Title: Introduction to the unit: what is a university? Unit: PAE001-1 Practising Ideas: Approaches to Theory Course: All Performing Arts and English Institution: University of Bedfordshire Tutors: Dr Alice Barnaby and Dr Louise Douse

1. Introduction to the unit:
what is a university?
Practising Ideas: Approaches to Theory
Dr Alice Barnaby and Dr Louise Douse

2. Learning objectives
Upon completing this lesson you will be able to:
•Identify the intellectual aims of the unit
•Explain the broader interdisciplinarity connections within the
humanities, sciences and the disciplines
•Draw on a very brief historical overview
•Explain the role of the tutor
•Construct group expectations and individual goal setting
•Identify the lecture schedule
•Identify the assessment details
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3. Practising Ideas:
Approaches to Theory
Understanding
Disciplined curiosity
Interdisciplinarity
Humanities
University

4. ‘the most fertile conditions for stimulating good
work in the humanities may have more to do with
the range and qualities of the minds an individual
scholar engages with and learns from than it does
with the concentration of expertise, in its narrow
form, in a given sub-field’ (Collini 80, 2012)
‘Introducing students to the study of the
humanities is more akin to inciting them to take
part in a discussion than it is to equipping them to
process information efficiently’ (Collini 81, 2012)

5. What is a University?

6. University of Al-Azhar (c. 970 CE) Cairo, Egypt

7. Nalanda University. Fifth century BCE to 1197 BCE
Bihar, India

8. University of Bologna, Italy. Founded 1088

9. A university should engage in the ‘cultivation
and care of the community’s highest
aspirations and ideals.’
Thorstein Veblen on Culture and Society (68, 2003).

10. The humanities explore what it means to be
human: the words, ideas, narratives and the art
and artefacts that help us make sense of our lives
and the world we live in; how we have created it,
and are created by it…they help us to understand
ourselves, our society and our place in the world.
Robert Adams (2,2010)

11. References
• Collini, Stefan (2012) What are Universities For? London:
Penguin
• Roberts, Adam (2010) ‘Past, Present and Future: The Public
Value of the Humanities and Social Sciences.’ British
Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences.
http://www.britac.ac.uk/news/news.cfm/newsid/364
Accessed 4/10/14
• Mestrovic, Stjepan(2008) Thorstein Veblen on Culture and
Society. London: Sage

12. What is a lecturer?
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13. Expectations
• What is expected of you as students and us as lecturers?
• Prior to class?
• In class?
• After class?

