My Favorite Classes!

So far, I’ve enjoyed all of my classes at Carleton, but here is a list of my favorites and why!

Fall Term:

This first term, my favorite classes would have to be a tie between Intro to Women’s and Gender Studies with Iveta Jusova and Studio Art with Dan Bruggeman.

My gender studies class covered topics like reproductive rights from the perspective of both women of color and white feminist theory, intersex law, disability rights and feminism, and other corresponding movements like Stonewall and the Civil Rights era. Iveta assigned so many great readings by and a diverse set of authors, and I really appreciated that. I never knew how much research there was regarding this field, and it definitely made me interested in taking more GWSS classes. I especially want to continue learning about intersex rights and laws.

Dan’s class was the best! I love art, and the three and a half hours spent in his class every week was so awesome. It felt like a break rather than a class—we did lots of studies in different mediums (charcoal, water color, Conté crayon…) and learned how to look at everyday objects in a much more detailed way. My favorite topic in his class was studying bone (mostly skull and pelvis) structures and sketching them in pencil, willow, and pressed charcoal. We also spent lots of time outside, which was great (especially because of Covid; being outside meant we had more room to spread out).

Winter Term:

Though this was definitely one of the most difficult class I’ve taken so far, Political Philosophy with Laurence Cooper was my favorite course winter term!

We read a ton of books, including Hobbs’ Leviathan, Aristotle’s Politics and Ethics, Four Texts on Socrates, and, my favorite, Democracy in America by Tocqueville (who also has a lot of studies dedicated to the prison system!). Larry kept us on our toes in every class, where we had detailed conversations about political structure, where it came from, and its implications for movements today. I highly recommend this class!

Spring Term:

Okay, truthfully, I love all of my classes so much this term, and it’s even more challenging to choose a favorite.

I’m currently taking the Philosophy of Leadership with Eddie O’Byrn (who is awesome!), Politics of Liberty and Equality in America withy Krissy Lunz Trujillo (a Carleton alum), and Politics of Public Art with Colin McLaughlin-Alcock (who has the best ice breakers).

Eddie’s class is discussion-based and heavily weighs identity and intersectionality. Our readings are great and reflect the content of the course (and are just super good reads). Eddie is so considerate of students’ needs: he always offers things like audio recordings of all the readings and closed captioning on lectures, which is really helpful for me as a disabled student. (Read more about Disability Services here!) I highly recommend taking one of his classes.

My Political Science class with Krissy is hybrid because of Covid, which means we don’t get a lot of in-person time. Her lectures are really great even if they’re prerecorded (and often include her cats showing off for the camera). She assigns a lot of good material, like documentaries, interesting websites, and studies that test implicit biases. She also has the best memes out of all the professors I’ve met (example below).

Colin’s class is also heavily discussion based, and we talk a lot about things like why graffiti is undervalued, what counts as art, and elitism in museums. Everyone is super engaged (and it’s a very small class), which is great. He also has the best ice breakers—I know, I know, they’re the bane of everyone’s existence—but Colin’s are things like: let’s all make a random noise and become a weird human orchestra. Or, my favorite, what kind of donut do you feel like today.

Erin grew up catching salamanders, recklessly climbing trees, and running around barefoot in the Appalachian Mountains in a small town in North Carolina. This is her first year at Carleton, and she’s looking forward to meeting new people, exploring campus (especially the arb!), and experiencing her first Minnesota winter. She is currently interested in studying psychology and gender, women’s, and sexuality studies. Meet the other bloggers!