Semester Reflection

Well, as the semester comes to a close, I can honestly say that this has been the best Cultural Studies course I have taken yet. The opportunity to involve real world politics over the course of a semester is surely a formula for success. I can only hope that my coming American Studies course takes this initiative and does something similar with the coming presidential elections.

I have always been interested in history and politics and this course has done a nice job of combining the two. In hindsight, the buildup to the Brexit Referendum through the examination of the history of the British Empire, beginning of course with its downfall, as well as the early years of British membership in the EEC was a perfect backdrop for the formation of well-educated opinions in the class. I can’t help thinking how much the general population of the United Kingdown would have benefited from a course such as ours. Perhaps the outcome of the Referendum would have been different if all citizens had the chance to scrutinize Britain’s history as we have done. We should also not forget the actual outcome of the Referendum, which caught everyone by surprise and fueled classroom conversation even further.

In my opinion, there could now be an entire course based on the speculation of where exactly Britain is headed in the future. As we are likely to see more political strife inside of the United Kingdom in the coming months, the base structure for at least another semesters’ worth of content is definitely there. In a perfect world, what we experienced this semester is how all university classes would play out: a theoretical and historical build-up to a real-world, real-time event that has a significant impact on the world around us. There are many words I would use to describe this class, “dull” would not be one of them.

Mike Larson