter feeds today relates to the recently concluded Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association (AHA).
In her blog, bit.ly/x5kDJT Jennifer Howard reflects on forces reshaping the historical profession. There is much discussion of a push and pull between traditional history and the ways in which digitisation has changed access and accessibility to an ever- wider range of sources.
This theme is explored in greater depth by Wiliiam Cronon, writing on behalf of the AHA at http://bit.ly/yTW5qb on ‘The Public Practice of History in and for a Digital Age’. Cronon writes that

History, like the world itself, is changing in ways that none of us yet fully understands. Some of the changes look pretty exciting, some pretty scary, but all require our engagement if history is to remain relevant to the times in which we live.

His report embraces the opportunities afforded both by the digitisation of records and the electronic publication of research for researchers, students and readers not necessarily based within easy distance of a strong library, though he is quick to point out that his vision is not ne of an ‘either- or’ scenario. there very best research, hand in glove with the very best teaching, will utilise both traditional libraries and the opportunities afforded by access to digital media.

Cronon is particularly insistent on the far- reaching implications digitisation and access to digital media may have on teaching and especially practices related to reading:

The very act of reading is undergoing such subtle and sweeping changes that it’s hard to know what it will look like in 10 or 20 years from now.

Cronon goes as far as comparing the current Digital revolution in publishing to the impact of Gutenberg’s printing press half a millennium ago. Some may think that quite scary, maybe quite overblown as a statement in its rhetoric, but isn’t it exciting to be working in the Humanities at the very time when it is possible to reflect on such possibilities? Whatever the case, the Humanities at Nottingham are ready to reflect on and explore aspects of the digital humanities. as a matter of fact, the Digital Humanities Centre in its new home in the Humanities building is the very place for helping to shape the agenda for some time to come yet!

The post Digital Humanities? appeared first on Teaching Humanities.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/post/how-art-history-majors-power-the-us-economy/2012/01/06/gIQAUv36hP_blog.html

Now here’s a piece of news that makes for interesting reading about the impact (yes, I meant to write that!) of a Humanities degree, and in this case, an Art History degree, on the economy. Even more interesting is the way this article looks at both direct and indirect benefits of a degree which seemingly has no immediate career path.

The post Art History degrees and the US Economy appeared first on Teaching Humanities.

Two more weeks, and autumn semester examinations start. Over the course of two weeks, thousands of students will pile into examination rooms and ‘sit exams’.

Leading up to that moment when you enter the hall, sit down, turn over the paper and -hopefully- start to write a brilliant, succinct and ‘good’ answer is a strange time called ‘revision’. Students don’t have time to go out because they are revising; for many, this might mean getting up at crack of dawn, entering the library in unprecedented numbers and literally staying there all day. Some will stay there all night, too. campus legend has it that pizza deliveries to the library during revision time are not unknown, too….
Other students are not back on campus yet because they are staying at home to revise. Other might come back for a bit, and then go home again to put the finishing touches to their revision. It seems de rigeur for some students to shun any activities that might loosely fall under the ‘personal hygiene’ category: washing hair, changing clothes, brushing hair, water coming anywhere near one’s body wastes time, and as for food or sleep or for fresh air, well, that’ll have to wait until after exams. It is quite something to behold, this frenzied activity that marks the fortnight leading up to the start of exams. Snatches of conversation in departments’ corridors will invariably include THE question: ‘how many hours did you revise yesterday’? the answers are astonishing; the minimum acceptable tariff per day seems 10 hours, anything less is slack. good workers spend 18 hours a day revising, some don’t sleep, and the sale of caffeine-laced products on campus soars.
Revising involves reading and clearly colour- coding notes, in increasingly scintillating colours and complex patterns of inter- connectedness. Revising means reading a whole semester’s worth of ‘stuff’, with reading lists being subjected to the minutest attention. hen there is the age-old game of ‘guessing’ what might be on the paper, and complex calculations as to how many topics need to be revised in order to cope with any permutations of questions that might come up. It’s all a glorious hive of activity.

Or is it? Am I the only one who feels quite bamboozled by this frenzy of activity and concerned for students’ welfare? Am I the only one who feels reservation about sometimes quite heroic attempts of reading in a fortnight what was supposed to be read, gradually, incrementally, over the space of a whole semester? After all, I do pride myself on handbooks where readings follow each other in a. Sequence that carefully build on each other, reflect on each other, interconnect with each other and lead in a gloriously serendipitous way towards ‘understanding’. and here is the crux of my concerns: humanities exams rarely work with the acquisition of ‘stuff’, of facts, of material, but there is a sense of probing questions, playing with concepts, looking at basics, and I remain sceptical that revision can allow for that understanding.

There is a wonderful case study to express my reservations, provided by none other than the marvellous J.K Rowling in ‘Harry Potter and the Half- Blood Prince’, the sixth installment of the Potter books. There comes a little study of how different forms of knowledge complement each other in a confrontation between Hermione Granger, logical, steady, analytical, and Harry Potter, brilliant, unexpected, instinctive. Hermione and Harry are facing a potions experiment in class where what is at stake is a demonstration of the understanding of basic principles. Hermione undertakes the task by ruthlessly and logically applying her understanding of concepts; Harry who doesn’t understand the concepts, approaches the task by thinking outside the box. both succeed.
I like to think of exams needing to be approached by mixing both approaches: yes, you need to understand the principles, but then, and here is the brilliant bit, then you need to think outside the box and play.

So, exam revision needs to be more than cramming facts and stewing in the library! It needs to be the culmination of weeks of engagement with a series of ideas, concepts and problems, and what happens when the paper finally arrives, is an ability to shine. Maybe the most important thing to understand is that exams in Art History in particular don’t necessarily ‘measure’ knowledge but test your flexibility, adaptability, cheek and flair, always based on sound principles and understanding.

no wonder students get stressed. It’s a tall order.

The post Revision time…. appeared first on Teaching Humanities.

This article (above) caught my eye today, as did this second article:http://www.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/education/high_degree_of_success_in_humanities_1_2013560

The second piece seems astonishing, with it’s bald statistics regarding the educational backgrounds of many ‘leaders’; even more astonishing seems the statement that it is at the helm of a universities where you are LEAST likely to find a humanities graduate. Blimey, that was unexpected, as I would have expected more Humanities graduates and less STEM graduates to be the ones safeguarding universities and to continue the traditions of the ‘studium generale’….

What caught my eye with regards to the first article was its exuberance and vitality, and it’s unashamed celebration of the humanities. How is this for a quote to warm an art historian’s heart on a windy and rainy January night, slaving over a hit computer keyboard after a hard day’s essay marking:

great painting can celebrate our values, enhance our lives and endorse our humanity.

Great stuff. Or the equally stirring battle cry for the celebration of the humanities, the confident assertion that

philosophy, poetry, art, literature, history, music, other languages and other cultures, ancient and modern, endorse and enlarge our humanity, teach us to understand and improve the values by which we live.

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The way I deal with these issues is through teaching art history; more particularly, teaching Renaissance art history at the University of Nottingham, England. I am privileged to be working in a thriving, bustling School of Humanities where I work side by side with colleagues whose primary teaching and reseach affiliations lie in departments such as history, philosophy, classics, archaeology, music and theology. This diversity of disciplinary specialisation though presents a wonderful opportunity to reflect on just how we share our passion  for our subjects with students.

And this is where my blog comes in; teaching arts matters, so lets explore the myriad possible ways of making the arts count!

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