Messing with My Head

Remember how I talked about my Critical Theory teacher, who likes to call herself Professor M and has an excellent taste in movies? In this post, you’ll find out more about her, my other teachers and my studying experience in general here at Ohio University.

In the very first session of my Critical Theory class, Professor Katarzyna Marciniak (check her out!) announced she would make it the class’s aim “to mess with our heads.” It’s only been a few weeks, but whether I’m looking at an ad on the Internet, reading a book, or watching the 2015 Oscar-Nominated Short Films, I catch myself noticing things like Althusser’s concept of ideology, the paranoid Foucault, and other cool bits of theory this class has introduced so far. Also, I think from now on, I’ll try to avoid changing cubicles in clothing stores and meticulously cover the camera on my laptop. This is really to say that I think Professor M is doing a great job “messing with our heads.”

Then there is my American Literature: 1918 to Present class, which allows me to apply some of these theories to writers like Hemmingway, Allen Ginsberg, Chuck Palahniuk, Cormac McCarthy, Toni Morrison and many more. Overall, we are covering seven novels and numerous short stories and poems in this class so the workload compared to that in Leipzig is daunting, but the content, like reading and discussing McCarthy’s excellent but heart-wrenching The Road makes it worthwhile.

If you followed last year’s BA Plus fellow Carlo Becker’s blog posts, then my next class, Introduction to Literary Editing and Publishing, might ring a bell. First, a big thanks to Carlo, because I think Professor Dinty W. Moore wouldn’t have let us into his class if it hadn’t been for the great impression Carlo left last year. In this class, I’m participating in mock editorial meetings (in the classroom) in which the mock editorial board (comprising of the students) decides which poems will make it into the latest issue of the mock Too Much Snow & Freezing Wind Chills Review (Professor Moore’s name choice) literary magazine. Like Carlo, I will also get to create my own literary magazine over the course of this semester and I’ll write more about this project and probably call on you for submissions very soon.

JackieO's with Prof. Garrett, Pizza and B...everages

Finally, the Global Leadership Center (GLC) affords a break from the literary world. In our project, titled “Defense, Di-plomacy, Development -Vernetzte Sicher-heit”, we will write a proposal to help resolve pressing security issues in a country with American and German/EU involvement, i.e. Afghanistan, Nigeria, or Ukraine. In April, we will present it to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Defense in Washington D.C. I am honestly a little nervous about it but also very excited. Last week, GLC’s academic advisor Dr. Brook Beshah and our teaching assistants, Steven, Allison and Justin, received active support from Leipzig’s Professor Crister Garrett, who gave an interesting talk on what he called “Narratives of Security” and patiently answered all of the class’s questions regarding their respective projects. The next day, he invited us to JackieO’s, Athens’ one and only 'BrewPub', for dinner and some chitchat on our first few weeks in Athens.

Next time: Mid-Western friendliness, gun culture and front porches.