One image is on-screen throughout entire video: Image: [Two very serious and determined-looking young boys stand in a shipping yard dwarfed by stacks of orange and brown containers with Haag-Lloyd written on them. They are staring straight in front of themselves diagonally to the left of the photo. The older of the two is carrying a very large and heavy-looking bag on one shoulder. He wears a watch on his left wrist, and his left hand is wrapped in a bandage.]
Voice-over: "Hi, I'm Jim Mandrell and I'll be teaching HISP198 the Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies next fall.
This is a course I very much enjoy teaching for a couple of reasons. First, my own intellectual interests span Hispanic literature and culture from Spain to Latin America into the US, so by participating in your project, I get to indulge all of my interests. Second, this course is a wonderful opportunity for students to explore what is interesting and important to them and to be part of that exploration is exciting for me.
So what is the Experiential Research Seminar in Literary and Cultural Studies about? Well, it's a capstone course in the Hispanic Studies major, the moment when junior or senior HISP majors put together all that they've learned in the other courses they've taken and then use it to produce an 18 to 25 page research paper.
It's also when students get to pick what they want to study. If there's an author, a text, a topic or question that especially interests them, this is the opportunity to dig deep and to write a serious meditation on it with help from other students and from the professor.
Finally, if the student has another major or minor or another special interest, the right topic or question will allow for two disciplines to come together in one project. Hispanic Studies and some aspect of the sciences? Why not? Hispanic Studies and Sociology or Psychology? That's entirely possible. As long as the project engages with Hispanic Studies and involves original research and a new perspective on a problem or idea on the one hand and on the other as long as it includes some sort of textual study, HISP 198 is a perfect place to develop it.
I'm sure there are other reasons to take HISP 198 that I'm not thinking of right now, but perhaps the best reason is that it's your class and it focuses on your”
Dog interrupts: “BARK”
Voice-over: “interests”
Dog interrupts again: “BARK, BARK”
Voice-over: “and that was my dog! Let me know if you have any questions”
Again the dog: “BARK”
Voice-over: “and in the meantime I hope to see you next fall.”