Claire: My Classes

Video

Footage in the “INT 270: American Foreign Policy” class that carries a voiceover by Claire and an interview with each of the two professors who team-teach the class. The video includes Claire in a neutral interview setting speaking into the camera.

Audio from video

Claire:

“At Mount Holyoke I’ve noticed a really nice exchange between students and professors and a deep and true respect for the wealth of knowledge that those two roles in the classroom can really offer to each other.”

Professor of History on the Ford Foundation Joseph Ellis:

“The truth is an argument. The truth is not a set of Platonic conclusions. The truth emerges out of argument, out of a framework of conflict, and that the students are part of that argument, and in some sense history itself is an argument without end.”

Ruth Lawson Professor of Politics Professor Vincent Ferraro:

“One of the most important things we teach in this class is how to disagree well. In other words, we don’t advance the argument through consensus. We advance the argument through sharpening our positions and understanding our assumptions. And we know where to hone in. And the students watch this.”

Claire:

I’ve had some of the most valuable conversations that I’ve ever had within the classrooms, both with this diverse student body, who brings a lot of different perspectives and styles of critical analysis and conversation to the classroom, as well as with this professor, who oftentimes is a wonderful facilitator of those important conversations, and brings a lot to the table as well … I had a wonderful high school experience, but it was very different from Mount Holyoke, which encouraged a lot of discussion in class, a lot of paper writing, presentations in class, and I was really very nervous that I didn’t necessarily have the skills. And luckily, you have an advisor, right when you get on to campus, who sort of can feel out where you are coming from, and make sure that you have access to the supports that you might need on campus… You wouldn’t have been accepted to Mount Holyoke if you weren’t going to be able to do it, and so whenever I meet someone who is unsure when they are first getting here, I remind them of that. Because that is the truth; you wouldn’t be here if you couldn’t do it.”

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