Fall 2023 First-Year Tutorials

In this tutorial, we will study stories we tell to explain our presents and our pasts by exploring how texts construct cultural identities in Latinx American literature and film. How does reading, or watching, stories of becoming help readers/viewers tell their own stories? What do these stories have in common? How are memories — our own and others’ — transformed into the tales that narrate us? How do stories tell us where we come from and where we may be going? Can we tell “true stories” or are we always “telling tales”? In our exploration of these and other questions, we’ll discuss personal essays, memoirs, poetry, and other texts.

Everyone has a food story — what’s yours? This tutorial will explore food and its meaning in human culture through analysis, practice, and action. Our analysis will concern food and narrative. Drawing from literature, cookbooks, cultural histories, art, film, folklore, and memoirs, we will use the methodologies of textual analysis and food history to research, write, and speak about how food and food culture reflect the human experience around the world. We will also explore and write our own food stories, utilizing scholarly personal narratives. In our practice, we will cook to learn in the Marcus Family Global Kitchen, developing a range of skills as we prepare and share food together. Since hunger and starvation profoundly affect the human experience, we will also consider the ethical responsibility this implies, and as an active response to hunger, our class will engage with a range of local efforts to address food insecurity and sponsor food events for the Grinnell College community.

This tutorial will explore how attitudes toward different language practices condition social relationships, grant or deny access to economic and legal resources, and promote the idea of a Standard White English as a primary feature of American education. We will discuss the development of the English language, the establishment of its grammatical rules, and the linguistic principles that explain language change over time. Much of the course will focus on the linguistics of Black American English and the consequences of anti-Black linguistic racism in our legal, economic, and educational institutions. Ultimately, this tutorial will celebrate linguistic diversity as a core feature of American language and culture.

In the last four centuries, countless women singers, including numerous women of color, have become international superstars, commanding top salaries and riveting the attention of composers, fans, and scholars alike. This course will take a two-pronged approach to the topic of women in opera, focusing both on the singers and the roles they have sung. We will also examine the ways in which composers, librettists, and stage directors have represented women characters on stage. We will analyze selected dramas and their literary sources as written texts in English translation, study the music and stage action through videos, and read commentary from critics and scholars. Students will build biographies of selected prime donne — their training, career paths, and personal lives — to separate fact from fiction. As a final group project, the class will create and stage their own contemporary spoken adaptation of one of the operas we have studied, performed at the end-of-term party. All musical levels are welcome, including those with no prior musical experience.

In this course, we’ll explore conspiracy and misinformation in science through a series of case studies that may range from climate change to flat earth theories to COVID-19. We will learn about the scientific ideas themselves, develop an understanding of the nature of the scientific process, and discuss the role of science communication. The development of science denialism and science conspiracy is multifaceted. Some of the questions that we will explore are: What social contexts allow science conspiracies and misinformation to propagate? What roles do financial and political motives play in the dissemination of pseudo-science narratives? How can you talk to a science denier? In seeking to answer these questions, we’ll explore common themes among different case studies.

The field of medieval studies is in the middle of an innovative transformation from a Eurocentric focus to a globalized view that can lead to a deeper understanding of human history and identity. During the Middle Ages, people all over the globe were acting, thinking, learning, and creating as individuals and in connection with their communities. Many of these people wrote and produced texts that tell stories, share information, and explore ideas. In this tutorial, we will strive to gain insight into humanity through a deep dive into four medieval texts, each from a different region of the world — Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Europe — with field trips to our own special collections at the Grinnell College libraries. We will investigate not only the content of the texts but the production and distribution of their manuscripts in the medieval world.  Our discoveries about the texts and the people who wrote, made, and used them, will allow us to explore together what they may have to tell us about ourselves, our connections to others, and human identity more broadly.

