Dr. Buhler’s scholarship focuses on the literary culture of Early Modern England. The author of Shakespeare in the Cinema: Ocular Proof, he has also published numerous articles and book chapters on pedagogy and on literature’s connections with philosophy, as well as with the performing arts.
I regularly ask students to read aloud, recite, enact, or perform passages from literature. In encouraging them to bring the language more vividly to life in their own understandings and for their listeners, I share some of my own contemporary musical settings of early modern poetry. When the students respond in kind—a staged dramatic interpretation, a screenplay adaptation, or even an outdoor rally—it shows their grasp of the material and their engagement with it.
For me, the best part of teaching is learning: when everyone in a class, including the instructor, comes away from the experience knowing more (and more deeply) about the subject. Dialogue with students and with colleagues on campus, throughout the discipline, and across disciplinary lines provides both the inspiration and the environment for effective teaching and constructive research. I’ve found that work in the humanities especially depends not only upon individual insight and effort but also upon collaboration and conversation.
WGS Courses
WMNS/ENGL 330: English Authors Before 1800: “Fierce Wars and Faithful Loves” (Lady Mary Sidney Herbert, Sir Philip Sidney, and Their Influence)