For Students: Seminars / Reading Groups
Student Seminars / Jump to Reading Groups
Student Seminars are interdisciplinary not-for-credit classes designed and run by students, with topics ranging from same-sex marriage to the relationship between poetry and polynomials. Students are invited each spring to propose (individually or with a partner) a theme or subject of interest that they would like to explore in a group setting (six or seven participants) the following fall. The Student Seminar organizer(s) recruit(s) a faculty advisor, who helps develop the students' syllabus, sitting in on one of the sessions in the fall. All books, materials, and refreshments are funded by the Center, and each student receives a generous book stipend to purchase other materials related to the seminar topic. The Center also funds a visiting speaker if desired. Each year HHC holds workshops for those interested in leading a Student Seminar.
Contact Associate Director James Weissinger for more information.
Seminars draw students from across the academic disciplines. In 2007-08, participants came from the following areas of study: Biology, Chemistry, Classics, Comparative Literature, East Asian Studies, Education, English, Film, Fine Arts, Gender & Sexuality Studies, German, Growth & Structure of Cities, History of Art, Latin American-Iberian Studies, Linguistics, Mathematics, Peace and Conflict Studies, Political Science, Philosophy, Psychology, and Religion.
Seminars for Fall 2009
Screening Music: An Aural Look at Film
Seminar Leaders: Jane Holloway '11 (English and Spanish), Genna Cherichello '11 (Psychology)
Faculty Advisor: Marilyn Boltz (Psychology)
Seminar Participants: Walker Anderson VII '11 (English), Matthew Bessey '10 (Economics/Math Concentration), Matthew Gerard '11 (Math), Glenn Loury '11 (Religion), Sameer Rao '11 (Sociology)
Listening to music is an emotive activity. Cinema has long capitalized on the power of music to make us feel. In this seminar we seek to explore the relationship between music and the moving image. How does music alter and enhance a film? How does film change the way we perceive music? What are the differences between the orchestral "original score," written for the film, and soundtracks compiled of songs that come with their own context?
View Seminar Description | Visit the Screening Music Blog >
Educating Through Animation: Disney as Cultural Pedagogy
Seminar Leader: Maggie Goddard '11 (Religion major, Philosophy minor)
Faculty Advisor: Kim Benston (English)
Seminar Participants: Rebecca Church '11 (Psychology), Katie Estabrook '10 (Spanish and Psychology), Laura Martin '11 (Philosophy), Robin Riskin '12 (English/Africana & African Studies), Emily Tartanella '10 (English), Robert Thorstad '12 (Philosophy)
The proverbially wonderful world of Disney evokes more than childhood memories; Disney does not speak exclusively to children but rather to the child in each of us. However, the animated feature films of the Walt Disney Company instill more than this sense of innocence and pure delight. The Disney canon serves an ideological, or socializing, function as a critical form of cultural pedagogy. What then does the 'franchise' of the Disney animated films inculcate? How does our 'literacy' in reading the Disney narrative affect our perceptions of social mobility, normative sexuality, and material culture? And how do social constructions formed by the broader culture shape and inform our impressions of these movies, even as the 'Disney world' proves elemental to that encompassing cultural sphere? This student seminar will explore how Disney’s retellings claim ownership of original stories while inflecting complex issues suffusing the contemporary American cultural Imaginary.
Fashioning the Self: The Problem of Identity and the Narrative of Achievement
Seminar Leader: Bennett Smith, '11 (Philosophy)
Faculty Advisor: Ulrich Schönherr (German)
Seminar Participants: Mark Cavanagh '10 (Classical Languages), Sam Kaplan '10 (Fine Arts and History of Art), Joshua Mikutis '10 (History and Religion), Kevin O'Halloran '11 (English), David Richardson '12 (English), Hannah Silverblank '12 (Comparative Literature)
If we understand our lives as narratives, can this help us understand what it means to be a person in the world? Can we truly, accurately place ourselves in a narrative structure, like characters in a novel? How does our knowledge that the narrative will eventually end influence the way the story unfolds? What is it we are looking for, what drives us, if we know that the narrative will stop? This seminar will look in large part to the intersection of literature and philosophy, with additional material from neuropsychology, in an effort to get a better, fuller picture of what it means to be an "individual."
How to Apply
2009-10 Application Timetable:
Proposing a seminar:
Sophomores and Juniors are invited to submit a seminar one-page proposal that includes:
- Student name, email address, year, and major;
- Proposed title for the seminar;
- Name of faculty advisor;
- A substantive paragraph or two that explains your interest in the seminar, what perspectives you hope to contribute, any suggested texts or materials you might hope to bring, and what you hope to take from participating.
Please email your application to Associate Director James Weissinger by 5 p.m. on April 2nd with "Seminar Proposal (your name)" in the subject line.
Joining a seminar
Applications should take the form of a MS Word document including the following information:
- Student name, email address, year, and major
- Name of your faculty advisor
- A substantive paragraph or two that explains your interest in the seminar, what perspectives you hope to contribute, any suggested texts or documents you might hope to bring, and what you hope to take from participating.
Please email your application to Associate Director James Weissinger by Monday, April 28th at 5:00 p.m. with "Seminar Participant (your name)" in the subject line.
Reading Groups / Jump to Student Seminars
HHC sponsors small Reading Groups devoted to shared close readings of texts without the pressure of pedagogical oversight. Some reading groups might take a single work of relative complexity as their subject; others, a more diverse array of smaller texts. Proposed by students or faculty, groups may consist of a mix of both, as well as College staff (usually three to eight members, total). The Center provides up to $300 for texts and refreshments.
Current Reading Groups
Poetry Reading Group
Anastasia Nikolis
Isaac Wheeler
The Poetry Reading Group is a motley crew of faculty, students, and friends that gather for a weekly, hour-long session of informal poetry appreciation, recitation, and recreation (in both senses of the word). We all convene with extra-curricular demeanor in order to play with poetry, eat, drink, and be merry without the formalities of the classroom. Our sessions are sometimes poetic free-for-alls, and sometimes they are themed. All are invited.
Talmud Reading Group
Aryeh Kosman
How to Apply
Awards are made on a rolling, ad hoc basis up to the capacity of the Center's funding line for this program. Reading groups must have a faculty advisor.
Please address inquiries and proposals to James Weissinger.
Past Reading Groups
2008-09
House of Leaves Reading Group - Learn more >
Poetry Reading Group
"Speech Acts: Across Media and Around the World" - Learn more >
Talmud Reading Group
2007-08:
Poetry Reading Group
Talmud Reading Group
Ancient Greek Lyric Poetry Reading Group
Wittgenstein Reading Group
2006-07:
Talmud Reading Group
Bible as Literary Text Reading Group
Against the Day Thomas Pynchon Reading Group
Derrida Reading Group
Death of a Discipline Gayatri Spivak Reading Group
2005-06:
Literary House
Epic Books
2004-05:
Finnegans Wake