Seminar Format and Workshops

In Summer 2007 the overall program will include hourly workshop sessions each day that allow faculty and participants to work as a team of peers with the goal of improving the systematic approach to the general subjects being covered in every session. Faculty will attend each other's sessions, enabling them to cross-reference each other's material, in addition to receiving private critiques of their teaching methodology and material being covered.

The first few workshop sessions each week will focus on syllabi training/review, providing participants with an immediate connection to material covered in year 1 and during inter-session. Participants will be asked to bring copies of their syllabi to the summer program in 2007. Participants will be broken into small groups based on syllabus topics. Project directors will have on hand a new pool of syllabi that they can review and use as a guideline for further revision of their own courses. As part of the syllabi workshop, participants will discuss their teaching philosophies and how their courses fit into the overall curriculum at their respective universities. The sessions will also allow participants to clarify with faculty and participants material they attempted to incorporate into their courses, but were lacking a thorough understanding of the subject matter or were unable to find a logical way in which to incorporate the material.

Other workshop sessions will include discussions on topics such as the role of research in academia and media literacy; the role of media research and ethics; the role that politics play in affecting research topics and research methods; the pros and cons of shifting media studies curricula in the CIS toward sociologically oriented research approaches; the role of research in assessing accepted concepts and standards for university teaching; and the standards of academic writing.

The combination of lectures, workshops and discussions will provide participants and faculty with a common ground, enabling them to create dynamic course offerings that will enhance their teaching of media literacy and research and for conducting their own research in media studies and related disciplines.