There is always something exciting going on in English classes at YHC. Check out these highlights from recent and upcoming classes:
- Dr. Mark Rollins’ upper-level courses are taught seminar-style. Instead of desks, students sit around a conference table. Each class is discussion-based, and students are often asked to lead class discussions and deliver presentations. Dr. Rollins is teaching "Victorian Poetry and Prose" in Fall 2011 and "Introduction to Literary Criticism and Theory" in Spring 2012.
- At the conclusion of the Fall 2011 semester, English majors gave a series of campus presentations: Folklore Collection Projects, a Symposium on Realism and Naturalism in the 21st Century, and a presentation regarding work on an original American Utopia.
- Dr. Jim Bishop’s Fall 2011 course, “Writing the Appalachian Trail,” allowed students to embark on several hikes to visit places they read about. Dr. Bishop scheduled a visit with Winton Porter, owner and proprietor of Mountain Crossings at Neels Gap and author of Just Passin’ Thru, one of the books students read during the course.
- In Dr. Amanda Lawrence’s Fall 2011 senior seminar on the oral tradition, students explored the verbal arts from ancient epics to modern poetry slams. They had the opportunity to try their hands as storytellers and as oral historians. Students also took part in a special class session with Bill Miller, a nationally-known Native American storyteller and Grammy Award-winning artist.
- In May 2011, Dr. Jim Bishop and Dr. Mark Rollins accompanied honors students on a 10-day cultural tour of Boston, exploring the area’s history, art and literary heritage (not to mention the fabulous food). Highlights included the Museum of Fine Arts (including the outstanding Chihuly exhibit), the House of the Seven Gables, Walden Pond and sites associated with the Salem witch trials.
- Dr. Ruth Looper’s Spring 2011 English 1102 class, “Love and Death at YHC,” took a trip to the Byron Herbert Reece Farm site. Dr. John Kay, YHC alumnus and professor emeritus of religion and philosophy and president of the Byron Herbert Reece Society, took students on a tour of the site and gave a fascinating lecture about Reece’s life and work.
- Dr. Amanda Lawrence’s Spring 2011 English 1102 classes wrote their own books of short stories. Each class selected a unifying theme, title and organization for its book. The Secrets We Share: 17 Tales from Goolsby 104 features stories about the search for self, and Revelation is about the ending of the world in 2012.