The time has come- I just confirmed my enrollment in my last ever BMC classes! I’m really excited because these courses really appeal to me, and I think it’ll really make me feel good about my last semester here.
Post Colonial Literature
According to the syllabus, “This course will survey novels, poems, plays and movies produced in countries breaking free of British colonial rule in South Asia, Africa and the Caribbean–and a couple works about a country breaking free of French rule in Algeria. The goal of the course is not to study some ideas already embodied in texts; rather what I hope we will discuss are the ideas and feelings in each of us which are brought up by the works we read or view and by the ideas we discuss. Hence attendance and participation in class are important.” The course is taught by Professor Tratner, who I really like. He’s a really intelligent professor, but he also allows students to explore alternative and sometimes pushing-the-limits explanations for phenomena. He always thinks outside of the box, and I appreciate that. We’re going to be reading quite a lot in this class, but one of the texts is Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water which I heard was amazing, but I never got a chance to read.
Sociology of Harry Potter
According to the syllabus, “J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series is a worldwide phenomenon that has sold hundreds of millions of books and been translated into dozens of languages. Over the last decade, academic studies of Harry Potter have taken root in English and Theology departments, but very few sociologists have taken a scholarly look at the rich society Rowling has created. This course will introduce students to the fundamental concepts of sociology using the lens of the Harry Potter series. We will explore questions of hierarchy, inequality, terrorism, consumption, race, class, and gender, and we will discuss the ways in which stratification in the wizarding world compares and contrasts to similar issues in the Muggle world. Class discussions and exercises will assume that students have read all seven Harry Potter books.” This course is taught my the love of my life, Professor Nolan. Having lived at Hogwarts the last four years, I only find it fitting to end my time here with a class centered around Harry Potter.
Queering Popular Culture
According to the syllabus, “From Billie Holiday to Billy Joel, American popular culture has historically served as a rich site for the cultural production of queerness. This course explores queer forms of popular culture such as blues music, lesbian pulp fiction and drag shows, as well as the various modes through which queers have historically appropriated, redefined, and transformed mainstream cultural texts, from The Wizard of Oz to Harry Potter. Drawing on a wide range of texts including music, movies, magazines, novels, television and social media, we will ask how popular culture serves as a privileged site for the development of particularly queer modes of performance and spectatorship. Rather than taking “queer” to be a self- evident category of sexual or gender identity, we will explore the ways in which queer indexes a complex relationship of opposition, appropriation, and disidentification with cultural norms.” This course is taught by Professor Butler-Wall. Although I’ve never had her as a professor, I was told that I need to take a course with her before I graduate. She was also the second reader for my thesis, so I took that to mean that she and I have similar academic interests, and we would be a good student-teacher match for each other.
Independent Study
I’m probably most excited for this course. Although all of my courses are going to be intellectually stimulating, I some how convinced Professor Ignacio Gallup-Diaz (also the light of my life) to meet with me for a one-on-one session to discuss ideas, history, and everything that lies in between. I feel so honored to be able to take this course with him, not only because it’ll just be the two of us, but because I look up to him on so many different levels. I’m equating it to when Harry and Dumbledore would meet, minus the whole lying/death/secrets thing.
Honestly, I don’t think I could have a more perfect academic schedule. Granted I’m working four jobs on top of it, but I know that I’ll be able to manage, and leave with a BANG!