From Asian Languages and Literature: Chris Hamm
Chris Hamm is a professor in the Department of Asian Languages and Literature, where he teaches “modern” Chinese literature—from the 13th through the 21st centuries. His research centers on print culture, literary periodicals, and vernacular fiction, and his publications have focused on one of the most distinctive genres of Chinese popular fiction, the martial arts novel. He teaches a range of courses on Chinese literature, including both surveys of literary history and thematic courses on martial and military themes and on the role of ghosts and the supernatural in the imagining of Chinese modernity. He believes that literature provides a unique window onto a culture’s perspectives on the world, and that the study of literature in general—the study of the creative use of our most fundamental technology, language—is a powerful tool for understanding what makes us human. He is looking forward to the shared journeys of Humanities 101!
From Classics: Sarah Stroup
Sarah Stroup is a professor in the department of Classics, with undergraduate degrees from the University of Washington, and graduate degrees from the University of California-Berkeley. Professor Stroup’s research interests include the intellectual and textual history of the late Roman Republic (how political dangers change writing habit), late Republican cryptography (coded writing), advanced technologies of the Greeks and Romans, and Roman spectacles of power and violence. Professor Stroup especially enjoys her classes on STEM in the ancient world, sport and violent spectacle in the ancient world and today, and any course that reads ancient texts and objects next to modern ones. Professor Stroup is a strong believer in the public and professional value of a humanities education and is excited to be teaching in Humanities First this fall, where she and the students will explore the journeys of returning veterans in Homer’s Odyssey and Finkel’s Thank You For Your Service and what they can tell us about storytelling and reconciliation. Professor Stroup is also the program director of Humanities First.
From Scandinavian Studies: Lauren Poyer
Lauren Poyer is an assistant teaching professor in the Department of Scandinavian Studies. She is a medievalist who specializes in Old Norse-Icelandic studies, and her research focuses on Christian folk religion as represented in the Sagas of Icelanders. She regularly teaches Scandinavian Mythology, Sagas of the Vikings, Vikings in Popular Culture, and Old Norse Language. She believes that investigating modern cultural myths about the Middle Ages gives students the tools they need to become better-prepared and better-informed citizens of the world, and that learning to understand people from the past in their own words can help students become more aware of how language and culture shape their own lives and open doors into the lives of others. She is looking forward to co-teaching HUM 101 in Autumn 2020, and will take the theme of “Journeys” as an opportunity to explore travel and trade in the Middle Ages, as well as what medieval writers had to say about cross-cultural encounters, spiritual transformations, and expeditions into the unknown.