Customizing the curriculum
Student-run seminars
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“As leader ... you have to give the others a thorough and balanced look at an issue [which leads to] a better understanding.” Audry Casusol ’06 |
Jeff Powell knows that encouraging students to follow their interests means being available to them when their interests match his, and he has been generous in responding to them. In the fall semester, for example, he contributed his expertise in foreign relations law to a group of students interested in exploring the intersection between constitutional and public international law.
Audry Casusol ’06, who organized that ad-hoc seminar, says it was a valuable experience on several levels.
“I clearly got a better understanding of international law and its place in domestic law and, in that sense, Professor Powell’s expertise on executive and congressional power was invaluable. But we went far beyond that. We also explored how, from the international standpoint, we might advise and challenge the U.S. administration, what forums are available to do that, what rulings we might find persuasive, and how in the hierarchy of authority they are persuasive. Going in, I don’t think I would ever have known enough about the separation of the two spheres to say this is what I want to learn, but I have gained so much beyond my original expectations.”
Powell laid the historical foundation for the subject by providing a reading list for the first few meetings, but then students took the helm; each week, a student assigned readings and led discussion, stimulated in part by short papers submitted by the other group members. That was both a challenging and rewarding undertaking, notes Casusol.
“As leader, you have to canvass tons of materials and select the most pertinent ones. You have to give the others a thorough and balanced look at an issue. You synthesize the materials and become adept at pulling facts here and there because you become more skilled at anticipating questions. And I think that gives you a better understanding than you might get if it was a more passive role of just reading assigned materials and perhaps being called on in a class.”
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| “There were only eight of us, and we had a two-hour discussion on each subject. You had to do the reading and really get a sense of what you believed.” Howie Wachtel ’06 |
The convergence of constitutional and international law was a popular subject in the fall semester; another group of students had approached Professor Erwin Chemerinsky to take them on before he had even arrived on the Duke Law faculty. Chemerinsky readily agreed.
“I’m so impressed that Duke Law has student-led seminars. They allow us to go into depth in specific topics much more than any class will allow.”
Howie Wachtel ’06 says the opportunity to discuss issues of foreign policy, international law, and constitutional law with other interested students was clarifying.
“There were only eight of us, and we had a two-hour discussion on each subject. You had to do the reading and really get a sense of what you believed.”
This semester, four third-year students are reading key works of constitutional theory with Chemerinsky and Professors Neil Siegel and Jedediah Purdy. They are taking the ad-hoc seminar concept one step further; in addition to discussing texts weekly with faculty, they will organize a colloquium at the end of the semester.
Organizer Chris Hart ’05 says he welcomes the opportunity to explore unique interests that are not on the regular curriculum, because it meshes with his general philosophy towards education.
“I believe that you have to use your education to expand your thinking as much as possible. I don’t know the next time I am going to have a classroom experience again where I can read and talk about text, and talk about ideas in the same way that I will have the opportunity to do here.
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“I believe that you have to use your education to expand your thinking as much as possible.” Chris Hart ’05 |
“I also believe that any educational enterprise ought to be a mutual education enterprise. My hope is that the professors get as much out of it as we do–maybe at a different level, but I hope that they get something out of it.”
Powell says he regularly does.
“I always tell students that most people in this line of work are here because they really are interested in certain things. When a group of smart, young people say ‘we share your interest and can we spend a semester talking about it,’ that’s hard to say no to. And it’s hard to say no because you want to encourage that kind of student initiative, and because if you are interested in the subject, spending a semester talking about it with smart people is fun.”