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Faculty Interviews |
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Interview with Matthew SmithRecent Teaching History American West My most recent and current areas of interest and the big questions I am currently dealing with: My strongest interests currently are in environmental politics generally conceived. In particular I am interested in the political, economic, moral, and personal assumptions which underlie our current relationship to the natural world. I am interested in the question of how we represent nature in language, religion, art, and science. I am interested in how collectivities of people particularly sub-national communities can/do manage their relationship to nature. I am interested in global political economy as it impinges on the capacity or strengthens the capacity of sub-national communities to function effectively. Iam interested in the politics of the Columbia River, water politics in the American West more generally, and in regional issues such as forest management, hydro-power which impinge upon the regional economy and ecology. Are there particular authors/artists/thinkers whose work you interested and which you often ask students to examine? I am particularly interested in the work of envirommental
historians, such as Richard White, Donald Worster, Carolyn
Merchant, William Cronon, and environmental philosopher/writers
such as Gary Snyder, Richard Nelson, and Terry Tempest Williams.
I am also interested in the work of Marx, Locke, Weber, Foucault,
Philip Selsnick and others who deal with issues of liberalism,
social structure, power, and community. Are there specific areas of interest or issues you want to work with students on in the current year? I would like to support contract work on regionalism, community
studies particularly those relating community to physical
place, and work describing the role of the state in the contemporary
world. Specific Skills, Competence, Techniques: Specific skills and competencies I can support are expository
writing at a number of levels ranging from response essays
to major reports and research papers. I can support some social
science interview and community studies work. I can support
library research. Support the process of interpretation of
historical, photographic, interview and other data. Teaching Style:How would you characterize yourself as a teacher? I am a reasonably demanding, reasonably well organized, fairly
critical, moderately adaptable, and very engaged teacher.
I teach not simply because I want a job, nor that I love to
watch students learn, but because I think the material is
important and I want to help students come to some mastery
of it. I am animated, occasionally humorous, usually friendly,
and nearly always present in my teaching. What types of students tend to do well with you? Students who are willing to work to master the material and
then learn to apply the ideas to their own lives. Students
who have some basic skills and can read moderately well, and
write more or less coherent english language paragraphs. Students
who think about the material outside of class and have something
to say and are willing to risk saying something that might
, in other circumstances, make them appear foolish. Students
who like (preferably love) to learn. Students who see learning
as a process in which nearly all assumptions and prejudgments
are at risk. What types of students have a hard time with you? Students who don't work hard on and/or think hard about the
material. Bored Students. Sometimes very shy or unassertive
students, but usually we come to an accommodation over the
course of the quarter. Students who lack intellectual curiosity.
What do your student evaluations say about the way you come across to students? I tend to get reasonably strong student evaluations. They vary a good deal but they universally say I am assertive, smart, usually knowledgeable, and helpful with writing, and reading. They tend to say I run a text oriented seminar with a fair degree of flexibility. They say I have very obvious body language and that this can be a bit intimidating as I get into the conversation. Sometimes students find me too text oriented, too critical, or too busy to provide the level of support they feel they need. Shy/unassertive students tend to hang back at first, but usually feel that they have found a way to be heard. My evaluations of students are nearly universally felt to be fair. Expectations about Contracts, Internships, and Evaluations
My major concern is developing clarity of expression and
coherence of argumentation. I work on these through comments
on papers, individual conferences with students, and lots
of practice (including rewriting). I like to have students
work in groups to provide additional support/feedback/conversation
about their shared work and experience. Key qualities or attributes I tend to assess when preparing students' transcript evaluations: Completion of work, effort in completing/participating in the work, quality of the work. In particular I look to see if the student has developed and changed his/her views, talents, or understandings over the course of the quarter(s). I look hard at the quality of the written work and the ability to grasp and work with ideas. I appreciate effort and humor in peoples work. Kind of work I think contracts are most useful for; kind of work I think internships are most useful for: I should say that I think individual contracts are very difficult
to do well ie. for a full 16 quarter hours credit. I tend
to recommend (but not require) that students undertake a course
or part time program to supplement their contract and give
them a group of students to work with and/or attempt to group
their contract with others for support. I see internships
as very valuable under the right circumstances, but believe
that they demand some external reflective work beyond the
work experience itself. The qualities I look for in a student who comes to me for work in a contract: I expect appropriate preparation, a clear purpose for undertaking
the internship or contract, and some strong sense of maturity/desire
which allows me to see how the work can be accomplished with
the minimal support available to most contracts. What information do you want to see when a person comes to look for a contract? Previous faculty and student self evaluations, copies of the best written work a student has done, copies of any work that relates directly to the proposed undertaking. A more or less clearly formulated proposal or idea for a contract. I like to help develop the proposals, but I expect the student to have some pretty clear idea what he/she is looking for and some specific materials and activities which they want to study or complete.
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