tuesday, january 16, 2007
Majoring in the study of creative generalism
Classes I am taking this quarter:
- CCS Literature 111 — Home and World in British Literature
- CCS General Studies 120 — Memory: A Bridge Between Neuroscience and the Humanities
- Art Studio 122 — Re-Contextualizing the Contents of the Web
- Writing Program 105NM — Writing for New Media
- CCS General Studies 10 — History and Philosophy of the College of Creative Studies
- Computer Science 193 — Information Technology in the Community
- CCS Literature 105 — Literature Symposium
“Home and World” is approximately Neal Stephenson’s Quicksilver and The Confusion (I never read The System of the World) but in real period literature. The class is about the eighteenth century in England, which incubated the beginnings of modern print culture and notions of abstract money, among other things. It’s my only Literature class this quarter, which is amusing because it’s the one I’m taking for fun instead of useful learning.
“Memory: Neuroscience and the Humanities” is where we read giant chunks of literature and a bunch of scientific papers and generally pontificate about human brains. I like it.
Both “Re-Contextualizing the Web” and “Writing for New Media” could instead be titled “Here we attempt to teach the interweb” because they discuss mashups, Photoshop, and the epistemological questions of remixability and hypertextuality. The readings give me fits of giggles in their outdatedness and incompleteness, but I can expound upon Creative Commons and Wikipedia for credit! Whee! These classes remind me why some things are better self-studied, but I can’t resist taking them anyway.
“History and Philosophy of the College” hasn’t started yet, but it should be fun. I love my college: it is full of nooks and crannies, people best described as characters, some unusual educational philosophies, and mostly an abiding love of The Student. This is a half-class for one or two units instead of the usual four. “Information Technology” is also a half-class, and it’s where a bunch of students who know things about computers go help local nonprofits and schools learn those things. We’re also supposed to evangelize Computer Science to unsuspecting children (especially girls), but I’m not sure how well I can do that.
“Literature Symposium” is a one-unit required class for Literature majors, where we sit in the Old Little Theatre on Wednesdays for an hour and listen to some minor author reading their work. It’s usually not painful, but it’s not very interesting either.
So I’m taking 21 units (the usual is 12 to 18), but I figure I’ll drop one or two classes by the time the quarter is over. I’m not actually enrolled in “Re-Contextualizing” anyway, and “Writing for New Media” is the only class that would have a letter grade. Part of why I love my college is because it lets me learn as much as I want to, without the fear of nasty requirements or grades. Yay! And now I go back to the regularly-scheduled pile of reading.
comments (1)
Very cool collection of courses, Britta, and it's beautiful to hear you celebrate CCS and the way it honors and respects The Student. 18th century literature, on both sides of the Atlantic, British and Colonial American, is some of my very favorite stuff.
– Dad on 1/18/2007 01:34:19
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