What I Learned at Baylor, Pt. 2
I’d like to think that my second year at Baylor was more focused, disciplined, and streamlined than the first. And perhaps to some degree it was, out of necessity – I had a thesis to finish and two accepted conference papers to write that first semester, and so needed to be on top of things in order to get through. Whether or not I actually succeeded at that in any real way is debatable, though the work did eventually get done–and on time, no less.
That being said, here are some of the lessons I learned in the courses from my second year at Baylor.
FDM 5376 – Contemporary Film Theory
This class was without a doubt one of the best I’ve taken in graduate school as far as broadening my horizons and learning a whole lot of new information and ideas. The course provides students with a broad introduction to a variety of facets of film theory and approaches to film, from the classical Hollywood era on up to the current day, with pit stops along the way in auteur theory, psychological theory, postmodern theory, and many more. Not only was each week an adventure in discussion and reading, but the weekly screenings included some of the most fascinating examples of world-class cinema that I’ve yet encountered. Though sometimes the class conversations could feel a little exhausting, I can truly say that this class was one of the best I have ever taken and gave me a far greater degree of exposure to some aspects of film and film theory that I had just never experienced before.
In addition to this, the paper project that I worked on for this class was also one of the most instructive at a personal level. The topic I wrote on (film sound and ontology) was not something that I was familiar with in any way/shape/form, and the approach that I took to looking at it all wasn’t something easily found anywhere in the literature. I was kind of entirely alone, it seemed, for the first time, as far as really researching in an area with little to back my own thoughts and arguments up. Maybe more than any other paper project I’ve worked on, this one felt the most fragile throughout its writing, like it could all fall apart or be disproven or shown to make no sense at quite literally any part of the writing process. But I was able to persist and, I think, end up with a piece that was pretty decently original. Time will tell about the paper specifically, but the adventure of searching on my own and the lessons gleaned in navigating through that process (namely persistence) will certainly stick with me.
GTX 4V99 – Confessional & Autobiographical Literature
Upon declaring that I would be attending Baylor, several professors at Geneva recommended looking into taking a class with Alan Jacobs, who has written several incredible books and happened to be teaching in the Great Texts program here. Having a few extra credits that I could do something with and no other classes that I really wanted to take, I leapt at the chance to take this one, with dealt with the growth and development of confession and autobiography as a genre, and many of the issues present in dealing with such topics. We read Augustine, Rousseau, Nietzsche, Nabokov, and many others (11 books in total) and each one was truly an adventure in interpretation and understanding, helpfully guided by Dr. Jacobs and his incredible depth and breadth of knowledge.
In addition to wanting to take a course with Dr. Jacobs, I was also interested in the ties between autobiography and the phenomenological process, which deals a lot in self-examination and disclosure. I was not disappointed, particularly in some of the later books in the class, where we often discussed the implications of intertwining lived experience with poetry and expression, as well as the ethics of confession and autobiography when so many other real and living people impact our lives and are essential parts of our stories. I’m not sure that I came to any solid conclusions regarding these ethical quandaries by the time the course was over, but their niggling presence in the back of my mind has followed me into many other writing projects (including, really, these blog entries), and have been a great source of contemplation and reflection that have, I think, refined and sharpened my writing and how I present particular ideas in both personal and academic settings.
FDM 4397 – The Horror Film
I’ve always been fascinated with horror films, though I was never much for actually watching them. Not only did this class help me get rid of that fear, but it was one of the most instructive and interesting looks at culture, genre, and film that I’ve ever taken. As far as the class’s goals, I definitely learned a ton about shifts in culture over time, and how that bleeds into and is explored in various cinematic veins, particularly the expression of cultural anxieties through the horror genre. I also just learned a whole lot about horror films–the mechanisms of scaring people, the aims of scaring people, and the psychological investments and interactions we have with such films.
