Summer Classes Overview
1. Horrors of Survival: American Literatures of Modernity
This class, offered by the English department, introduced students to American texts related to surviving tragedies. For homework, we would read texts and write blogs about particular parts that intrigued or perplexed us, and in class we would discuss the texts together. My favorite text was Moby Dick because it is often referenced in popular culture and reading it in this class allowed me to understand the plight of living and dying within the novel. I especially enjoyed our class field trip to Rauner Special Collections Library, where I had the chance to encounter letters written home and photographs during the Civil War that related to texts from class. Though the texts we read were helpful in understanding the war, the first-hand accounts really brought the war into focus.
2. The Jewish Jesus
The Jewish Jesus was a brand new course offered by the Religion department. The class was taught by a visiting professor who was excellent at engaging the class and making a 2,000 year old subject come alive. The class focused on Jesus' identity as a Jewish man and what life was really like in Israel 2,000 years ago. After studying this, we learned about the roots of anti-Semitism as well as how Jesus' image has been distorted over several centuries. With a class trip to the Book Arts Workshop, we learned how the Bible was originally written on vellum (animal skin) by doing it ourselves! We wrote out Bible verses and turned in the final assignment for a grade, which was a really exciting experience.
3. Magic and the Occult
After taking several classes in the Classics department, I decided to be a Classics major, and this class looked very interesting because it focused on the mystical side of Antiquity that I had never learned before. The class centered around several projects that students did to compare and contrast magical traditions in Antiquity—a bonus was that several of my friends happened to be in this class!
4. Introduction to Cultural Anthropology
I took this class to fulfill a requirement for my Global Health minor, which is offered through the Anthropology department. This class covered the basics of anthropology on a cultural level by studying different groups of people all around the world, starting with the culture at Dartmouth and as far-reaching as cultures in Asia.