Course Enroll

I'm happy. For those of you whom I haven't told in person, this is the happiest semester of my college career, and one of the happiest periods of my life: everything seems to have fallen into place very well, and I seem to have finally sorted out some of my priorities.

Take, for instance, the annual Cornellian ritual in which I participated this morning: course enroll. A few days ago, I drew up two possible schedules; the first one, I think, reflects the sort of mentality I had before I went to France: I stuffed it with the typical load of 20 credit hours (less than my painful 24-credit 3rd semester), taking at least one class simply because of guilt.
Then I reflected: I learn an enormous amount outside of class, from attending free lectures on campus, from studying with my various learning partners, and from conversations with the fascinating people with whom I am fortunate enough to share this campus.

So I drew up a different schedule, removing two History Department classes, and replacing them with a French course that looks like it could introduce me to a new way of thinking, but probably will never be terribly useful to a history teacher. It's a 16-credit lightweight schedule. Then Josh Polevoy walked in, and I asked him to take a look. We agreed that the second schedule was much, much more attractive, and, hey, will leave me with only one class on Mondays and Fridays (i.e. virtual 4-day weekend). As long as I'm going to be getting out of bed by 7:40 or so as many mornings as possible anyway, I may as well take a single morning course, and be free for the rest of the day.

So what courses am I planning on taking? Well, here's what and why:

Elementary Modern Hebrew I - After deciding between trying to learn Spanish or Hebrew, I finally decided that Hebrew matters more to me, even though Spanish would probably be more practical. It's very important to me that I learn Hebrew; I'm hoping that, with my proficiency in French, and my prior knowledge of the alphabet, the concept of word roots, a few key nouns, etc., I'll be able to learn quickly.

Honors Thesis - Planning on taking the second of three steps on my way to an Honors History Thesis. Currently, I'm planning on returning to one of my favorite topics: food history. My subject subject will be the social dynamics of wartime rationing in Vichy France. My inspiration is Belinda J. Davis's Home Fires Burning, a fascinating study of wartime provisioning in Berlin, 1914-1918. She uncovered an enormous amount of information in police archives, etc, about the day-to-day street interactions of hungry people. I'd like to do the same thing for Vichy France.

Introduction to Art History: Renaissance and Baroque Art - Various acquaintances, including my Mother, have recommended this course to me; I think that I've heard it recommended more than any other course at Cornell, in fact. Claudio Lezarro apparently knows her facts forwards and backwards (just like Prof. Hull). The Renaissance is a fascinating period in European history, and you can't understand it without understanding the art; in was in his Lives of the Artists, the first book on art history, that Giorgio Vasari coined the term "Renaissance" in the first place. Additionally, I have not yet taken any courses on art history, and my time spent in French museums impressed upon me the value of being able to "read" works of art, and understand their composition.

The Song of Songs - This is, surprisingly, in the French department, and is a way of continuing my study of the language. It's taught by the professor who was my assigned academic advisor when I first came to Cornell. This class might change my life. Or, it might not.

I'm excited. But now, I need to get back to reading up on Vichy.

~JD

"Far from attempting to save the children of the foreign Jews whom they delivered to the Germans, French authorities offered them, too, for deportation. Vichy suggested that children be sent along with the adults even before the Nazis were ready to accept them. During 1942... 1,032 children under six years were sent to Auschwitz from France, along with 2,557 between six and twelve, and 2,464 between thirteen and seventeen... the French police had 'on different occasions expressed the desire to see the children also deported to the Reich with their parents.' Finally, on 20 July, Eichmann telephoned his answer. Jewish children and old people could be deported as well as those capable of work" (Marrus and Paxton, Vichy France and the Jews, p. 263).