Japanese anime, Narnia, and interstellar travel

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Japanese anime and traveling to Narnia seldom show up on college midterms. But this fall, students will study these subjects in honors seminars.
“Honors seminars are there to provide a way to learn what we don’t have time to study otherwise,” said Professor of Theater and Speech James Brandon.
Some of these one-credit seminars include courses like “Return to Narnia,” “Intro to Japanese Anime Films,” “Drowning in Information,” and “Researching Family History.”
Several of these have been offered before, but Associate Professor of Education Daniel Coupland’s “Return to Narnia” is a more recent development. Coupland said he decided to offer the course after his frustration that he could not devote enough time to the “Chronicles of Narnia” in his “Classic Children’s Literature” class.
“‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ is a rich series, and I have always wanted to take a little time and look carefully at these wonderful stories,” Coupland said.
The seminar description says students will “revisit Lewis’ ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ as adult readers and explore the theological, philosophical, and literary threads that Lewis used in his ‘supposal.’”
Coupland intends to show how even Narnia’s critics concede its great influence on children’s literature.
“The stories continue to resonate with generation after generation of readers,” Coupland said. “Lewis is also communicating some amazing truths to young people in the Narnia series that he communicates to adults in his other writing. When adult readers revisit Narnia, they are often able to recognize that Lewis had packaged these same important truths within an engaging story for children.”
Brandon decided to offer his seminar, “Intro to Japanese Anime Films” after teaching the topic in another course. Approximately 15 years ago during a foreign films class, Brandon realized there was enough interest in the Japanese anime film to teach an entire course on the topic. He now teaches the seminar every four years.
In this class, students study anime from the 1960s to present day and watch about 20 films throughout the semester.
“Japanese anime helps you get a different angle on things,” Brandon said. “A lot of Japanese cinema reflects World War II and post-WWII themes from the the Japanese perspective, which students find really interesting.”
Brandon plans to teach students about Japanese culture, language, and film, but he will also show how Western film and culture influenced Japanese animators.
“You don’t have to be a science geek to appreciate anime,” Brandon said. “There are a lot of foreign films out there, and this is just a slice of that pie, but I think it opens up people’s eyes.”
“Drowning in Information” by Technical Service Librarian Brenna Wade is another repeat seminar available this fall. This will function as a brief information studies course.
Wade will use current articles about topics like the National Security Agency and Edward Snowden to foster a discussion-based class about how to handle the masses of information and technology that affect our lives.
“Because everyone uses the Internet and everyone is affected by technology, it is important to understand how we interact with technology,” Wade said.
Other topics will include censorship, the filter bubble, work-life balance, copyright laws, and research methods.
Public Service Librarian Linda Moore plans to offer a course teaching students research techniques, particularly about family genealogies.
Moore’s students will learn how to find and use primary sources and records to “place their families in context of history” and give presentations about their family genealogies at the end of the year.
Using these methods, many past students have discovered fun facts or debunked family legends.
For example, one student grew up believing her great-grandfather was the only one of her family to survive the Holocaust, yet her class research found that he was born in New York.
To help students find this kind of information, Moore takes her students to Fort Wayne, Ind. where the nation’s second largest genealogical library matches the square footage of a football field.
“This research helps personalize American history or whatever history your family is from,” Moore said. “When you know your family history, it grounds you in some ways.”
In addition to learning about children’s books, anime, informational studies, and family trees, other specialized seminars next fall include topics like “Interstellar Travel” and “Pain & Providence.”
Despite some of the unusual titles, the seminars’ instructors are excited to study subjects the curriculum would have left otherwise untouched.