Workshops: Pedagogy

Workshop 31: Defining the Field:
Resources on Women's Writing and Music

Conveners:

• Anne Christensen, English, University of Houston
• Anne Stone, Music, Queens College
• Barbara Sebek, English, Colorado State University

"Defining the Field" is a practical teaching workshop that opens up questions beyond the classroom. Its purpose is to allow participants to evaluate the range of published and on-line resources for teaching courses on early modern women across several disciplinary fields. Because the number of texts available for teaching and research on women has grown dramatically, our aim is to work toward a collective evaluation of this material--collections of critical essays on early modern women writers, musicians, performers and composers; anthologies of poetry, drama, song and other work by women; editions of early modern women writers, and composers; web-based resources; and the new 'source books' on women, gender, and family. Participants obtained (via library, ILL, or publishers' desk copy) and examined one of a core of texts. The session assessed the usefulness of this material in our courses.

We hoped this hands-on activity would provoke an examination of the field itself, for the practical work on the books would allow us to think more speculatively about the direction our field has taken and the agendas it might set itself. Advance preparation includes reading the c.10 page Introduction to Marion Wynne-Davies' book Women Poets of the Renaissance (New York; Routledge, 1999) and examing one text or CD.