Case Study: History of Phonetics

Course Overview and Goals

This course (mixed undergraduate-graduate seminar) was designed from scratch through a social justice lens. The goal was to review the history of the field of phonetics between ca 1850-1950, while at the same time adopting a more inclusive and anti-racist pedagogical framework. Diverse perspectives were highlighted and centered within the topic for each week, with the goal of understanding how contemporary phonetics came to be the way it is today, and how the field can be more inclusive.

Before the course began, the instructor (Marc Garellek) consulted with the librarian for Linguistics (Tamara Rhodes), the department’s Curriculum Committee, and a member of the Teaching+Learning Commons (Paul Hadjipieris) about (i) how to design a syllabus with the above goals in mind, (ii) how to collect materials for the instructor and students to consult about anti-racist pedagogy, (iii) how best to incorporate diverse perspectives and themes within the weekly curriculum, and (iv) how to assign and assess learning outcomes.


Course details

A legacy copy of the course page, with most materials and links already embedded, can be found at the external link here.