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)).

  • 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…

  • UNA PROPUESTA PARA ELIMINAR LOS TRABAJOS DE FIN DE GRADO E INTRODUCIR UN EXAMEN ORAL FINAL

    En la reciente reunión de mi Departamento sobre el último conjunto de trabajos de fin de grado (TFG) que hemos evaluado, hemos considerado la posibilidad de suprimirlos en un futuro próximo. No nos corresponde decidirlo a nosotros, pero partimos de la suposición de que, tarde o temprano, nuestra Facultad o la UAB, si no todas…

  •  AFTER A SEMINAR: SOME REFLECTIONS ON DOCTORAL DISSERTATIONS (IN ENGLISH LITERATURE AND CULTURE)

    I’ve had the honour of being a guest speaker at the seventh doctoral seminar that AEDEAN (Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-norteamericanos) has organized at the Universidad de Cantabria, in Santander. This has been held less than one month after the conference organized by ASYRAS (Association of Young Researchers on Anglophone Studies), at the University of…

  • DESPUÉS DE UN SEMINARIO: ALGUNAS REFLEXIONES SOBRE LAS TESIS DOCTORALES (EN LITERATURA Y CULTURA INGLESAS)

    He tenido el honor de ser ponente invitada en el séptimo seminario doctoral que AEDEAN (Asociación Española de Estudios Anglo-norteamericanos) ha organizado en la Universidad de Cantabria, en Santander. Este encuentro se ha celebrado menos de un mes después del congreso organizado por ASYRAS (Asociación de Jóvenes Investigadores en Estudios Anglófonos), en la Universidad de…

  • SELECTING A CORPUS FOR A BOOK (ON PATRIOGRAPHY): HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?

    If I write here about the books I’m preparing, I eventually shame myself into writing them, so here we go. I had been reading for a while for a book on secondary characters in the European novel when it struck me that the committee judging the research exercises (or ‘sexenios’) might consider it Comparative Literature…