Introduction to AHR Forum: ‘True, Impossible Teaching Archive’, Part One

Abstract

The significance of this speculative gathering of teaching and learning records is brought to life through their book's focus on a selection of curricula and other teaching-related documents that reveal the rich and varied practices of the literary studies classroom. Following economic fallout accompanying COVID-19, retrenchment of staffand casualisation of academic labour are also threatening the very survival of literary studies in many universities, where the tying of promotion to research funding means further undervaluing of teaching and where economic value has come to trump all else. The forum includes Kate Fagan's 'Poetry Workshops as "True, Impossible Archives" (or, Teaching as Collaborative Research,' Sumana Roy's, 'Writing Water: The Curious Behaviour of W,' Kevin Pask's 'Resistance to Teaching,' Meg Brayshaw's 'Some Thoughts on the (Im)Possibilities of Teaching Australian Literature,' Sean Pryor's 'Experiences Differ: A Reflection on Teaching Literary Studies,' Simon During's 'Exciting Discipline,' Ronan McDonald's 'Vincent Buckley's Teaching Archive,' Keyvan Allahyari, 'Punishment and Pedagogy: The Casual Future of Teaching Literary Studies' and Monique Rooney's 'Trigger Archive: What is a True, Impossible Teaching Archive?' Part Two of 'True, Impossible Teaching Archive' will be published in AHR in November 2021.