College Seminar:”Soda, Pop, or Coke?”: Linguistic Diversity

This course will look closely at a small selection of plays adapted from other works. At its core this is a dramaturgical practice and methods course. Students will investigate impulses and processes for re-envisioning, re-working, re-purposing another’s text. We will read and discuss some theories of adaptation (mostly, but not exclusively, as they pertain to collaborative art making practices) as well as a sampling of contemporary criticism. A central goal of the course will be to better understand how the term adaptation is understood across disciplines and to fuel a complex discussion about what might make a theatrical adaptation feel relevant or effective in a given context. We will also look closely at moments in history that have instigated a serious 'looking back', spurring a collective creative impulse to re-visit and re-invent previously established works. One could argue that we are currently living in such a cultural moment. Please note: this course requires a significant reading load. Students will be required to close read/view all adapted texts, all original source materials and a variety of supporting texts (as described above). We will also draw from film, visual art and music for this study. Evaluation will be based on a sequence of short practical assignments and demonstrated engagement with the course materials through live discussion and a shared class blog.

The Monster is real, and it’s calling. -Michelle Mcnamara

Grew up reading Nancy Drew and Miss Marple? Can’t let a day go by without listening to a murder mystery podcast like Serial or My Favorite Murder? Love binge-watching shows like Killing Eve and Big Little Lies? Consider watching true crime documentaries your hobby? Then this is the class for you.

This college seminar will allow you to delve into the world of murder, mysteries, and the mayhem caused by these through a woman’s eyes. Be it a woman sleuth, a femme fatale, or a damsel in distress, women have been inextricably related to the world of crime. It is no wonder that they make up almost 75% of the listeners of true-crime podcasts and 80% of CrimeCon attendees (Times.com). We will study this phenomenon by paying close attention to not only literary genres like novels, short stories, and non-fiction writing but also non-literary (and multimodal) genres that include pop-culture favorites like TV shows, documentaries, and podcasts, some of which are mentioned above. Other works that we might consider are Sharp Objects (fiction), Dial A for Aunties (fiction), I’ll be Gone in the Dark (non-fiction), Mommy Dead and Dearest (documentary), and The Keepers (documentary).

Since this class also meets the writing requirement, part of your focus will be understanding writing as a dynamic literate activity by composing varied works. For example, you’ll write short reflection posts responding to questions like “Why women kill”?, opinion or review pieces that could appear in The New York Times, conduct interviews, and work on a term-long genre evolution project. All these are different genres and might target a specific audience: me, online readers, fans, or your peers. You will be evaluated on class participation, written work, and a final project.

Students will be evaluated on class participation, written work, and a final project. Lots of attention will be paid to peer review and revision as well.

As a Pakistani-American teenager from New Jersey, Kamala Khan must contend with being a non-white female offspring of an immigrant family, a reality further complicated by her newfound superhero abilities. In this college seminar course, we will dive into the world of Kamala Khan as she follows in the footsteps of her role model and the first Ms. Marvel, Carol Danvers, one of the few female superheroes in the universe. She’ll change your idea of a superhero and what it means to be one as she balances her personal and superhero identity and navigates questions of race, religion, culture, power, and teenage angst.

We will explore all the abovementioned ideas and more as we read three to four volumes of Ms. Marvel comics (2014 onwards), paying attention to storytelling through the genre of sequential art. We will also watch the recent TV adaptation (2022) and finally pair the two with theories of race, Islamophobia, gender, and current world politics. Since this class also meets the writing requirement, part of your focus will be on understanding the writing process by composing varied works. For example, you’ll write short blog posts responding to questions like, “Are comics literature?”, opinion pieces that could appear in The New York Times, and fan fiction. All these are different genres and targeted at a specific audience, me, online readers, fans, and your peers. You will be evaluated on class participation, written work, oral presentation, and a final project.