This tutorial will be an introduction to poetry, history, and philosophy by way of some of the most famous works produced in ancient Greece. We will begin with epic poetry, reading both the Iliad and the Odyssey. Then we will turn to three examples of tragic drama: Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Oedipus the King, and Euripides’ Bacchants. We will also study Aristotle’s analysis of epic and tragedy in his Poetics. The History of the Peloponnesian War, by Thucydides, will be our example of historical writing in prose. Our last writer will be Plato, who illustrates philosophical questioning, reflection, and dialogue in his Defense of Socrates, Crito, and Drinking Party. Although our texts are chosen to illustrate different types of literature, they are linked by their cultural context, by some common techniques of composition, and by many common themes, such as the fragility of human life, the basic impulses of human nature, and the question of what makes human life meaningful and worthwhile. In sum, the course is about literature and the course is about life.

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” (Jung) As you prepare to arrive in Grinnell this fall, this course will challenge you to think about who you are at this crucial time of your life. The college student of today is driven by social comparison and social media, likely the greatest threats to finding your authentic self. We will study both, and how they define you from the outside-in. As we each navigate life in a challenging post-pandemic world, it’s clear that we could all benefit from practices of wellness, mindfulness, self-acceptance, stress management, and authenticity. We will look at all of these, too, using a variety of modalities to help you reflect on your core self: writing a biography, drawing cartoons, daily board work and discussions, selected readings, YouTube videos, Hollywood films, guest speakers, and several short reflective writing exercises.

Measurement underpins our modern world. By one estimate, we spend more than 6% of global GDP each year to fund the vast network of tools, technologies, institutions, and people who carefully measure almost every aspect of our natural and social worlds — from climate change to infection rates, from census data to energy efficiency standards, from school assessment to sports data. Measurement seems to move us from a world in which all knowledge is local and subjective to one in which knowledge becomes more universal, quantitative, objective, in a word, factual. This tutorial will start by exploring how and why measurement became such a central feature of modern science in the wake of the scientific revolution of the 17th century; and from there, we will investigate how these techniques of measurement and data analysis were increasingly applied to the social, economic, and political realms over the course of the 19th and 20th centuries. These different examples, or case studies, will also invite deeper reflections on the nature and politics of measurement, asking whose interests are served, and whose credibility or authority is enhanced, when a particular issue is translated into the realm of number, statistics, and facts.

Renaissance thinker Michel de Montaigne was one of the most original writers of his time, using a series of personal, unpredictable essays to explore important questions about life, such as: Can we know anything with certainty? What constitutes true friendship? What aspects of ourselves are “natural” and what aspects are “artificial”? In this tutorial, we will address these and other questions by reading and discussing a series of Montaigne’s Essays, aided by a short biography of Montaigne, How to Live, by Sarah Bakewell. We will also place Montaigne in dialogue with some American writers such as Zadie Smith, Rebecca Solnit, and James Baldwin, in order to see how they address Montaigne’s questions from different perspectives. Finally, we will use Montaigne’s search for self-knowledge to explore the question of how to evaluate different sources of information when pursuing one’s own path of research and discovery.

Now that Jesse Armstrong’s Succession is complete, how do we understand the political, literary, and artistic allusions present in the HBO drama? From Greek mythology to Shakespeare’s tragedies, European cinema, and Renaissance art, Succession is replete with cultural references to the past while presenting a contemporary tale of corporate manipulation, incompetence, and greed. Together, we will make sense from Succession’s allusions and consider their importance to the narrative arc of the series. Finally, we will investigate Succession’s impact on contemporary culture: Is the series an elite, internet-fueled phenomenon, or does it have something more important to say about art and life?

