Remote Embodiment? Pivoting “Embodied Humanities” Methodologies to Teach Eighteenth-Century Studies in an Online Environment

Grant program: New Ways of Teaching, New Ways of Learning

Grant recipient: Leith Davis, Department of English

Project team: Teddie Brock, research assistant

Timeframe: September 2020 to February 2021

Funding: $4,950

Courses addressed:

• ENGL 420W – Topics in Eighteenth-Century Literature 
• ENGL 820 – Studies in Print Culture Theory

Final report: View Leith Davis' final report (PDF)

Description: For this project, I would like to investigate how incorporating the practices of embodied humanities (in particular, singing and writing with quill pens and ink) in a remote learning environment can enhance student engagement with eighteenth-century studies as well as contribute to overall student well-being and sense of community. I plan to integrate the techniques that I used in my successful English 320 course into my courses in the fall 2020 semester. I will be trying to approximate my lab approach by getting students to do the activities remotely. I will be providing opportunities for students to better engage with oral culture (e.g., singing) from a distance by listening to live performers and singing themselves. I will also seek to engage them with manuscript culture by doing labs on writing with quill pens and learning about the materiality of letters. My hypothesis is that the switch to remote teaching may allow students to better understand the affordances of the communications technologies of the past; in other words, remote experiences of embodied humanities can indicate to students what gets left out when face-to-face communication cannot occur. Remoteness may provide a deeper appreciation and understanding of what is important about embodiment.

Questions addressed:

• How can an embodied humanities approach to the materiality of print culture be adapted to the remote environment?
• Which articles/resources are helpful in providing information about how to adapt embodied humanities techniques to remote teaching?
• What experiences do students already have with oral and scribal culture that might affect their interest in doing the remote embodied humanities labs?
• How do students describe and understand their experiences of listening to ballads through remote performances and singing ballads?
• How do students describe and understand the process of remote embodied humanities approaches to scribal culture (e.g., making paper, making ink, writing with a quill pen, following eighteenth-century recipes for cooking) and how does this impact student engagement with eighteenth-century literature and culture?
• How well do students demonstrate knowledge of eighteenth-century oral and scribal media?
• How engaged are the students in the course?
  

Knowledge sharing:  I posted many photos of my students’ amazing work (with their permission) on our department’s social media. This led to colleagues asking me more about the methodologies. My RA and I will be giving a presentation at the upcoming Remote Teaching Forum 2021 (https://www.sfu.ca/cee/events/teaching-forum.html). I was also contacted by the SFU Well-being in Online/Remote Learning Environments team who will be featuring my project on their resource page. In addition, my RA and I have also submitted a proposal to present the project at the remote Humanities Congress in June, 2021.

Keywords: Embodied Humanities; experiential learning; handwriting; ballads; manuscript; remote learning; media; letters; cookbooks; eighteenth-century literature