NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Golden Globe Award-winning television show Lost will be used as a springboard for learning concepts about cultural studies in a new communications studies course at Vanderbilt University.
“Lessons from Lost: A Case Study Introduction to Cultural Studies,” taught by Professor of Communications Studies John Sloop, is a fall 2006 class and one of more than 80 First-Year Writing Seminars offered to new students. The seminar classes are designed to help new students develop the “tool kit” of study skills and self-discipline they’ll need to thrive in Vanderbilt’s challenging academic environment.
“The reading material will be some pretty high-level theory,” Sloop said. “I’m assuming that the students are going to know more about the show than I do, perhaps, and I’m a big fan.”
“Nowadays, as we’re all aware, a television show is more than a television show. It’s the DVDs, it’s the extras on the DVDs. It’s the magazines, it’s the Web pages, it’s the books about it.”
Lost, about a group of plane-crash survivors stranded on an island, is a textured mystery enhanced by the producer’s embrace of Web pages, a novel and other media that may or may not provide clues to the ultimate mystery of the show. Some theorize that the characters are dead and being held in some kind of limbo, others think they are the victims of some kind of elaborate experiment.
There are many other theories, which keep fans watching for clues.
“Lost is one show of millions of images we’re dealing with all the time,” Sloop said. “I hope (the class) makes students more critical consumers. … I don’t think any of these kids are going to end up working for Lost. But whatever they end up doing, whether it’s journalism, law, whatever, they’ll become more reflective about language, word uses, symbols, signs, all that. That’s what the course ultimately hopes to do.”
The First Year Writing Seminars are part of the Achieving Excellence in Liberal Education curriculum in Vanderbilt’s College of Arts and Science. Other seminar offerings include “Jesus in the Quran,” “Bogus Science,” “Gangs and Gang Behavior,” “Music and Identity in Jewish Traditions” and “Mathematics and Games.”
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu