Course Schedule
Spring 2020 – French 340: Oral Skills
An advanced study in moving mouths around unfamiliar vowels
We watch the professors tongue hit his teeth, not like that mais comme ça
Sent home to distinguish pronunciations through delayed Zoom connections
Updating our vocabulary; contagieux, unprecedented, pandémie
Even en français these words can’t be romanticized
There is no skill in communicating the worry of unknowns
Only empathy and patience as time strides by and stays put
Why do we entertain the fanfare of academia in times like these
The only test I can bear to take is being withheld by our government
What do grade point averages mean to ghosts
Summer 2020 – Arts 310: Living with Dying; Analyzing HBO’s Six Feet Under
Syllabus finalized in early spring, seats filled before the hospital beds did
Somber introductions and acknowledgement of newly found relevance
Binge watching episodes between planning memorials
I’ve been waiting 15 years to stop whispering about death
But even now as we yell, they don’t listen
My final project is a business plan; implementing grief education in schools
There is beauty in creating the structures we wish we’d had
And anger in knowing our pain doesn’t necessitate change
I am no stranger to death
I know there are much worse things to face
Fall 2020 – French 400: Linguistics
Apocalypse, from the Greek apokalyptein, “to uncover”
Etymology turning despair to opportunity
The clarity of interconnectedness cannot be unseen
How can our words keep up with circumstance
Do we dare attempt to articulate our fragmented realities?
I study language to collect descriptors,
Work in health because care transcends translation.
Indefinitely distanced, I seek connection through expression
Covid dismantled my lexicon and sense of community
I rebuild them both
