The Joys of Teaching Literature, started in September 2010 and with a Spanish version since July 2021, is a blog for ranting and raving about teaching and researching English Literature, Cultural Studies, and Gender Studies, and other aspects of the Anglophone world. I publish a post once a week, usually on Monday. Please, download the yearly volumes for free or read the volume collecting some of the entries (Passionate Professing: The Context and Practice of English Literature, 2023). The comments option is not available, sorry, but you may contact me through my e-mail address, Sara.Martin@uab.cat. The contents of this blog are protected by a type 4 Creative Common License (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (by-nc-nd)).

  • OUR PLACE IN HISTORY: REFLEXIONS ON THE EVOLUTION OF THE UNIVERSITY (IN SPAIN)

    In my last post I cited the doctoral dissertation by Leonardo Sánchez Ferrer, currently of the Universidad de Burgos, Políticas de reforma universitaria en España: 1983-1993 (1996). I downloaded it to take a quick look, and ended up devouring it, given its informative, reader-friendly tone. PhD dissertations are not a genre I tend to read…

  • NUESTRO LUGAR EN LA HISTORIA: REFLEXIONES SOBRE LA EVOLUCIÓN DE LA UNIVERSIDAD (EN ESPAÑA)

    En mi última entrada cité la tesis doctoral Políticas de reforma universitaria en España: 1983-1993 (1996) de Leonardo Sánchez Ferrer, profesor hoy de la Universidad de Burgos. La descargué para echar un vistazo rápido y acabé devorándola, por su tono informativo y divulgativo. Las tesis doctorales no son un género que suelo leer a menos…

  • THE DEATH OF UNIVERSITY DEPARTMENTS: TWO VARIANTS

    The Department I work for, the English and German Department of UAB, is very confused about its own history, meaning that we don’t really know where we come from. We have not bothered so far to keep track of our main events and their chronological progression, and I don’t know whether we’re typical or atypical…

  • LA MUERTE DE LOS DEPARTAMENTOS UNIVERSITARIOS: DOS VARIANTES

    El departamento universitario para el que trabajo, el Departamento de Filología Inglesa y de Germanística de la UAB, está muy confundido respecto a su propia historia: es decir, no sabemos de dónde venimos. Hasta ahora no nos hemos molestado en llevar un registro de nuestros eventos principales ni de su progresión cronológica, y no sé…

  • GETTING RID OF BA DISSERTATIONS AND VINDICATING ORAL EXAMS: A PROPOSAL

    In my Department’s recent meeting about the last batch of BA (or, as we call them, TFG) dissertations we have assessed, we already considered the possibility of suppressing them in the near future. This is not for us to decide, but we work on the assumption that, sooner or later, our school or UAB, if…