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CAS Majors Spent Time in Athens, Greece

Students Teaching Students

In coordination with an undergraduate-run organization called Students Teaching Students, CAS department faculty members mentor exemplary students who develop and teach 1-credit courses on a variety of subjects that advance expertise in communication and its role in public life. This semester, Associate Teaching Professor Lori Bedell is supporting undergraduates Kara Miller (who was in Lori’s RCL course a few years back) and Jess Strait as they teach a course titled “Period Talk: The Impact of Stigma on the Menstrual Equity Movement.”
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CAS Majors Spent Time in Athens, Greece

In the past year, CAS majors Ryan Hall (‘23) and Emmanuel Kraft (‘26) have spent time in Athens, Greece, with departmental support.The Athenian acropolis from below. Photo credit: Michele KennerlyRyan studied in Athens in spring 2022 as a member of the PSU Global program “History, Culture, and Archaeology of Greece,” which partners with Bucknell University and was led by English/CAS professor Dr. Debra Hawhee.Ryan Hall and classmates read Plato’s Phaedrus near the setting of the dialogue.Emmanuel was in Athens in January for the pilot program of the Global Brigades Legal Empowerment Chapter. His volunteer group established connections with local leaders who are working to address the refugee crisis through legal pathways. Emmanuel and classmates in front of a PowerPoint slide reading “Human Rights. Global Brigades Greece.”

Both Ryan and Emmanuel credit their CAS majors with helping them recognize and respect the complexities of intercultural communication.

What concepts or histories or theories that you’ve learned about in your CAS courses were amplified in importance during or by your time in Athens? How so? Ryan: A lot of the classes in CAS feature at least brief mentions of Aristotle’s Rhetoric, and all of those concepts become even cooler when you learn them in the place they were created. One of our class sessions, for CAS 499: The Sites and Sounds of Ancient Rhetoric, took place in the ruins of Aristotle’s school. It was really cool to read Aristotle’s work where he once taught. Besides that, so many CAS classes teach us valuable communication skills, and I found that the concepts I had learned about interpersonal and intercultural communication were very important while I dealt with the learning curve of being surrounded by an entirely different culture. Emmanuel: In my CAS classes, particularly in CAS 101N (Introduction to Human Communication) and CAS 272N (Political Communication and Technology), we have discussed the concept of identity and how different people express themselves. While being halfway around the world, I realized that though people have different cultures and traditions, we ultimately all share a common identity.Ryan Hall and English and CAS Prof Debra Hawhee in front of the Parthenon on the Athenian acropolis.Emmanuel entering the Propylaia atop the Athenian acropolis.