At this point I've become acquainted with all the professors and classes that I am going to be interacting with this semester, and I'm rather pleased with what and who I'll be working with. I am taking two early American Literature classes with the same professor, one is just the standard survey course, and the other is narrowed down to 19th century American gothic literature, which will be dealing with many of the authors that I love and want to study in graduate school. The professor is Jon Hauss, who has a fabulous reputation as one of Dominguez Hills finest literature professors, and after just one day with him, I can already see why. He's insanely personable, gracious, and smart as all get out, without any off putting pretentiousness. A friend of mine at school confessed had confessed to me a couple semesters ago that she had a massive academic crush on him, and I'm amused to be discovering the aspects of his ability that warrant so much affection for him from his students. On a side note, while I was studying in the campus bar (without a drink, by the way; darn you, phase one of the South Beach Diet!), Dr. Hauss came in with another of my new professors, Dr. Sherman (more on him later), and my old dreaded American Lit professor, Giannotti. It was priceless, Dr. Giannotti wouldn't stop yammering away for forty-five minutes while the other professors patiently waited to get a word or two in. Then, during the opening comments of my class with Dr. Hauss, later that evening, he mentioned something about evil academics who get tenure and then never do anything worthwhile for the remainder of their career, but simply orchestrate their lives as if they are doing some great committee work that means anything. His teeth were wine-stained, and he was hilarious. He's also a Melville expert. I sent him my Moby-Dick paper, and I'm eager to hear what he thinks about it.
I'm taking three other classes besides the two already mentioned. One is a Medieval Lit survey with Dr. Best, who I have already described on this blog as a sweet, quirky instructor who makes things very easy. I think this class will be much less intimidating with Dr. Best at the helm; she tends to be an excellent sport. I really appreciate her patience and her dedication, which are qualities I could work on, you know. Another class I'm taking is Studies in Composition in Literature and Reading, which turns out to be a class about teaching English (I know I could have looked at the course description in the catalog, but who does that?) to secondary students. I can only describe the class as an easy A, kind of a relief what with my schedule, and while the instructor is kind of dry and geeky (in sort of a Miguel Powers kind of way), he is very cute. It doesn't hurt.
Finally, there is my senior seminar. Dr. Hernandez, DH's primary Latino/Hispanic/Chicano Studies and Literature professor, is teaching the course, which has as its primary focus transnational American literature. It seems that we will be looking at American literature as an immigrant narrative, very interesting. We read the prologue to The New Americans, by Ruben Martinez, which is a great introduction to what we will be covering in this course. Dr. Hernandez seems to have it together, and he isn't terrible to look at, either.
What with all of my instructors under the age of fifty this semester, I feel like I have stumbled upon some fresh ideas, enthusiasm, passion, and good looks. I'm eerily contented with my lot this semester. I haven't often felt satisfied at DH, but this semester shows real promise.
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