Early in each quarter , teaching assistant Ross Melnick divides his class into small groups of two or three to discuss a topic, hoping to help them achieve some ease and fluency in talking out loud about their ideas. "Not all students are comfortable with public speaking," he notes, and later, he's going to ask each of them to make a presentation about a book or article they've read and lead a class discussion on the topic. "These presentations may have other benefits as well: the excitement of leading the class, answering questions, and moderating the debates may inspire some to become educators," he says.

For History of Moviegoing in America, a course he developed through the Collegium of Teaching Fellows program, students gave 15-minute presentations about their research papers in panels of four, like a professional conference. "Watching undergraduates present their scholarship to one another, while their colleagues asked intelligent and engaging questions, was one of the proudest moments of my career," he says.

To allay fears about writing the 15-page paper that was the basis for the presentations, Ross guided students through a step-by-step process of smaller assignments on a clearly defined schedule; they also met one-on-one with him over the course of the quarter. As a result, "students completed a lengthy task without any panic," he says. For the Moviegoing course, students were urged to draw on their major fields of study—psychology, sociology, history—in their research, so the resulting papers ranged from movie palace and cathedral construction in 1927 New York City to moviegoing and psychological treatment in American prisons.

"Tapping the excitement and entrepreneurial nature of our students can lead to tremendous rewards," Ross says. "I urge students to ask questions that may not appear on their final examinations but may help them understand the articles they read, the movies they watch, and the world around them. Whenever possible, I impress upon my students the importance of understanding media, popular culture, and history, no matter what profession they may pursue."

As teaching assistant consultant for two years, Ross added the mentoring of first-year graduate students to the other tasks of the position. He coauthored the book, Cinema Treasures, and has published articles in Film History and The Moving Image. Ross also served as curator the collection at the Museum of the Moving Image and historian of Loews Cineplex. His dissertation is titled, "Roxy and His Gang: Silent Film Exhibition and the Birth of Media Convergence." PhD in hand, Dr. Melnick is teaching at UCLA and the Otis College of Art and Design while seeking a tenure track position and a contract to turn his dissertation into a book.

Published in Winter 2010, Graduate Quarterly