Instructor: Karen Gocsik, Director of Composition and Chair of English 2-3

Overview: Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Brothers Karamazov is often taught at Dartmouth. In English 2-3, the program which I chair, three out of six professors use the book to teach our first-year students reading, writing, and critical thinking skills. One first-year seminar (ENG 7) teaches the book as its primary text, and several courses in the Russian department list it as required reading. We have long felt that we would like to create a Web site in which we could consolidate existing materials and develop new ones that will assist our students in their writing and research. We also plan this site to be an evolving teaching tool. Students taking courses in which the Brothers Karamazov is required reading would have the opportunity to assist in developing materials for the site. We envision a Web site that would grow to be the definitive site on the novel, linking to other relevant sites, providing a bibliography, and excerpting and annotating sections of the text, both in Russian and in English (akin to what Tom Luxon has done on his Milton Web site). Finally — and perhaps most important to meeting Venture Fund requirements — is that we will attach to the site a MOO that professors and students can use to enhance their understanding of the novel.

Instructional Designer: Barbara Knauff