Course Description lovingly stolen from Honors' website:
"This course provides a cross-cultural study of books and reading in world societies and how ethnic, religious, and national cultures have regarded the printed word now and in the past. Looking at the form of the book from cuneiform to contemporary digital texts, students will also have hands-on examination of rare volumes from the University of Cincinnati’s Rare Books Collection to help them learn about cultural approaches over time to sacred, secular, and political writings, and to provide the technical and cultural contexts for contemporary reading habits from graphic novels to social media. Students will also construct simple forms of books.
As part of this ethnological approach, they will also examine the values, purposes, and material expressions attached to books and libraries, and how a given culture or nation may relate to the culture of the world at large in these ways.
In addition to local field excursions to repositories and exhibitions to study books and manuscripts, there will be a study tour to Edinburgh, Scotland over Spring Break. The beautiful city of Edinburgh has been designated a UNESCO City of Literature and is a key center for our seminar’s topics. From Scotland’s misty legacy of poets, legends, ghosts, and storytellers that gave rise to a culture’s legacy of books and reading to its inspiration for Harry Potter and its influence on reading behaviors in the 21st century, Edinburgh will be a vibrant component of this seminar"
This course was my great adventure of Spring semester 2014. When I signed up for this class I thought the class would be interesting and I didn't mind so much that the class was on Saturdays. What I didn't anticipate was how much I would love this class. This class became the highlight of my week. The Professor Kevin Grace ( or as we called him Kevin, Kev, KG, hey you!) was the best educator I have had the pleasure of working with in a long time. Robin Selzer from the Pre-Professional Advising Center ( She's a Pre-Pharm advisor) joined our class as a faculty mentee. She was a great addition to the class.
When I filled out the application for this class I was a little nervous. This class was open to every undergraduate in the University Honors program and there is a lot of us in the program. I was surprised when I received an email from Kevin to interview for the class and I was blindsided when Kevin offered me a spot in the seminar in that very interview. As I said before the class was the highlight of me week but it was much more than that some weeks. With my course load in addition to research I was stretched a little thin most weeks so it was great to have my Saturdays with that class. The class was very informal and meet outside of the classroom often. We took little field trips to the Rare Books Library and Archives, the conservation lab, and we even went to Findley Market! Though this class I saw more of Cincinnati then I would have if I had not taken the class. I also met people and made some friends that I would not have made without taken this class. This class took my expectations that just threw them out the window. I expected to read some books, talk about them, and then spend our entire week in Edinburgh running around trying to see everything bore the week was up. Instead we read some books and fantastic discussions about the books and what is happening in the world today, went on some awesome field trips, and had the most laid back trip that I have even been on.
I learned so much over the duration of this course.. I learned to be more observant of my surroundings through the creeping assignments. I had always been observant of my surroundings but now I notice much more about the people and events around me. I also learned how to take un-traditional sources like tattoos and tweets and use them to construct a research paper. I also learned a lot of valuable travel tips like going through customs and immigration, safety abroad, getting outlet adapters, navigating In a new city using landmarks and most importantly how to find free Wi-Fi. After taking this class I can confidently say that I will take as many study tours that I can. This class was simply outstanding. I loved even minute of the class and when Kevin teaches his class on Folklore I will be one of the first to fill out the application.
Feel free to click on all of the tabs to learn more about this amazing experience!
"This course provides a cross-cultural study of books and reading in world societies and how ethnic, religious, and national cultures have regarded the printed word now and in the past. Looking at the form of the book from cuneiform to contemporary digital texts, students will also have hands-on examination of rare volumes from the University of Cincinnati’s Rare Books Collection to help them learn about cultural approaches over time to sacred, secular, and political writings, and to provide the technical and cultural contexts for contemporary reading habits from graphic novels to social media. Students will also construct simple forms of books.
As part of this ethnological approach, they will also examine the values, purposes, and material expressions attached to books and libraries, and how a given culture or nation may relate to the culture of the world at large in these ways.
In addition to local field excursions to repositories and exhibitions to study books and manuscripts, there will be a study tour to Edinburgh, Scotland over Spring Break. The beautiful city of Edinburgh has been designated a UNESCO City of Literature and is a key center for our seminar’s topics. From Scotland’s misty legacy of poets, legends, ghosts, and storytellers that gave rise to a culture’s legacy of books and reading to its inspiration for Harry Potter and its influence on reading behaviors in the 21st century, Edinburgh will be a vibrant component of this seminar"
This course was my great adventure of Spring semester 2014. When I signed up for this class I thought the class would be interesting and I didn't mind so much that the class was on Saturdays. What I didn't anticipate was how much I would love this class. This class became the highlight of my week. The Professor Kevin Grace ( or as we called him Kevin, Kev, KG, hey you!) was the best educator I have had the pleasure of working with in a long time. Robin Selzer from the Pre-Professional Advising Center ( She's a Pre-Pharm advisor) joined our class as a faculty mentee. She was a great addition to the class.
When I filled out the application for this class I was a little nervous. This class was open to every undergraduate in the University Honors program and there is a lot of us in the program. I was surprised when I received an email from Kevin to interview for the class and I was blindsided when Kevin offered me a spot in the seminar in that very interview. As I said before the class was the highlight of me week but it was much more than that some weeks. With my course load in addition to research I was stretched a little thin most weeks so it was great to have my Saturdays with that class. The class was very informal and meet outside of the classroom often. We took little field trips to the Rare Books Library and Archives, the conservation lab, and we even went to Findley Market! Though this class I saw more of Cincinnati then I would have if I had not taken the class. I also met people and made some friends that I would not have made without taken this class. This class took my expectations that just threw them out the window. I expected to read some books, talk about them, and then spend our entire week in Edinburgh running around trying to see everything bore the week was up. Instead we read some books and fantastic discussions about the books and what is happening in the world today, went on some awesome field trips, and had the most laid back trip that I have even been on.
I learned so much over the duration of this course.. I learned to be more observant of my surroundings through the creeping assignments. I had always been observant of my surroundings but now I notice much more about the people and events around me. I also learned how to take un-traditional sources like tattoos and tweets and use them to construct a research paper. I also learned a lot of valuable travel tips like going through customs and immigration, safety abroad, getting outlet adapters, navigating In a new city using landmarks and most importantly how to find free Wi-Fi. After taking this class I can confidently say that I will take as many study tours that I can. This class was simply outstanding. I loved even minute of the class and when Kevin teaches his class on Folklore I will be one of the first to fill out the application.
Feel free to click on all of the tabs to learn more about this amazing experience!