{"id":6664,"date":"2016-03-09T14:18:49","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T19:18:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/carleton.ca\/edc\/2016\/blog-unexpected-effects-of-course-material\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T13:28:05","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:28:05","slug":"blog-when-course-material-is-life-changing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/2016\/blog-when-course-material-is-life-changing\/","title":{"rendered":"Blog: When course material is life-changing"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<section class=\"w-screen px-6 cu-section cu-section--white ml-offset-center md:px-8 lg:px-14\">\n    <div class=\"space-y-6 cu-max-w-child-5xl  md:space-y-10 cu-prose-first-last\">\n\n            <div class=\"cu-textmedia flex flex-col lg:flex-row mx-auto gap-6 md:gap-10 my-6 md:my-12 first:mt-0 max-w-5xl\">\n        <div class=\"justify-start cu-textmedia-content cu-prose-first-last\" style=\"flex: 0 0 100%;\">\n            <header class=\"font-light prose-xl cu-pageheader md:prose-2xl cu-component-updated cu-prose-first-last\">\n                                    <h1 class=\"cu-prose-first-last font-semibold !mt-2 mb-4 md:mb-6 relative after:absolute after:h-px after:bottom-0 after:bg-cu-red after:left-px text-3xl md:text-4xl lg:text-5xl lg:leading-[3.5rem] pb-5 after:w-10 text-cu-black-700 not-prose\">\n                        Blog: When course material is life-changing\n                    <\/h1>\n                \n                                \n                            <\/header>\n\n                    <\/div>\n\n            <\/div>\n\n    <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n<p><em>By Mira Sucharov, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes the course material we assign can have unexpected effects. In my fourth-year seminar on graphic novels and political identity, I have allowed my syllabus to stray from a narrow view of my discipline. So while we study works on such topics as the Holocaust, the Iranian Revolution, North Korea and the Palestinian Intifada, we also examine sex work, urban renewal and decay, and sexual identity. This week, I assigned Ellen Forney\u2019s <em>Marbles: Mania, Depression, Michelangelo, and Me: A Graphic Memoir<\/em>. The book is an intimate and candid look at bipolar disorder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The class discussion around <em>Marbles<\/em> covered a range of social and political themes related to mental health stigma, employment discrimination and health policy. We asked whether there is a potential relationship between some mental health conditions and creativity. We looked at mental health in the context of other cognitive situations lending themselves to the \u201cneuro-typical and neuro-atypical\u201d framework of understanding the range of diverse mental states that occur. We examined social psychological research showing how triggering a certain emotional state (namely nostalgia) can help people become more accepting of those who suffer from mental illness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To make the point that emotional health often exists on a spectrum, and to encourage students to reflect privately or publicly on their own experiences, I disclosed my own struggles with an anxiety crisis a couple of years ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The most touching moment for me, though, was hearing a student tell the class that reading Marbles has now inspired her to seek treatment for a mental health challenge she faces. (I am sharing this here with her permission.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We often hope that teaching will be a transformative act. Sometimes it\u2019s as simple as selecting a scholarly or creative work that we know will be challenging or moving, without knowing exactly how, in which directions, or whose life it might change.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Mira Sucharov, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science Sometimes the course material we assign can have unexpected effects. In my fourth-year seminar on graphic novels and political identity, I have allowed my syllabus to stray from a narrow view of my discipline. So while we study works on such topics as the Holocaust, the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[142,677],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6664","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-edc-news"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6664"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40404,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6664\/revisions\/40404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6664"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6664"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/tls\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6664"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}