Teaching Piers Plowman: Bringing Langland into the Classroom

Sponsoring Organization(s)

International Piers Plowman Society

Organizer Name

Nöelle Phillips

Organizer Affiliation

Douglas College

Presider Name

Nöelle Phillips

Paper Title 1

Teaching Piers Plowman as a How-To Text: An Experiment in Practicality

Presenter 1 Name

Lisa H. Cooper

Presenter 1 Affiliation

Univ. of Wisconsin-Madison

Paper Title 2

A Fair Field Full of . . . Texts: Centralizing Piers Plowman in the Medieval Survey Course

Presenter 2 Name

Daniel T. Kline

Presenter 2 Affiliation

Univ. of Alaska-Anchorage

Paper Title 3

Teaching Piers Plowman with the Whole Manuscript Approach

Presenter 3 Name

Angela R. Bennett

Presenter 3 Affiliation

Univ. of Nevada-Reno

Paper Title 4

Is there a Piers Plowman in This Class? A Book Historical Approach to Teaching Langland

Presenter 4 Name

Karrie Fuller

Presenter 4 Affiliation

Univ. of Notre Dame/Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame

Start Date

10-5-2018 10:00 AM

Session Location

Fetzer 2030

Description

Recent work by noted Piers Plowman scholars has focused on making Piers Plowman, a poem often seen as intimidating and challenging, accessible to undergraduate students. This poem addresses questions of social justice, labour, gender, and how to live a good life – issues that resonate with a wide range of students – and yet it is rarely taught at the undergraduate level. This panel invites submissions that consider how we can develop useful and exciting pedagogical strategies for introducing Piers Plowman to our students. Papers might address solutions for the stigmas that are still attached to Piers Plowman in scholarly circles, consider ways in which the poem can be taught in excerpted form, or offer unique and/or experimental strategies for engaging students in its complexities. Contributions from scholars who do not work primarily on Piers are particularly welcome.

- Noelle Phillips