Course Details: Meets MWF 8:30 am in Sullivan 309
Course Description
Explore the decade you only think you know. Pop-culture images of the 1950s seem conflict-free and innocent with 3D drive-in movies, classic cars with fins, poodle skirts, saddle shoes, and dancing to 45s on the jukebox. Happy families lived in suburban houses and everyone liked Ike, right? Not so fast! Explore American life and culture in the fifties through film, fiction, history and art. This course is designed to give first-year honors students an introduction to the rigors, joys, and challenges of college life and the honors program through inquiry, writing, and seminar-style discussion. Take a closer look at the fifties and discover it might have been far more troubled – and interesting – than you thought possible.
This website serves as our course hub, although some of our materials will also be on Blackboard. From this website, you can download the syllabus or access it online, stay up to date with course news and any changes, and see the guidelines for the course papers and projects. (I also taught the course in Fall 2013, and those course materials are also here, but they’re tagged “Fa13”).
Welcome to your first semester at Worcester State! If you have any questions before we meet on Wednesday, Sept 6th, feel free to email me at thangen (at) worcester.edu