Perhaps more than this, though, I think I learned a lot about what it is to pursue study of a particular genre or type of film, and really the way to go about looking at it comprehensively from a historical, cultural, and even psychological perspective. There are a whole host of issues and topics that can be considered in every genre or subfield of film, and this class was instructive as an illustration of what exactly that looks like or can be. It was also helpful as far as disabusing any kind of ignorance I may have had about having any kind of mastery or comprehensive knowledge about any particular genre or film topic. No matter what you think you know there are certainly about a hundred other things to learn and debate about, which is fantastic. In addition, this class provided some of the most innovative and interesting writing that I read in graduate school, really showcasing that there are a variety of ways to approach these different topics beyond the typical rhetorical or cultural analysis. I appreciated that the class exposed me to a whole slew of ways of approaching texts and ideas that even other classes on methodologies hadn’t.
FDM 5336 – Storytelling in the 21st Century
Storytelling is changing as much as it’s staying the same. Technology is shifting things in new and exciting directions, and there’s a lot of interesting, innovative work being done in the fields of storytelling and narrative. This class was all about engaging with this work, exploring its implications, and figuring out what it means for storytellers and theorists at large.
One of the biggest benefits of this class, beyond getting to sample some really neat ideas and technologies, was in understanding more about group dynamics and class discussions, how those things can work together towards creating an atmosphere where knowledge and ideas can emerge naturally through discussion. Our conversations in this class weren’t always as cordial or even as productive as I’d have liked them to be, but it was fun to watch people learning together, and arguing about their learning. And it was a great illustration of how much everyone has to offer and teach one another, which can so often be forgotten or confused when surrounded by really phenomenal faculty who have lots of knowledge that I just want to soak up. Recognizing that I’m surrounded by a slew of experts and not just one was a humbling experience that I’m glad this class gave me.
Thesis
The biggest project of graduate school taught me a lot of little things. It taught me to research better, and to write about that research better–no one is interested in hearing everything I know about a subject, they want to know what that knowledge contributes to the argument I’m making. It taught me a lot about thinking phenomenologically, approaching phenomenological texts, and really wrestling with abstract thinking. It taught me about focusing my ideas, paring down the excess, and getting at the bare essentials of ideas to fully explain them and explore their implications. It taught me about thinking through writing (something I need to do less of, to have more concise chapters) and about expressing information through writing. It taught me about long-distance communication and working via the internet, and also about working with lots of freedom, yet always being accountable for my own work and the ideas that I put out there. It taught me about being collegial and learning from experts and exploring areas of research and thought (cognitive film theory, in this instance) that I never would have found appealing on my own. It taught me that dreaming big is good but delivering on a few small things is probably even better, and that there is a whole lot of work to be done in areas that I am very passionate about and interested in – which bodes well for me in the future, I guess.
The thesis project was without a doubt the most complex undertaking of my MA experience, but also the most gratifying. With each successive page and chapter, it was great to be exploring and learning as I wrote, and to be discovering something that I thought was innovative and unique. I’m definitely grateful to my advisor, Dr. Joe Kickasola, and to the other members of my committee for really helping me make the final project as good as it could be. I know there’s more work to be done on it, but just working through this phase of the project taught me so much that I’m excited to continue pushing with to make whatever comes of it even better, if I can. I think another major takeaway from working on the project was seeing all the different ways that pieces of it can be pulled apart for other purposes–conferences, or other articles–in order to continue working on and refining the idea and contributing to a larger body of work that can then shore up and benefit my own work in time. In that way the process was not only literally educational and instructive for the work of scholarship, but also provided some insight into the politics of it all, which is certainly helpful for one trying to make a career of this stuff.
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Of course, there’s a whole lot more I learned at Baylor than even these two posts can contain. I’m sure I’ll be thinking of more I could have added as soon as I hit publish on this post, but that’s alright. I’ve been grateful for the opportunity this little exercise afforded me to reflect and think and put down some of the major lessons I’ve learned and habits I’ve adopted. Now here’s looking to four more years (and beyond) of more of the same!
Zachary Sheldon 