News Archive

TAVERN AND HEARTH, HEATH AND MOORLAND: FOLKLORE IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH AND AMERICAN LITERATURE
Instructor: Dr. David G. Wilke

Texts:
Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow and Other Stories in "The Sketch Book" (Signet Classics)
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Celestial Railroad and Other Stories (Signet Classics)
Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd (Oxford World Classics)
Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles (Oxford World Classics)

The aim of this course is to introduce the student to the aesthetic or poetic significance of references to (and, in many cases, dependence upon) verbal folklore, customary folklore, and material folk traditions in nineteenth-century British and American prose fiction. Special attention will be devoted to the function of setting in folkloric literary works. The student will, in addition, learn how to use the electronic and traditional resources of the UK Library system (and establish an Interlibrary Loan account) in order to perform research in the discipline of folklore in literature and, afterwards, submit, for possible publication, a short (11-16 page) paper to a scholarly journal of folklore or folklore in literature. There will also be a class trip to Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in Mercer County in order to expose the student to a living museum of material folk traditions. A knowledge of verbal and customary folklore, and of material folk traditions, is not essential as the course will take a "learn as you go" approach.

SLATE BRANCH SUMMER IMMERSION: LIVING MINDFULLY IN THE NATURAL WORLD
Instructor: Dr. Sonya Jones

Texts:
The Bhagavad-Gita, Barbara Stoler Miler, translation
The Yoga of Discipline, Swami Chidvilasananda
Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard
Gardening at the Dragon's Gate: At Work in the Wild and Cultivated World, Wendy Johnson

"Living Mindfully in the Natural World" is a 3-Week Immersion in organic gardening, vegetarian cooking, mindful living, and intense intellectual/spiritual dialogue. Students live together in community at Slate Branch Retreat House located near beautiful Lake Cumberland in south central Kentucky, where they spend two hours daily cultivating the organic garden and surrounding fields. Students also work in teams to cook, serve, and clean up after partaking of delicious vegetarian meals. Seminars meet for two hours each afternoon, from 2 to 4 p.m., five days per week. Daily schedules also include meditation and yoga practice. Students meet with Dr. Jones to formulate and complete independent projects designed to explore individual interests. Whereas one student might focus on natural vegetation, another might elect to write poetry. Slate Branch Summer Immersion culminates with students offering seva, or selfless service, for an event designated by the mayor and county judge executive as "Healthy Foods Day" in Pulaski County. "Living Mindfully" is a great way to complete the Honors Program proseminar in three weeks. Ten spots are available.

Cost:
Tuition for 3 summer hours to the University of Kentucky;
$400 to Slate Branch Retreat (for room and board);
proof of health insurance.

LINCOLN AS WRITER
Dr. Bill Campbell

This course will study the life and the written works of Abraham Lincoln, with primary focus upon the evolution of his thinking and his writing abilities. Although we shall review his pre-Washington career, our main focus will fall upon his thought and writing during the time of his presidency.

MUSIC IN SOCIETY: THE VIEW FROM THE PIANO BENCH
Dr. Alan Hersh

Music is often a reflection of the world in which it is made and used, and modern cinema frequently uses music as a storyline as well as an aural reflection of what is taking place on the screen.

MUSIC IN SOCIETY will focus upon four topics:

• Critical thinking, especially as it applies to piano music in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• The Acoustic Piano as a mirror of cultural values and a medium for "artistic" expression in the 19th and 20th centuries.
• The ways in which the piano, pianists, and piano music have been represented through the medium of film in recent years.
• The power of modern cinema to influence perception of the unfamiliar.

MUSIC IN SOCIETY will begin with reading about the ways in which music in general and piano music in particular represent the worlds in which it was created and performed. Included are classic texts by Walter Benjamin, Lewis Rowell, and Herbert Marcuse. The seminar will then consider several films that chronicle "classical" pianists and their music. Familiar films include THE PIANIST, AMADEUS, and IMMORTAL BELOVED. Less familiar but equally provocative are THE WORLD OF HENRY ORIENT, SHINE, THIRTY-TWO SHORT FILMS ABOUT GLENN GOULD, and THE COMPETITION. In addition to short writing exercises about the texts, students will have the opportunity to develop, research, write, and present a longer paper based upon one of the films. Class time will be devoted to discussion and to presentations based upon the reading and individual research efforts.

Students DO NOT need a background in music to take this seminar.

THE ART OF BIOGRAPHY
Dr. Sonya Jones

Question: What do people like to read about most?
Answer: Other people.

Question: What kinds of people do people like to read about most?
Answer: People who have done daring things with their lives.

Both humanitarians and scientists are invited to join Dr. Jones Spring semester of 2009 for an interdisciplinary excursion called, "The Art of Biography." We will read about the craft of biography and delve into fascinating lives across the disciplines. Each student will get to write a final paper on an accomplished figure who lived and worked in his or her field of study. Your subject could be Elizabeth of England or it could be Albert Einstein.

Question: Why should I take this seminar?
Answer: Dr. Jones has known and studied with some of the world's eminent biographers: Virginia Carr, Richard Ellmann, Sally Fitzgerald, and Elizabeth Stevenson. Also, Dr. Jones is currently working on a critical biography of UK graduate Elizabeth Hardwick who went on to co-found The New York Review of Books.

Question: How difficult will this seminar be?
Answer: RigorousóAND fun.

Question: Am I likely to make a B?
Answer: Not if you are diligent about this phase of your autobiography.