Table of Contents
Teaching Fellowships
The GSAS guarantees teaching fellowships in the third and fourth for two years of graduate study equal to the current living stipend. Students must teach two sections, or fifths (fraction of the University rate for a full-time non-tenure-track teaching position: calculated at no more than 20 hours per week [1/5th equals approximately 8 to 10 hours), per term semester to satisfy this guarantee. Each fifth 1/5th generally corresponds to teaching one section of a lecture course. The scope of responsibilities required of TFs and Head TFs are described in the provisional letter of appointment issued before the start date of the semester of teaching. All teaching appointments are provisional based on allocations made by the Office of Undergraduate Education.
Doctoral candidates in the HAA Department typically teach in the G-3 year, conduct dissertation research in the G-4 year supported by internal (e.g. KKSL, Porter) or external fellowships, and can return to campus—based on need, planned schedule of work, availability of other funding sources—to teach in their G-5 year +. Although graduate students are not required to engage in teaching, it is considered to be a valuable part an invaluable element of the educational experience as well as a significant aspect of the universityHarvard University's fellowship program. Regardless of future career paths, practice and experience in pedagogy is an essential pre-requisite to success on the job market. Opportunities for teaching are usually made available to students beginning in their third year of graduate study. Such opportunities include teaching of sections in larger large to mid-size undergraduate lecture courses and departmental undergraduate tutorials. At the end of each academic year, a list of courses potentially requiring , leading the sophomore seminar and junior tutorials, supporting faculty teaching in the Senior Thesis Seminar and the Sophomore Excursion Seminar. The HAA Faculty concludes its curricular planning and prepares its Courses of Offering in the spring semester before the next academic year. The list of courses that hold the potential to retain graduate teaching fellows will be circulated among the group of graduate students who have declared an interest in teaching. The graduate students are asked to indicate their preferences. The students’ preferences are then reviewed by the Department Officers and finalized through discussion with the faculty as a whole. Since all such appointments are contingent upon enrollments, confirmation of an appointment can only be made during the first few weeks of the course meeting. In recent years, teaching opportunities have been abundant and students have been offered an interesting array of opportunities. Departmental policies semester. Departmental practice on the awarding of teaching fellowships are is explained in the document distributed at in the end spring of each academic year (these criteria include priority based on G-year . Only in extremely unusual cases would a student teach in their second year of graduate study. This would happen only when significant coursework was taken prior to their study at Harvard, making that student, in effect, a G3 in their second year. In such a case, the total salary received would replace in whole or in part any stipend (financial aid above tuition) that may have been promised during the second year of coursework. Any request for teaching prior to the completion of all coursework will be handled and/or approved on an individual basis.
Training
Third-year graduate students should prepare themselves for teaching by attending the Bok Center Orientation for New Teachers, usually held in the Sever Quadrangle and Emerson Hall one week before the fall term beginsand prior experience in the classroom; suitability and preparation for the subject matter to be taught).
Training
As a preliminary to teaching, all G-3 graduate students are required to attend the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning’s Fall Conference Week, usually held in the five days of the last week of August (https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/fall-teaching-conference-winter-teaching-week). The Derek Bok Center also welcomes students who have already had experience in the classroom for this end of summer orientation (repeated in Winter session) or for seminars and thematic workshops on various aspects of teaching, including teaching difficult topics, equitable and inclusive teaching, academic integrity, and understanding Title IX and professional conduct as a teaching fellow. There are also seminars designed specifically for international TFs. In addition to these opportunities, the Derek Bok Center offers a number of online resources (https://bokcenter.harvard.edu/online-resources) addressing the full spectrum of pedagogy from course design to classroom teaching, techniques of advising and mentoring, and how to process feedback constructively.
Developing practice in pedagogy also occurs in each of our lecture courses. Course planning meetings—whose nature varies from course to course based on subject matter, enrollment, and resource allocation—are contexts for the development of lesson plans, discussing techniques of teaching and advising inside and outside the classroom, for finding remedies to a myriad of challenges, and thinking about the interrelation between lectures, readings, sections/labs, assignments, and examinations. More advanced graduate student TFs are generally assigned roles in our sequence of sophomore and junior tutorials—under the supervision of the Director of Undergraduate Studies—while graduate students work alongside faculty in the Senior Thesis Seminar and the Sophomore Excursion Seminar.
