By the time you graduate from Sewanee, wearing your gown and holding that piece of paper worth about a quarter of a million dollars (and hopefully a whole lot more than just that), it’s safe to say you’ll be a rather different person than you were when you gathered for that panoramic class picture the first weekend of freshman year. I think it’s also safe to say you’ll probably be a different person long before graduation, and while a lot of that has to do with human nature and growing up, some of it can be attributed to your Sewanee experience.
Sometimes the liberal arts can be frustrating…like when attempting to complete your general distribution requirements. I’m sure we all have at least one class we have dreaded having to register for, but the advantage of the liberal arts is that it forces us to go outside our comfort zone and exposes us to new territory. Late nights completing difficult assignments for challenging professors may make you histrionically question your existence in the moment, but in retrospect you may find that some of those classes had a greater impact on your existence than you could have ever imagined during course registration.
I asked some upperclassmen, recent graduates, and not-so-recent graduates to tell me about that one class in particular that changed their life: the course that changed their view on the world, or themselves, or in any other way made a distinct impact. I wanted to take the opportunity to note the wide array of course options at Sewanee (maybe you’ll be inspired to register for one of these courses!), but even more so to reflect on the value and significance of a Sewanee education.
Here’s what they have to say:
Annie Blanks ‘15
Class: Women’s Studies 101—Women in U.S History
Professor: Dr. Julie Berebitsky
Year Taken: Freshman
Growing up in the Deep South, where being labeled a feminist is often more of an insult than a respected political identification, you can imagine my surprise when I accidently signed up for a Women’s Studies history course first semester freshman year. In the frenzy that is class registration, I typed in the wrong number, and by the time I realized my mistake, it was too late and I could not drop the class. I remember thinking, Oh God, I’m about to be in a class where everyone sits around and braids each other’s leg hair and talks about eliminating the XY chromosome from the human race.
Little did I know, that one course changed my life forever. The girls in my class were just like me – they dressed like me, thought like me, and had the same reservations about feminism as me. As the class progressed, I slowly began to realize that everything I had previously thought about feminism was totally wrong. Dr. Berebitsky helped me understand how the treatment and empowerment of women is an issue that affects me every day and, more importantly, it is an issue that I have the power to affect every day. After that course, I took every single Berebitsky course that was offered, and will be completing my minor next semester. The stories of women who were able to challenge their life circumstances and not settle for anything less than what they deserved empowered me to strive for much higher opportunities than I had ever previously envisioned for myself. Women’s Studies 101 challenged me, changed me, transformed me, and set me on a life path I will begin to go down upon graduating in May, and for that, I will forever be thankful for Dr. Berebitsky.
Maria Stratienko ‘14
Class: History 430 Seminar—Civil War and Historical Memory
Professor: Dr. John McCardell
Year Taken: Senior
By my second semester senior year, I only needed three classes to graduate. My schedule was easy – I had some seminars at night but no classes Wednesday and Friday – and I certainly wasn’t looking to overload myself going into my last semester. On a whim, though, I signed up for Dr. McCardell’s History 430 Seminar – Civil War and Historical Memory. I should interject here that the only history courses I had taken at Sewanee were History 100 and 230. I didn’t have much stake in my decision to enroll beyond the novelty of hanging out with Dr. McCardell and the chance to read Absalom, Absalom. I didn’t realize we would have to buy over 15 books for the class. I didn’t know the grading criteria for the course would consist only of course discussion and a final paper. I was an international and global studies major with economics and women’s studies minors and, frankly, I had a certain level of disdain for the Civil War because I grew up in Lookout Mountain, TN and Lexington, VA and I felt as though the whole thing was overwrought. I had an incredibly complicated relationship with the South. It was like my mother – I can speak ill of her all I want, but God help the first person to speak ill of her to me, unless she is their mother too. History 430 changed my life because it provided an incredibly forgiving and thought-provoking space in which to grapple with my relationship with the Civil War and, in turn, the South (for they are not one in the same, but are inherently linked). I can hear Dr. McCardell reading the final lines of Stephen Vincent Benet’s “John Brown’s Body” and remember feeling a sense of greater enlightenment and understanding about where I walked and slept and lived my whole life. I remember coming home late from the seminar and telling my suitemate how incredibly satisfied and happy I was after every class, how it moved me, challenged me, and inspired me… and I remember her saying, “That’s how every class should be.”
