Teaching Assistant Orientation: The End of Anxiety?
Today was TA orientation for the History Department. It was definitely worth the while. Of course, we learned about our resources and who we should contact about whatever issue . . .
“And don’t forget to fill out those purple forms so that you can see your roster on MyUCLA. Talk to Hubert about any computer hardware things. Did we mention the purple forms? We’re going to get some sample syllabi on the grad student intranet for you. By the way, we have these purple forms that are really important. You will find the purple forms in your TA mailbox.”
But we also discussed strategies for creating syllabuses and lesson plans and the sort of demeanor you should offer in your first day of classes. The person teaching us suggested that she had to compensate for assumptions people made about her because of her size (she’s not tall). So, she had to assert her authority in a dramatic way from the get-go. I have been talking to a lot of people about that first day strategy lately. For me, I will certainly make myself clear about consequences, but I would like to emphasize the importance for discussion (it is a discussion section, after all). I’m trying to come up with as many methods as possible to get the conversation flowing.
In the orientation session, we held a little microteaching session with four volunteers. They were to do the first five minutes of their classroom. I found that really helpful, but in deciding what might be best for me and what I don’t want to do. One gentleman did very well, except that I found him quite threatening. As in, he started right off the bat about rule breaking, he waved his pointer finger around while talking sternly, and even held a body stance that said to me, “If you disobey me, I will cut you — after I knock your head off.”
Another person announced his “no electronics” policy, but offered a friendly “because those aren’t why we are here after all.” A little misdirection, like magic! One volunteer was fabulous with humor, but could have taken the speed of speech and gestures down a notch.
I’m leaning on my experiences preaching and leading small group discussions over the years to bring me home this quarter. If I’m honest, I do feel some jitters, but when I think about my lesson plan (we’re going to warm things up with the vision of Perpetua!) I get excited about teaching. This should be fun. Stay tuned.
Today, I Walked Into My First Office
A shared office. But this shared office, apart from being my first official “office” at any institution, has special meaning. After Prof. Bartchy’s office, this office is the second room that I visited on UCLA’s campus. As a prospective Ph.D. student, I awkwardly stumbled on campus to meet one of Bartchy’s grad students in person, a person with whom I had interacted online a bit. I peeked my head in the door to find Kevin Scull sitting at his desk–probably doing some grading.
I remember being a little nervous to meet Kevin, if only because I thought he might have Bartchy’s ear. Being nervous to meet a warm and jocular guy like Kevin seems humorous as I think about it now. I came and visited with him a few more times after that, meeting in that shared office, conversing with some other TAs.
It did feel a little special to walk into that office this morning, not nervous this time, but rather empowered to think that I’ve gotten that far. When I claimed my desk, I noticed that Kevin still had some of his items posted to the board above the desk next to mine (including an envelope that says “Kevin Scull Lives Here”). A nice little reminder of the distance from then to now.
The journey continues . . .
(By the way, Kevin, I have those things you left behind from two years ago 
)
Martyrdom: What are the Best Books and Articles?
Not how-to books. When you think of martyrs, martyrdom, and martyrology among early Christians and Jews, what are the must-read secondary sources? Along with a couple other grad students at UCLA, I will be doing a reading course with Boustan following along with his undergrad seminar: “Martyrdom and Religious Violence in the Ancient Mediterranean World: Israelites, Greeks, Jews, Romans, and Christians.”
We’re trying to supplement the undergrad syllabus with additional readings that interest us grad students. What are your ideas?
My Fall Quarter
It’s going to be an interesting fall quarter. This fall I will be a Teaching Assistant for the first time in my UCLA career. Being a TA is a bigger deal at UCLA than it has been in my experiences as a TA at Fuller Seminary and Messiah College. You have to apply for the ability to get a TAship as if it is a fellowship and then you are assigned to a class that needs TAs. Of the available courses, I’m hoping for the first of three Western Civ. classes (ancient civilizations). Even though the system feels a little crazy, I am glad that it actually takes up four of the twelve units I need to fill.
My advisor, Bartchy, is teaching the course Religious Environment of Early Christians, which I will attend and write a paper for. I am trying to make all of my course papers relevant to my plans for a dissertation which has to do with apocalyptic thought and social identity. Perhaps I’ll write a paper on emperor worship for the course.
