World War I

My name is Ashley Brown. I am majoring in anthropology with a main focus in near and middle eastern archaeology. I am a junior undergraduate and originally from Tulsa. In the field of archaeology, much of what we do is write about our findings in scientific and historical journals. This course will increase my writing skills and my interest in history. 

I chose this course because I am minoring in history and in women's and gender studies, which this course satisfies. I also enjoyed the last two course that I took with professor Drouin during my sophomore year and would recommend them to all of you. 

Hello, I am Michelle Scheuter. I am currently a senior majoring in English and my minor is in Education. I love literature and I love reading just about anything. My goal is to graduate in December and work for a publishing house. I want to edit and publish books, preferably literature, but I'm sure I could be happy just about anywhere. I am finishing my college career a little late, but I joined the military after a year and a half of college. I am now back in school and almost finished with my degree. I am excited to start a new chapter in my life after I graduate.

There are several reasons I chose to take this course. The more I dive into history the more I seem to enjoy it. I find it fascinating. One of my favorite authors also happens to be Hemingway. I am looking forward to working in special collections, especially because I have yet to see it. I know that this class will introduce a lot of interesting topics and there is so much to learn. I also really enjoy Dr. Drouin's classes. I have yet to take a class with him that is not enjoyable and I am always learning so much. I look forward to everything we will be doing this semester.

The reason I decided to take this course was to give myself a broader background in World War One. Growing up it seems that you only learn the purely historical facts about the war and miss out on how it affected literature and art during and after it. I also wanted to work with the special collection and see what kinds of interesting stuff they have in there. I am very curious by nature and oftentimes I find my intellectual pursuits being driven by my curiosity. Not only did I chose this course for broadening my horizons and to suit my curiosity, I also chose this course because I feel that it will challenge me. 

Hey, my name is Micah Bolin. I am a junior and I am studying American history and pre-law major. My journey to decide on my major started in high school. I played basketball for much of my life and wanted to keep basketball a main focus on in my life. I chose in high school I wanted to be a high school coach and teach in my favorite subject, which was history. But my idea for my life changed after working for a friend of mine's dad who is an attorney. We discussed life and everything in between, so I soon decided that I too wanted to attend law school. History continued to be my major because I am facinated with the facts behind everything. Everything has a story, and history tells that story. The reason I chose this class is pretty simple. It seems that World War I was a major event that took place but is looked over in a lot of aspects of "modern" history. It seems that WWI changed how wars were fought, how governments dealt with each other, and change the homefront during wars. I took this class to gain a better understanding of those three points because they are in a way looked over when dealing with common history. I am excited to hear the discussions that will happen this semester and learn from everyone in the class.

Hello, my name is Rebekah Chung, or Bex, if you like.  I am a junior at TU, majoring in English with a minor in Philosophy and any other electives I can slip into my schedule.  I spent the first nineteen years of my life trying to pursue a career of the math/science/engineering sort, but after a year in college, I realized that I wasn't doing anyone any favours by doing so.  I changed over to something I felt I could do well in and love, which landed me at Henry Kendall School of Arts and Sciences.  I still worry about what I'm going to do with my life after college, but for now, what matters is that there are a thousand classes I want to take and only a few more semesters!  I think what I love most about English is that it, on some level, accounts for my insane variety of interests, so I can really talk abut and study anything.  Hopefully, this will all amount to something, someday.

The World War I class interests me for several reasons. It bears a huge significance because of its impact on many of my favourite writers of all time--Yeats, Eliot, Hemingway, Lewis, and Tolkien, to name a few.  In addition, the war was an integral factor in the growing recognition of trauma and psychological disabilities, an area that I take something of an amateur interest in.  From a less subject-specific standpoint, I am extremely excited by the opportunity to work with Special Collections.  I look forward to getting a look into the archiving process and some well-needed hands-on experience with organizing intellectual resources for consumption--any class that offers practical work is an instant sell for me!

Hello, I am Amy Bunselmeyer. I am a sophomore and I am an English major. I have been an avid reader for as long as I can remember and I have loved writing for almost that long, so being an English major was a fairly easy and obvious choice for me. So far I have enjoyed every English class I have taken, because I love being exposed to different writers, genres, and styles of literature.

I chose to take this class because I have been interested in the World War I literature for a long time and the I have been intrigued by what I have read so far. I liked the idea of an entire class dedicated to the topic, which would allow for going a lot deeper into the history and the results of the war, and the writing that came from it. I am also very much looking forward to working with Special Collections!

Hello, my name is Matt Picht, and I'm a senior English major. I chose English as my major because of my affinity for reading and writing, and because I enjoy exploring the cultural impact and significance of literature. With this course in particular, I'm interested in studying the emergence of Modernism, and how the World War I influenced the shift away from Victorian ideals and aesthetics to the darker, more realistic Modernist perspective. Most of my education on European literature has either been pre-1900's or immediately contemporary, so I'm excited to tackle this new subject from both a historical and an artistic perspective. I'm looking forward to a great semester with everyone! 

Hi, my name is Katie Boul. I'm a sophomore English & Education double major from St. Louis, Missouri. I've known for a long time that I want to be a teacher, so that major was a no-brainer. I decided on English as my second major because literature was one of my favorite classes in grade school and high school, and I absolutely love to write (this wasn't a terribly difficult choice either). At the moment, I am very happy with both of my selections.

I chose to take this course for a variety of reasons. First of all, I'm growing to love literature from the WWI time period. Prior to last semester, I'd been exposed to very little of it. However, after Major British Writers II, I decided it would be an awesome experience to spend a full semester delving deeper into the literature of the period. I was also intrigued by the chance to work with Special Collections. I've always wanted to work with Special Collections, I've just never had a reason to. I'm very much looking forward to that aspect of this course!

Hello, my name is Will Boogert and I'm a sophomore English major. As a freshman I started as a physics major, but soon realized that I liked reading words a lot more than numbers. I've always read books for fun, so becoming an English major was not a difficult decision.

I was interested in taking this class as soon as I saw it was being offered. I think, especially in America, WWI flies under the radar in comparison with WWII, and I don't feel like I know very much about it. But it seems like such a monumental event in world history and especially European history, and I want to learn more about it, both from a historical and a literary perspective. Also, the digital aspect of course plus the trips to Special Collections made the class stand out and seem more like a non-traditional, interesting course.

I chose to major in English mainly because I like to read.  I have always loved literature.  I did not declare my major until the end of my sophmore year of college because I wanted to choose a major that would be viewed by society as "useful," like accounting or speech pathology.  I could not find anything that held my interest as much as English, and I eventually decided to do what I wanted to, and what would make me happier in the long run.  I decided to take this WWI class because I enjoyed reading WWI poetry in British Writers II, and because it gives me the opportunity to learn a bit about history, which is another interest of mine.