According to philosopher Christina Hoff Summers of the American Enterprise Institute, there is a sustained “war” against men and boys in Western culture — so much so that the very meaning and coherence of masculinity is under siege. Given this common refrain, which is shared among scores of disillusioned men, this tutorial issues forth the following question: What is the (matter) with manhood and masculinity? Constructions of sexuality and gender have been among the most hotly contested sites of public debate in contemporary America. Rather than presuming a deficient impetus that drives notions of male identity, this course aims to explore manhood and masculinity as open, fluid, social, and individual process, while also shedding light on the historical, social, and religious implications therein. Drawing upon historical studies, literature, theological perspectives, and cultural criticism, this tutorial will provide students with a useful primer on past and contemporary conversations regarding the intersections between American culture and male identity. Among the topics and course modules addressed, we will explore: 1) racialized masculinities; 2) gender identity and violence; 3) Red Pill philosophy; and 4) Muscular Christianity.

Water directly impacts our lives and is essential for our existence. In addition to being a key component to our survival, water has the power to connect, divide, and heal us. What is it about water’s more majestic quality, so commonly found in nature, music, and art? How can water help us feel happier, healthier, and more connected? The answer to some of these questions come from marine biologist, Dr. Wallace Nichols, as he examines the science behind water’s powerful effects on our bodies, minds, and souls. In this tutorial, we will use an interdisciplinary approach — including the water around us (pool, spa, local lake) — to “dive in” and examine the experiences of humans in and around water. We will also learn about the social history where division by race, class, and gender excluded people from the benefits and transformative experiences with water. By understanding how we have been connected, divided, and healed through and with water, this tutorial hopes to raise awareness of the power of water.

Though not many folks spend time thinking about them, bananas are fascinating. I suppose because they’re so common — bananas are widely eaten in lots of places around the world and are the most eaten fruit in the U.S. — it’s easy to take bananas for granted. They’re utterly normal, and how could that possibly be fascinating? But the rise of bananas as a global commodity in the late 19th and early 20th centuries is both an interesting and a terrifying story. Did you know the U.S. staged a coup of Guatemala’s democratically elected government in 1954 because of bananas? The rise of bananas as a cultural icon is less terrifying but just as interesting. Bananas show up in language, movies, and clothing store names at least as much and maybe more than any other fruit. And bananas have got to be the funniest fruit. The word is funny; their shape is funny; their color is funny. We will do the best we can to make sense of all things bananas in this class. It should be, you know, totally bananas.

What happens to children whose parents cannot raise them? In this tutorial, we will address this, and other, related questions from an interdisciplinary and cross-cultural perspective. We will learn about the lives of orphans, foster, step-, and street children. We will find out why biological parents do not raise them. We will also examine the formal and informal ways in which different societies address the issue. Some of the topics we will explore include child well-being, child fosterage, transnational and transracial adoptions, humanitarian interventions, representations in literature, and popular culture.

In the mid-1990’s, both Magic the Gathering and Settlers of Catan were released triggering an explosion of interest and innovation in tabletop gaming. There are now more than 3,500 unique games released each year, four times the number released 20 years ago. In this course, we will consider some of the most popular games from various eras and discuss how games are changing over time. We will go on to use contemporary essays and novels to consider the extent to which games can influence the real world. For example, should a game ever be used to choose leadership positions? Students will write board game reviews, analyze the role games can play in shaping our view of the world, and develop and teach their own variants for popular games. We may even play a game or two.

Since the 18th century, investigators have grown increasingly sophisticated in tracking down pathogens and consider the investigatory strategies used to identify these threats, as well as scientists’ attempts to treat or cure pathogens. In this course, we will contextualize selected epidemics and pandemics scientifically and historically. Popular texts will be read to discuss and debate these topics, and you will have the opportunity to pursue your own investigations.

Food is so integral to our daily lives that we often take it for granted. But why do we like the food we do? Who controls which foods are available to us? Should morals factor into the food choices we make? In this course, we will frame questions such as these about food choices and their implications using multiple disciplinary perspectives. By studying them from scientific, cultural, social, historical, and philosophical viewpoints, we will develop an understanding of food choices as a complex system of interrelated processes. We will evaluate to what degree these factors are under our control or influence. We will attempt to judge the impact of these facets of food choices on our daily lives. And of course, lest we lose sight of the important things through all this analysis, we will eat!

