Guidelines for Teaching a Graduate Seminar

Graduate Seminar Goals

• Courses offered through the Center for Renaissance Studies are designed for graduate students and faculty. Advanced undergraduates may be admitted only with the consent of the instructor. Graduate students may audit or take courses for credit through their own institutions, and faculty are encouraged to audit seminars as well.
• Participants from Center for Renaissance Studies consortium institutions pay no fee to the Newberry for graduate seminars. With instructor approval, and when space permits, participants from other institutions may be admitted; non-consortium students pay a tuition fee.
• Instructors should design courses that present medieval, Renaissance, and/or early modern materials from innovative or multidisciplinary perspectives or in light of some significant, unusual, or new methodology. Generally, seminars that are normally taught as part of a university curriculum or which duplicate courses offered at most universities are not appropriate, unless unusual circumstances attend the proposal.
• Courses offered on only one consortium university campus, or which offer the instructor an unusual opportunity to teach a specialized subject, or which may benefit from a wider pool of participants, are welcome.
• To attract the most multidisciplinary group of participants the language of instruction in these seminars should be English, although the ability to read materials in another language may be a prerequisite for the course.
• Courses should make use of or be relevant to Newberry collections.
• We encourage instructors to invite guest speakers from other consortium institutions, especially those located outside Chicago.
• Graduate seminars meet once a week for ten weeks, beginning in late September/early October, January, or late March/early April.
• Due to the recent turbulence in financial markets, graduate seminars will not be able to make heavy use of special collections in 2009-2010.  Please contact Carla Zecher (zecherc at newberry.org) to discuss how to incorporate special collections visits and materials into your course.

 

Procedures

• Faculty who teach Center for Renaissance Studies graduate seminars should be tenured members of their faculties or demonstrate experience in teaching graduate seminars at their home institutions. Exceptions may be made to this rule for courses of outstanding merit or for those that make meritorious use of the Newberry collections.
• To propose a graduate seminar, complete the Application Cover Sheet, available on our web pages, and return it to the Center with the required attachments.
• Potential instructors should contact their campus executive committee members regarding their proposals, as the representatives may wish to make suggestions.
• Complete proposals consist of an Application Cover Sheet, course description, syllabus, and a CV that includes a list of graduate courses taught.
• An ad hoc subcommittee of the Center's executive committee reviews proposals for each academic year. Once proposals have been approved the Center schedules and publicizes the seminars.
• Instructors are compensated for teaching graduate seminars by negotiating release time with their departments. Visiting instructors may apply, provided the host institution is willing to grant a course release.
• Consortium funds may be used to reimburse instructors and participants in graduate seminars for travel to and from the Newberry.
• Proposals for the following academic year are usually due in mid-January.

Recruiting Students

• Executive committee members are asked to record courses in appropriate institutional schedules at the earliest possible opportunity and to send department chairpersons copies of seminar descriptions.
• The Center for Renaissance Studies publicizes graduate seminars in its brochures, on its web pages, and through e-mail announcements to members of the consortium.
• Students wishing to take a graduate seminar should complete and submit to the Center for Renaissance Studies a Graduate Seminar Enrollment Application, available on our web pages.
• Students taking a course for credit must also make arrangements through their home institution. At some institutions Newberry seminars have been assigned a course number. At others, seminars are taken as independent studies and the seminar instructor informs the appropriate party at the student's home institution of the grade earned at the end of the term.

 

Enrollment

• Courses have unlimited enrollments, except for classes that make extensive use of the Newberry's special collections. In that case the maximum number of participants is 13. Places are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis and/or by consultation with the instructor.

Course Materials and Technology  

• The Newberry Library bookstore can order books for students to purchase. Please submit a list of books to the Center for Renaissance Studies at least two months before the seminar starts.
• The Newberry reference department can place Newberry books that students will be expected to consult on a reserve shelf in the Main Reading Room on the second floor. Please submit class reserve lists at least two weeks before the first class.
• Center for Renaissance Studies staff will photocopy syllabi, bibliographies, and other class materials.
• Center staff can also arrange class tours of the Newberry, orientation sessions with a reference librarian, and/or "show and tell" sessions in Special Collections with rare books, manuscripts, maps, and/or artifacts. Dates for Special Collections visits should be reserved as far in advance as possible, as they fill up quickly. See the Consortium Institution Class Visits page for details.
• The Newberry can provide equipment for Powerpoint or slide presentations, although reservations must be made in advance. Most Newberry classrooms are not equipped with Internet access.