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November 15, 2002
Weissman
Center's J-Term Courses to Examine Everything From Grammar
to Globalization
Designed to approach
issues of leadership in creative ways, five Weissman Center–sponsored
courses are up for grabs this January Term. Kevin McCaffrey, the
College's associate director of communications, will reprise Public
Relations 101, which attracted seventy participants last year.
One of the seventy was Nina Akerley '04, who says she "loved
the course. It really got into what PR is all about." Akerley
particularly enjoyed giving spur-of-the-moment press conferences.
"We would get up in front of the class and present the information,
and then the audience would grill you! That was a lot of fun."
For Akerley, PR 101 provided insights not only into the world
of public relations, but also in how to be a savvy media consumer.
"We analyzed the Boston Globe to see exactly whose
perspective was being portrayed. That was really interesting,
because it's not something you'd normally think about."
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Photo: Fred LeBlanc
Travel
writer Laura Purdom
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Following up on the
Weisman Center's fall series, Destinations: New Meanings of
Travel, the art and business of travel writing will be the
topic of exploration in a new course offered by Laura Purdom.
The author of four travel guidebooks—including the newly
released Secret Boston—and a part-time writer/reporter
in MHC's communications office, Purdom will guide students as
they explore the Pioneer Valley on their own, keep a journal of
their "travels," and learn to develop material from
their notes. While the course will focus on writing, there will
be time to discuss practical topics, such as selling articles,
research practices, ethics, and sustainable tourism.
A tour of a different
kind—through the world of grammar—will be led by Frank
Massey of the Isenberg School of Management at UMass, Amherst.
In Rhetoric of Grammar and Its Application to Writing, students
will write extensively as well as read the work of theorists on
grammar, rhetoric, and style. They will learn how to assess and
improve the clarity and effectiveness of their own writing.
"The first women
in the world to deliver speeches on civil issues were American
women social reformers in the nineteenth century," says Lucy
Knight, adjunct professor at Northwestern University. In Rhetoric
for Leadership, Knight will help students examine the role of
oratory in the development of women leaders by studying the speeches
of such women orators as Lucy Stone, Angelina Grimke, and Sojourner
Truth. The course includes a field trip to the birthplace of feminist
and abolitionist Lucy Stone, who attended MHC.
Participants in the
Weissman Center's Global Leadership Forum, taught by Pat Sewell,
professor at Brock University in Canada, will learn about the
leadership skills necessary to tackle controversial and pressing
international issues. This noncredit course involves two role-playing
challenges. Each participant will represent a state or nongovernmental
organization and will collaborate with another student to develop
expertise in a particular issue. Along with transnational problems,
the course will examine issues of international leadership.
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