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EH*E299*26
Southern Cooking and Culture: We Are What We Eat
Melinda Rainey ompson
Prerequisites:
EH 102, 208, or the like
Open To:
All Students
Grading System: S/U
Max. Enrollment: 10
Meeting Times:
MW 10:00am-2:00pm
Join us for a month-long cooking, eating, and writing experience! Students
will be taught to prepare iconic Southern recipes under the tutelage of a
traditional Southern cook and writer. We will meet off-campus two days a
week in the home of the professor to prepare a variety of authentic recipes.
At the end of each class, we will enjoy eating the meal we have prepared
together. Students will be assigned weekly readings featuring Southern foods
and recipes and will be required to participate in group discussions delving
into the history, culture, and traditions associated with representational
foods, as presented by well-known chefs, food critics, and writers. Students
will write seven 3-5-page essays about Southern foods. ey will also
be required to maintain a food journal chronicling their Southern food
experiences during the term. Evaluation will be based on: essays, reading
discussion, journals, active participation, and attendance.
Estimated Student Fees: $175
EH*E299*27
Sports Journalism
Jeremy Burgess
Prerequisites:
None
Open To:
All Students
Grading System: Letter
Max. Enrollment: 16
Meeting Times:
M Tu W6:00pm-9:00pm
Sports journalists are more than just sports fans with word processors; they
are responsible for enhancing the spectator experience through in-depth
coverage of any and every sporting event. is project will teach students
a basic approach to the world of sports journalism through the instruction
and practice of four styles of writing: field coverage, interviews, features,
and opinion pieces. e class will be enhanced by a host of engaging outside
readings from popular sports writers, a number of guest lecturers (in
particular, seasoned sports journalists and anchors in the Birmingham area),
and interactive homework assignments (such as covering Birmingham-
Southern sporting events and experiencing a simulated press conference).
e goal of this project is to help students improve their writing and reporting
skills in order to accomplish the main goal of any respectable sports
journalist: providing insight that cannot be gleaned simply by watching a
sporting event. Evaluation will be based on 1-page response papers to outside
readings and guest lecturers as well as a 4-page feature, a 3-page interview,
a 2-page opinion piece, and a 2-page event report.
EH*E299*24
Novels Right Now: Commodities or Future Masterpieces
Jane Archer
Prerequisites:
None
Open To:
All Students
Grading System: Option
Max. Enrollment: 20+
Meeting Times:
M Tu 1:00pm-3:30pm
In this project, we will read four very recent novels that have appeared on the
best-seller lists and have also achieved at least some literary acclaim. In class
meetings, we will discuss the novels, but we will also consider what makes
books popular and what makes them “literature.” We will explore best-
seller lists from the past, as well as past winners of literary awards. We will
consider questions such as these:
Are contemporaries able to recognize a “masterpiece”?
How often does literary fiction achieve best-seller status?
What distinguishes literary fiction from commodity fiction?
We will meet three afternoons a week, and students will write four short (2-
5-page) papers, one about each of the four novels we will read and discuss.
In addition, each student will select a related topic to research and present
to the class. For instance, one student might look up what was on the best-
seller lists when a novel that has entered the literary canon of “great works”
was first published. Another student might seek out reviews of best-selling
novels from another decade or another century to see if any were proclaimed
important works of literature and whether we agree with that judgment now.
Students will need to purchase four hard-cover best-sellers for this project.
EH*E299*25
Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
John Tatter
Prerequisites:
EH 102 or 208 or permission of instructor
Open To:
All Students
Grading System: Letter
Max. Enrollment: 12
Meeting Times:
Tu W F 9:00am-12:00pm
e novels of Jane Austen have continued to be popular two centuries
after she wrote them and in a world she would hardly recognize. Part of
their attraction is the love story, of course. But part is the way in which her
characters and their situations seem to transcend time, space, and culture.
e films based on these novels are the best indication of how adaptable
Austen can be, for they reflect their own time as much as they reflect hers.
We will look at
Northanger Abbey
and
Pride and Prejudice
together in depth,
and subgroups will work individually on other novels and films:
Sense
and Sensibility
,
Emma
, and
Persuasion
. Evaluation by letter grade will be
based on group presentations, class participation, a short paper, and a final
examination.