The Department Officers also host a monthly pedagogy shop talk luncheon in the Department. These are occasions for all graduate TFs in HAA to gather and exchange thoughts and questions about their experiences in the classroom. No formal agendas are set for these meetings.
The Graduate Coordinator and Director of Graduate Studies forward information on teacher training events and workshops organized by the university on an ad hoc basis. Graduate TFs are also encouraged to meet with the Department Chair and DGS to discuss their teaching evaluations. These are reviewed by the Department Chair automatically each semester. TFs with evaluations falling well below the divisional average receive letters of concern from the Derek Bok Center copied to the Department Chair. Such letters are invitations to pursue further training which is targeted to address areas identified as in need of improvement.
Employment Verification
Newly appointed Teaching Fellows must present the following employment verification: an I-9 form, a passport, social security number and valid photo identification (student IDs are invalid). TFs will also need to complete tax withholding forms, including a federal W-4 form and possibly a Massachusetts M-4. A voided check is needed for the direct deposit of salary payments. International students who do not have United States documents must provide a passport and visa or a completed I-20 form.
Compensation
Five payments are made during each term on the 15th of each month (between August and December for the fall term, and between January and May for the spring term). If appointed after September 15th in the fall term or February 15th in the spring term, a Teaching Fellow will receive back pay in a subsequent pay period. G3s and G4s G-3s and G-4s, especially, but everyone else as well , should know that 4/5 5ths is the "standard" amount of teaching in any given academic year. It is true that you are allowed to teach up to 6/5 5ths in a one academic year by the GSAS. But, because Because the teaching fellowships are now part of the financial aid promises promise that are is made to students when they are admittedeach student upon admittance, the department must now be more increasingly mindful of equitability than ever. The HAA Department considers 4/5 5ths of teaching the fulfillment of the department/to fulfill the departmental and GSAS obligation in any given academic year. If you choose to teach all 4/5 5ths in the fall term semester (in or out of the department), you are placed at lowest priority for the spring termsemester. That doesn't does not mean that you cannot be employed in the spring termsemester, but rather that you are not likely to be appointed early --and only after enrollments are finalized and warrant additional appointments to courses of instruction. While the HAA Department’s preference is that a TF teach no more than 2/5ths per semester, the student may choose to teach an additional 1/5th in the event that a course is heavily enrolled and there are no other TFs available. The choice whether to accept a third 1/5th is the student’s based on their other professional and private responsibilities and commitments.
GSAS Residential Positions
Residential positions are available to all graduate students. In early January, applications for Freshman Proctor and House Tutor positions can be made to the Freshman Dean's Office and the undergraduate dormitorieshouses, respectively. The usual stipend is room and board plus half of a teaching fifth for resident tutors or freshman proctors, and free meals for non-resident tutors. Tutors and proctors are expected to participate fully in the life of the Houses undergraduate houses and provide academic advice to undergraduate concentrators in the History of Art Historyand Architecture. Graduate students may consult the GSAS Bulletin for application deadlines.
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G3s are given highest priority for teaching. G4s G4s and G5s are given next priority.
Students should are required to be in good academic standing—to have completed all coursework and , language requirements prior , and the Qualifying Paper—prior to applying for a teaching fellowship. Any request Requests for teaching fellowships prior to completing all coursework will be handled on an individual basis. If all language requirements are not passed when a student is eligible to teach (G3+), or coursework is not complete, one semester only of teaching will be allowed until those requirements are met.
Regardless of any work done prior to or in at the beginning of the term semester for a department course, an a confirmed appointment as a Teaching Fellow and the resulting salary is justified only by enrollmentsenrollment; compensation and teaching assignment can only be guaranteed if enrollment warrants. These conditions are imposed by the Office of Undergraduate Education which funds the TF positions.
The HAA Department has no separate funds for paying for course assistants who are not officially appointed Teaching Fellows. It is a regrettable fact that appointments made prior to the beginning of the term may have to be rescinded or shifted depending on the enrollment for so . As long as the Harvard University policy excludes pre-registration we do not know what the final enrollment numbers are will be with any certainty until at least the 2nd week of the termsemester.
