Thinking back on my experience with Fall 2021 C&E, I have many mixed emotions. On one hand it has been a class style I have never been in before, and the different discussions with students offer a large range of opinions and thoughts that can be discussed throughout the day. On the other hand, C&E has proven to be a little difficult to navigate, and at times can even be misleading to many students who have joined, and express their anxieties with balancing RHC and normal courses. C&E has proven to be dedicated to the art of learning and exploring the world of culture and community.
At the end of C&E, I am a lot more passionate about projects or other involvement than I ever could have imagined. I think in some ways I have grown and in many ways I have stayed the same throughout my time in C&E. I believe that I have found courage to speak up about systems that I do not see working, as described through our project and survey group. It has been very inspiring and enlightening to me to view the results of our study and relate to shared experiences being within the Honors college. Being able to collaborate and discuss with other groups and take feedback from others has built a lot of development for myself. I have also learned a lot of interconnectedness with classic texts that I did not have knowledge of prior, and enjoyed getting a new perspective of older texts and communities.
The Rabinowitz Honors College community has been a mostly positive experience through college thus far. I do not have a very close relationship with many of the students who are in RHC because of my later addition to the program, but do look for guidance from other RHC students and enjoy the amenities that are given to RHC students. I have also enjoyed the RHC lectures and classes because they allow for a more specialized approach to the subject and create a community with other students in RHC that can help outside of the classroom and understand some questions other students may have.
A text that stuck with me was “Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age,” by Donna Zuckerberg. This stood out to me because it was one of the few texts I felt that took the ancient readings and contextualized them into today’s conversations, and addressed modern day issues in relation to older texts, rather than trying to make older texts modern or make sense for today’s age. I felt that this could relate to a larger audience because it was related so much to our modern world and modern issues that are important to discuss in education and places of learning. Zuckerberg states, “Where the classical tradition thrives, the greatest enthusiasm for the ancient world is usually found among social elites,” (Zuckerberg 23). I think this was not only more attention grabbing because it was modern, but it also provided an analysis of the ancient world and the issues that come along with classic texts. I think this also showed who the ancient texts were important to and stressed that not all important texts have to be ancient, nor do they create a smarter person.
Zuckerberg, Donna. Not All Dead White Men: Classics and Misogyny in the Digital Age. S.n., 2019.
The spiderweb presents creation, growth, and connection.
The staircase represents focusing on the present while appreciating and learning from the past.
Alyse Covington 