Paul Naumann ‘16
Class: Anthropology 104—Cultural Anthropology
Professor: (Dr?) O’Connor
Year Taken:
Cultural Anthropology with O’Connor was a fascinating course for me. Not only because I got the chance to learn about various cultures, but it also gave me the mental tools to be able to critically analyze cultures and their values. That came in handy during Intro to Women and Gender Studies, which I took the following year and also thoroughly enjoyed.
Charlie Hughes ‘14
Class: Independent Study in Economics
Professor: Dr. Marc St-Pierre
Year Taken: Junior
During my experience at Sewanee, there is one class that I find myself bragging about more than any other. It wasn’t a class in the conventional sense, but rather an independent study in economics. I know what you’re thinking: nothing, absolutely nothing could save someone from the inherent and aging dryness of economic theory, but an independent study, “The Dark Side of the Economy: a Study on the Black Market” with Marc St-Pierre did just that. It delved into the economic theory behind drug markets, illegal labor, and the like. One reading, in particular, stands out. Dr. St-Pierre and I looked into the cocaine trade in La Paz, Bolivia, and discussed the spending habits of the different workers. To me, these discussions, the ones where academic theory intersected with what I interacted with daily (cocaine, not so much) are where I began to see tangible value in my education.
Josh King ‘11
Class: Non-Chaucerian Medieval Literature (As of Easter semester 2014 this course has been replaced by English 351: Medieval English Literature)
Professor: Dr. Matthew Irvin
Year taken: Sophomore
“Non-chaucerian medieval literature.” I remember reading that course title, and thinking, “Wait, there’s medieval literature besides Chaucer?” So, I took the class.
I was an English major at Sewanee, and I focused on Shakespearean tragedies. My interest in Shakespeare stemmed from my awe of what he contributed to the English language—the language spoken during his time and the language spoken during our own time. The other day I received a text message that read, “All the world’s a stage.” spelled out entirely in emojis. Not really, but I’m sure that’s not beyond the range of emoji English.
Shakespeare’s English is not my own, but it is a predecessor to it. In non-Chaucerian medieval literature, I was fortunate to study the predecessors of Shakespeare’s English: the Old English of the Dream of the Rood and the Middle English of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, among others.
What I learned from Professor Irvin’s class is that there is an incredible depth to how we communicate in English, and that that depth spans time as well as space, or region. Although many of my contemporaries spent their time working hard to master new languages, I worked hard to understand one language, my language, deeply. I still have a long way to go.
Taking Professor Irvin’s class was an important step in understanding not just my language more deeply but also to understanding my career aspirations more deeply. As assistant director of marketing and communications here at the University of the South, I strive to communicate with people in English in a rich way that is direct, clear, clever, and fully loaded with meaning. What I learned in Professor Irvin’s class helps me do that.
Lynne Blanks ’86?
Class: Religion 322—The Reality of God
Professor: Dr. Larry Carden
Year Taken: Junior
I remember taking one class in Religion that really challenged me on so many levels. It was called “The Reality of God” and it forced us to question our belief in what we believed in our God. There were 5 people in the class so needless to say there was a lot of discussion, sometimes heated, on this topic. I have a very set idea of what God looks like and what He does. This was the first time that I realized that others didn’t share my view. And it was enlightening. The professor questioned whether or not God was a woman; or a different race; or anything completely different. I remember going toe to toe with one classmate about our very different views of what God looked like. Most times the professor would simply let us run the class, stepping in whenever he sensed that it was getting too heated, which sometimes happened. But it was amazing to me that Sewanee would offer such a course that forced us to think outside our comfort zones on such an important topic. The professor even one day challenged us to verify the importance of a God, of a deity, whether one was necessary to exist. Never have I been more passionate about a subject as this class. Well, until I hit Dr. Barclay Ward’s political science classes. In thinking back to my time at Sewanee after you asked me this question, I realize that the whole experience was challenging everything I had ever thought and believed and forced me to solidify my stands on many different issues with logic and reasoning and, yes, faith. I had to stand and defend my vision and my belief of what MY God looked like against others who were equally as convinced about their own perceptions of their God. I still get all riled up thinking back to going one on one with that one person I mentioned earlier. I stood my ground, and I guess that is what I really got out of it. There is no right or wrong, but you have to be willing to stand up and believe in something whether others are willing to listen or not. My beliefs are not to be changed by anyone else’s believes, or vice versa. But this class encouraged free thinking and free speech and definite sharing of ideas, ideals, and ideologies. I don’t know of too many places that would allow their students the freedom to question standard philosophies and give them the forum within which to exercise their opinions. That is one of the MANY reasons I love and will always love Sewanee. Yea! Sewanee’s Right!!!