Our last class outing was to the London Transport Museum- an outing we decided upon as the original planned outing was another duplicate from my other classes.
The museum itself was very over-stimulating and crammed and crowded with displays and replicas and interactive exhibits. I found myself struggling to engage with the material being presented, as I was constantly being distracted by audio tracks from various displays or too much information being thrown at me at once.
As neither of us had been there before, it was to be expected that we were going to have to play it by ear more than usual and just explore and see what we would come across in terms of relatable information to our course material. Overall, I don't feel that the displays were particularly relevant, as they very much focused on means of transportation in London and beyond throughout time from several centuries ago up to the present. There was plenty of interesting information about how the underground network was created and how the tube and buses and trains have evolved, and I particularly liked seeing the design of posters from tube stations from throughout the decades as they were so uniquely and creatively designed.
What I found to be especially meaningful about the last class time and outing, however, were our conversations reflecting on the course as whole and on the overall experience of a class with just a student and a professor.
I have absolutely loved this class. The course itself was extremely relevant to my interests in terms of the subject matter, and the adaptations we made to make it even more directed at things I am interested in (such as writing this blog after the weekly outings), were an added benefit of being the only student that I was not expecting. The way in which the lecture revolved around discussion while taking notes on a giant notepad that I was able to take away and add to my own notes was an entirely new method for me, and I found it to be very helpful as well as an effective way for me to follow along and be able to voice my thoughts without being distracted by trying to take notes constantly.
It was definitely challenging adapting to a class so centered around discussion and dialogue where I was the only student- I didn't have other classmates to answer the questions or speak up instead. It intimidated me during our first class session, when I realized how much more effort and concentration and thorough understanding it took for me to be able to really engage and make the most of our time together, but I quickly grew to absolutely cherish those conversations. It was so much more stimulating and interesting to absorb the lecture and then have to respond to questions and contribute my thoughts immediately after, and it definitely kept me engaged and attentive in entirely new ways. I had to be a much more active student, and I truly enjoyed it.
The format of the class also pushed me to challenge myself in terms of my understanding of the weekly assigned reading material, and in terms of how I was able to interpret and apply the theories and concepts to writing in the public sphere as a broad theory in itself, as well as to apply it to my own personal writings.
Our weekly outings were always extremely relevant to the topics we had discussed in class, and I loved seeing the theories and our discussions come to life in the various walks we took and museums we visited and places we explored each week. I enjoyed having time to wander and soak everything in on my own, and also being able to learn from the knowledge and wisdom of Nina as she pointed out important things or shared information with me about what we were seeing. I left every outing feeling much more enlightened and aware of the history and culture of London and of how the public sphere really functions in the real world, and not just on paper.
I learned more from this class than I have from any other class in my education until this point, and I am so grateful for the experience. It was more challenging, and more rewarding, than I was ever expecting. I read articles that were dense and very academic and about theories and beliefs I had never been aware of, but I feel that I was able to grasp the concepts well and explain them in our conversations, which was very gratifying. I came to see the public sphere in an entirely new light and to understand it more fully as it has changed and evolved since the days when Habermas first analyzed it to today in a world consumed by social media.
As a result of reading and studying these well-written and complex articles and excerpts, I feel that my personal writing consequently improved. Writing my weekly blog posts gave me a chance to thoughtfully analyze and process the outings in terms of their connection to the material we had studied in a more casual and informal way, and the midterm and final essays have given me the opportunity to find where my voice is in the larger scheme of the material and solidly present my personal arguments in a more formal way.
These past eight weeks have given me a complete new understanding of and perspective on the way that the public sphere functions today in contrast to how it functioned before new media technologies, and an increased awareness in my abilities as a student and what I'm capable of doing. Thank you, Nina, for everything this summer! I'll always remember this class and all of our time together fondly.
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