Teaching for LPS

Teaching for The Liberal and Professional Studies Program (LPS)

At certain times of the year, the Program Director at LPS emails the English Undergraduate Chair with a request to roster a specific type of ENGL course for the LPS program. This is usually for a single course per term, i.e. one ENGL course in the summer, one in the Fall, and one in the Spring semester (though sometimes they request more). Traditionally, these have been survey courses that come with one of the Sectors of the College of Arts & Sciences’ General Education Curriculum—usually Sector III Arts & Letters (e.g. ENGL 101 Study of an Author: Shakespeare; ENGL 104 Study of a Period: The Twentieth Century). LPS courses are usually taught in evening timeblocks. At this time (AY 22-23), the stipend for a Penn grad to teach an LPS is $5,380.

After receiving the request from LPS, the undergraduate chair then consults with the grad chair to obtain a listing of all eligible graduate students. The criteria for eligibility are the following:

• Be ABD (no outstanding requirements)
• Be in good standing
• Not be on a non-teaching fellowship (ACLS, DCF, and several others stipulate that you cannot teach while holding the fellowship)
• Have the approval of your dissertation chair 

The grad chair then sends out a Call for Proposal for the requested course in question, with a due date for sending completed proposals to both grad chair and ugrad chairs. The proposals would consist of a title, course description (including planned requirements), and a list of planned assignments. The grad chair and ugrad chairs then look over the set of course proposals with an eye toward feasibility and optimal structure, and then forward the selected proposals to LPS for review. LPS then selects the course proposal of their choice.