StoryWorth: College Courses
The best class I ever took was Oceanography, my last term at Wellesley. The combination of biology and physics and the glimpse into an almost entirely hidden world fascinated me. I often distracted my roommates by reading excerpts from my textbook-which I still have. I remember the explanation of centripetal force using the example of throwing snowballs at yourself on a merry-go-round, ending with the confession that the author had tried this themselves, “when younger, and more naive.” There were marvelous descriptions of the deep sea vent communities, the only ones on earth not dependent on the sun’s energy. I took that course to fulfill a requirement and sometimes think that if I’d taken it my first year, I would have ended up following that as a career.
The best class in my major was a comparative politics class on Race & Ethnicity, taught by Cynthia Enloe, who was visiting from Clark University that term. I remember being unenthusiastic about the subject matter when I signed up, but it was an exciting and eye-opening class that impacts my understanding of the world to this day. The central thesis of the class was that unless you ask the question “How do race and ethnicity operate in this situation?” you have not fully examined whatever you’re studying. We read books about the Ulstermen of Northern Ireland, the cannery workers of California, the cocaine industry in South America, and sugar farming in Florida. Enloe’s work was largely about women in the military-her book, Does Khaki Become You? is a great read-and she had spent time in the Phillippines helping sex workers cope with the closing of the US Navy base at Subic Bay, and supporting negotiations for improved working conditions for the people who make Levi’s jeans. Over the past six years, as my awareness of the racial injustice in our country has increased dramatically, I often find myself thinking about our discussions in Prof. Enloe’s class thirty years ago and wishing I could go back to them with new understanding.
But when I think “college,” the class that immediately comes to mind is Lit Hum. Literature Humanities has been part of the Core Curriculum at Columbia for over a hundred years and the list of books studied has changed only slightly. It’s a year-long course that meets two or three times a week. We all take it in sections of 15-20 students with graduate student advisors. Mine was a woman from Union Theological Seminary who was doing her thesis on the uses of water in the Bible and she took a very different approach to the classics, encouraging us to consider the metaphors and symbolism in each work. Robin really helped me to love the works of Homer and Virgil, especially, as well as turning me on to Toni Morrison. Our section met at 8am, so I often missed it, and at Christmas Robin gave me one of those coffee makers with a timer, in hopes of encouraging me to be part of the discussion more often, one of the most meaningful gifts I’ve ever received.
This entry was originally posted at https://lillibet.dreamwidth.org/1318679.html. You can comment either place! There are
comments over there now.
The best class in my major was a comparative politics class on Race & Ethnicity, taught by Cynthia Enloe, who was visiting from Clark University that term. I remember being unenthusiastic about the subject matter when I signed up, but it was an exciting and eye-opening class that impacts my understanding of the world to this day. The central thesis of the class was that unless you ask the question “How do race and ethnicity operate in this situation?” you have not fully examined whatever you’re studying. We read books about the Ulstermen of Northern Ireland, the cannery workers of California, the cocaine industry in South America, and sugar farming in Florida. Enloe’s work was largely about women in the military-her book, Does Khaki Become You? is a great read-and she had spent time in the Phillippines helping sex workers cope with the closing of the US Navy base at Subic Bay, and supporting negotiations for improved working conditions for the people who make Levi’s jeans. Over the past six years, as my awareness of the racial injustice in our country has increased dramatically, I often find myself thinking about our discussions in Prof. Enloe’s class thirty years ago and wishing I could go back to them with new understanding.
But when I think “college,” the class that immediately comes to mind is Lit Hum. Literature Humanities has been part of the Core Curriculum at Columbia for over a hundred years and the list of books studied has changed only slightly. It’s a year-long course that meets two or three times a week. We all take it in sections of 15-20 students with graduate student advisors. Mine was a woman from Union Theological Seminary who was doing her thesis on the uses of water in the Bible and she took a very different approach to the classics, encouraging us to consider the metaphors and symbolism in each work. Robin really helped me to love the works of Homer and Virgil, especially, as well as turning me on to Toni Morrison. Our section met at 8am, so I often missed it, and at Christmas Robin gave me one of those coffee makers with a timer, in hopes of encouraging me to be part of the discussion more often, one of the most meaningful gifts I’ve ever received.
This entry was originally posted at https://lillibet.dreamwidth.org/1318679.html. You can comment either place! There are
comments over there now.