May 2024 Teacher-Scholar Spotlight: Lee Cannon-Brown

Welcome to the newest edition of our Teacher-Scholar Spotlight, illuminating PhD students’ insights on teaching and learning! Each month we’ll share the experiences of PhD students who have engaged in Bok Center programming and what they’ve learned about and from teaching.

Lee Cannon-Brown, G6 in Music

Summarize your research in 2 sentences.

In the first half of the twentieth century, avant-garde composers reevaluated the basic principles of their craft. I recover the cultural and technical variety of these composers’ ideas, across a global intellectual network spanning Russia, the United States, and Mexico.

What have you learned from teaching?

I’ve learned to be open to the classroom’s surprises, its digressions. Some of the best learning happens, I’ve found, when both students and teachers are alive to the unexpected.

How did you get involved with the Bok Center?

In my fourth year as a PhD student, I was encouraged by my department to take a year-long Pedagogy Fellowship with the Bok Center. The fellowship was galvanizing: I attended weekly Bok sessions on teaching and learning, and I used what I learned to mentor my peers who were instructing at Harvard for the first time. I learned a lot about pedagogy…by teaching it!

What is something you learned in a Bok Seminar that you’ll use in the future?

I took a Bok Seminar on how to design writing assignments, and we spent an entire session discussing grading rubrics. How can a rubric reinforce equitable grading? How can it telegraph a set of learning objectives to students? Our analysis of the humble rubric enriched my conceptions of both assignment design and feedback.

What would you say to PhD students about why they should get involved with the Bok Center?

The Bok Center is an invaluable resource for PhD students who want to expand their pedagogy. Attend a discussion panel, enroll in a seminar, or get feedback on your teaching statement! The Bok Center’s layers of support are many.

What’s a fun fact about yourself?

I grew up in rural British Columbia, Canada, surrounded by my family’s sheep.

Have you been working with the Bok Center this year? Do you want to be featured in the Teacher-Scholar spotlight? Fill out this form and we’ll be in touch!