The Challenge of Contemporaneity, or, Thoughts on Art as Culture

Co-teaching aspires to integrate knowledge, methodologies, and perspectives; it requires a willingness to cross and combine disciplines and to expose the limits of one’s expertise, and to exercise flexibility. In this chapter, the authors explain their motives and explore the pedagogy of co-teaching. They discuss the benefits and challenges of a collaborative classroom for the field of American art. The chapter also offers lessons learned from author’s experiences, what worked and what did not, and reflect on ways that co-teaching the art of the Americas promotes innovation among a new generation of scholars. Collaborative teaching and learning can address the circum-Atlantic, circum-Pacific, and cross-imperial interactions that took place in the colonial Americas. The chapter also offers a discussion on a seminar “Colonial Art across North America” during fall 2007 in connection with a symposium they were organizing for the following spring at the University of Delaware.