Last week, my friend Alli Beard excitedly texted me that the schedule for Fall 2017 was up on the Kenyon website, and I immediately started pouring over classes for next semester. Eventually, the initial list was taken down, but within the next 48 hours, the searchable schedule was up and I could resume my frantic spreadsheeting making and emailing professors.
I really enjoy looking over the searchable schedule and thinking about the classes I am going to take next semester. Making a prospective schedule for fall (and next spring) has allowed to me to make spreadsheets, which is something I do to destress and procrastinate on actual school work. I’ve attached photos of my nice, neat schedule for Fall 2017 and my terrifying mess of classes I’m considering for Spring 2018.
For some, choosing classes for next semester is stressful, but for me, it’s actually fun! (The part I don’t like are the looming what-classes-do-I-need-to-take-to-actually-graduate-with-a-major and what-do-I-actually-want-to-do-with-the-rest-of-life questions.) Yet, there are the classes that allude. Those classes on the searchable schedule which I just start at lovingly, knowing I can’t take them. And today, I thought I would share some of my pain with you.
10. AMST 378D.000 Topics in American Art: American Art & Culture in the 1940’s
Course description: This seminar examines how Americans visually experienced World War II and the early Cold War years. We will focus on how the fine arts related to government propaganda and mainstream popular culture. Students will consider Hollywood films, magazines, advertising, and radio, along with government posters, cartoons, and documentaries. We will also examine the rise of Abstract Expressionism, the resilience of representational realism, and the shift of the art world from Paris to New York. Additional themes will include the promotion of consumerism during mandatory rationing, the distance from the violence abroad, race and gender roles, and planning for the post-war world. Students will read a variety of primary sources and oral histories. Periodic film screenings and radio listening sessions are required. Prerequisite: ARHS 111, AMST 109, or permission of instructor.
Why I want to take it: I love love love the 1940s as an era and am really interested in the history of WWII and the Cold War. In addition, the media component of this class sounds really interesting to me, particularly the prospect of “radio listening sessions.” Also, the term “Hollywood films” just brings me a lil bit of joy.
Why I can’t take it: I haven’t taken any of the prereqs and feel like I super can’t justify taking an American Studies or Art History class as a person who is aggressively still trying to decide if she wants to double major.
9. ARHS 228.00 History of Photography
Course description: This course surveys the history of photography from the medium’s invention in the 1830s to the present. Key issues will include the manner in which photography functions as documentary evidence, demonstrates technological innovation, and is used as a means for artistic creativity. The role of digital imagery, social media, and the internet will also be addressed. Through lectures, critical readings, class presentations and discussions, students will develop a comprehensive understanding of the history of the medium within specific historical and cultural contexts. A particular emphasis will be placed on the social history of photography in an international context. Prerequisite: ARHS 111 or equivalent.
Why I Want to Take It: In 4th grade, we had to do a project about an inventor and I did Louis Daguerre, who invented the daguerreotype process of photography and became known as one of the fathers of photography. (Little Mackenna had to dress up as Daguerre, do a bad French accent and “attend a dinner” with other inventors.) Since then, I’ve been really interested in photography. Really bad at it, but really interested in it.
Why I can’t take it: Pretty much the exact same reasons as above. As a prospective drama major, my whole fine arts requirement is sort of taken care of.
8. BIOL 243 Animal Physiology
Course Description: Animal physiology examines the processes of animal cells, tissues and organ systems. In this class, we will seek to understand how physiological processes relate to the survival of an animal in its environment. We will use three primary approaches: (1) comparative, contrasting animals that live in different environments; (2) environmental, exploring how animals survive in challenging environments; and (3) structure-function, examining how the anatomy of a system relates to its function. Each of the primary animal organ systems (nerve, muscle, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, renal and excretory) will be covered in detail. Readings from the primary research literature will be assigned. Prerequisite: BIOL 115 or equivalent or permission of instructor.
Why I want to take it: God, I love animals. There are so many cool classes that are taught here about animals. I want to know more about our fluffy lil baby friends.
Why I can’t take it: I didn’t take Energy in Living Systems this year and I am straight up garbage at biology.
