Although current DePauw students were in school when the events of 9/11 happened, many were too young or too removed from the situation to understand its significance. This led Professor Kevin Howley to focus his COMM 334A Media Criticism on 9/11 culture.
Howley believes that DePauw students mostly understand the event in a rather vague way. The focus of the class is to gain insight into the event by studying media that resulted from 9/11.
"9/11 was an important historical moment. It's not something that's ancient history," Howley said. "The class kind of helps them [students] get a better handle on the meaning of the event in our country, and the implications that we're still living with."
Political science professor Deepa Prakash believes the events of 9/11 are intriguing on a global scale. Prakash, who is starting her second year at DePauw, wanted her first Winter Term course to deal with the media's relation to 9/11. While her topic is similar to that of Howley's semester-long class, Prakash's course will focus more on the political aspects of the event. Prakash, who has several master's degrees dealing with terrorism and political science, said her personal experiences with terrorism have impacted her intellectual perspectives on the topic.
"We deal with depictions of the events from a United States perspective, but, I also want students to see 9/11 from an outside perspective," Prakash said. "It has impacted profound political areas."
While students have not been able to enroll in Prakash's Winter Term course yet, there are currently 18 students taking Howley's course. Jack Russell, one of the 11 juniors in the 300-level class, said he enjoys the class because the reading material is interesting instead of "stale and boring."
"The subject matter is some of the most powerful I have ever crossed as a student," Russell said.
Howley was inspired to create the Media Criticism class by Erin Kielty '10. Kielty, one of Howley's former students, wanted to complete an independent study but didn't know what topic to choose. Due to his interest in 9/11, Howley suggested that Kielty study the event.
Howley told her to begin with Jeffery Melnick's "9/11 Culture" after stumbling upon it in a bookstore.
After they both had read the material, she created a research paper on 9/11 with the book being the central source. Because of this project and his interests in both media and 9/11, Howley decided the connection was strong enough to create a 300-level communication class on the topic. He wanted to be able to reach a wide range of students and teach them about the culture and implications related to 9/11.
"Whether we're aware of it or not, a good amount of our popular culture today is influenced by it [9/11]," Howley said.
Senior Caroline Torie signed up for Howley's class because she is interested in media culture. She also believes 9/11 is central to both the history and media of the United States. While Torie has been in the class for only a few weeks, she has already been impacted by the graphic adaptation of the 9/11 Commission Report.
"It brought to light how unprepared we were and how communication between agencies was essentially nonexistent," Torie said. "The event is more real to me now. The images on TV that I remember seeing were almost something from a movie. Now, I have a better understanding of what happened that day, and it is much closer to my heart."
Over the summer, Howley asked his students to read "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" by Jonathan Safran Foer. The book's story is told from the perspective of a nine-year-old boy whose father died in the World Trade Centers before the novel begins. The boy, Oskar, finds a key in his father's closet and sets out across New York to find the owner. The book, which is packed with 9/11 implications, made the New York Times bestseller list and was turned into a film in January 2012.
Howley chose to begin with this text because it "offers an approach to the way of thinking of the class and how it will handle the media of 9/11."
Russel said the reading material has been a valuable asset to the class.
"It is always important to review and analyze major traumatic events in order to learn about the reasoning behind, in this case, the attacks and effects it has had on our country," he said.
Beyond books focused on 9/11, Howley will also teach a book called Techniques of Close Reading in order to help students do their own analysis of some form of media, whether it be a play, book or multimedia. Howley's goal in creating this class was to help students take pop culture and media seriously and to learn the impact of the event so they can ascertain what it means to be an American.
Senior Noah Droddy, who took Howley's class last year as a junior, still remembers some of the material from the class.
"I learned just how much 9/11 has permeated our culture to this day. References both subtle and explicit flood through all forms of media still to this day," Droddy said. "It was also interesting to really learn the facts of what happened that day, and how those facts have been interpreted; which is definitely something the news media did a poor job reporting...while the attack was an awful tragedy, as humans we must always strive for peace."
Howley and Prakash hope they can help students look at 9/11 from a critical perspective. Both of their classes focus on the media's relation to 9/11 and how the event has impacted the past 11 years in American popular culture and around the world.
"I'd like them [students] to know that asking critical questions does not mean they do not have profound empathy for the terrible events of that day," Praskah said. "It was horrific, a terrible tragedy. I want students to feel free to look at this event critically without feeling like they are crossing a moral line."