14. Expectations
• You have to be here because you want to learn.
• We are here because we want to teach.
• Everything is learning.
• Learning is not easy.
• Learning requires an open mind.
• Learning is your responsibility (you need to want to learn).
• "The goal of teaching is learning, not teaching." (Hugo Rossi)
• We will demand a great deal of you in our class. We will demand a
great deal of ourselves as well.
• Harassment of any type will not be tolerated.
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15. Goal setting and beliefs
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16. Schedule
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17. Lecture Schedule
Teaching week/
Calendar week/
Date
Theme, content, title
Lecture preparation
(please see BREO for additional
subject specific seminar
preparation)
Teaching week 1
Calendar week 41
Week beginning Monday 6th October
Introduction to the unit: what is a
university?
Alice Barnaby and Louise Douse
Teaching week 2
Calendar week 42
Week beginning Monday 13th
October
What is art?
Alice Barnaby
Carey, J. (2005) ‘What is a work of
art?’ in What good are the arts?
London: Faber and Faber, pp. 1-31.
[Available Online – see BREO Guided
Learning]
Teaching week 3
Calendar week 43
Week beginning Monday 20th
October
What is theory? What is philosophy?
Gareth Farmer
Barry, P. (1995) ‘Theory before ‘theory’
– Liberal Humanism,’ in Beginning
Theory. Manchester: Manchester
University Press, pp. 34-36.
[Available Online – see BREO Guided
Learning]
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18. Lecture Schedule
Teaching week/
Calendar week/
Date
Theme, content, title
Lecture preparation
(please see BREO for additional
subject specific seminar
preparation)
Teaching week 4
Calendar week 44
Week beginning Monday 27th
October
The cultural influence of the Bible
Professor Bob Owens
Carruthers, J. (2006) ‘Literature,’ in
Sawyer, J. F. A. (ed.) The Blackwell
companion to the Bible and culture,
Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, pp. 253-
267.
[Available Online – see BREO Guided
Learning]
Teaching week 5
Calendar week 45
Week beginning Monday 3rd
November
Skills Session 1: Summary and
Quotation
Louise Douse
Creme, P. and Lea, M. R. (2008) ‘5.5
Reading and note taking,’ in Writing at
university: a guide for students.
Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open
University Press, pp. 58-59. [Available
Online – see BREO Guided Learning]
Teaching week 6
Calendar week 46
Week beginning Monday 10th
November
Ideas of Antiquity
Giannandrea Poesio
Reading: Anderson, B. (2014) The
invention of Antiquity.
[Available Online – see BREO Guided
Learning]
Teaching week 7
Calendar week 47
Week beginning Monday 17th
November
The Renaissance
Michael Faherty
Greenblatt, S. (2011) ‘The answer
man,’ The Newyorker, 8 August
[Available Online – see BREO Guided
Learning]
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19. Lecture Schedule
Teaching week/
Calendar week/
Date
Theme, content, title
Lecture preparation
(please see BREO for additional
subject specific seminar
preparation)
Teaching week 8
Calendar week 48
Week beginning Monday 24th
November
The Enlightenment
Nicola Darwood
Kant, I. (1784) What is Enlightenment?
[Available Online – see BREO Guided
Learning]
Teaching week 9
Calendar week 49
Week beginning Monday 1st
December
Romanticism
Giannandrea Poesio
Wu, D (ed.) (2012) ‘Introduction’ and
‘Timeline,’ in Romanticism: an
anthology, Oxford: Wiley Blackwell,
pp. xxxii-xliv and pp. li-lxxix
respectively.
[Available Online – see BREO Guided
Learning]
Teaching week 10
Calendar week 50
Week beginning Monday 8th
December
Skills Session 2: Analysis and
Annotated Bibliography
Louise Douse
Creme, P. and Lea, M. R. (2008) ‘6.4
Considering your argument: working
out your ‘story’ and getting your central
idea,’ in Writing at university: a guide
for students. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill
Open University Press, pp. 82-88.
[Available Online – see BREO Guided
Learning]
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20. Assessment 1 - Portfolio
• When
• Friday 9th January 2015, electronic version through turnitin
must be submitted.
• What
• This assessment requires you to compile a portfolio of all
set writing tasks. This will include a commentary on a
quotation, a summary of an article, a close analysis, and an
annotated bibliography.
• Weighting of the assessment
• This assessment forms 30% of the unit.
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21. Assessment 1 - Portfolio
• Commentary on a quotation
• Write a 250 word commentary on the following quotation:
• What is your aim in philosophy? – To shew the fly the way out
of the fly-bottle.
Wittgenstein, L. (1956) Philosophical investigations. Translated
by G. E. M. Anscombe. Oxford: Blackwell, p.103
• Summary of an article
• Write a 250 word summary of the following article, available on
BREO:
• Carey, J. (2005) ‘What is a work of art?’ in What good are the
arts? London: Faber and Faber, pp. 1-31.
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22. Assessment 1 - Portfolio
• Close analysis
• Write a 500 word close analysis on one of the following texts:
• Night Journey by Martha Graham (Dance)
• Oedipus Rex / King Oedipus by Sophocles (Theatre)
• Romeo and Juliet by Baz Lehrmann (Performing Arts)
• The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald (English)
• Annotated bibliography
• Produce an annotated bibliography with a minimum of five
entries based on reading you have undertaken for this unit.
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23. Assessment 2 - Essay
• When
• Friday 17th April 2015, electronic version through turnitin must
be submitted.
• What
• This assessment requires you to individually produce a
written essay of 1,500 words including quotations. You may
select one of the practitioners/ authors/ playwrights that you
have studied on this unit from your subject area.
• Weighting of the assessment
• This assessment forms 40% of the unit.
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24. Assessment 3 – Poster Presentation
• When
• Friday 1st May 2015, electronic version through turnitin must be
submitted.
• What
• This assessment requires you to submit a poster
presentation, you will also have the opportunity to deliver
these presentations in groups during seminar time for
feedback before submission. You will be provided with one
texts from a possible four in your particular field.
• Weighting of the assessment
• This assessment forms 30% of the unit.
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25. Summary
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26. Next Lecture
Teaching week 2
Calendar week 42
Week beginning
Monday 13th October
What is art?
Alice Barnaby
Carey, J. (2005) ‘What is a
work of art?’ in What good are
the arts? London: Faber and
Faber, pp. 1-31.
[Available Online – see BREO
Guided Learning]
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28. Weekly Musical Theatre Film Showing
• When: Tuesday 7th October at 6:30pm
• Where: Main Theatre
• What: The 1989 cult classic SING (running time: approximately 90
minutes)
• Synopsis:
• A woman returns to her high school as a teacher and convinces
the school punk to become involved in the schools annual
production "sing". When the board of education decides to close
the school and refuses to allow the annual event to be held, the
neighborhood and students come together to put the event on
one last time. A cross between "Fame" and "Footloose".
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