This course is designed for science students developing their professional communication skills. It will improve the students' writing ability by introducing them to writing for the scientific community and for the lay public. The course involves understanding the protocols for writing a scientific paper based on lab or field data, including learning to write an abstract and literature review. Students will also learn and apply visual and oral communication skills to construct and present a scientific poster. In addition to working with the instructor and in-class peer reviews, students will work on the content of their writing and grammar with writing tutors.

This course is designed for students planning to teach in schools whether in Maine or outside of the United States. Culturally sustaining/revitalizing education (CSRE) builds on the aims, values, insights, and practices of anti-racist education, culturally relevant pedagogy, culturally responsive teaching, culturally sustaining/revitalizing pedagogy, decolonizing education, global education, intercultural education, and multicultural education. In particular, it aims to contextualize education in the history of colonization, land theft, slavery, the continued struggle for sovereignty and self-determination of native tribes and First Nations, and calls for wider community accountability. This educational approach challenges deficit mindsets and structures that undergird policies and practices that widen the opportunity gap and equitable access to basic human and civil rights and impede educational access for sustaining and revitalizing cultures that settler colonialism has attempted to eliminate, assimilate, or marginalize. Students will practice asset-based and growth mindsets to gain an understanding of the relationship between CSRE and respect for tribal sovereignty and support of contemporary struggles for tribal continuity and resistance to cultural genocide and epistemicide. The course also opens a dialogue on the applicability of CRSE for immigrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking students whose relationship to their new place of residence may be tenuous at best and whose heritage languages and cultures are also endangered as a result of first- to second-generation assimilation in their adopted communities. Students will gain an understanding of conceptual frameworks, knowledge of empirical studies documenting outcomes and impacts of these approaches, and skills in ethically and effectively teaching indigenous, immigrant, and other culturally and linguistically diverse learners. For students seeking Maine teaching endorsements, this course will prepare them to implement LD291 requiring Maine educators to teach Wabanaki history and culture. Students will learn through field trips, guest speakers, films, discussions, critical exploration and reflection, independent research, observation/fieldwork/practicum, and peer teaching. Evaluation will include artifacts to be incorporated into a teaching portfolio: a lesson plan, teaching video, self-assessment, assessment of PK-12 student work, and communication with families and community members. Although there are no prerequisites, the following are recommended; Learning and/or proficiency in a language other than English; a psychology, sociology, or anthropology course; and/or a prior education course.

Algerian Jewish philosopher, Jacques Derrida (1930-2004), one of the most widely translated French philosophers of the 20th century, developed a body of work often referred to as "deconstruction." Derrida’s oeuvre has influenced multiple fields and disciplines, including Literature, Anthropology, Philosophy, Postcolonial Studies, Psychoanalysis and Feminist Theory. This course will track some of the ways in which Derrida engaged with ideas of difference, through a focus on questions his work poses for understandings of the human. The class will engage with Derrida’s archive through reading some of his early work, including essays and interviews about the status of writing and speech, language, and philosophy, and then move through his later work, including his increasing focus on explicitly political topics such as the death Peñalty, the animal, sovereignty, and war. Although the texts we read will be primarily Derrida’s own writing, we will also read authors who respond to and build on Derrida’s thought. These may include Gayatri Spivak, Ranjana Khanna, Samir Haddad, Peggy Kamuf, and Michael Naas, as well as texts by those with whom Derrida was in dialogue, such as Sigmund Freud, Hélène Cixous, Michel Foucault, Sarah Kofman, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Karl Marx, Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Levinas. As we move through Derrida’s texts and those informed by them, we will pay particular attention to questions about sexual difference, colonialism, the human, death in relation to life, and representation. Students will be evaluated on participation in seminar discussions, weekly reading responses, a mid-term paper and final paper. There are no prerequisites for this course, but students will be expected to conduct close readings of challenging texts. Students are encouraged to contact the professor with any questions about the course and whether it is a good fit for them.