Thursday, September 29, 2011

The Classes


Writing in the Humanities - Advanced Credits 3.00 
A freshman-level course in expository writing designed to enable students to express themselves with greater clarity and force in their writing. Readings based on a wide variety of contemporary issues will be used as a basis for expository essays. The essential goal is to create a more expressive, analytical style of writing. An acceptable research paper is required to pass the course. This course should be taken during the first year at Franklin.

America in the Sixties Credits 3.00  ---- FAVORITE COURSE
This course focuses on the political, economic, social, and intellectual dimensions of America in the Sixties in historical perspective. During the period from the late Fifties to the early Seventies, the people of the United States were confronted with challenges both at home and abroad, such as racism, poverty, alienation, and war, and were transformed by responses which demanded re-evaluation of ideas and institutions, such as the Civil Rights Movement, the Great Society, the New Left and the protests against the Vietnam War.

Reading Literatures: Intro to Comparative Literature Credits 3.00  
This class will introduce students to methods of reading, authorship, and reception. Typically students will read a literary text followed by a theoretical text that shapes their understanding of literature as a cultural form. Close attention will be paid to issues such as the shaping of identity, forms of representation, gender, and the construction of knowledge and power.

White Lies and Timid Heroes: Italian Storytelling on the Stage Credits 3.00 
What is the difference between the art of fiction writing and the act of telling lies? Have you ever told a lie so well that you almost began to believe it yourself? Italian literature of the early 20th century resonates with such questions. There are specific historic and cultural reasons for this resonance: the struggle of modern Italy against political repression, for example. The timid heroes of modern Italian poetry and prose seek, often unsuccessfully, to shake off the burden of a tradition that denies their true voice, as artists. This course, taught entirely in English, focuses on specific themes of 20th-century Italian literature while, at the same time, fostering experimentation in essay writing and solo performance. While no experience in creative writing or theater are required, students taking IS 199 will be asked to reflect candidly about their personal struggles as "timid heroes" seeking to affirm their own voice, freely and confidently, in a world that sometimes seems to prefer the masked allure of self-compromise and self-deceit. 

Computer Graphics in Advertising Credits 3.00  ---- LEAST FAVORITE COURSE
An introductory course to graphic design software and to the principles and practices of advertising graphics. Once the basics have been learned, the course covers the following aspects of graphic design: the psychology of advertising, the brief from the client and the working relationship between client and designer, font styles and typographic design, the company logo, letterhead, business cards etc., house-styling, company reports, brochures, flyers, book covers, color printing and printing processes. The course requires that initial design concepts be taken from the early stages through to finished art-work, i.e. the quality of finish required for presentation to the client.

My travel is:

Lausanne, Geneva and the Alps Credits 1.00 
(Travel Writing/Writing Travel) From the salons of Mme de Stael to twentieth-century travel writers Nicolas Bouvier and Ella Maillart, French-speaking Switzerland has been home to a rich literary tradition. This course will offer an introduction to the travel literature of French-speaking Switzerland in English translation. (Students who can will be encouraged to read in the original French). Authors studied will include Rousseau, Madame de Stael, Nicolas Bouvier, Anne Deriaz and Ella Maillart. Course will include visits to the Val d'Anniviers in the Valais, Lausanne, Coppet, and Geneva as well as an excursion to the watch-making region in and around La Chaux-de-Fonds, named a UNESCO cultural site in 2009. In addition to museum and chateau visits, this class will include several writing workshops and meetings with contemporary Swiss writers.

My class schedule is:

Monday: (Reading Literatures 11:30-12:45)
Tuesday: (America in the 60s 8:30-9:45), (Writing in the Humanities 11:30-12:45), (Italian Storytelling on the Stage 1:00-2:15)
Wednesday: (Lausanne, Geneva and the Alps 1:00-2:15)
Thursday: (Reading Literatures 11:30-12:45), (Computer Graphics in Advertising 5:30-8:15)
Friday: (America in the 60s 8:30-9:45), (Writing in the Humanities 11:30-12:45), (Italian Storytelling on the Stage 1:00-2:15)


I will be taking French (starting at the 101 level) but they did not offer it this semester, so I'm starting in the Spring.

Some fun facts about my Travel this October (Oct 15-27)
We will be having tours of the World Health Organization (WHO) as well as CERN
If you've seen the movie Angels and Demons (starring Tom Hanks, based on the novel by Dan Brown) it starts off in a science lab place where they are working with atoms and stuff - that's a CERN. It's difficult to get into for tours and such, but we are!
We are also having lunch with llamas as well as the highest Lama (Buddhist monk) in Switzerland.

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