Community Based Learning and the Work of Literature: (JB-Anker)

Reading literature has often been described as transporting, but it has less often been considered as having an impact on real communities. Yet, reading literature can transform one's reading of the world and vice versa. In Community-Based Learning and the Work of Literature , the authors make the case for cultivating already-existing relationships between literature and public engagement. Written for faculty and staff in literature and humanities programs, this book provides innovative ways to incorporate community-based learning (CBL)-the attempt to link the work of university classrooms with communities at large-into literary studies. This book examines how community engagement re-imagines academic work in the humanities, proposing new approaches to scholarship and pedagogy in literary studies. The chapter contributors-all scholars of English, foreign language literature, and cultural studies-respond to three questions: How can literary theory inform CBL? How does community service transform our assumptions about literature and the literary aspects of everyday life? In what ways do readings in cultural studies extend to the question of civitas, or the creation of a vibrant community life? Answering these questions, the contributors move literary studies beyond the lecture halls and toward the formation of learning communities that revise our conceptions of the human condition, construct an expanded and active sociological imagination, encourage compassion, and address issues of social justice. By linking literature and life through service-learning, the authors show how literary scholars can harness the power of their discipline to transform as well as inform.

Table of Contents:
About the Authors. Foreword. Introduction. Preface. Acknowledgments. 1. Can Civic Engagement Rescue the Humanities? (David D. Cooper). 2. Cultural Studies, Compassion, and the Promise of Community-Based Learning (David S. Malachuk). 3. Servicing Reading: Community Work and the Revaluation of Literary Study (Kara L. Mollis). 4. The Humanities as a Vocation (Arthur Strum). 5. Talking and Walking: Literary Work as Public Work (Anna Sims Bartel). 6. To Serve, Perchance to Learn: A Play in Four Acts (Eric Daigre, Elizabeth Hutter, Mitchell Ogden, Marie-Therese C. Sulit). 7. Leer y escribir la frontera: Language, Literature, and Community Engagement in the San Diego- Tijuana Borderlands (Kevin Guerrieri). 8. Rewriting the Egg: Community-Based Learning, German Literature, and Intercultural Competence (Isolde Mueller). 9. Two Old Women and a Mature Approach to Service-Learning (Sheila Ruzycki O'Brien). 10. Indigenous Theory and Service-Learning: A Dakota Case Study (Penelope Kelsey). 11. Search and Service: Discovering Primary and Secondary Source Information (Nina V. Salmon). 12. Reconnecting the Disconnect: Exploring the Links Between Literary Studies and Community Service (Susan Danielson). 13. The Rhetoric of Healing: Community-Based Learning From an Ecocritical Perspective (Breyan Strickler). 14. Taking Literature to the Children: Community-Based Learning and Children's Literature (Marilyn Melahn Senter). 15. Segue Into the Community: A Wired Community-Based Learning Course Proposal for Writers on a Two-Year Campus (Eric Melbye). Index.

About the Author :
Susan Danielson received her Ph.D. in American literature and women's studies from the University of Oregon. She is professor of American literature at Portland State University and has been instrumental in developing and teaching community-based learning (CBL) courses through the Department of English and the Center for Academic Excellence since the early 1990s. In pursuing her scholarly agenda, she works to negotiate the borders among innovative programs, interdisciplinary curricular development, and more traditional literary scholarship. Integrating CBL pedagogy into courses such as Literature and Medicine and The Immigrant Experience deepens the impact of literary study; students develop a new level of understanding as well as a new discourse within the context of community-based experiences. She has received numerous grants from Portland State University's Center for Academic Excellence and Campus Compact, and has lectured and written on the interconnections between CBL and literary studies. Ann Marie Fallon received her B.A ion English from Swarthmore College and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English literature from the University of Virginia. She is an assistant professor in the University Studies program at Portland State University and teaches courses in postcolonial theory, feminist theory, and American studies and democracy. She was a junior Fulbright scholar in Germany in the 2004-2005 academic year and has lectured and written on the changing role of the humanities in the modern university.