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 from https://ddd.uab.cat/record/116328, 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)).

  • ON STUDENTS’ ABSENCE FROM THE CLASSROOM: BEGINNING TO WORRY

    Whereas my MA students rarely skip classes and only do so for justified reasons, I cannot make sense of the attendance pattern in my BA class. There are 63 students officially registered, of whom 58 appear to be following the course according to the exercises handed in and our online activities. However, classroom attendance varies…

  • ON THE EXPERIENCE OF SUPERVISING DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS (WITH AN APOLOGY)

    I have written so far two posts on the matter of supervising PhD students (see “A doctoral student abandons: At a loss what to advise…” of 2014, and “Supervising doctoral students: A complicated task” of 2015). Actually, I have published three more posts on doctoral students, but these two are most directly connected with the…

  • SOBRE LA EXPERIENCIA DE DIRIGIR TESIS DOCTORALES (CON UNA DISCULPA)

    He escrito hasta ahora dos entradas sobre el tema de la supervisión de estudiantes de doctorado (ver “A doctoral student abandons: At a loss what to advise…” de 2014, y “Supervising doctoral students: A complicated task” de 2015). En realidad, he publicado tres entradas más sobre los estudiantes de doctorado, pero estas dos están más…

  • The Posthuman Patriarchal Villain as Absolute Future Threat: Winston Duarte (and the hero James Holden) in The Expanse novel series

    SPOILERS WARNING: This post deals with the nine Expanse novels and discusses the series’ ending. The Expanse is a series of nine space opera novels—Leviathan Wakes (2011), Caliban’s War (2012), Abaddon’s Gate (2013), Cibola Burn (2014), Nemesis Games (2015), Babylon’s Ashes (2016), Persepolis Rising (2017), Tiamat’s Wrath (2019) and Leviathan Falls (2021)—accompanied by a short…

  • El villano patriarcal posthumano como amenaza futura absoluta: Winston Duarte (y el héroe James Holden) en la serie de novelas The Expanse

    AVISO DE SPOILERS: esta entrada analiza las nueve novelas de la serie Expanse, incluyendo el final. The Expanse es una serie de nueve novelas del sub-género ópera espacial ya traducidas: Leviathan Wakes [El despertar del Leviatán] (2011), Caliban’s War [La guerra de Calibán] (2012), Abaddon’s Gate [La puerta de Abadón] (2013), Cibola Burn [La quema…