Teaching Conversations: Why I Teach...
We engage with the core texts of the humanistic tradition for many reasons. This ongoing series of teaching conversations for faculty, teaching assistants, and staff seeks to gather our community around the joy of teaching and living along with these core texts. Talks will approach their chosen text from a range of perspectives, including effective and engaging ways to present the text, reflections on the value of including the text in the course, and how to make connections between the text and student writing.
For any questions, please contact Bretton Rodriguez at bsrodriguez@ucsd.edu.
Winter 2026
| Week |
Date |
Presenter |
| 3 |
October 8 |
Geoff West |
| 6 |
TBA |
TBA |
| 9 |
TBA |
TBA |
Fall 2024
| Presenter |
Topic |
| Ed Watts |
Why I Teach the Roman coins of Brutus |
| Edmond Chang |
Why I Teach Vergerius' On the New Education |
| Phoebe Bronstein |
Why I Teach Mazaris' Armageddon |
Winter 2025
| Presenter |
Topic |
| Patrick Patterson |
Why I Teach Auden |
| Janelle Aijan |
Why I Teach the Book of Genesis |
| Holly Bauer |
Why I Teach Writing in the Age of AI |
Spring 2025
| Presenter |
Topic |
| David Quijada |
Why I Teach "My Name" by Sandra Cisneros |
| Antony Lyon |
Why I Teach Victoria Chang |
| Manuel Vargas |
Why I Teach Friedrich Nietzche's On the Genalogy of Morals |
Fall 2023
| Presenter |
Topic |
| Bretton Rodriguez |
Why I Teach Sappho |
| Bryan Santin |
Why I Teach James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time |
| Matthew Crum |
Why I Teach Mazaris' Journey to Hades |
Winter 2024
| Presenter |
Topic |
| Denise Demetriou |
Why I Teach Margaret Atwood's The Penelopiad |
| Tatiana Zavodny |
Why I Teach Moderata Fonte's The Merits of Women |
| Todd Kontje |
Why I Teach Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe |
Spring 2024
| Presenter |
Topic |
| Nicole Kenley |
Why I Teach Raymond Chandler's Farewell, My Lovely |
| Amanda Solomon Amarao |
Why I Teach Lê Thị Diễm Thúy's The Gangster We Are All Looking For |
Fall 2022
| Presenter |
Topic |
| Geoff West |
Why I Teach Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz |
Winter 2023
| Presenter |
Topic |
| Antony Lyon |
Why I Teach Walt Whitman |
| Eric Watkins |
Why I Teach The Declaration of Independence |
| Stephen Cox |
Why I Teach the Gospels |
Spring 2023
| Presenter |
Topic |
| Kristina Markman |
Why I Teach The Travels of Sir John Mandeville |
| Stan Chodorow |
Why I Teach Eschenbach’s Parzival |
| Matthew Herbst |
Why I Teach Athanasius' Life of St Anthony |
