The College of Charleston offers nearly 100 courses during the three-week Maymester session. Maymester began May 15 and ends with final exams on May 31, 2013. Maymester courses offer students an opportunity to experience topics and field schools that are not offered during the fall and spring semesters and include non-traditional topics. This year, the College is offering 30 online courses in dozens of different disciplines from French to communication and management.
Want to know about the Real Pirates of the Caribbean? History Professor Timothy Coates will be introducing students to the realities of pirates and their world of the seventeenth century West Indies. The class will include a number of classic pirate movies, which shaped much of the public perceptions of pirates. Coates can be reached at coatest@cofc.edu.
On a more serious note, Economics Professor Calvin Blackwell will explore Financial Markets in the U.S. Economy, specifically looking at why the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more than 50% between October 2007 and March 2009. Students will explore questions like “Was there really a stock market bubble?” and “What can we learn from this episode in order to improve our own investing strategies?”Blackwell can be reached at blackwellc@cofc.edu.
Professor Tom Carroll is again teaching stand-up paddleboarding (SUP) in two different sessions. Watch a video of last year’s class.
Religious Studies Professor Elijah Siegler is teaching Myth, Morality and Meaning in the Films of the Coen Brothers. Students will watch and discuss films by Joel and Ethan Coen, co-writers and directors of some fifteen films. The brothers’ work is rarely referred to as “religious,” however, in several of the Coen brothers’ movies, specific religions and theologies are foregrounded. More importantly, all of their films can be seen as moral critiques of American spiritual and ethical values, which at the same time serve to question American mythologies (be those film genres, historical periods or cultural environments). Siegler can be reached at sieglere@cofc.edu.
Students interested in music can take either Edward Hart’s “New Wave: Music of the 1980’s” or Blake Stevens’ “Music of the Beatles.” Both courses will look at the influential groups, cultural relevancy and development of the style. Hart can be reached at 843.953.6532 and Stevens can be reached at 843.953.5927.
There is also an online course dedicated to popular music entitled “Like A Rolling Stone: History and Development of Rock Music” taught by Yiorgos Vassilandonakis in the music department. Like A Rolling Stone will trace the origins, development and stylistic nuances of rock music from its folk and blues beginnings via Elvis, Bob Dylan and the British invasion through the Woodstock, Motown, California surf, Psychedelic, Hippie culture, Heavy Metal, and Grunge movements.
