I'm currently working on my Master's degree in English at Middle Tennessee State University. The Computers and Writing class looks like fun, and I know I'll enjoy the Joss Whedon class as well. Dr. Lavery, who teaches the Joss Whedon class, is known for creating and teaching various pop culture courses here at MTSU and I'm hoping to take all of them before I leave. I know I want my specialty to be pop culture, because I think it's underrated and should be studied more. It also happens to be the area of literature that interests me the most. In fact, one of my favorite assignments so far was this paper where I designed coursework to teach Developmental Writing using Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone.
I haven't had a lot of exposure to the traditional "canon" literature because I always chose the fun stuff instead, and therefore I feel a bit out of my element among many other grad students. I'm working on this, though. In fact, last semester (Fall 2004) I went to Austin Peay State University. I admit to being less than excited about my new classes, since I really have no interest in Victorian Poetry and wasn't sure what to expect of the Women's Autobiography class. I can say now, that I'm glad I went, and I'm glad I exposed myself to more of the "traditional" literature.
I think I came away from those classes with some variety in my knowledge, and I had fun with the major assignments they gave me as well. You can see the presentation I did on Egyptian author, Nawaal El Sadawii here. You can also see the presentation on Christina Rossetti from my Victorian Poetry class and the paper, Religion, Relationships and Rossetti that resulted from my research.
My first class in Buffy Studies resulted in this paper on Willow Rosenberg. I hope to expand on it, as well as work on a number of other ideas during the Joss Whedon class this semester. I've also been asked by a friend of mine to join her in preparing a new Buffy track for Dragoncon in September of this year. You can see more about the progress of that on my interests page.