Studies in Medieval and Renaissance Teaching (SMART)
Spring 2022 (Volume 29, Issue 1)
The articles in this Spring 2022 issue of SMART begin with a paper about using concepts from game theory and digital game studies to develop a new pedagogical approach to analyzing a classic medieval text. This is followed by an article showing how it is possible to study much more than medieval magic and witchcraft using the Harry Potter books by making connections to multiple medieval topics, thus providing a good introduction to medieval culture. Next is an approach to teaching the western civilization survey course and its treatment of the medieval period by focusing on the growth of polity: the historical process of nation-making, or state-building. Then Twitter is featured as a tool for helping students who often struggle to deal with medieval source and early modern materials. An article on the study of Othello in conjunction with Citizen: An American Lyric compares historical drama, making it relevant and relatable, reinforcing Shakespeare’s continuing importance in the contemporary world. What follows is an examination of ways that teaching lost plays can help students think about voices and silence within the early modern literary canon and in their own classroom dynamic. Teaching Beowulf by way of Tolkien explains a course that combines the fantasy author with the Old English poet to help students see in Beowulf something of what Professor Tolkien did, and to realize how it influenced his works of fantasy. The last paper in this issue demonstrates the intersection of the fields of linguistics and literature by teaching Chaucer to linguistics students and developing a new set of learning outcomes. Hope-fully these articles as well as numerous book reviews will provide educators with some new ideas for teaching the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
Please share information on the SMART journal with friends, colleagues, and libraries, alerting them to the wide contribution that this publication makes to Middle Ages and Renaissance pedagogy. We are always interested in new submissions, either individual papers or collections of essays around a theme. If you have a project that you think might be suitable for SMART, please let us know.
Thank you for reading SMART.
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The Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wichita State University continues to fund and support the mission of SMART by providing readers with quality pedagogical instruction
CLARISSE BARBIER LEE Game Theories in Favor of the Ignorance of Perceval, True Winner of the Arthurian World
TERESA RUPP Teaching the Middle Ages through Harry Potter
EMILY SOHMER TAI Bringing the State Back in: Medieval History and the Western Civilization Survey
ALEXANDRA R. A. LEE Teaching Using Twitter: A Tool for Grappling with Medieval and Early Modern Sources
NICHOLAS F. RADEL Citizen Othello: Teaching Claudia Rankine as Shakespeare’s Future
LAURA SEYMOUR Lost Plays, Shrews, and (Breaking) Silence in the Classroom. Teaching Grim the Collier of Croyden
PAUL ACKER Teaching Beowulf by Way of Tolkien
CAROL JAMISON Teaching Chaucer to Linguistics Students
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LESLEY COOTE Book Review: The Cartulary-Chronicle of St-Pierre of Bèze, edited by Constance Brittain Bouchard
RONALD W. BRAASCH III Book Review: Medieval Warfare: A Reader, edited by Kelly DeVries and Michael Livingston
ADAM FRANKLIN-LYONS Book Review: Medieval Iberian Crusade Fiction and the Mediterranean World, by David A. Wacks
ROBERT GRAYBILL Book Review: The Figure of Minerva in Medieval Literature, by William F. Hodapp
JOSHUA REID Book Review: Teaching Early Modern English Literature from the Archives, edited by Heidi Brayman Hackel and Ian Frederick Moulton
REGINA PSAKI Book Review: Teaching the Italian Renaissance Romance Epic, edited by JoAnn Cavallo
JESS MCCULLOUGH Book Review: Vikings and the Vikings: Essays on Television’s History Channel Services, edited by Paul Hardwick and Kate Lister
CHRISTINA FRANCIS Book Review: Experiencing Medieval Art, by Herbert L. Kessler
YVONNE BRUCE Book Review: Untimely Deaths in Renaissance Drama, by Andrew Griffin
TERESA RUPP Book Review: Approaches to Teaching Dante’s Divine Comedy, edited by Christopher Kleinhenz and Kristina Olson
BRIAN HARRIES Book Review: Bound to Read: Compilations, Collections, and the Making of Renaissance Literature, by Jeffrey Todd Knight
Fall 2022 (Volume 29, Issue 2)
NOT YET PUBLISHED
Both spring and fall 2022 issues of SMART are included in the yearly subscription price of $30 for individuals, $35 for libraries and centers, and $40 for subscriptions outside of the United States. Prepayment is required. SMART subscription information and an order form can be accessed by clicking on IN THIS SECTION (above).
Back issues of SMART are available for $20 each (domestic mailing) or $25 each (foreign mailing). Prepayment is required. A list of SMART back issues and an order form can be accessed by clicking on IN THIS SECTION (above).
Continuing support for SMART from the Fairmount College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Wichita State University makes it possible to provide our readers with quality pedagogical scholarship.