HN 102.  Introductory Honors
Seminar II:  Text and the City

Preliminary plan:  Spring Semester, 2 credits

***  DRAFT  ***

Objective.  Introduce students to the culture of Lowell through field
trips, discussion, and active engagement.
Students will demonstrate understanding through written reflection
papers and participation in a photography exhibit, Eyes on Lowell. Although there will be some readings,
the primary text will be the City of Lowell.

Places in the City

1

Introduction

2

Metaphor for two Lowells

A View of the Harbor

Field trip: Merrimack
Repertory Theatre 1/8-2/1

3

Living in the City: Mansions & Tenements.

4

Playing in the City:
Fields and Halls

Tour of Tsongas? LaLacheur? (weather?)

Artist in the City

5

Visioning the City: Presentations by Photographer Joe
Quinlen

Set up photo show

What makes a good photo?

6

Building the City:
Architecture of Lowell
(field trip)

Field trip

7

Light in the City:  Stained Glass of Lowell

8

Painting the City:
Whistler
Museum  (field trip)

Field trip

Voices in the City

9

The Mills:  A Lowell Offering

Sampling of writing styles

10

The Poet:  Poe
& the Bells of St. Anne’s

11

The Beat: Jack Kerouac

People in the City

12

Immigration and resettlement

13

The Killing Fields (movie)

Cambodians as case study

14

Angkor Dance Troupe (performance)

15

Reflections on Southeast Asian Lowell

Would need to prep interviews to be shown in each
section—asking community leaders for comment on impact of Cambodians in
Lowell *Charlie Nick on photographers he brought
to Psych Dept re: SE Asians. Book?

16

Synthesis &
Reflection

Photo Exhibit: Eyes
on Lowell, UML
Student Research Symposium

Reflection paper due at the end of each unit?

Revolving Museum?
Nesmith House?

Call the Darkness
Light

Joyce Johnson Minor
Characters

John Coolidge, Mill
and Mansion ($25)

Benita Eiser The Lowell Offering ($15)

Poetry by Cambodian genocide survivors; Mogan oral histories

A View of the Harbor  (MRT
1/8-2/1)

Comedy/Drama. By Richard Dresser.

Nick is a
child of privilege who grew up with every possible advantage. But along the
way he came to believe that he could never measure up to the demands of his
father, Daniel, a powerful and mercurial man who has run the family
businesses with ruthless cunning. So Nick disappears, reinventing himself as
a blue-collar worker in a factory owned by his family. For the first time, he
takes control of his life. He works hard, makes friends, and falls in love
with Page, a beautiful young woman. He discovers that he's a lot happier getting
by on a living wage than wallowing in the limitless wealth of his family.
He's free. When Nick hears from his sister, Kathryn, that his father has had
a stroke, he realizes that he must face the towering figure in his life, the
man who caused him to run away. So Nick and Page travel to the coast of Maine, where Daniel
and Kathryn live in the rambling, mysterious, run-down mansion where Nick
grew up. Nick finds himself yanked back into the increasingly twisted orbit
of his family. Page is shocked to see the confident man she fell in love with
reverting before her eyes to a small frightened child. Page becomes the
catalyst for long-buried family secrets finally seeing the light of day. In
the end, the family is reconfigured in surprising ways as Nick reconnects
with his sister and finally finds the strength to face the demons in his
life. Unit set

http://www.dramaticpublishing.com/p1882/A-View-of-the-Harbor/product_info.html

Supplement
to Mansions and Tenements