This tutorial explores the construction of the hero’s — and heroine’s — identity in ancient Greek epic, what such construction can tell us about how ancients conceived of themselves, and what such conceptions, which can still resonate for many today, can tell us of contemporary ideals. We explore Achilles’ origins, life, and death as narrated in the Achilleid of Statius, the Iliad of Homer, and the Posthomerica of Quintus of Smyrna. Recent scholarship on various aspects of our primary sources from different perspectives and approaches enhances our comprehension and appreciation of our texts.

The notion of “data-driven decision making” has worked its way into nearly every facet of our lives, including business operations, government planning, personal decision making, and many other areas. When considering the pervasiveness of data collection, you might expect decisions involving uncertainty to be handled more effectively today than at any point in history. However, our tendency to simplify complex decision-making processes down to an examination of a single number can result in damaging consequences. This tutorial will explore the ways in which planning and decision making based upon simplistic representations of complex data, such as simple averages or single-number summary measures, can lead to problematic outcomes. In doing so, we will explore historical examples of flawed “data-driven” decisions and the probability-based risk management strategies presented in The Flaw of Averages. An emphasis will be placed on the communication of statistical uncertainty and how this should influence the ways in which we analyze, interpret, and present numerical information.

This tutorial will analyze the global effort to address human-induced climate change. Students will conduct an inquiry into the current state of scientific knowledge about climate change and examine how this knowledge combines with other factors in developing policy in the United States and the international arena. What are the forces that promote and inhibit effective action? What is the role played by technological development? How are political processes responding? How do concerns for equity, justice, and human rights play into the debate? Attention will be given to the 1992 Framework Convention on Climate Change, the 2007 Kyoto Protocol, the 2009 Copenhagen climate change conference, the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement, the 2022 Climate Summit in Egypt, the role of civil society and the waxing and waning of climate change and now the waxing again in U.S. national politics, represented by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act.

How can movies help us to gain understanding of perennial questions (and contemporary issues) about life, meaning, and our place in the world? And how can we become critical and sensitive interpreters of pop culture, rather than mere spectators or consumers? In this tutorial, we will explore film, philosophy, and the relation between them.

People are afraid of cultural appropriation, whether they’re afraid of appropriating the music of others, afraid their music will be appropriated by others, or afraid that anxieties around appropriation will curtail their own artistic freedom. Despite clear histories of theft and exploitation, music has long been a space to engage with and even transcend barriers of difference. Every musical encounter is an opportunity to perform difference in ways that raises ethical questions whether it rises to the level of theft and appropriation or not. This tutorial asks how musicians might ethically engage with the world through sound without reinforcing structural inequality. Can one person’s creative freedom coexist with another’s fight for epistemic freedom to control their own story? Must artistic freedom accompany the freedom to oppress? Can music help undo social inequality? Together, we’ll seek a path through these complex questions and engage the ethics of performing difference in contexts of unshakeable historical realities of social inequality, racism, and white supremacy. We consider how music can generate hope for the future, a means to undo historical wrongs, and new paths to imagine and create better futures through shared music-making.

Whether in facing a global crisis or navigating the frustrations of everyday life, humans love to create and inhabit imaginary worlds as a temporary respite from their troubles. This tutorial will explore various immersive stories and experiences, past and present, that have offered such escape. From myths to mysteries, Middle-Earth to Minecraft, we will consider the history of different mediums and genres of books, games, films, and other texts as a balm for personal conflict or collective discontent, and investigate how dynamics of inclusion and exclusion are embedded in escapist social networks. And although it is often associated with avoiding reality, we will ponder whether escapism might actually help us confront the realities of our lives with greater clarity, perspective, and purpose.

