Fantasizing Comps 2.0
Excellent! Someone is going to have the opportunity to come in for an oral defense next week and perhaps argue about some of the premises of the original comps question. Someone is going to expand on their initial written response in a really interesting way, based on substantial reading and thinking. Someone is going to stick to their guns rather than retreat to what is supposedly the received wisdom. Someone is going to have a wide-ranging and insightful conversation with the participating faculty. Someone is going to impress the heck out of me and everyone else. Someone should be delighted to be “called in” for this, because it indicates that the written response is considered worthy of much additional discussion and time.
Well, that’s my fantasy of Comps 2.0.
[The above image is "Norns" at www.patrickkroboth.com]
And in case anyone is wondering, no, I don’t especially care for the current comps process, which is why I try to push the (much less popular) portfolio process (as it does allow for much more student control, right from the beginning….)