“The Forms of Things Unknown:” Insights from a Librarian-designed Shakespeare Course

Abstract

A Shakespeare and Film course taught by a librarian at Miami University was designed as a test bed for new models for supporting multimodal inforamtion creativity in academic libraries. This interactive panel conversation by makerspace, special collections, and subject liaison librarians shares practical insights about how librarians worked across administrative units to support a course that challenged students to critically examine the foundations of racial, social, and gender injustice in the English Renaissance, and where students were given exceptional flexibility regarding the forms of creative and scholarly work they were able to complete for credit.

One discussion concerns a pair of co-designed teaching sessions provided by the Miami Libraries’ Makerspace and Special Collections, in which objects featured in our special collections session were selected to inspire creative maker projects while also informing students about Elizabethan print culture. The challenges of video creation and distribution are also discussed, along with ways to encourage instructors to “think like librarians,” by curating collections of student work for sharing with future students or even the broader public, in accordance with preferences and permissions of student creators.