Dear Students,
Through a series of fortuitous events, I have the great pleasure of teaching another ExCo. As my class list finally settles down, students who intend to drop my class do, and we approach our first real discussion this week, I wanted to take a moment to write a letter—equal parts love letter and list of dos and don’ts—to you, my students.
Let’s start with something I’m sure your professors have told you a thousand times before: what you—and, interestingly, what I—get out of this class is entirely dependent on what you put in. I’ve already put in hours of work preparing this class but I guarantee you that this will be the most boring course you’ve ever taken if you fail to read, fail to discuss, and fail to share what you know. There are some brilliant students at Oberlin from whom I’ve learned a great deal while working here. I want to hear your ideas too, so speak up.
This class is an ExCo. I don’t suffer any delusions that a class on Doctor Who taught in a division whose name labels it “experimental” will be held up as the pinnacle of academic thought, but I do believe that there is so much to learn about human nature by examining the way we write and tell stories. Don’t let an opportunity to learn pass you by, especially when there’s so much freedom for you to direct what we discuss.
That said, I hope for this class to follow in the grand tradition of 17th century salons, as Wikipedia so succinctly says were,”held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine taste and increase their knowledge of the participants through conversation.” I’m fine with it if you bring blankets and pillows to screenings while we discuss the feminist nature (or lack thereof) of the Doctor’s companions. It’s cool if you want to bring snacks to share while we figure out the physics of the operation of the TARDIS. Both discussing the virtues of David Tennant’s face while he’s wearing his “brainy specs” and examining the Tenth Doctor as a Christ figure are equally welcome.
If you’re inspired to do so, please approach me if you’d like to do something extraordinary. Want to submit your midterm paper for consideration to be published in an anthology on Doctor Who and religion? Want to show a marathon of Doctor Who episodes to more people on campus and get them talking about the issues involved? Interested in teaching this class next year? Think it’d be really cool to bake 500 cupcakes shaped like Daleks? Let’s do it! It’ll likely be fun, will give you a little something extra to add to that résumé or to mention in an interview, and I promise to write you a killer recommendation letter if you need it.
And finally, if you like what you learn in this class, if you feel challenged, if you feel enlightened, tell me. Or, conversely, if you feel the opposite, tell me that too. I’m on email all day, Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, and here at this blog. Reach out anonymously if you’d like. I teach because I love to do it, not because I’m getting paid and I respect your feedback.
Allons-y!
Jacquelynn
