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English Spring Term Courses


Asian American Literature

chicago

English 181/381 brought students to San Francisco for a week during Spring Term 2006. The course examined the voices and the politics of identity location of Asian Americans through a representative selection of novels, poems, and drama. The course asked who and what constitute the "Asian" in "Asian American" and explored how Asian American writers have negotiated an identity along issues of race, gender, language, nationalities, and, crucially, geography. 

In San Francisco, the students visited the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Yerba Bueno Island, Angel Island, Chinatown, and Japantown to learn the richness of Asian American footprints and cultural flavor. The major texts for the course included Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly, Maxine Hong Kingston's The Woman Warrior, and Mitsuye Yamada's poem in Camp Notes.  You can view the course website at http://othello.alma.edu/~chen/asianamerican
English 181/381
Associate Professor Chih-Ping Chen 

Shakespeare & Co. in London

Globe Gate Professor John Ottenhoff traveled to London, Stratford, and Dublin during Spring Term 2006 for a feast of great theater. See the class home page for pictures, lists, and more from the 2004 trip.

Tales of the City: Chicago - Coming Spring 2007

chicagoThis course investigates the complex interactions between the social and political movements that shaped Chicago and the images of urban life reflected in art after the Great Fire of 1871. Writers include Theodore Dreiser, Richard Wright, Upton Sinclair, Jane Addams, Gwendolyn Brooks, Carl Sandburg, and Studs Terkel.

This course includes a week-long trip to the city itself. During our stay, we will explore Chicago's rich heritage as a center for immigration, business, and the arts. We will stay in the International Cultural Center in the Uptown neighborhood, experience a taste of Chicago's diverse ethnic neighborhoods (and their cuisines) with the help of community-based guides; attende blues clubs, galleries, and theaters; learn urban "street smarts"; and work with a local agency on community-based service project. We  will also take a closer look at Chicago's world-famous architecture...by boat. Cross-listed with AMS 301.02. English 180/380
Assistant Professor Laura von Wallmenich

The Middle Ages in England--coming Spring 2007

canterbury gate

English 183/383: the Middle Ages in England let us study medieval English literature on site in 2005. Though our home base was  London and we visited many medieval places there, we frequently ventured to other parts of the country connected in a significant way to the literary works we read. A trip to Wales, for example, helped us envision the remoteness and beauty of the section of the British Isles that spawned many of the medieval Celtic legends of heroism and magic. In addition to such day trips, this course also offered one extended excursion to emphasize an important aspect of medieval English culture. This time I planned a trip to Glastonbury, the place where, according to legend, Arthur and Guinevere are buried. See the slideshow from the 2003 trip!
English 183/383
Professor Ute Stargardt

Writers of Key West--coming Spring 2007

key west

A thematic approach to understanding, analyzing and appreciating literature, drawing on the work of Key West novelists Ernest Hemingway and Jane Bowles, playwright Tennessee Williams, and poet Elizabeth Bishop, all writers who lived for a time in this southernmost city. The travel course spent a month in Key West reading, writing and touring the city's literary and historic landmarks, as well as exploring its architectural roots and off-the-beaten-path natural worlds.
English 134
Professor Carol Bender

 

Alma College has won 18 Outstanding Delegation awards in national Model United Nations competitions in the last 13 years. Alma has received a top award at the world’s largest and most prestigious collegiate Model UN conference 11 straight years (1997 through 2007).

 

Faculty Profile

Dr. Chih-Ping Chen

Dr. Chih-Ping Chen
Departments: English

Dr. Chih-Ping Chen's fascination for literature and the English language was inspired from reading Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre when she was just 14 years old. Originally from Taiwan, Chen says, “Although English literature can be quite a challenge, it opens doors to many places.”