With unique classes that aren't offered during the spring and fall and a roster of extraordinary faculty, the University of Colorado at Boulder's summer session is an exciting and fruitful alternative to a summer break. Best of all, the university brings in teachers from around the globe through a program titled Faculty-In-Residence Summer Term, or FIRST.
"I think summer is a great opportunity for students and faculty to interact in a different way," said Carol Drake, director of summer session at CU-Boulder. "Classes are smaller and they generally happen every day and students are taking only one or two classes. Plus, it's Boulder in the summer. What's not to like?"
Ted Rockwell, director of marketing for continuing education at CU-Boulder, said summer session offers students a unique opportunity to catch up or get ahead in their studies.
"These classes tend to be more accelerated," said Rockwell. "Students are able to make up time during a season that's generally overlooked."
The quality of the classes and teaching is also a draw for students, according to Drake.
"We try to bring in world-renowned faculty to teach classes that generally are not taught," said Drake.听
Among the classes being offered during summer session this year are:
o "The End of the World," taught by Kenneth Johnston, professor emeritus at Indiana University
Despite its rather ominous title, Kenneth Johnston's course "The End of the World" is a serious look at the idea of Armageddon in literature.
"What I tell my students is, 'The end of the world is a popular concept, but I think it's a terrible idea when you really look into it,' " said Johnston. "I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon."
The class first sets out to identify what constitutes an apocalyptic work, including everything from the Book of Daniel and Revelations in the Bible to the REM hit "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)." Surprisingly, the film "Armageddon," Johnston said, does not constitute an apocalyptic work.
o "Religion, Class, Race and Gender in Evolutionary Perspective," taught by David Depew, professor of communication studies, University of Iowa
David Depew said another good name for his class might be "How Darwinism Got a Bad Name." Just take a quote from the man and follow the statement as it ripples through the past 150 years and it becomes clear how Darwin's name became mud in some circles.
"The strong feelings people have about this subject, if you reconstruct the history, they don't only have to do with religion, they have to do with class conflict, patriarchy, eugenics. One thing you'd get from this class is an appreciation of the way the opposition to Darwin today is unconsciously informed by past conflicts."
o "The Paranormal and Popular Culture," taught by Jeffrey J. Kripal, J. Newton Rayzor chair in philosophy and religious thought at Rice University
There was a time, in the late 19th century, when paranormal research was considered an elite intellectual movement. Today virtually no scholarly work is done on the subject, save the explorations of haunted homes on late night television shows.
"This course is really about the paranormal in human culture," said Jeffrey J. Kripal, "common experiences that involve both the mental and physical. That combination is striking so people talk about it endlessly but we don't have any room for it in our sciences."
Kripal said the class will look at the history of paranormal and psychic research, which was once studied at Harvard University, and why it abruptly vanished from academia in the 1920s.
o "Reading Comics: An Introduction to Comics as Literature," taught by Benjamin Stevens, assistant professor at Bard College
Benjamin Stevens wonders what literature from today will survive over the next 2,000 years. There's a better than even chance, he thinks, that comics will be among the compositions our distant relatives will examine for a glimpse into what our lives were like.
Many people view comics as simplistic or childish, according to Stevens. But consider this: Comics scholar Scott McCloud says comics require of readers something he calls "closure," in which the viewer is required to fill in the compositional blanks between the panels. An archer draws back his bow in one panel. In the next an arrow pierces an apple on the top of a young boy's head. Logic tells us the arrows in both panels are the same. This, according to Stevens, mirrors reality.
"Our visual processing of the world is faster than our brains can think," he says. "We exist in a world that is of higher resolution than we can process. It seems that comics get us thinking about being a human being."
o "Amazonian Languages and Beyond," taught by Alexandra Y. Aikenvald, professor of linguistics and director of the research center for linguistic typology at La Trobe University, Australia
The people of the Amazon have a natural distrust of Europeans according to Alexandra Aikenvald, and for good reason.
"Amazonian people criticize people that speak English and Portuguese," said Aikenvald. "They say, 'They are liars because they never tell us how they know things.' "
One of the most striking features of many of the languages of the Amazon, it seems, is that one must always include an extra little word that indicates how the speaker learned the information.
"You have to add the little particle saying whether your saw it or heard about it or saw evidence of it," said Aikenvald. "It's really very important."听听
Drake said some of CU's own faculty also will be teaching interesting classes over the summer and three online classes also will be offered.
For more information about CU-Boulder's summer session, visit .
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