So, TA spot = 4 units. Bartchy class = 4 units. I’ve got four more to kill. But the thing is, I’ve been overhauling it every quarter that I’ve been at UCLA, with two major academic papers per quarter. I want make sure I don’t have any other major papers or exams. So, UCLA allows grad students to sign up for these two sort of catch-all, directed-reading kinds of classes: 596 and 597. For one, you get a grade for producing something; the other is designed for comprehensive exam prep. With that in mind, Ra’anan Boustan is allowing me to read along with his upper division undergrad seminar on martyrdom as a 597 exam prep course. It also covers material I hope to work into my dissertation.
So, this fall: teaching about ancient civilizations, writing about first-century emperor worship, and reading about ancient martyrdom . . . not to mention making sure I’m prepared to present my SBL paper Seems like it will be a challenging, but doable quarter.
UCLA Presenters, Panelists, and Presiders at SBL 2009
My exploration of the SBL program book begins as I try to find all the UCLA folks who are contributing in SBL sessions this year. We have SBL participants from several nooks of the school, including the Department of History (S. Scott Bartchy, Ra’anan Boustan, Jacob Latham, A. Sue Russell, Kevin Scull, and me), the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures (William Schniedewind, Carol Bakhos, Ra’anan Boustan, Jeremy Smoak, Matthew Suriano, Ryan N. Roberts, and M. Caleb Isaac) the Center for Digital Humanities (Robert Cargill), and the Department of Linguistics (H. Craig Melchert). Fourteen in all, from what I can see.
A contender for UCLA’s MVP for SBL 2009 has to be Bob Cargill (Instructional Technology Coordinator for the Center for Digital Humanities) who is not only presenting on a hot topic (that whole Raphael Golb fiasco) but is also having his book discussed by a panel.
Update: I have noticed that the online program book times are still on the move, so if you see discrepensies, that’s why. Do not use this as an authoritative list for time slots!
Saturday, November 21st
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
- Assyriology and the Bible [Theme: Round City Roundtable: The Kuttamuwa Stela in Perspective] – H. Craig Melchert [Department of Linguistics and Indepartmental Program in Indo-European Studies], panel discussion member – listed 4th of 6
- Pseudepigrapha [Theme: The Inspired Production and Interpretation of Literary Texts in Antiquity] – Ra’anan Boustan [Department of History and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures], panel discussion member – 7th of 7 panel members (10 mins each, prior to break and 70 min discussion)
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
- Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament [Theme: A Retrospective on Mary Douglas. Legacy and Impact on Biblical Studies.] – A. Sue Russell [Department of History and on faculty at Biola University], “The Development of Douglas’ Grid/Group as an Analytical Tool and its Application to 1st Century Judaism” (30 min) – 1st of 3.
4:00 PM to 5:45 PM
- Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology – Jeremy Smoak [Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures], “Northwest Semitic Amuletic Inscriptions and the Background of Yahweh as Guardian and Protector in the Biblical Literature” (20 min) – 2nd of 4; Also in this session is Matthew Suriano [recent NELC alumnus and currently an adjunct professor for UCLA], “The Politics of Dead Kings: Royal Ancestors and Dynastic Succession in the Book of Kings and the Eshmunazor Sarcophagus” (4th of 4) and an honorable mention in this same session goes to recent NELC alumnus, Roger Nam, “Feasting at the King’s Table: The Political Economy of the Samaria Ostraca” – 3rd of 4.
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
- Biblical Lands and Peoples in Archaeology and Text [Theme: Solomonic Cities] – William M. Schniedewind [Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures], “Excavating the Text of 1 Kings 9: In Search of ‘the Gates of Solomon’” (25 min) – 4th of 4 (prior to discussion and respondents)
Sunday, November 22nd
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
- Joint Session with Computer Assisted Research & Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology [Review of Robert Cargill’s book The Qumran Digital Model: An Argument for Archaeological Reconstruction in Virtual Reality (Gorgias 2009), specifically of the author’s conclusion that Qumran was originally established as a Hasmonean fortress that was reoccupied by a sectarian Jewish group and Cargill’s methodology for using virtual reality and other technologies to aid archaeology.] – Robert R. Cargill [Center for Digital Humanities], panel discussion member – 5th of 5 panel members (20 mins each, prior to discussion) [It looks like Cargill is also scheduled for another panel discussion at the same time!]
