For some students, academic interests extend beyond the traditionally offered curriculum. For others, they extend beyond the parameters of their own schedule. For those afflicted with such limitations, student-led forums come to the rescue.
This spring’s forum topics ranged from Harry Potter to eating disorders, documentary films and creative writing, each meeting three hours a week and fulfilling one full Wesleyan credit.
For Lauren Stossel ’07, taking the Creative Writing Forum taught by Alison Melville ’05 was a perfect way to incorporate writing into her schedule without compromising her science-dominated week. Having already taken three writing courses at Wesleyan, Stossel couldn’t fit another into her schedule this semester.
“It’s worked out really well, because people seem a lot more laid back in this kind of setting,” she said. “They’re less worried about not knowing what they’re talking about so it promotes more freedom of expression.”
While convenience motivates some, innovation motivates others. Rebecca Mintz ’05, having recognized the lack of discourse on women’s “ideal body” issues, applied to organize her own forum that addressed these topics. After gaining approval, she advertised her class entitled “The Female Body: Questioning the Modern Ideal,” and the fifteen allotted spaces were quickly filled.
Her inspiration came after doing a project for her Women’s Studies class on eating disorders.
“I realized that a lot of women want to be having these conversations, and they might not have the opportunity to do so very often,” Mintz said. “Not that this forum is the only place for that, but it’s good for women to know that this is a safe place for talking about these pressures.”
Another forum includes a psychological and sociological analysis of Harry Potter, while still another offers more specified branch not offered by the film department that concentrates on documentary film. Students who want to organize and lead a forum for credit must go through a fairly rigorous application process. A course packet must be submitted that includes the general overview, purpose and projected readings throughout the semester. Then an interview process is conducted before the forum is officially approved and offered as a Wesleyan course.
For certain subject matters, such a forum can prove to be especially beneficial.
“I think a student forum like this is especially great for something like writing,” Stossel said. “You can’t really teach someone how to write well. You just get better by doing it, so an environment with no professor but lots of writing and workshops can be a really good way to improve.”
“Even though I’m one of the people who put the course packet together, my knowledge of the subject has definitely increased just in the first few classes,” Mintz said. “It’s interesting to hear what other people get out of the course materials.”
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