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Dear all,
The “Unessay” is a popular assignment format designed to empower student enthusiasm and learning. First proposed a decade ago within the Digital Humanities, the unessay has garnered a wide and enthusiastic following among university instructors across the disciplines, from the Humanities and Social Sciences, to math and the natural sciences, to professional schools.
Because it breaks with traditional essay writing, originally developed by institutions in the West to educate relatively homogenous groups of students with similar backgrounds, the “Unessay” lends itself to serve as a tool that allows alternative epistemological systems to assert themselves. In this sense, it can also serve to dismantle hierarchical models of education by becoming a tool to “unsettle” both the classroom and the university. Unsurprising, conversations around the unessay have often dovetailed with discussions of non-traditional evaluation, such as contract-based, specifications-based, or ungrading.
In honour of the unessay’s tenth anniversary, we are putting together a collection of contributions papers on the Unessay in theory and practice. We are particularly interested in ensuring a broad range of perspectives, both across disciplines and from authors with a wide range of lived experiences. Some suggested topics include:
Practical experiences with the unessay or similar pedagogical tools
Problems with traditional essay writing and similar approaches
Unsettling the classroom through alternative evaluation practices
The unessay as a force to restore cognitive justice
The relationship of the unessay to other “non-traditional” writing assignments, historical or contemporary
Challenges—practical, theoretical, or administrative—to creating meaningful unessay assignments
We also welcome practical discussions of the use of the Unessay in classroom contexts and its adaptation to different regional contexts, types of institutions, or levels of instruction (Post Secondary, K-12, two-year and four-year colleges, etc.). In the spirit of the unessay, alternative formats (including unessays) are most welcome for consideration.
https://www.humanitiesinnovationlab.ca/post/cfp-the-unessay-companion
Please email Barbara.bordalejo@uleth.camailto:Barbara.bordalejo@uleth.ca daniel.odonnell@uleth.camailto:daniel.odonnell@uleth.ca or rcordell@illinois.edumailto:rcordell@illinois.edu if you have any questions.
BB