- Midrash – Jason Mokhtarian [Iranian Studies in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures], “Midrashic Depictions of Persia” (25 min) – 4th of 4
- Violence and Representations of Violence among Jews and Christians [Theme: The Story of the Maccabean Martyrs and its Nachleben] – Ra’anan Boustan [Department of History and Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures], “Maccabean Martyrs, Rabbinic Narrative, and the Making of a Post-sacrificial Judaism” (25 min) – 3rd of 4
4:00 PM to 5:45 PM
- Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology [Theme: Archaeology and Biblical Literature] – Jeremy Smoak [Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures], presiding
Monday, November 23rd
9:00 AM to 10:30 AM
- Things I Wish I Knew about Doing a Ph.D. [Hosted by the SBL Student Advisory Group] – Kevin Scull [Department of History], panel discussion member – 4th of 4 panel members
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
- Biblical Lands and Peoples in Archaeology and Text [Theme: Imaging Gods in Greco-Roman Antiquity (#1)] – Jacob A. Latham [Department of History], “Imagining the Gods in the pompa circensis” (30 min) – 5th of 5
- History and Literature of Early Rabbinic Judaism – Carol Bakhos [Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures], presiding
- Ugaritic Studies and Northwest Semitic Epigraphy – Ryan N. Roberts [Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures], “Repetition, Reduction, and Rereading in the Kirta Epic” (30 min) – 3rd of 5; [Same session]: M. Caleb Isaac [Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures?], “An Unrecognized Prophetic Text from Horvat Uza” (30 min) – 5th of 5
1:00 PM to 3:30 PM
- Social Scientific Criticism of the New Testament [Theme: The Social Sciences and Paul - Patron-broker relationships, insights from social-psychology, and the conceptual tools central to enthnomedical anthropology will be applied to various passages from 2 Corinthians. In addition, the power/potency of Paul’s written word among nonliterate people will be assessed, and the claim that early Christians were sectarians will be reevaluated.] – S. Scott Bartchy [Department of History], presiding
- Hebrew Bible, History, and Archaeology [Theme: Archaeology and Historical Geography] – Matthew Suriano [recent NELC alumnus and currently an adjunct professor for UCLA], presiding
4:00 PM to 6:30 PM
- Computer Assisted Research – Robert R. Cargill [Center for Digital Humanities], “Scholars Behaving Badly: ‘Charles Gadda,’ Raphael Golb, and the Campaign of Anonymity on the Internet to Promote Norman Golb and Smear His Rivals” (30 min) – 1st of 5
- History of Interpretation [Theme: Book Review: Bernard Levinson, Legal Revision and Religious Renewal in Ancient Israel (Cambridge, 2008)] – Carol Bakhos [Department of Near Eastern Languages and Cultures], presiding
Tuesday, November 24th
9:00 AM to 11:30 AM
- Construction of Christian Identities – Patrick George McCullough [Department of History], “The Agents of Jesus Meet ‘All the Nations’: Adapting Jesus’ Cultic Reform for the Eschaton” (25 min) – 1st of 4
Update: I have added Sue Russell above, who listed her affiliation under Biola University. I will keep adding if I discover more!
Further Update: I have borrowed some ideas from Brandon’s formatting in his “Emory Participants at SBL 2009“, including links to abstracts and a clearer break-down of time segments. See also Stephen Carlson’s “Dukies at SBL 2009“.
Furloughs Cometh to the UC System
Everybody knows that the California budget is in the toilet and has been for some time. Sure, part of that is due to the bad economy that we’re all experiencing. But it’s also because California legislators don’t know how to compromise. I have rarely seen the affects of drastic things occurring in government in my own daily life, but here it is. I haven’t had to go into the DMV when it’s been closed to save money, but now my school is being affected. Because of a huge reduction in state funding, the UC system (one of the most prestigious state school systems in the country) must fill an $813 million budget gap. Twenty five percent of that gap is going to be filled with staff furloughs (mandatory unpaid time off), between 4 to 10 percent reductions depending on pay scale.