Monuments, holidays, and historic sites are some of the most important commemorations in the United States, a country that defines itself, in part, through collective memories of important people and events. But commemorations are often not as unifying as they seem or as consensus-building as they appear on the surface. The past becomes a battleground to test different versions of what the present should be in terms of race, gender, or politics. This tutorial will explore case studies of how Americans build and contest their identities — personal and national — through the creation of and negotiation over commemorative sites and rituals. We will consider case studies across space and time as we consider how commemorations shape power relations — delving into academic writing, memoirs, narrative non-fiction, podcasts, films, and more. Students will hone research, information fluency, and writing skills as they study the rise and fall of American monuments, the creation of American holidays, and the sanctification of public spaces.

What does “sustainability” mean? How can crisis be communicated in a way that stimulates action, rather than hopelessness? What does it mean to be an expert in a world where anybody can blog and people insist they want to “do their own research”? We will look at the discourse surrounding climate change and other environmental issues, considering Greta Thunberg, the Sunrise Movement, climate deniers such as Investor’s Business Daily, and documentaries like Meltdown (2021, Fredric Golding). We will also visit local farms and watersheds and look at how activists are trying to improve the environment here in Iowa. In a world where we are drowning in information, come think about how we evaluate the truth and how minds are changed.

“Street food, I believe, is the salvation of the human race,” American celebrity chef and traveler Anthony Bourdain once said. From dhabas serving freshly-made aloo paratha for breakfast by the highway across India and Pakistan to elotes grilling at every corner in Mexico City to the Kogi truck in Los Angeles famous both for fusing Korean with Mexican food and for relying on Twitter and YouTube to spread information about their menu and locations, the ubiquity of street food has transformed the “sensescapes” of cities, such that one of the best ways to experience local culture in these places is through these cuisines. Did you know what many Germans consider to be the most characteristic food of Berlin? Not bratwurst or currywurst, but döner kebab, introduced by Turkish immigrants! What about food vendors in Bangkok who are always the first on the scene in every democracy protest? This tutorial will explore how street food is not just about those tasty tacos and hotdogs; it is also about economic transformations, social identities, and everyday politics shaped by, among others, the structures of colonialism, capitalism, and immigration; race, class, and gender relations; and our own individual agency. Through reading academic publications and popular writings, watching episodes of Street Food on Netflix, taking a short trip to Des Moines, and cooking popular street food at the Marcus Family Global Kitchen, we will reflect on our own ideas and practices related to street food, where questions of power will be central.

Recently television shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race and social media have brought the art of drag performance into the realm of mainstream popular culture globally. At the same time, drag has become a point of contention within the United States, as seen in recent attempts to ban drag in Tennessee and elsewhere. This tutorial explores drag and queer performance in relation to politics, popular media, and the arts. Beginning in the 1960s, we discuss the ballroom scene and the Stonewall riots and then consider the role of drag in the visual arts and popular culture. Students will analyze texts and visual media while engaging with a range of topics, from Andy Warhol’s The Factory to voguing and the presence of drag in film and television. This tutorial will consider a wide variety of drag to ask and debate questions regarding drag and its publics. How does drag perform or aestheticize gender, and what are the political and social motivations and ramifications of drag? How have social media and popular culture impacted drag culture, and what role does drag play in our world today?

Charles Darwin speculated that “the perception, if not the enjoyment, of musical cadences and of rhythm is probably common to all animals.” In this course, we will explore the utterances of non-human animals from a variety of perspectives, taking into account ideas from the fields of animal studies, zoomusicology, the psychology of music, and evolutionary biology. We will consider broader ethical and philosophical questions regarding the boundary we place between humans and animals; we will look at animal music as it informs and shapes the literary imagination, and we will consider human music that is influenced by the music of non-human animals. We will work directly with animal sounds by collecting field recordings, and we will conduct a survey of the underwater soundscape of a local pond. We will also explore ways in which AI and interconnected remote recording devices are transforming the study of animal behavior and animal expression. Our studies of the Umwelt (the perceptual world) of non-humans will help to foster a deepened understanding of the living beings that surround us, and a healthy humility with regard to our own Umwelt and its limitations. If Darwin’s hunch was right, and musicality is shared across the boundaries that separate species, then perhaps it is worth looking into the music of animals to learn something about our own life as musical creatures.

