Professor: Lizzy LeRud
4 credits
You know when someone says, “It’s not what you said, it’s how you said it”? That’s what this class is all about: not only what something means but how it means. We’ll explore how meaning is influenced by the shapes, styles, and structures that it takes—and why that matters.
In this course, we’ll ask question like: why does the rhyme in a poem matter? How do the words that we use shape who we are? What, really, is conveyed in an abstract painting? And how do you change when you present yourself on film, in writing, or orally, in person? We’ll discuss powerful ideas—like Marshall McLuhan’s “the medium is the message”—and explore creative ways to express your own ideas across multiple formats. Rooted in ideas from the humanities, our conversations will take us into questions from art, politics, science, and more.