Childhood in America In this course we will explore “childhood” as an evolving social and cultural construct.  Beginning by acknowledging great diversity in the lived experience of childhood (shaped by race, gender, geography, religion, ability/disability), we will examine representations of childhood and experiences of children from the early nineteenth century to the present.  Together we will explore classic works of literature such as Alcott’s Little Women, Twain’s Huck Finn, and Morrison’s The Bluest Eye, in conversation with historical documents and visual and material artifacts (illustrations, painting, toys, and films).  Throughout, we will consider how understanding conceptions of childhood illuminate American social and cultural history more broadly.

The Bohemian Spirit: Literature, Culture, and Social Movements Greenwich Village 1912-1923 During the 1910s an extraordinary gathering radicals and reformers, artists and writers from across the United States and Europe converged in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village neighborhood. In this course we will immerse ourselves in this transformative cultural landscape. Through the study of literature (Whitman, Dreiser, Edna St. Vincent Millay, the “little magazines”, James Joyce) visual art (John Sloan, Marcel Duchamps, Man Ray); theatre (Eugene O’Neil, Susan Glaspell), and social and cultural movements like feminism, suffrage, and labor rights, we will explore how the bohemian ethos of the time fostered a creative and social revolution. We will finish with a Reacting to the Past game, Greenwich Village, 1912-13 and consider the long-term influence of Greenwich Village's impact on American and global cultural history.

See the U.S.A.: The History of Tourism in American Culture In this course, we will explore the history and evolution of American tourism, beginning in the 1820s, when middle-class tourists first journeyed up the Hudson River valley, and ending with our contemporary and continuing obsession with iconic destinations such as Graceland, Gettysburg, and the Grand Canyon. We will explore how the growth of national transportation systems, the development of advertising, and the rise of a middle class with money and time to spend on leisure shaped the evolution of tourism.  Along the way, we will study various types of tourism (such as historical, cultural, ethnic, eco-, and 'disaster' tourism) and look at the creative processes by which places are transformed into 'destinations'.  Our texts will come from visual art, travel literature, material culture, and film and television.  We will consider their cultural meaning and reflect on our own motivations and responses as tourists, and by so doing contemplate why tourism was-and still is-such an important part of American life.

American Revolutions: Reacting to the Past In this course we will be examining three moments of intellectual and cultural conflict in the United States, which will likely include 1) The Revolution in NYC, 1775-76, 2) Greenwich Village, 1913 (Suffrage, Labor and the New Woman) and, 3) Chicago, 1968. We will dive deep into these revolutionary moments via Reacting to the Past games, in which you will present  the perspectives of historical characters—sometimes with values quite different than your own--in lively debate. These games do not have a fixed script: you’ll find yourself researching historic documents, collaborating, making public speeches, plotting—and in the end, perhaps even rewriting history.

Constructing Memory: American Monuments and Memorials “Democracy has no monuments,” John Quincy Adams once famously argued.   “It strikes no medals; it bears the head of no man upon its coin; its very essence is iconoclastic.”  Yet nearly 250 years after America’s founding, monuments and memorials surround us. In this course we will explore the memorializing impulse; the complexity and depth of emotion evoked by memorial acts; and the oftentimes heated controversies about modes, placement, and subject of representation.  We will consider how and why America chooses to memorialize certain people and events, and what is gained—and sometimes erased—in the process.  By choosing among a broad range of traditional and non-traditional modes of representation, we will consider how public memorials both reflect and shape Americans’ shared cultural values.  The course will include site visits to local monuments and projects in which we propose designs or redesigns of memorials for a 21st century audience.

Portraits of the Lady: The New Woman in American Literature & Culture At the end of the 19th century, women fought against restrictions limiting their sphere of influence. As they sought to exercise more control over their lives personally, socially, and economically, this “New Woman,”  and the way she was changing the face of society, became a popular subject in literature and art.  In this course we will consider portraits of women by well-known American authors (such as James, Chopin, Wharton, Sui Sin Far, Cather, Larsen, Hurston) alongside those by prominent painters, sculptors, photographers, illustrators, and filmmakers.  We will consider how representations of women through the early twentieth century embodied the values of the nation and codified both the fears and aspirations of its citizens.

