During the 13 years I spent teaching international business courses at Ursinus College, I always assigned case studies on topical issues — repatriation of profits, e-book antitrust, etc. Although few students had much business background, they were adept at researching the issues from many perspectives, and consistently delivered high quality analyses and recommendations.
Like many colleges, we also had a first-year required seminar course aimed at exposing the students to various points of view, and designed to help them better understand their role in society.
The reading list was carefully selected to include great literature, by great thinkers, from various cultural, political and religious traditions. Ursinus now includes the 2006 Alison Bechdel “graphic novel” Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic, which has been generating a lot of publicity recently – -and a lot of pushback from some students at Duke University, The College of Charleston, and others.
One of the professors at Ursinus recently penned a thoughtful essay regarding his teaching experience with this particular (and quite graphic) work — which describes the experience of a lesbian woman coming to terms with her sexuality, while dealing with the fact that her father is gay.
But I had no idea what a “graphic novel” was. Curious, I picked up a copy.
Now I know — it’s not a traditional book, it’s a comic book. The format (but certainly not the content) took me back to my days as an elementary school student reading Classic Comics (Moby Dick, Robinson Crusoe, etc.), a good format for young learners.
But we are educating mature college students, who are impressively capable of reading, understanding, and debating “big issues.” The students I taught didn’t need illustrations, as they can read thoughtfully and understand complex situations, whether they involve business, human sexuality, or anything else for that matter.
I know that the topic of sexuality may be germane to the first year seminar course, but I think that the using the form of a “graphic novel” insults them.