Tutorial Application and Selection Process
The Sophomore
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Seminar (HAA 97r)
The Sophomore Tutorial Seminar (HAA 97r), usually taken by undergraduates in their sophomore year, focuses on a specific area of art history. Up to two of these tutorials are offered each semester. Graduate students interested in teaching this tutorial are encouraged to submit proposals for subjects in their own areas of expertise. The Head Tutor may ask that a proposal be altered (e.g. if it is too broad or too narrow in scope)is required of all History of Art and Architecture concentrators. The course is an introduction to the practice of art and architectural history through object-based teaching led by faculty members in HAA. Depending on interest, the seminar is offered in the fall and spring semesters of each academic year. The graduate student TF is responsible for organizing the course—planning the logistics of its weekly meetings, preparing the course website—and running its meetings coordinating with each faculty member who teach each discussion section. The TF advises and mentors the students during the semester, provides continuity and coherence to the separate meetings of the seminar, and reads, comments on, and evaluates the students’ written assignments. The seminar is conducted under the supervision of the Director of Undergraduate Studies.
The procedure for choosing instructors for the Advanced Tutorial Sophomore Seminar is as follows:
To qualify as a tutorTF in the Sophomore Seminar, graduate students must have completed their general examination General Examination and have had some previous teaching fellow experience. Applications Applications will be judged on the combined basis of the teaching fellow priority system, the applicant's qualifications, and prior teaching experience, and the proposed topic. Generally, preference is given to those who have not taught a in the undergraduate tutorial previously.To ensure a broad range of tutorial offerings, the Department prefers to offer at least one non-Western and/or architecture tutorialsequence previously.
The
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Junior Tutorial (HAA
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98ar)
The Methods Tutorial In each academic year, up to four Junior Tutorials (HAA 98br) is an introduction to the methods and techniques of art history for new concentrators. The choice of instructors 98ar) are offered on: museums and collections; race and aesthetics; architectural methods; and the art of looking and writing. Juniors concentrating in the History of Art and Architecture are required to select two of these four offerings. Each tutorial consists of weekly meetings with a graduate student TF, with regular reading and writing assignments. The TF is responsible for organizing the course—planning the logistics of its meetings, preparing the course website—and leading its weekly seminar discussions. The TF advises and mentors the students during the semester and reads, comments on, and evaluates the students’ written assignments. Each one of the four Junior Tutorials has a fixed syllabus subject to minor adjustments to accommodate changing academic schedules or issues of access. The junior tutorials are conducted under the supervision of the Director of Undergraduate Studies
The choice of TFs is based on priority as well as teaching qualifications.
Changes in status or availability (i.e. internships, fellowships, etc.) must be submitted to the department office in writing. Graduate students will not ordinarily teach a tutorial for two consecutive semesters. Students will be notified of their selection by letter generally at then the end of the spring term. For both tutorials, sections and employment are dependent upon As in all other courses, appointments to tutorials is dependent on projected and actual enrollments.
Sections/Tutorials and Room Scheduling
Classrooms for sections are reserved prior to the term through a google doc. and tutorials are reserved via Roombook (https://roombook.fas.harvard.edu/) and overseen by the Graduate Coordinator. Phantom sectioning cannot be done; rooms for sections can only be reserved for TFs that have been appointed at that time. The staff member designated for room scheduling will be in touch will all appointed teaching fellows TFs and Head Teaching Fellows TFs, in particular.
The History of Art and Architecture HAA Department holds regularly scheduled rooms through the regular term semester only; during reading period and final examsexamination period, rooms must be scheduled on a case-by-case basis. Requests are made to the Graduate Coordinator who manages Room Book.
TF/Graduate Student Office
The Teaching Fellows' office telephone number is 617.495.3342.
For large courses, Teaching Fellows TFs are responsible for obtaining bluebooks for courses as needed from the supply room in the basement of the Science Center.
Old exams Examinations and papers from any semester should be stored (or returned directly to students) in the Teaching Fellows Office for one year only. After this time, they should be discarded through the secure shredding bins located in the Department.