The continued existence of a species requires successful reproduction among its members. Humans are unique in that they can think about, plan, and use technology to support their reproductive efforts. Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) — including techniques such as in vitro fertilization, nuclear transplantation, and preimplantation genetic diagnosis — has generated hope for some but anxiety for others. What is really possible with ART? Sex selection? Yes. Trait selection? To some extent. Cloning? Perhaps. This tutorial will explore both the technical details of ART and the moral, ethical, and legal frameworks that govern our reproductive decisions. What are the arguments for and against choosing the sex or other traits of children? Being able to select traits raises questions such as: What traits are desirable? and What is “normal”? We will also consider the interaction between science and society. What should scientists be allowed to do while investigating how reproduction works? How should scientists respond to political uses and misuses of ARTistic knowledge? In this tutorial, you will explore such questions about ART, develop your scholarly skills, and engage with your new academic community.

What is the balance between work and rest, community and self, learning and dreaming? As The Nap Minister, Tricia Hersey says, “Our dream space has been stolen, and we want it back. We will reclaim it via rest.” Inspired by The Nap Ministry’s calls to link rest with radical inclusion and community care, this course will explore rest and dreamwork as embodied practices integral to life. Drawing from works such as Hersey’s Rest is Resistance and Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy, practices such as deep listening and mindful walking, and cultural histories of technology, art, labor, and liberation, we will seek a collective “portal to imagine, invent, and heal.” Practices will include creative multimedia exercises, informal and formal writing, discussions, readings, viewings, and critical making.

Looking at texts ranging from the engraved poetry of William Blake to Instagram, this tutorial will explore relationships between words and images in literature, art, and new media. Readings will include Blake’s poetry, graphic novels such as Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home and Thi Bui’s The Best We Could Do, contemporary art that combines text and images, and popular and scholarly commentary on those materials. Throughout the semester, we will focus on the process of crafting analytical papers, presentations (themselves involving your own juxtaposition of word and image), and smaller creative projects. We will also work together to develop skills of critical reading, productive discussion, textual analysis, revision, and research.

Many have heard of Beowulf. But few readers know that the epic contest between hero and monsters is followed directly in the tenth-century manuscript by another poem — one where a female hero beheads a very different monster. Why haven’t we heard of her? Showing that they reward deeper study, the texts of Old English poetry — hypnotic charms, bawdy riddles, songs of battle, laments of people in exile, and weird fragments of wisdom — have fascinated modern fiction writers and poets such as Denise Levertov, Jorge Luis Borges, and W.H. Auden. We will read works including Richard Wilbur’s poem “Junk” and Maria Dahvana Headley’s 2018 novel The Mere Wife side by side with accessible versions of the texts that inspired them: the earliest poems in English, written over a thousand years ago. We’ll see how today’s scholars seek to understand the composition of the oldest oral poetry in English by comparing Old English laments to African American blues songs. In this tutorial, we can discover how writers continue to excavate the treasure of medieval word-hoards to revive lost voices that express yearning, fear, wonder, courage, and endurance of loss.

What is the difference between a place we know and a place we are getting to know? How does place shape the human experience? We will explore place through readings, informal and formal writings, discussions, critical making, and community engagement. Through a series of studio projects and writing projects, we will play, take risks, and innovate while we learn to be together in place. 

In this tutorial, we will explore challenges faced by women in the Arab world, paying close attention in particular to the confluence of gender, class, and patriarchy. We will examine topics such as education, economic independence, sexual harassment, national independence, and female genital mutilation. Materials studied will include movies, novels, and/or short stories in translation.