Sara Steger
PhD Candidate
Department of English
University of Georgia

ssteger@uga.edu

Teaching Philosophy

As a teacher of English Literature, I am committed to introducing my students to a wide variety of texts and providing a learning environment that will enable them to think critically about the issues that emerge. I strive to facilitate student engagement with the novels, short stories, and poems that reaches beyond plot summary to critical analysis. The purpose of this type of engagement is to demonstrate that texts can hold multiple meanings and layers of interpretation. Through writing exercises, discussions, and student presentations, I hope to give students an opportunity not only to think critically, but to develop their ability to communicate their ideas effectively. I encourage students to consider audience, to experiment with writing styles, and to develop their own "voice."

Moreover, as a literary scholar interested in womens' writings of the nineteenth century, I challenge students to think about the literary canon and how it has been developed. I assign traditional, canonical writings alongside less recognized and familiar texts to demonstrate both the constraints of the canon and the range of writing that transcends its boundaries. I ask students to consider the limits of canonical construction as they read the works of authors such as Dorothy Wordsworth, Felicia Hemans, or Mary Prince. At the same time, I encourage students to interrogate the project of "rediscovering" authors and the limitations of appropriation.

Finally, as a computing humanist, I am dedicated to bringing new technologies into the classroom, not as technology for technology's sake, but as an integrated part of the learning environment. In addition, I am interested in the effects of technology on writing, so I employ weblogs, webpages, and multi-media projects in my teaching and encourage students to participate in the debate about the impact of these non-traditional modes of writing.

Teaching, for me, is synonymous with learning. I had the very unique opportunity to co-teach a split-level upper division and graduate course as a recent ABD. I am certain that I learned more than my students – in fact, I had to teach myself the Perl programming language in order to teach it to them. I freely confessed to the class that at any time, I was only about fifteen minutes ahead of them in learning. This experience, I have found, is not limited to a class that teaches technology. I have learned to listen to what my students can teach me about a text, and I now strive to ask questions without having expectations about the answers I will receive. Resultantly, I have been surprised by my students' ability to inspire me.