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Case Western Reserve
University
June 2006—
In May I completed my first year of teaching in the
SAGES program of CWRU (also called "Case" for short). WOW! After 15
years since my last teaching job, I'm very happy with this development
in my life. At the same time, I have tried to maintain many of my other
activities, from square dancing to
serving as a Board Member of the American Art Pottery Association to
running this website. This fall I hope to return to writing myself.
Friends have sometimes
wondered why I cannot always write detailed email responses. Well,
here's a little information for the curious well-wishers! (No, this
will not become a daily, weekly, or even
monthly "blog"! God forbid.)
In the SAGES program at Case, we use a discussion format and team teaching. In Fall 2005, I worked with 3 classrooms of "first-years" (the PC term for "freshmen"). One of my co-instructors was a professor trained in the classics, another in geology, and the third in physics. Our differences add to the discussion, but collaboration takes time and experimentation too! Quite a challenge—and fascinating.
The first course is called "Life of the Mind," and focuses on such subjects as the nature of consciousness, the definition of scholarship, life choices, human variations and commonalities—and also serves as an inter-disciplinary introduction to the university community.
In Fall 2005, our reading lists included such titles as Tracy Kidder, Mountains Beyond Mountains (the campus-wide Summer 2005 reading selection); Oliver Sacks, An Anthropologist on Mars; Harry G. Frankfurt, On Bullshit; St. Augustine, Confessions; Roger Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind; and the journals that were adapted into the film The Motorcycle Diaries, written by Ché Guevara and Alberto Granado. For Fall 2006, when I'll be working with a historian of Medieval music and an award-winning physicist, we'll be reading Michael Ruhlman, The Soul of a Chef; Malcolm Gladwell, Blink; Ross King, Brunelleschi's Dome; and several books related to the theme of "Energy and Society."
In Spring 2006 my responsibilities were to act as a consultant to 2 professors, one in classics and one in anthropology, and to work as a tutor in writing subjects. My colleagues that semester taught these topics in the intermediate-level SAGES "University Seminars": Utopian Communities in Theory and Practice; Mythology, Ritual and Society in Classical Greece; and the New Comedy of playwright Menander, along with his influence on Roman comedy, Shakespeare, and modern romantic comedy. Our students developed individual research projects that resulted in two essays, each about 10 pages long.
Then next spring (2007), I will be teaching a University Seminar myself, one that I proposed to teach, on the topic of Nature Writing. Students will ponder such works as Henry David Thoreau, Walden; Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac; Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek; Barry Holstun Lopez, Arctic Dreams; Walter Inglis Anderson, The Horn Island Logs; and Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony. As time and weather permit, we'll make our own expeditions into the urban (and suburban) wilderness together too.
Wish me luck!
If my life is as active during 2006-07 as it was last year, I may not have time to email and telephone all you dear friends with the detailed accounts of my activities that you probably want and deserve.
Knowing that, I've written this summary in the hope that it will at least give you a flavor of what I've been doing... and why I sometimes do not respond to emails that say nothing much more than asking questions like these: "How have you been? What book are you working on? How is teaching?"
Thanks for understanding!
Mark Bassett (aka "Dr. Mark")
July 2006 Collectible Pottery Show - Zanesville and Cambridge, Ohio
As usual, Mark Bassett will be selling books and art pottery at this annual event.
This first-rate annual event, the "Pottery Festival," features collectible pottery of all kinds, including both American (such as Roseville, Weller, Rookwood, Owens, Cowan, Brush McCoy, and much MUCH more) and European (French, German, Belgian, and others).
It's always difficult to decide when to arrive in Zanesville and also how long to stay. Regardless of the advertisements you read, and regardless of which website you visit, you can usually win the bet that someone will arrive earlier than you ever expected. Tales of hot deals abound down there!
I will be checking into my usual room at the Holiday Inn in Zanesville (airport exit), room 131, on Thursday, July 6th, and hope to be selling pots by that evening. I always sell there on Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday also.
On Sunday evening, I start packing my pottery. Then I do not offer pottery for sale again until the big fancy show the next weekend at the Pritchard Laughlin Civic Center in Cambridge on Friday, July 14th, and Saturday, July 15th. For information about this show (but not about the MAJOR motel-room selling that takes place between July 4th and July 9th or later), you can visit potterylovers.org.
Unfortunately, there is no single site that tells you what decision to make. But you can find out the scope of pottery-related activities that week by studying the Events Calendar at zanesville-ohio.com. Both websites are well worth a look, and there are some FUN activities all week--including a Show and Tell Mixer Party, a Pottery Auction, and a Banquet--all organized by Pottery Lovers.
© 2006 Mark Bassett
Updated
6/15/06