Looking for trouble is what we want to teach. Join William Germano and the Institute for Humanities Research at this public lecture.

Scholars worry, and that's good news. This talk considers two aspects of the academic life: research and pedagogy ⁠— the commitment to refining truth and the commitment to teaching.

Problems are what scholars live for, and if we're honest about teaching, looking for trouble is what we want to teach.

About William Germano

William Germano is a professor of English at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, where he has taught since 2006 and where he has served as dean of humanities and social sciences (2006-2017). He was previously vice president and publishing director at Routledge, where for almost twenty years he led a program that helped ground big conversations in the humanities, theory, gender and race and cultural issues from antiquity to cyberspace, and before that editor-in-chief at Columbia University Press.

He is the author of four books. Two have become familiar sources for scholars: "Getting It Published: A Guide for Scholars and Anyone Else Serious about Serious Books "( Chicago; 3/e 2012) and "From Dissertation to Book "(Chicago; 2/e, 2016). Two are studies in film and cultural history: "The Tales of Hoffmann" (British Film Institute, 2012), on "Power and Pressburger's film adaptation of Offenbach's opera, and Eye Chart" (Bloomsbury, 2017), a cultural history of vision and its measurement. He has just completed a cowritten book on, of all things, the idea of the syllabus. Current projects: finally finishing a book on revising writing and a book on the history of Shakespeare's operatic adaptations.

Location and parking

This event will be hosted in Ross-Blakley Hall at ASU's Tempe campus. The closest parking options are the visitor parking in Lot 44 and the Rural Road parking structure.

Photo of William Germano by Awol Erizku.