This semester, I have been teaching a survey of American Literature course at the University of Florida titled “Narratives of War, 1865-present.” (For the initial draft of my syllabus, see this post. I have changed it since then.)
We began the class with Walt Whitman’s Civil War poetry such as “The Wound-Dresser,” Stephen [...]
Archive for the ‘Education’ Category
Remembering 9/11 through Teaching
Posted in Education, tagged 300, Ambrose Bierce, An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, David Kilcullen, Paul Greengrass, September 11th Attacks, Stephen Crane, The Accidental Guerrilla, The Red Badge of Courage, The Wound-Dresser, Walt Whitman on September 11, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Teaching American Literature through Narratives of War
Posted in Education, Literature, tagged Ambrose Bierce, AML2070, Art Spiegelman, Colby Buzzell, David Kilcullen, Dear Mr. President, Donald Rumsfeld, E.G. "Buck" Shuler Jr., Eagle Eye, English, Ernest Hemingway, Flight 93, Frederick Kagan, Gabe Hudson, James J. Lindsay, Jarhead, Jean Baudrillard, Jeff Withington, Jerome Johnson, Jim Stavridis, John Nagl, Joseph J. Went, Kayla Williams, Love My Rifle More Than You, Maus, Montgomery McFate, My War: Killing Time in Iraq, Paul Fussell, Randa Jarrar, Robert A. Heinlein, Roberto J. González, Rudyard Kipling, Sig Christenson, Spenser Ackerman, Starship Troopers, Stephen Crane, Survey of American Literature: Narratives of War, The Great War and Modern Memory, The Red Badge of Courage, The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien, University of Florida, Walt Whitman, Yusef Komunyakaa on June 13, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Jeff Withington, posting at the US Naval Institute blog, shared an email exchange he had with Admiral Jim Stavridis on the value of an English major and the impact it has had on his life. Admiral Stavridis also recommends a “must-read” list for midshipmen before receiving their commission. Well, I have one-upped the admiral. In [...]
Education as War, War as Education
Posted in Education, tagged Counterinsurgency, John Nagl, Martin Evans, Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics, Taliban, Dave Grossman, On Killing, David Petraeus, Craig Mullaney, The Unforgiving Minute, Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife, T. E. Lawrence on May 29, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Recently, I had the chance to read Martin Evans’ Afghanistan: A Short History of Its People and Politics for the first time. One of the things that struck me most was it struck me how education (specifically, the philosophies of education) was a marked fissure in the rise of the Taliban. According to Evan’s account, [...]
