| Class | Semester | Instructor | Department | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 21st Century Feelings | Spring 2026 | Alfred E. Guy Jr. | English, Humanities, Poorvu Center | None |
Learning Objectives
- For students to practice wider synthesis of course materials than during class discussion
- For students to practice taking more responsibility for claims than when in a group
- For students to connect course ideas to texts they have not written about directly in their papers
- For students to see the rewards of thoughtfulness and not just confidence & speed
Overview
The main phases of this activity are (1) scheduling it–both so that it fits in the course rhythm and so that you can have enough slots during the week for all the students; (2) writing questions–I worked hard to make them not gotcha questions but instead ones that invite further thinking; (3) doing the exam in a spirit of conversation, pushing where needed and helping in other moments; (4) taking brief notes in between exams so you can remember details for; (5) giving feedback and grading.
These are the questions I asked for the first oral exam, with some brief annotations about what they were designed to assess: [The download is a handout I gave students to help them prepare for the exam.]
(1) What question does your paper now make it possible to ask—one you couldn’t quite ask before writing it? [Check for understanding; continue the conversation of their essay.]
Follow-up: Can you bring in a piece of music [on the syllabus and in a different medium] that feels like it’s doing something similar affectively?
(2) “If Cloud Atlas is asking readers to stay engaged without hope of solution, what kind of reader does it imagine or try to produce?” [Extend the class conversation about a specific, central text in the course.]
Follow-up: Is that a stance you recognize in yourself? Is it sustainable? Attractive? Alienating?
(3) Was there a moment in any of the theory where you felt recognized—not necessarily affirmed, but accurately described?” [Application to personal experience and understanding.]
Alternate if the first version doesn’t land: Did any of the theory give language to something you’d felt but hadn’t quite been able to name before?
(4) Is there something you scroll past a lot—TikTok, Reels, YouTube—that you think is doing interesting affective work, or that just gives you the feels? What does it want from you emotionally? [More application, but to a medium we are not studying explicitly.]
I also shared a list of all the course texts so far to help prompt students for some of the questions.
Reflections
I liked everything about doing this. It was easier than I expected to have different conversations with each student but still push most of them to cover the four main topics of the exam. During the exam, every student had at least one moment where they asked me to wait while they thought about something (one of my goals), and nearly every one made a connection that surprised me between a course text/idea and something from their lives (my course is about feelings, so this is another goal). Since I have only done this the one time so far, next time I might experiment with a little more focus on one text—possibly varying which one based on their paper topics. I also still need to have them reflect on it, although I feel sure from observation that students found it stimulating.
Tools
None. This is an exercise in making learning AI-resilient, or I might say in creating more synchronous spaces for learning and assessment.