For regular time-sheet, clock-in/clock-out sort of staff, it’s not too difficult to figure out how to take away 7% of your time. Leave earlier on Friday or whatever, while your work piles up. What does it look like for faculty? I’m guessing in many cases, as at other institutions, this will simply mean that profs will put in the same amount of time for less money. One faculty member told me that he may just leave his class sessions 7% early as a kind of protest. The students are going to feel it one way or another. One possible response for the faculty is that they will simply leave.
I guess the UC system went through a similar sort of process in the early 90s and lots of quality faculty went seeking greener pastures. Only recently have some departments gotten themselves back up to full strength. UCLA’s student newspaper, The Daily Bruin, shares a quote from Mark Krumholz who spearheaded a letter signed by 300 UC faculty members warning of the dangers of divesting in the UC: “Krumholz added that while the amount of faculty leaving this year will only be a ‘trickle, . . . if the institution isn’t turned around, next year it’ll be a flood.’” For doctoral students who came to the school for the faculty, that’s bad news.
In addition, class sizes are larger and there are fewer Teaching Assistants. I am extremely grateful to have received a TAship for the fall, but the winter and spring quarters are a big question mark.
From where I sit, the political standoffs of Sacramento don’t seem worth the sacrifices of one of the state’s greatest public institutions.
For some additional details, see this letter released today by UCLA Chancellor Block.
Teaching This Fall, Finally.
I have taught in a few different capacities. Several of those have been ministry-related–small groups, sermons, Sunday school, etc. My first teaching assistant position was for Greek as an undergrad, where I often helped go through homework with students in class. In that position, in TA spots I had at Fuller Seminary and as a reader at UCLA, I occassionally helped students outside of class. At Fuller, I did take over a few classes for the Greek course I TA’d when the instructor had a baby. This fall, however, I will be responsible not just for grading or sporadic tutoring, but for guiding my own section of a class, week by week, through an entire quarter. I wasn’t expecting to get a TAship at UCLA because they are competitive to begin with and the California budget is somewhere in the ninth circle of hell.
Being an educator is the biggest reason I got into this business of academia, even if the research side of things does energize me as well. So, I am very excited to start getting my feet wet with a real classroom. The bad news is that I don’t know yet what I’ll be teaching. I will be assigned to one of the larger survey courses in the history department, perhaps Western Civilization or World History. That means that on a given week, I may know hardly any more than the students themselves. This is one of the challenges of the TA system at UCLA, but also an advantage. Such challenges will stretch me to discover how to teach subjects beyond my expertise, and I hope will give me more confidence to enter my first real job in a couple years.
But one step at a time. Maybe I should start boning up on Western Civ in the meanwhile.
First Year of Ph.D. Complete
My blogging always seems to get the short end of the stick at the end of each quarter. There is just too much to do and when I’m not doing it, my brain is too fried to post anything intelligent. Yes, I know I am setting my self up for easy shots on my blogging habits there (“Unintelligent? Never stopped you before!”). Okay, so let us say, my brain has been too fried to post anything at all at the end of each quarter.
The end of this past quarter is particularly meaningful as it marks the end of my first year as a Ph.D. student and my first summer “off” in four years. After three years of year-round, full-time Fuller Seminary, I was exhausted. But I went straight into UCLA and . . . fatherhood. I’m ready for a break! Not that I’ll just be sitting around on the couch all summer long eating Bon Bons (do they still make those?). I will be working with Ra’anan Boustan on two projects: (1) a summer research mentorship grant to look into apocalyptic thought and (2) as his research assistant, indexing for a forthcoming book on religion and violence. And I’ll also be taking care of my six month-old son. But it’s nice not to be enrolled in any classes.
But as this is the end of a challenging year, I thought I’d share some of the highlights:
- Regular lunches in the spring quarter with my UCLA colleagues Kevin and James.
- Meetings with my advisor, S. Scott Bartchy, sometimes debating the nature of apocalyptic thought and sometimes chatting about less academic things.
- Having a paper accepted for SBL this fall.
