2026-03-17.1_seminar - study group idea

inspiration: Combahee River Collective statement quote -> ” We decided at that time, with the addition of new members, to become a study group. We had always shared our reading with each other, and some of us had written papers on Black feminism for group discussion a few months before this decision was made”

-> idea/realization that uni seminars should be more like the study group described here, i.e. that the participants write texts for each other to read and discuss and not just for one person to grade at the end (in the seminar case the professor). the current model also being a vehicle for separation and alienation of students from their activity/work by having it only be addressed to an authority figure and done mainly for a grade and not for prolonged discussion with other ostensibly learning subjects. it also requires and solidifies a certain style of writing and puts the control of what style is good or bad wholly in the hands of the authority figure.

-> ideas for changes:

• the writing starts early in a seminar and sharing of said writing (based on course literature, discussion and/or personal knowledge, whatever is most fitting in the moment and context) is encouraged, if not required.

• this would also mean that the overall course literature chosen by the professor must be reduced, since the (previous) essays/writings of the students would be taken up as course literature to be discussed and cited alongside the literature initially chosen by the professor

• grading* is not only based on the professors’ opinion/criteria, but is also based on what the class / the students thought a piece of writing added to the discussion and how much they learned from it (quantification model is detail)

* is generally not given that much importance vis-à-vis quality of discussion in class that the student’s writings contribute to

1305