Poetry and Translation Conference

There will be a Poetry and Translation academic conference organised by the English department at Stirling University this July. See http://www.poetryandtranslation.stir.ac.uk/ for more details. I'm particularly interested in attending this conference as there are quite a few Irish authors presenting their work, including Ciaran Carson and Eilean Ni Chuilleanain.

Providing Effective Feedback to Enhance Student Learning

Three times a semester the postgraduates at the English department at Stirling University organise teacher training sessions for teaching assistants. I began teaching in the departement on September 2007 on the first year undergraduate module called 'Author, Reader, Text', and this semester I will be teaching on another first year module 'Texts and Contexts'. See http://www.english.stir.ac.uk/undergraduate-current/modules/index.php for more details on the current modules being offered through the department. In order to improve upon my teaching practices I am actively involved in helping to run the sessions on offer for teaching assistants, and next week I'll be giving a paper on the importance of giving effective feedback to students to enhance their learning and improve communication between tutors and students and between a student and his or her peers. If you have any ideas or suggestions of things that you use in tutorials in your feedback practices, feel free to contact me. Next week I'll publish the paper I will give at this session and give an overview of what other teaching assistants see as being effective feedback.

Postcolonial Studies Reading & Film Group at Stirling University.

This spring at Stirling University I am setting up a new Postcolonial Studies Reading and Film Group run under the Centre of Commonwealth Studies. The group will meet three times a semester to discuss postcolonial cultural texts and films on Wednesdays from 1pm to 230pm in room A7, Pathfoot. This group welcomes all staff, postgraduate and undergraduate students and provides a space for those who are interested in postcolonial studies to meet outside of seminars and classes over lunch. Please find attached a poster with this semester's schedule. For further information contact me at brian.rock@stir.ac.uk.

Spring Semester Schedule

20th February @ 1pm in A7
Come watch and discuss Abderrahmane Sissako’s film Bamako, a critical exposition of the World Bank and the IMF regarding Africa's poverty. http://www.bamako-themovie.com/

26th March @ 1pm in A7
Franz Fanon’s ‘On National Culture’ in The Wretched of the Earth.

23rd April @ 1pm in A7
Naeem Murr’s novel The Perfect Man. Regional Winner of the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize 2007. http://www.naeemmurr.com/