- Diving headlong into social history. I am so appreciative of my theologically oriented education at Fuller Seminary, but social history really is where I can feel my brain juices flowing. Did you know that UCLA’s history department is in the social sciences and not the humanities?
- Tackling the “son of man” problem in Bartchy’s Historical Jesus course. I am convinced that questing for the “historical Jesus” is a vast black hole, but I’m glad I gave it a whirl.
- Latin. Elementary language classes can be a pain, particularly when you have so many other research responsibilities. On the one hand, those classes can be too slow. On the other hand, they can demand too much work (particularly at UCLA)–a distraction for busy grad students. Latin is not the most important language for me, but it’s fun to work with it–Ovid and Livy have been interesting.
- Hebrew seminar in the NELC department. I was a little intimidated to take a Hebrew class with the folks who live and breathe Semitic languages non-stop, but it gave me new insights and helped improve my Hebrew skills. This seminar helped me wrestle through some exceptionally difficult concepts. I think my brain actually grew a little bit bigger.
- Sitting in on Kevin‘s undergrad seminar on Paul and ancient letter writing. Good job, Kevin!
Next year will be my last year of classes. In the course of the year, I will be enrolling in Bartchy’s class on the religious environment of early Christianity, a seminar on Eusebius with Claudia Rapp, probably something on Roman history with Ronald Mellor, finish up with Latin in the Winter, and a few other things. I’ll be taking the German and French exams. I hope to be a TA–but our budgets are being slashed, so I’m not sure I’ll get a spot (at UCLA, TA’s get their own sections to teach and its very competitive). If not, I’ll probably be grading. The third year will be teaching and preparing for my comprehensive exams. Then, it’s just dissertation or bust.
Summer Research Mentorship Grant
Last week I learned that I was approved for UCLA’s Summer Research Mentorship Grant. I was a little worried about it–what, with the California state financial apocalypse and all. But the good news is that I will have the opportunity to work with Ra’anan Boustan on my apocalyptic obsession this summer, unhindered by all the demands of regular academic quarters.
This summer will be my first “break” in four years. Fuller Seminary has you work around the clock, all year long. At UCLA, I am glad to have some flexibility with my summer. So, I am looking forward to having some extra time to do “daddy daycare,” as my friend Kevin calls it, while I also focus my academic attention solely upon apocalyptic writings (and German). No classes. And UCLA is paying me for it. Can’t complain with that.
Boustan’s current seminar will flow into the summer mentorship nicely, since I am already being introduced to his perspective and much of the relevant literature on the topic. In case you’re wondering about what I’m doing with apocalyptic eschatology in my research, I seem to be narrowing in upon the idea of identity formation: How is apocalyptic expectation related to identity construction in early Judaism and Christianity? Such is the topic of my SBL paper for this November. This is the direction I expect to go with my dissertation. I plan to keep my cards pretty close to my chest as far as specifics, but I will say that there is no monolithic answer to my question.
Yes, UCLA Has a NT Program
My UCLA colleague Kevin reminds the world on his new blog–while he also notes my “world famous” status. Indeed. Kevin’s post is similar to one that he wrote on the now defunct Novum Testamentum blog. That older post was what inspired me to pursue UCLA as a potential program. If he hadn’t shared that info at that time, my life would look very different right now. His current post complements my announcement about my acceptance to UCLA from about a year ago, if you’re interested in the program.
If you are looking for “official” information on the program, go to this link. The program is a bit of a misnomer as “Religion” since it is really only New Testament and Christian origins. Judaism has its own separate category in the history department. Later developments in Christianity are usually studied under the umbrella of the medieval field, for instance.
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Elsewhere . . .- Blog titles beginning with "A" to "Z" on your reader Mark Goodacre
- Of making many books there is no end Chris Brady
- Free Online: The Liddell-Scott Jones Lexicon S and C
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? II agathos
- Steven J. Friesen and the Identity of Satan’s Throne in Pergamum alan
- Does Higher Criticism Attempt to “Destroy the Bible”? agathos
- Bloomsbury buys Continuum Mark Goodacre
- Imperial America Peter J. Leithart
- C.F.D. Moule on the Birth of the New Testament d. miller
- Responding to Kostenberger (with comparisons to Marshall) Jeremiah
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