This May Harding students signing up for Intersession courses will be able to take two three-hour classes that will take them away from the common lecture-style classroom. One will take students to historical sites across the country while the other will bring European pop culture into the classroom.
The history department will be taking students on an American Experience Tour from May 5 to May 20. The tour will visit significant sites from American history including the Cumberland Gap, Jamestown and Colonial Williamsburg, Va., and Washington, D.C.
Alos, from May 7 to 18, the communication department will be offering the Magical Media Tour. Dr. Dutch Hoggatt, professor of communication, will teach the course, which focuses on The Beatles and the band’s impact on American media, according to Hoggatt.
According to Dr. Kevin Klein, chairman of the history department, the American Experience Tour is the first tour of its kind to be offered by the history department mainly for academic credit. Klein said that the tour will concentrate on the influence of faith, the frontier, self-government and enterprise in American history.
“What we’re looking for is for individuals to develop an appreciation and knowledge of the foundations of the American republic,” Klein said. “The foundations of the American republic is kind of a classic way of understanding American history, where you’re looking for the major cornerstones that undergird the American values, American history and American aesthetic even. It’s kind of like Western Civ. for the United States.”
According to Dr. Steven Breezeel, associate professor of history and political science, the course is similar to an overseas program in that students will be immersed in the sites of the events they are studying.
“Students are a lot more interested in what you have to say about Cane Ridge when they are standing in the meeting house, as opposed to just seeing it on a PowerPoint slide,” Breezeel said.
The Magical Media Tour will also focus on the shaping of American culture, Hoggatt said, especially in terms of The Beatles’ impact on the media.
Over the 10-day period, students will learn about the stories behind The Beatles’ songs, the band’s interaction with the radio, newspaper, TV and film industry, and the influence of the “British Invasion, on American society.
Hoggatt said that while the course is offered as a three-credit COMM 340 class, it is really designed as an elective course for students of all majors.
“I wanted to offer a course that talks more about the social and historical context of The Beatles,” Hoggatt said. “The Beatles came over right after JFK’s assassination, so we’re going to talk about the turmoil that was going on in the ’60s and how The Beatles kind of wove through all of that.”
According to Klein, students interested in attending the American Experience Tour need to apply in the history department’s office in the Ganus building by March 15. Registration for all Intersession courses begins March 20.