7. BIOL 261 Animal Behavior
Course Description: The evolution and ecology of animal behavior is explored in detail. The diversity of behavior and the ecological consequences of behavior will be studied, with emphasis on how research programs are designed to answer questions. We investigate animal behavior from both proximate and ultimate perspectives across a broad range of behavioral phenomena. Outside of class, each student chooses an animal around which to build a semester-long investigation of animal behavior that emphasizes original observation and data collection. Prerequisite: BIOL 116 or permission of instructor.
Why I want to take it: Everything I said in #8, plus the fact that I’m obsessed with psychology and why people and animals behave the way they do.
Why I can’t take it: *sobs quietly* Once again, see #8.
6. DANC 240 Directed Teaching
Course Description: This course presents students with theories and philosophies about teaching the art of dance in various contexts. Readings and discussions will consider methods for integrating somatic techniques and scientific principles into the dance technique class, as well as contemporary aesthetic and creative practices. Different learning and teaching environments will be compared and contrasted, including the private sector, public schools, and higher education. Adaptations necessitated by dance style, age, motivation, and skill level will be addressed both theoretically and experientially, as students will be required to plan, teach, and evaluate their own and each other’s pedagogical choices in practice teaching sessions. This course has a significant Community Engaged Learning component, with an emphasis on teaching creative movement to children. Students should expect off-campus teaching experiences; some of this teaching will be scheduled outside of class time. Permission of instructor required. No prerequisite. Usually offered every other year.
Why I want to take it: I love dance and teaching dance. The current end goal at the end of my time at Kenyon is to be a musical theatre choreographer. I would love to learn more about how to teach dance, especially to different age groups. Also, Julie Brodie is just a true, true delight.
Why I can’t take it: I’m already taking The Choreographer and Intro to the Dance next semester, so I can’t really justify as a non-major taking three dance classes in one semester.
5. DRAM 243: The Costume Designer
Course description: This course presents an introduction to the costume designer’s creative process. Through a series of projects, students will explore the relation of the costume to the character, the plot, the work of the director, the actor and the other designers. Projects involve drawing, painting, collage, writing and research. Prerequisite: DRAM 111. Generally offered every year.
Why I want to take it: I am really interested in costume design for theatre. I think costumes can help enhance character and tell stories in such an interesting way. I know when I’m acting, I always feel so much better and way more in character once I’m in costumes. Also, it’s Ta Longerot’s speciality and I want to see her in her element.
Why I can’t take it: My main interest in theatre is directing and I am already planning on taking The Director, which meets at the same time.
4. ENGL 103 Animals in Literature
Course Description: This course is designed to develop and enhance the skills of effective communication, both written and oral, and to promote critical reading of literary texts. Through the study of important examples of several different genres of literature and narrative film, we shall examine human-animal relationships. We shall study specifically literary techniques and forms, such as nonhuman narrators, animal metaphors and similes and epitaphs and elegies for beloved pets. At times, writers use animals in order misanthropically to satirize humankind. At other times, especially in stories about pets, animals are treated sentimentally. Literary works dealing with animals also raise larger questions–”from the ethical, to the philosophical, to the ecological. Are there exclusively human qualities and capacities: tool-use, language, memory, historicity, emotions, laughter? Or is the boundary between human beings and nonhuman animals more permeable and uncertain? Novelists, filmmakers, and essayists address ethical concerns about meat-eating, factory-farming, hunting, blood-sports, and animal experimentation. We shall consider how certain historical developments (the theory of evolution, the rise of zoos, the founding of humane societies) changed the literary representation of animals, even as these developments may themselves have been partly shaped by literature. We shall ask whether the human understanding of animals requires anthropomorphism or whether animal experience (and perhaps consciousness) remains essentially inaccessible to us. We shall study novels, plays, poems, memoirs and essays by such authors as John Berger, J. M. Coetzee, Daniel Defoe, Mark Doty, Jack London, William Shakespeare, Virginia Woolf and William Wordsworth.
Why I Want to Take It: Okay, so I’m noticing a throughline with myself: I just want to take all the classes with “animal” in the title.
Why I Can’t Take It: I discovered something about myself last semester when I took an English class: I don’t like English classes as much as a I thought I did in high school. I cannot get the motivation to read novels for class. Plays? Sure. Non-fiction? Why not! Novels? Keep them away. Also, analyzing literature gives me a headache.
