Fall Classes or “Academic Adventures of an English Major”

Let’s talk academics for a little while. It’s just before the semester starts, which means I’m currently trying to shorten my answer to “What classes are you taking?” into a 1 minute tagline instead of a 5 minute explanation. It’s harder than you’d think!

So, what am I taking this semester? Well, the class currently on my mind is senior seminar, which I’m taking a year early because of my thesis. The theme this year is literature and politics, and I’m incredibly excited because my advisor is teaching it this time around. I’m thinking about it already because I’ve started to reread Uncle Tom’s Cabin in preparation for the first few weeks. I’ve read it (in high school, I think), but between then and now, I’ve taken an entire course called “Atlantic World Slavery”, and I’m already reading the novel with new insights. Thank goodness we’re starting with that Stowe, not 1984. Otherwise, I’d be lost already. Orwell and I haven’t had the best experiences together thus far.

I’m taking a Principles of Language class – a basic requirement for my major.I’m also taking a second-level French class. Honestly, if you had asked me last January if I’d enroll in another French class, I would have definitely said no, but here I am with another one! We start off by reading Asterix, which I’m pretty excited about. I’m sure my summer of *cough*not actually keeping up with my French*cough* will do wonders for the first few weeks in class, but I’ll survive.

The other three courses I don’t have textbooks for yet because none of them are traditional classes!

• I’m enrolled in my official internship this fall. My school requires one to graduate, and I’ve been fortunate enough to have an internship with Washington Performing Arts over the summer that I’ve extended through the fall. I’m ecstatic to get into performance season as we kick off the fall with Fall Arts Fair, and VelocityDC!
• Have I explained an Honors tutorial on here before? I can’t remember, so I’ll just repeat myself, or something. A tutorial is similar to an independent study, but it’s based off the Oxford tutorial tradition. I’m technically done with my honors credits till le thesis, but I’m taking another (because I’m addicted to them, perhaps?). We’re doing an entire semester in Creative Nonfiction, and I’m so excited.
• The last one was just added this past week (ek!). I’m doing an independent study where I’ll sit in on/work on projects related to/assist with the adaptations class this fall. I’m looking forward to reviewing adaptations – I’ve been knee-deep in Woolf for so long that my adaptations knowledge has suffered, a bit, and I’ll need both Woolf and adaptations knowledge for my thesis proposal this spring.

It probably takes me 5 minutes to explain my classes because I’m definitely a class junkie. More than one *cough* professor here knows that it’s very easy to talk me into enrolling for a class that sounds interesting (even if it doesn’t fit my course requirements). This semester, my only course that doesn’t fill a requirement or “purpose” related to my thesis is French, but I find that “unnecessary” language or humanities courses are refreshing, and allow me to focus better on other classes if I take them simultaneously.

Fall semester, here I come. College folks – what are you taking this semester? I want to hear about your courses!