Academic Overview
The nature of this course will be to investigate how Scotland's crofting tradition, literary landscape, and place in the United Kingdom influence the Scottish identity and national consciousness. We will study how the past literary lights of Scotland, especially Sir Walter Scott, Robert Burns, and Robert Louis Stevenson, illuminate both Edinburgh as a city and the present literary landscape; furthermore, we will examine how contemporary Scottish writers cultivate a thriving literary landscape of their own, independent from the past tradition. We will travel to Inverness, Portree on the Isle of Skye and Edinburgh.
Readings
McPhee, John.
The Crofter and the Laird. New York: Noonday Press, 1992
Stevenson, Robert Louis.
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde. 1886. New York, Dover Publications, 1991.
Additional Reading Packet Provided.
Comprehensive Fee
$3,700-$4,100: Includes airfare, in-country travel, lodging, meals, and entrance to cultural sites. (Final cost dependent on the number of participants and airfare)
Extra costs include $150 administrative fee, personal expenses for souvenirs and extras.
Program Leaders
Dr. Janet Blank-Libra
Professor, Director of Journalism & Chair of the English and Journalism Department
605.274.5436
janet.blank-libra@augie.edu
Janet Blank-Libra teaches courses in journalism as well as foundational courses in literature. She also regularly teaches courses in literary journalism, ethics and law of the press, news reporting and writing and the Civitas literature and Reading Augustana courses. She was the 2005 recipient of the Vernon and Mildred Niebuhr Faculty Excellence Award and the 2008 recipient of the Augustana Student Association teaching award. In 2017 Blank-Libra published Pursuing an Ethic of Empathy in Journalism, a book within which she advances a journalistic theory of empathy and challenges long-held notions about how best to do journalism. Dr. Blank-Libra’s Ph.D. in journalism is from Southern Illinois University. She has traveled in India, Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, and Scotland.
Dr. Beth Boyens
Assistant Professor
605.274.5430
beth.boyens@augie.edu
An Augustana alumna, Beth Boyens joined Augustana’s English department faculty in 2000. She teaches foundational courses in literature and composition, specifically First-Year Seminar (FYS) courses and the introduction to literature (English 200) course. In addition, she teaches advanced composition, non-western, young adult, trauma literature, and an interim course entitled “Literary Bodies: Symptoms and Prescriptions.” Boyens’s research area is 19th-century American women’s literature; her other areas of interest include multicultural literature, regionalism, and trauma studies. Boyens has traveled widely in Europe as well as Africa and the Middle East; this will be her second trip to Scotland. Her M.A. in English is from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, and her Ph.D. is from the University of South Dakota.