Sometimes, the class you only chose because it fits your schedule is the one that keeps you up at night questioning your major. Why on God’s green earth am I studying to get paid absolutely nothing in my film career when I could be studying to… also be incredibly broke as an anthropologist? Maybe that was a poor comparison, but my point still stands.
Every morning of class registration, I am forced to FaceTime my mother for moral support as I watch the number of available seats tick downwards. I’m pretty sure the list of unavoidable perils should be changed to death, taxes, and the seniors getting my spot in Topics in Myth.
So, I thought that as I am now wizened and scarred, I would distract myself from the impending doom of both graduation and having to wake up at the crack of dawn to register for classes one last time.
What better way to do this than to share the most random but fulfilling classes I’ve taken at BU?
- CAS AN101: Introduction to Sociocultural Anthropology (Steven Schwartz)
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I took this class during my sophomore spring on a whim. I loved it, brought my sister to it, and am currently taking another anthropology course, this time AN210: Medical Anthropology.
All the readings and discussion sections were genuinely so interesting as we explored many layers of the discipline: families and kinship, relationships with animals, gift-giving, and the development of ethnography.
Our projects were very fun and open-ended too, making writing papers a total breeze. For one of them, we had to break a social norm — so against true BU fashion, I forced myself to not jaywalk all day.
- CAS CC 212: Core Natural Science II: Science, Reality and the Modern World (Paul Trunfio and Robin Stevens)
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I was kind of forced to register for this class for the Hub units when my initial plan to cheat the system by doubling up on my AP Stats credits fell through, but I have to admit that I like larping as a STEM major.
Was I scared when the first-day review was a physics worksheet? Yes. But was it uphill from there? Also yes.
The professors were so nice, and I felt incredibly brainy from using E=MC^2 in real life. Similar to my anthropology class, this one included mini deep dives in a few areas, including quantum mechanics, neuroscience, and radioactive decay.
As a film major, this class reminded me that I actually do like science, in small, liberal arts-coded ways. This class was all about revolutions in scientific thought that forced people to adjust their understandings.
- CAS WR 120: First-Year Writing Seminar: The Graphic Memoir (Jessica Kent)
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For a first-year writing seminar, this was a perfect introduction to BU. The professor was amazing and used a grading contract, which allowed me to experiment with bringing my writing up to the college level without added stress. There’s also a WR153 level option for this course!
I chose this class so I could explore artistic expression in different formats, and it did not disappoint! We read so many thought-provoking visual memoirs like Fun House and Stitches, and even created our own.
This class also made me start therapy.
- COM FT 316: British Film and TV since 1960 (Kate Domaille)
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I didn’t really have a choice with this one, as it was the core class for the London study abroad program. That being said, I loved it.
As a big Derry Girls fan, I’ve always felt like I’m missing a serious chunk of world history whenever the Troubles are mentioned. This class broke it down so well for me, and we watched some incredibly powerful pieces of related art, including Hunger, which explores prison abuse and hunger strikes.
On a more positive note, the professor is the sweetest British lady of all time and has impeccable style. She even brought us to London Film Festival events. En route, we ran into Hugh Grant on the train (rumors are true; he was mean).
- CAS CL 202: Warfare in Antiquity (Loren Samons)
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Professor Samons is one of my favorites in the classics department, so I wanted to take another of his courses. However, I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this one — I am not a war gal.
Still, I loved it. I’ve never been so into sketching battle diagrams. I took extensive notes. I brought my then-boyfriend and converted him into BU’s second-biggest Loren Samons fan.
This class made me consider the setup of our society and the distance we have from war and pain in a completely new way. While this class would be difficult without prior experience in Greek or Roman history, the patterns are easy to follow.
The readings are extensive, but my favorite was about Queen Artemisia of Halicarnassus, who commanded a ship in the Persian wars. To confuse her Greek enemies, she purposefully rammed into an ally ship. Icon! Let’s get a class on powerful ancient women going.
I’ve been all over the place at BU, but these classes have a special place in my heart.
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