My Classes

My favorite class is, by far, Anglo-Irish literature. We started off with a discussion of Seamus Heaney and read lots of his poems-- I got the book because I know it's something I would like to own anyway. Now we've started a unit on the Irish short story with a different professor (that's confusing to explain... but we will have the course overseer prof. back after the break for teaching practice/work study). I've talked at length with Dr. D'Agostino, who also teaches my Unity in Diversity course.

Unity in Diversity is hard to describe. It seems to be interdisciplinary, from cultural studies to comparative politics, religion, history, and even a bit of geography. We just finished learning about Italy and how the cultural/political divide is similar to the divide in Belfast, and then we watched a movie set in the time of the Troubles. Next, we'll be reading parts of a book about a man who travels around Europe and observes the different traditions of Catholicism in different places. It's very interesting to pursue parallel themes in different parts of Europe.

In European History we're focusing on the rise of fascism, leading up to WWII, in Italy, Germany, and Spain. I'm very excited to learn more about the Spanish Civil War, because I hadn't gotten to learn about it before and didn't even know what Spain did during that era until I saw Pan's Labyrinth.

I'm taking half of this course called 'Ireland in Europe' (because of a scheduling conflict I can only make it to one of the lectures, but the professor is very accomodating). It's sort of.... well... I guess I would call it 'cultural geography'. We're looking all over Europe, but especially in relation to Ireland, at the geographical landscape and the constructed landscape (ie cities, towns, monuments, etc) and how it reflects a nation's culture and historical past. One interesting lecture was all about Berlin-- the fall of the Berlin wall and how they've been trying to reconstruct the city since then, and the parallels to Belfast.

I will also be taking an Irish Film Studies class, but that doesn't start until February, when teaching practice begins and all the ERASMUS students have arrived. I'm also going to take a two-week course (just one credit) called European Integration-- we'll see what that's about. And of course, March 3-6 is International Week, with seminars from visiting professors and trips for the ERASMUS students.