WARNING: Aspects of this course contain coarse language, mature themes or violence and are totally suitable for first-year university students.
New this fall, English 116 introduces students to a range of communication theories and critical thinking skills by interacting with popular culture. Three professors are spending the summer working on putting together a battery of current referencesThey will be drawn largely from current events, cinema, TV, advertising, and viral internet video (“youtube memes”).
The object texts will range from the complex and tragic (the Michael Jackson memorial service) to the simple and funny (the “I like Turtles” kid).
Dr. Kathleen Scherf will lead the teaching team and the potential group of 214 first-year arts students. As TRU’s president and vice-chancellor, she will be a rarity as one of the few university presidents in the country to hold a spot behind a classroom lectern.
Dr. Scherf, along with DrsRachel Nash and Mark Wallin, will explore the question of “What is communication?” Is it simply transmitting information? Is it to create meaning? Is it part of a social process? Is it to persuade others? To support the social status quo? Or to voice challenges to the “system”? Discussions, each initiated by an example from popular culture, will facilitate students finding the answers for themselves.
Scherf, Nash and Wallin are each highly-reputed lecturers known for leading lively discussions and asking thought-provoking questions. They will put communication theories into action through reading, writing, and discussion, students will be exposed to a broad palette of the humanities and social sciences, thus showcasing TRU’s wide range of B.A programs.
“There are professors who connect with students better in a large format class; I’m one of them, ” Dr. Scherf recently said to the Kamloops Daily News”. All 214 students will be part of a learning community along with Rachel, Mark, and myself”.
The larger class size is a first for TRU. With an aim to offer more choice of learning formats and an experience that will give students a wider array of learning experiences, the class will introduce students to communications studies in a cross-disciplinary way. In the large class for two hours a week, the students will spend their third contact hour in small seminars led by Drs. Walling and Nash. Additionally, its emphasis on rhetorical practice and theory intersects nicely with existing programs in Rhetoric and Professional Writing, while maintaining an emphasis on showcasing the breadth and scope of the Arts Faculty Consultation with Academic Advisors shows there is consistent appetite for communications courses. Communications Studies is a burgeoning field in North American universities.
The course is set for Monday and Wednesday mornings at 10:30, the Alumni Theatre of the Clock Tower. Make sure you register, this elective course will prepare students for further studies in any discipline in the Faculty of Arts.
