My Dear Students of Hum 243--Summer 2022,
In creating our syllabus for this year, I was pretty confident that we would produce another edition of our anthology, Heads & Tales. The inaugural edition came out of the fall 2019 class and in summer 2021, we created the second edition. While the fall seemed ideal–more time for creation and revision, and the Thanksgiving break–summer 2021 proved what our students’ famed brilliance, diligence, and drive could create in 5 weeks. So, I stated our objective to create Heads & Tales 2022 boldly in our course description.
As I write, we are still writing, editing, and curating our tales, and creating our website. This, however, is not because of procrastination or indifference. Far from it: it speaks to your creative restlessness, ingenuity, and professionalism, to your determination to invest all of your selves into perfecting, as far as possible, a project to which you are committed. I am amazed at your resilience and tenacity: you have joined class from your bedrooms and workplaces, from Germany and Mexico, and even while commuting. We also all shared and witnessed our feelings of fatigue, guilt, anxiety, and depression–whether in waves or like a weighted blanket. I do not, and have never taken for granted the struggles, labor and dedication that go into your genius.
As in years past, you volunteered for the boards and appointed their heads. You were perhaps the most collaborative team so far, as many of you served on multiple boards as contributors and liaisons, and you pitched in to help wherever it was needed. You wrote such amazing stories drawing from your experiences and cultural influences, designed multiple original artworks in consultation with the tales’ authors, and performed editorial functions. You secured the host for our site, coordinated all the efforts required, and designed the digital text. And you did this all remotely in a semester when some of us would have benefitted from the immediacy of in-person teaching.
I created this course back in 2014 in response to various needs I saw in the HSS curriculum: for greater interdisciplinarity, for more creative-based offerings and projects, for more inclusive pedagogy, and for greater recognition of student labor and effort over a semester. So, it was wonderful to see HUM 243: The Fairy Tale cited for innovative pedagogy in the report of recommendations from the Visiting Committee for Humanities and Social Sciences, 2022. Whether or not I will teach this course again, I hope that it continues to be offered, that future classes continue reading and analyzing the tales of the world’s traditions and continue them with new editions of Heads & Tales.
Now, to you, individually, my deep thanks and admiration:
Our digital text production team of Orchid Sylvester, Simon Yoon, Amanda Blanca, Eugene Jeong and Chris George, with invaluable assistance from Richard Yurewitch III.
Our editorial team of Jiah Jin, Gautaman Asirwatham, Matthew Leach, Anahita Sukhija.
Our art team of Natalia Salas Porras, Ananya Malagi, Fruie Athena Macris, Nyiesha Mallett, Ruiqi Ma, and Nico Chiat, headed by Cesar Rodriguez.
Our project management team of Amanda Blanca, Nico Chiat, and Gautaman Asirwatham, who created timelines, kept us on track, liaised among all boards, and created the invitation and flier for our unveiling.
Keep each other close, if possible. You are why we are here. You have my undying gratitude, admiration, and respect.
I hope you had fun and felt some joy this semester. And if you’re ever in doubt about your magic, read through our little book and see that you really did spin straw into gold.
Monday 27th June, 2022.
Sincerely,
Ramdass