Here's a question for all of you. It might generate an interesting discussion, but it also has a serious purpose. Obviously, despite the many advantages to studying English at the Mansfield campus (small classes, lots of contact with faculty, a communal feeling, plentiful wildlife!), one drawback is that we faculty can't offer as wide a range of courses as can the much larger group in Columbus. Even in the courses we do offer, we can only include so much in ten weeks. As we hire more excellent new professors (welcome Cynthia Callahan, Susan Delagrange, and Norman Jones!!), this situation is improving, but I'm curious to know what you feel are the most significant gaps in our course offerings or our syllabi. What courses do you really wish were taught but aren't? Which authors do you wish were included, or which works would you like to read? I'd enjoy hearing your thoughts on this, and I suspect my colleagues would too, and there might even be ways in which some remedies could be found -- if there were a huge groundswell of interest in a course on Danielle Steele for instance:).
Posted by hhamlin at February 22, 2006 09:24 AMWell, I drive to Columbus to pick up at least class per quarter. I have reduced my work schedule from full time to 3/4 time. The problem I have with scheduling upper level English classes in Mansfield is that most of them are offered before 3 p.m. in the day. My work schedule is 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. or 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. I can't afford to leave this job as of yet due to the health benefits it provides for I and my family. Next quarter there is offered a 500 level class at 3:15 p.m. Tuesday's and Thursday's. I can make arrangments to use some of my vacation time from work to leave a bit earlier to make this class.
Posted by: Robin at February 22, 2006 02:16 PMI would appreciate more opportunities to write various genres (creative genres specifically). Last summer in Ralph Hunt's theater class we studied the method and structure of propagandistic plays and then wrote our own and held class readings. I can't begin to express the value of that experience...although it's not the only time that a professor on the OSU-M campus has seen this need to write in his/her students and then provided opportunities for us. (Thanks, Mike Sasso, Bob Gibson, Jim Snyder, Karen Cullpits, etc!) But sadly there are few classes specifically geared toward creative writing in all its various forms.
Posted by: sarah at February 22, 2006 07:01 PMThe class that I would like to have had the opportunity to see included is a class ob William Blake. His work offers odd, religious type work, but if you add in the art as well, this would make a very interesting course as well. It would fit very nicely with the Milton class and would be right up Professor Hamlin's alley, with the British Lit. influence....!!!!!!
Posted by: jones,T at February 22, 2006 08:49 PMSarah,
Just pursue an MA in creative writing and write all your little heart desires!!!
Posted by: TJ at February 22, 2006 08:51 PMyeah, right. i'm gettin my MA in library science. i know how those creative writer types turn out--ya bunch of libral, hippies:).
Posted by: sarah at February 22, 2006 11:41 PMI actually am in agreement with Sarah. I would love to take classes more focused on creating writing for entertainment purposes rather than exclusively writing to discuss something intellectual or something someone else wrote. I want to write stories and get credit for it damnit!! Unfortunately the seemingly few and far between classes I've seen on the schedule in this vein have conflicted with other pursuits I've had. Also, I think we either need less literature classes or more diversity of them. For instance the quarter decade focus of the Harlem Renaissance class I am taking with Cynthia Callahan right now has been fantastic, and the Analyzing Popular Culture class Dion Cautrell is teaching in the fall should be a welcome change. Next quarter there are three courses in English alone that I'd like to take, including Bob Gibson's writing non-fiction, Susan Delagrange's multimedia, and Dion Cautrell's rhetorics of science. I'll be lucky if I can take two of those and still balance it out with pre-req's. Also, at some point, I think I'm gonna have to take Hannibal Hamlin's Shakespeare class so I can emphasize my dislike of him in person (Shakespeare, not Hannibal). :P
Anyway, my point is, more creation of writing from scratch on our (the students) parts and more diversity of literature (though that seems to be cooming)!!
Nic has spoken.
Posted by: nic at February 23, 2006 05:58 PMCorrection, I scheduled classes today and the class with Bob Gibson I was interested in was this quarter, not next.
Posted by: nic at February 28, 2006 05:31 PMWriting of Poetry. Let's have it. Obviously, there is enough interest to legitimately say it would be well-received. I took it in Columbus, and it was bitchin'. I've been saying this for a while, but to no avail. But I know you all want it...
Posted by: MM at March 5, 2006 12:57 AMGreat idea MM, though I would ask one thing of you. How exactly (since you did take it in Columbus) is something like that graded? Is it very structuralized in terms of what you write? A re you graded on a bulk of work? I'm just interested in knowing because I notice that there is very little adherence to rules or structure by a lot of the poetry in our threads and not everyne posts everyday.