Six Reasons (Er, Make That Five) Why I Am So Fucking Excited For Next Quarter
Reason #1: Three classes.
Caveat #1: Three 300-level classes.
Reason #2: No class on Fridays!
Yeah, really no caveat here.
Reason #3: Really cool schedule in general
Only one class on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and I'm done on Tuesday by 12:20.
Reason #4: RELIG-371 - Religion and Film: Eternal War or Dawn of Peace?
Class description: The unmasking of texts in Eastwood, Bresson, the Dardennes, and Audiard." Clint Eastwood, often linked in the public imaginary with the Angel of Death and redemptive bloodshed, constructs layered film texts where peacemaking, reconciliation, and redemption trump violence. We will study his career-long struggle to privilege the marginalized in American society-the power of weakness-over "Hobbes on horseback"-the triumph of power-in the context of select filmmakers who also explore religious themes under cover of realism. His early films show an awareness of Bresson, Melville, and Kurosawa in theme and technique; the later films parallel Varda, the Dardennes, and Audiard with their interlacing of gritty realism and transcendence. His iconic films since Unforgiven, furthermore, disguise meditations on human suffering beneath a painterly surface, culminating in his recent war triptych and its thematic coda, Invictus (2009).
It's a 300-level religion class. On Clint Eastwood. Need I say more?
Reason #5: COMM-ST 395 - Topics in Communication Studies: Media & Publics Across Cultures
Class description: How are mass mediated texts, discourses, and images integral to people's experience of the world around them? What is the relationship between "culture" and "media," and how do we trace it in an increasingly globalized world? How are audiences and publics constructed and linked across local, regional, national and global spaces? How has politics been transformed by media, and does access to mass mediated forms make us more democratic or more prone to violence? These are some of the questions this course will ask in analyzing ethnographic case studies and theoretical texts concerned with mass media across different cultural contexts. We will consider the different forms media take, how different media construct audiences and publics, and what happens to different kinds of texts and visual images as they circulate. We will examine how forms of media are critical in constructing a wide range of social roles, cultural and political identities, and real-world practices ranging from consumption to revolution, from nationalism to transnational religious identification, from crime to global peacemaking.
I'm interested to take a media studies course outside of Medill (NU's school of journalism) because I'll get to see how perspectives on the state, operations, and duties of the mass media differ between journalism and non-journalism majors. Also the "does access to mass mediated forms make us more democratic or more prone to violence" question sounds especially intriguing.
Reason #6: JOURN 301: Enterprise Reporting in Diverse Communities
Class description: This is Medill's advanced skills class for sophomores on in-depth, multi-media reporting and storytelling. By getting to know a specific audience within a Chicago neighborhood and learning a variety of storytelling techniques, students will produce engaging and relevant cross-platform content - for print, broadcast and the Web - and gain practical experience reporting within diverse, multi-ethnic communities. Students will meet at one of two neighborhood storefronts set up as "home bases" to conduct interviews and research within those communities. Students will work most of the quarter on group enterprise projects while also fine-tuning these essential journalism skills: generating story ideas, reporting, interviewing, researching and organizing, being accurate, using good grammar, news judgment and different storytelling formats, including news accounts, features, profiles, Q&A, photo galleries, slideshows and audio-video packages. This course will require many hours outside of class time to report and work on the final projects. Consequently, students may want to consider taking a three-course load this quarter or a fourth class that is either lighter in content or one you can take P/N.
Caveat #2: I have to travel one hour via public transit to report in Chicago when it's -20 degrees outside, no sane person is going to stop on the street to be interviewed, and it's so cold that the professors tell you not to use ballpoint pens because your ink will freeze... Yeah, there's really no reason to be excited about this.
Caveat #1: Three 300-level classes.
Reason #2: No class on Fridays!
Yeah, really no caveat here.
Reason #3: Really cool schedule in general
Only one class on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, and I'm done on Tuesday by 12:20.
Reason #4: RELIG-371 - Religion and Film: Eternal War or Dawn of Peace?
Class description: The unmasking of texts in Eastwood, Bresson, the Dardennes, and Audiard." Clint Eastwood, often linked in the public imaginary with the Angel of Death and redemptive bloodshed, constructs layered film texts where peacemaking, reconciliation, and redemption trump violence. We will study his career-long struggle to privilege the marginalized in American society-the power of weakness-over "Hobbes on horseback"-the triumph of power-in the context of select filmmakers who also explore religious themes under cover of realism. His early films show an awareness of Bresson, Melville, and Kurosawa in theme and technique; the later films parallel Varda, the Dardennes, and Audiard with their interlacing of gritty realism and transcendence. His iconic films since Unforgiven, furthermore, disguise meditations on human suffering beneath a painterly surface, culminating in his recent war triptych and its thematic coda, Invictus (2009).
It's a 300-level religion class. On Clint Eastwood. Need I say more?
Reason #5: COMM-ST 395 - Topics in Communication Studies: Media & Publics Across Cultures
Class description: How are mass mediated texts, discourses, and images integral to people's experience of the world around them? What is the relationship between "culture" and "media," and how do we trace it in an increasingly globalized world? How are audiences and publics constructed and linked across local, regional, national and global spaces? How has politics been transformed by media, and does access to mass mediated forms make us more democratic or more prone to violence? These are some of the questions this course will ask in analyzing ethnographic case studies and theoretical texts concerned with mass media across different cultural contexts. We will consider the different forms media take, how different media construct audiences and publics, and what happens to different kinds of texts and visual images as they circulate. We will examine how forms of media are critical in constructing a wide range of social roles, cultural and political identities, and real-world practices ranging from consumption to revolution, from nationalism to transnational religious identification, from crime to global peacemaking.
I'm interested to take a media studies course outside of Medill (NU's school of journalism) because I'll get to see how perspectives on the state, operations, and duties of the mass media differ between journalism and non-journalism majors. Also the "does access to mass mediated forms make us more democratic or more prone to violence" question sounds especially intriguing.
Reason #6: JOURN 301: Enterprise Reporting in Diverse Communities
Class description: This is Medill's advanced skills class for sophomores on in-depth, multi-media reporting and storytelling. By getting to know a specific audience within a Chicago neighborhood and learning a variety of storytelling techniques, students will produce engaging and relevant cross-platform content - for print, broadcast and the Web - and gain practical experience reporting within diverse, multi-ethnic communities. Students will meet at one of two neighborhood storefronts set up as "home bases" to conduct interviews and research within those communities. Students will work most of the quarter on group enterprise projects while also fine-tuning these essential journalism skills: generating story ideas, reporting, interviewing, researching and organizing, being accurate, using good grammar, news judgment and different storytelling formats, including news accounts, features, profiles, Q&A, photo galleries, slideshows and audio-video packages. This course will require many hours outside of class time to report and work on the final projects. Consequently, students may want to consider taking a three-course load this quarter or a fourth class that is either lighter in content or one you can take P/N.
Caveat #2: I have to travel one hour via public transit to report in Chicago when it's -20 degrees outside, no sane person is going to stop on the street to be interviewed, and it's so cold that the professors tell you not to use ballpoint pens because your ink will freeze... Yeah, there's really no reason to be excited about this.