Hi there, it’s been a long
time I didn’t write any article. May be the explanation below will give you an
enlightenment why I didn’t write a lot. Well, as usual I like writing or I’d
rather call it as sharing my experience in the previous semester.
And this is my story of
Semester six. And I’m sick of semester six. – I’m not serious, tho. ;)
Very well then, as you know
that I take American Studies as the major that I’ve learned since semester 5, I
will write about the Life of being an American studies scholar. Let me start
from the subjects that my friends and I took in semester 6. Here we go:
1. Gender (2 credits)
2. Introduction to
cultural studies (2 credits)
3. American
Miscellany (4 credits)
4. Popular culture (2
credits)
5. American Studies
Research Methodology (4 credits)
6. Film and
Literature (2 credits)
7. Media and Cultural
studies (2 credits)
GENDER CLASS
There were two lecturers in
this class, Miss Nia and Miss Sari. For the first eight meeting, the class was
under Miss Nia’s hand. The rest of the meetings was handled by Miss Sari. Well,
I will be honest in this blog. I liked the way Miss Nia taught us with group
presentation and very thoughtful question related to gender in our daily life.
One thing that I don’t really accept is the way she always gives her personal
opinion that Woman is always right. Well, it is indeed she is a feminist. And
some of my male friends and I kind of irritated with her words. Not in an
offensive way, but we as a male kind of hard to accept that woman is always right. We need to think more
carefully to decide who is wrong and wright. Well, other than that, joining her
class is such as worth time to spend for me. I can understand a simple thing
that I didn’t give a shit before such as gender bias. From this class I can be
more tolerant with woman and I think I can be more aware on gender issues. As a
male who live in patriarchal society, I think it is necessary to think that
everything cannot be judged based on sex. For them who are interested in gender
or sexuality issues I believe will find themselves fit in this class.
INTRODUCTION
TO CULTURAL STUDIES CLASS
This class was also handled by
two lecturers, Miss Nia and Miss Sari. For the first eight meeting was handled
by Miss Sari and the rest was Miss Nia. Miss Nia always made a group discussion
as her method of teaching. However, Miss Sari was more focus on individual
participation in a class discussion. And there was always a review every
meeting related to certain theory. However, I believe you will thank to her
when you have a talk with sociology students. The materials that my friends and
I have got so far are about social and cultural theories such as hegemony,
Subject and power, postmodern etc.
AMERICAN
MISCELLANY CLASS
Thanks God in this semester my
friends and I got a one semester class with American lecturer. Well, as an
American studies scholar, I personally have a dream to learn more about America
in America or at least being taught by American lecturer. And that dream came
true in this semester. Well, we had two lecturer actually in this class, Mr.
Brian and Miss Rini. In this class we learned things about America. There are
lots of things that we learned, that’s why there were 2 meetings every week for
this subject. The materials that we learned were American exceptionalism,
borders, woman and domesticity, religion, environment, diaspora, whiteness,
etc.
POPULAR
CULTURE CLASS
Alright, in this class I
learned theories related to popular culture such as the theory from Strinaty,
John Fiske, Rob Kroes and Sausurre also. From this class you will at least get
a clue on how certain phenomenon becomes popular. The object that being discuss
also various such as painting, film, ads, etc. You may be can take or apply one
or two theories to make you popular, lol. Just kidding. Well, it was an
interesting class even tough in some meetings the materials are so though.
RESEARCH
METHODOLOGY OF AMERICAN STUDIES CLASS
Oh my goodness. Miss Hapsari
handled this class in my year. Well, it’s kind of scary because my friends and
I got a kind of nightmare in the last semester in her Introduction to Media
class.
Every mainstream/major in
English Department gets this class. This class is actually a warming up for our
final research for Sarjana degree. In this class, my friends and I always made
a review for every single meeting from journals that given to us since in the
second or third meeting. Just enjoy the show tho.
FILM
AND LITERATURE CLASS
This class is the meeting
point where American Studies scholars meet Literature scholars. Yeay… At last
my class was more -let say- had more people in the classroom. Fyi, there are
only six students taking American studies major, so the appearance of
Literature students that are four is kind of good news for us, or personally
for me. However, thanks for non-regular students who also joined us so the
class was more crowded than my other classes.
You may learn the history of
film, language of film and also literature in this class as long as the
lecturer is still Mr. Taufiq. There will be a group discussion in this class
related to literature and film theory and issue.
MEDIA
AND CULTURAL IDENTITY CLASS
Media and cultural identity
was one of the most interesting class in this semester. There are many thing to
discuss here. It is just the matter how you can find an interesting object to
discuss. The form of media is so many. You may elaborate the topic from the
lecturer, Mr. Taufiq, with media you like such as newspaper, journalistic
thing, TV series, music video, advertisement, and of course film. The idea of
this class is actually you can reveal or at least show how certain media can
bring its own identity that I might say can influence the way how people think
on certain thing or idea.
NOTE:
For you who wants to take
American Studies as your major, just be ready for a new culture of study. There
will be reviews at least 3 written reviews every week from miss Sari. The other
thing you need to prepare are 1 chapter from Miss Nia, 3 chapter from Mr.
Taufiq, and also 1 chapter from Miss Rini. However, if there is a different
arrangement related to lecturer, you won’t face all of those readings.
Tbh, being a university
student is a challenge whether you can be a real student or not. Personally, I
think that being a student means read a lot. I mean it!
