McCarthy Clip 1

Instructional Themes: Opening class; Peer learning; Challenging content; role of student discussion leaders; application; grounding in the text, bringing in current events

Profiled: Timothy Patrick McCarthy, Lecturer on History and Literature, teaches "Stories of Slavery & Freedom" to 16 students at Harvard College.

Clip Length: 3 minutes, 46 seconds (00:08-03:54)

Clip Context:

• “Stories of Slavery & Freedom,” an undergraduate seminar with 16 students enrolled.
• This course critically examines prevailing narratives of slavery and enslaved people through careful reading of archives and primary sources that speak to the experiences of enslaved people, free African-Americans, and abolitionist allies. McCarthy uses a broad range of pedagogical techniques to facilitate generative, student-centered discussions in this seminar.
• This clip comes at the very beginning of the 2-hour class session as McCarthy and the student provokers (who are leaders in the day’s conversation) frame the class.