That's what literary criticism does. It makes the past speak to now, intensely . That's why you can't be a good teacher and not be a scholar. You would betray your class. This concept of Scholar-Teacher, from Ernest Boyer's 1990 Scholarship Reconsidered , informs both the 1991 report of the University Faculty Senate's Task Force on Undergraduate Education and Provost John Brighton's October 1991 remarks to the Faculty Senate.
Scholarship means engaging in original research.
But the work of the scholar also means stepping back from one's investigation, looking for connections, building bridges between theory and practice, and communicating one's knowledge effectively to one's students. The Task Force on Undergraduate Education agrees. This understanding undercuts the assumption that research and teaching reside in mutually exclusive, if not antagonistic worlds. It also suggests that scholarship, rather than research, is the more fundamental and useful category for appreciating the integrated nature of faculty activities and for determining an individual's overall contributions.