Administrators as Scholars is dedicated to the intellectual growth of educators through a partnership between Princeton University’s Program in Teacher Preparation and the Teachers As Scholars member schools. It was formed with the objective of providing scholarly and intellectually engaging opportunities for administrators. One seminar per year is taught by a Princeton University faculty member and spans a wide range of topics and subject areas. The seminar is open to administrators from any grade level or content area, and it is intended to promote life-long learning. There is no fee for Administrators as Scholars as it is included as a benefit of being one of the member districts. Administrators as Scholars is made possible through the support of the Program in Teacher Preparation and area schools and districts.
2019-20 ADMINSTRATORS AS SCHOLARS
Wordplay
November 13, 2019, 9am – 11:30am
Joshua T. Katz, Ph.D.
Department of Classics
Already young children delight in playing with words, and taking pleasure in the ludic side of language is part of many adults’ everyday experiences. This interactive seminar is for you if your morning is not complete without the daily crossword, if you are known for your terrible puns, or if you’ve admired the perverse (?) virtuosity of Georges Perec’s 1969 French novel La Disparition (“The Disappearance”), which — like also Gilbert Adair’s English translation, A Void — lacks the letter e. All forms of linguistic expression involve constraints (this description must be under 200 words, for example, and a Shakespearean sonnet must have 14 decasyllabic verses), but some of these are more difficult to manage, more remarkable, and just plain stranger than others. In our morning together, we will consider in a hands-on way, by means of mental exercises, how people — poets, spelling bee contestants, Scrabble mavens, you — manipulate the letters, sounds, and words of English (and, if time permits, of other languages as well) for purposes that range from the very silly to the very serious. Join in the fun and decide for yourself whether wordplay is a wry plod.
Joshua T. Katz is a linguist by training, a classicist by profession, and a comparative philologist at heart. He received a B.A. from Yale, an M.Phil. from Oxford, and a Ph.D. from Harvard. At Princeton, where he has taught since 1998, he is a Cotsen Professor in the Humanities, Professor of Classics, and the former Director of the Program in Linguistics.