Spring Seminars

The few, the proud.

In the tradition of keeping our ROIAL minds toasty and limber during the long, harsh winters, ROIAL offered special seminars for the Spring Semester in various disciplines in the arts and humanities. Past seminars not detailed below have included a class on Romantic Comedies in American Film, and a class on Writing, Editing, and Publishing.

In 2007, we announced two new 3-credit seminars:

Four Big Questions, a philosophy course in history, culture and ethics, and
The Photo Essay, a critical and creative workshop

History, Culture, and Ethics: Four Big Questions

PHL 491, Section 002: Special Topics in Philosophy
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 5:00-6:50 PM

Instructor: Stephen L. Esquith

Big Questions:

Why have some cultures prospered and others not? What explains the large difference between the quality of life of the have's and the have not's?
How is racial identity determined and how is it represented in art and literature? Why is the color line drawn in one place rather than another?
How should immigrants and refugees from other cultures be treated? Can our conception of citizenship be more flexible than it is?
What should be done with the leaders of past dictatorships and authoritarian governments? What happens when they are put on trial? What happens when they return to the community?

For more specifics, see this informational flyer.

Topics in American Studies: The Photo Essay

AMS 310, Section 002
Wednesdays, 1:50-4:40

The photo essay has quickly become one of the most popular and widespread media of creative expression and communication. This is due, in part, to the advent of powerful and easy to use digital photo-imaging technologies and the near-universal accessibility of the World Wide Web as an information, learning, and entertainment source in our daily lives. Photo essays are also increasingly popular features in traditional magazines, newspapers, and other print media.

In this creative workshop reserved for 15 ROIAL students, we will take a close look at the photo essay as a distinct literary and artistic form as well as an important medium of social commentary and personal expression. We will examine the contemporary photo essay's antecedents in photojournalism and social documentary photography. We will try to sort through key strains and developments in the photo essay movement, from examples of photographers using words to explain their photographs, essayists turning to photography to deepen their words, and, most important, a new breed of photo essayists who are joining visual images and narrative expression into exciting new "photo-languages."

We will also study and practice photographic techniques combined with narrative strategies. While no previous experience or expertise in photography is required, students will be expected to take up photo essay projects-either a photo essay of their own or an in depth critical study of a photo essayist whose work they admire. Student work will be exhibited at the end of the semester and/or, with the approval of the ROIAL Director, posted on the ROIAL Web site.

For more information, or for an override into the course, contact:

David Cooper

Department of Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures
Editor of Fourth Genre: Explorations in Nonfiction
Senior Editor, Michigan State University Press

cooperd@msu.edu