Reacting to the Past: America in Turmoil - From Chicago, 1968 to Watergate In this course students will dive deep into the politically charged landscape of the 1960s and 1970s via two Reacting to the Past games—Chicago, 1968: The Democratic National Convention and Watergate, 1974-1975. As participants, students will research and present the perspectives of historical characters—sometimes with values quite different from their own—in lively debate. These games do not have a fixed script: students will find themselves examining classic documents, collaborating, making public speeches, plotting—and in the end, perhaps even rewriting history. As students deepen their understanding of this era, they will also gain insights into what might be at stake in present and future historical inflection points.

Captivity Narratives Captivity narratives—first-person accounts of people's experiences of being forcibly taken and held against their will by an "other"—were immensely popular and important in early America; the captivity motif has been perpetuated and transformed throughout later American literature and film. In this course we will explore what these types of tales reveal about how Americans have handled the issues of race and racism, religion, gender, violence and sexuality that experiences of captivity entail.  Beginning with classic Puritan narratives (Mary Rowlandson) and moving forward through the 19th and 20th centuries, we will consider the ways that novels (The Last of the Mohicans), autobiographies (Patty Hearst, Iraqi captivity of Pvt. Jessica Lynch) and films (The Searchers, Little Big Man, Dances with Wolves) do cultural work in shaping and challenging images of American national identity.

Sophomore Seminar in the Liberal Arts The current pandemic, and all the questions it brings to the fore about what we value in a college experience, make this an ideal moment to consider the meaning and purpose of your liberal arts education. At the heart of this exploration will be a question posed by physicist Arthur Zajonc: “How do we find our own authentic way to an undivided life where meaning and purpose are tightly interwoven with intellect and action, where compassion and care are infused with insight and knowledge?” We will examine how, at this pivotal moment of decision making, you can understand your college career as an act of “cultivating humanity” and how you can meaningfully challenge yourself to take ownership of your intellectual and personal development. Through interdisciplinary and multicultural exploration, drawing from education studies and philosophical, religious, and literary texts, we will engage our course questions by way of student-led discussion, written reflection, and personal, experiential learning practices. In this way we will examine how a liberal arts education might foster the cultivation of an ‘undivided’ life, “the good life”, a life well-lived.

Liberal Learning in a Time of Challenge In this course, we will explore how an education in the liberal arts and sciences may help one face -our complicated times with added resilience, compassion and curiosity.  Our guiding question:  how can your education help you live fully in this moment and cultivate a life of the mind—and spirit—that helps you address the challenges in the world around us?  We’ll explore this question by way of discussion, written reflection and mindfulness practices and consider texts such as: Frankl, The Search for Meaning; Coates, Between the World and Me, Mandel, Station Eleven, Kalanithi, When Breath Becomes Air, and Martel, The Life of Pi.

Deb Evans

Reviews and ratings for Deb Evans at Middlebury College.Deb Evans teaches Childhood in America, Greenwich Village 1912-1923, Tourism in American Culture and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Deb Evans good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

This was a really fun and interesting course. It's extremely immersive and in order to do well you have to truly understand the readings beforehand (you can get away with skimming them but at the very least you should watch a short video covering the concepts). Speeches were a key component in this class, so be ready for public speaking (but the environment was very relaxed so it didn't feel too intense). This is a very unique course and quite different from other FYS so I would recommend it.

This was a great class with a low course load and interesting content. Deb Evan’s is an amazing professor and the lectures were always interesting. There were not exams for this class. There were two oral presentations that included the final project. 

I LOVED this class. I had it for my first year seminar and honestly could not have been put in a better seminar. Every class period was fun and engaging, and other than a bit of research and  writing assignments every couple of weeks it did not have a very heavy workload. Professor Evans is very passionate about what she teaches and was very fun to have as a "Gamemaster" helping us through the 3 games we played.