Can we teach undergraduates the history of time?
This essay examines the author’s experience since 2018 in developing and teaching a third-year undergraduate course on the history of time at a Singapore university, for students specializing in East and Southeast Asian history and the history of technology. History courses are traditionally taught...
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sg-ntu-dr.10356-1628182023-03-11T20:06:34Z Can we teach undergraduates the history of time? Clark, Justin T. School of Humanities Humanities::History Authoethnography Experiential Learning This essay examines the author’s experience since 2018 in developing and teaching a third-year undergraduate course on the history of time at a Singapore university, for students specializing in East and Southeast Asian history and the history of technology. History courses are traditionally taught in a chronological format, with clear periodization, and a nearly exclusive focus on written and audiovisual “texts.” The author has found that such an approach is less effective for a course on the history of time, a subject that suggests no obvious periodization or linear narrative, and for which many of his students lack a precise vocabulary. To solve these challenges, the author has borrowed autoethnographic exercises developed by scholars in other disciplines and assigned unconventional tasks such as building water clocks and curating time capsules. While the course has proven popular, it has also invited questions about what a global history of time looks like. Although the industrial and technological history of time is accessible to his students, much of the recent work on temporality presumes a familiarity with European and North American social and political issues that students outside of those regions may lack. Submitted/Accepted version 2022-11-10T04:55:08Z 2022-11-10T04:55:08Z 2022 Journal Article Clark, J. T. (2022). Can we teach undergraduates the history of time?. Time & Society. https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0961463X221111048 0961-463X https://hdl.handle.net/10356/162818 10.1177/0961463X221111048 en Time & Society © 2022 The Author(s). All rights reserved. This paper was published by SAGE Publications in Time & Society and is made available with permission of The Author(s). application/pdf |
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Humanities::History Authoethnography Experiential Learning Clark, Justin T. Can we teach undergraduates the history of time? |
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This essay examines the author’s experience since 2018 in developing and teaching a third-year undergraduate course on the history of time at a Singapore university, for students specializing in East and Southeast Asian history and the history of technology. History courses are traditionally taught in a chronological format, with clear periodization, and a nearly exclusive focus on written and audiovisual “texts.” The author has found that such an approach is less effective for a course on the history of time, a subject that suggests no obvious periodization or linear narrative, and for which many of his students lack a precise vocabulary. To solve these challenges, the author has borrowed autoethnographic exercises developed by scholars in other disciplines and assigned unconventional tasks such as building water clocks and curating time capsules. While the course has proven popular, it has also invited questions about what a global history of time looks like. Although the industrial and technological history of time is accessible to his students, much of the recent work on temporality presumes a familiarity with European and North American social and political issues that students outside of those regions may lack. |
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School of Humanities Clark, Justin T. |
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Clark, Justin T. |
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Clark, Justin T. |
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Can we teach undergraduates the history of time? |
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Can we teach undergraduates the history of time? |
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Can we teach undergraduates the history of time? |
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Can we teach undergraduates the history of time? |
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Can we teach undergraduates the history of time? |
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can we teach undergraduates the history of time? |
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2022 |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10356/162818 |
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