As a keen reader of educational psychology, I give prominence to the quality of in-depth textual and contextual exploration beyond stylistic and hermeneutic perspectives. The process of creativity, be it in writing or reading, and the cognitive processes during understanding and interpreting a text are crucial aspects of literary studies in my academic practice. To cultivate a profound engagement with diverse theories and textual aesthetics across global geographical domains, I encourage learners to apply complementary studies to one specific line of investigation within the critical discourse.
My research spans several areas within literary studies, for which I take the same primary cross-disciplinary approach, in communication with my teaching methodologies. I understand that studying literary eras in separation from one another is a problematic field in higher education English subject. However, students are continuously taught in a traditional fashion which advocates the significance of “literary period” as an individual focus throughout the working life of any literary scholar. This means that while students obtain relevant skills and knowledge in the specific literary period they study, they do not necessarily become adept literary critics by the end of their degrees.
To bridge this gap, I encourage learners to extend the variety of their reading material. This is a simple strategy to gradually change reading habits, particularly for individual learners whose interests are focused on a single genre and literary period. Often, it is through this gradual expansion of one’s literary material that the way literature is generally looked at can be challenged.
One particular area that fascinates me in teaching and learning is motivational factors in changing or promoting reading and writing habits. Prompting students to associate their reading with the reading of others through group-led discussions, helps learners to establish the line of literary connection. It gives them an opportunity to reconsider themselves as unique interpreters of any given text, in dialogue with others, forming bodies within bodies of interpretation and translation.
I am specifically focused on modules in the undergraduate and postgraduate degrees through which I can foster this embodying factor to the best of my abilities, enhancing students’ more assertive responsiveness to literary texts.