3. FREN 354 Kings Temptresses Werewolves
Course Description: Among the most famous monarchs (not to mention cuckolds) in the Middle Ages, King Arthur remains to this day a dominant force in the collective cultural imaginary. In addition to the “once and future king,” star-crossed lovers Tristan and Iseut and quests to retrieve the chalice from which Jesus drank at the Last Supper recur in film, where actors like Keira Knightly, Vanessa Redgrave, James Franco, Angelica Houston, and Richard Harris bring them to life for contemporary audiences. This course will introduce students to the most popular legends (Arthurian and otherwise) of medieval romance and lyric poetry through bilingual editions (Old French or Anglo-Norman and modern French) of twelfth- and thirteenth-century texts: Chrétien de Troyes’s verse romance, Lancelot ou le Chevalier de la Charrette, two prose romances from the so-called Vulgate or Lancelot Grail cycle, La Queste del Saint Graal and La Mort le Roi Artu, selected Breton lays from Marie de France, and Thomas of Britain’s Tristan romance. Students will study selected film versions in the contexts of their literary inspirations. Films will include John Boorman’s Excalibur, Robert Bresson’s Lancelot du Lac, Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Emilie Mercier’s Bisclavret, the 1967 movie-musical, Camelot, the TV miniseries, The Mists of Avalon, a feminist retelling of the Arthur legend from the perspective of its secondary female characters, and the 2006 blockbuster, Tristan + Isolde, with each screening to be arranged outside of class time. The course will be conducted in French; all work submitted for a grade will be in French.
Why I want to take it: Oh my god, this class sounding amazing! The title alone is insanely cool. I’m so into this literary period and I think I would gain a lot from taking it. Also, it gives me an excuse to watch Camelot (any class that requires watching a musical for is a class for me) and the Holy Grail.
Why I can’t take it: I am taking another class that is being taught at the same time as this one. And no, the answer is not because I don’t speak French. Je parle français au moins assez bien.
2. MUSC 309 History of Opera
Course Description: This course will trace the development of opera from its origins in the 16th century through the important works of the 20th century. Students will study representative operas from the various periods in Italy, France, Germany, Eastern Europe and America to understand the stylistic development of the genre and the musical, literary, philosophical, aesthetic and political forces that shaped it. Prerequisite: MUSC 101 or placement by exam and MUSC 102 or 107. Offered every two to three years.
Why I want to take it: For as much as I know about musical theatre, I know nothing about opera. (There is a relationship between the two; hence why we have an Opera AND Musical Theatre workshop here.) Opera is something that really interests me and I would love to learn more about it.
Why I can’t take it: I have no theory background and would never ever ever place out of MUSC 101.
1. PSYC 310 Cognitive Neuroscience
Course Description: This course focuses on human brain systems that support sensory, motor, cognitive, social, and affective phenomena. Early in the semester we will build a foundation of knowledge about brain anatomy and physiology, human sensory and motor systems and the methods used in cognitive neuroscience research. We will incorporate this knowledge into subsequent explorations of how the brain gives rise to complex phenomena such as attention, learning and memory, language, emotion and social cognition. The course aims to provide students with a greater understanding of, and appreciation for, the complex relationship between brain and mind, and how our understanding of this relationship is informed by cognitive neuroscience research.
Why I Want to Take It: This girl loves the brain. I think the brain is so interesting, so this class seems right up my ally. During my college search, I actually looked specifically at cognitive neuroscience programs, like at Northwestern, before I realized psychology is not the discipline I want to pursue. But this class seems like a great way to still keep my interest alive and well.
Why I can’t take it: I emailed the professor to ask if there was any chance of me getting into the class and he replied with a very firm “no.” I guess it always fills up by the time the rising sophomores register.
Evidently, there are a lot of different reasons why I can’t take all of the classes next semester that interest me. But at the same time, a lot of these come with a struggle. People always say they’ll take fun classes when they’re seniors, but almost every class is embedded with a prereq after you get out of the basic “Intro to ________” courses. It’s a tough decision. This time of year is difficult with all the decisions we are having to make, between housing, classes and the fact that my anxiety slowly builds every time someone I know declares their major. However, if I’ve learned anything from my almost year of being at Kenyon, is that even though we can’t take all the classes we want to take, most of the classes here are truly great.
Image Credit: Feature, 1, Mackenna Goodrich, Peg Goodrich, Roger Edmonds