While many freshmen spend their Destinations trip going to dinners or museums, sixteen freshmen spent theirs touring a cemetery.
The FSEM class, taught by Dr. Jodie A. Kreider, is titled “Gender, Feminism, Power & Pop Culture: Decoding Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”
The course is based on a question stated in the course description: “What if, instead of running from the monster in a horror movie, the blond girl turned around, fought back and won?”
A First-year Seminar, or FSEM, is a required class taken in the fall quarter of freshman year.
Each class goes on a Destinations trip relating to the course at the end of orientation week.
Freshman biology major, Mallory Walker, from Fort Collins said she loves her Buffy FSEM.
“It’s a group of girls fangirling over an awesome show, but then we also get to be academic about it,” said Walker.
The course instructor, Dr. Jodie A. Kreider, has her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona. She is currently an interdisciplinary lecturer in the history department at DU and specializes in Welsh nationalism and gender.
She has a passionate interest in “Buffy Studies” and has been teaching the course since 2006, though she took a break for two years.
This quarter is Dr. Kreider’s first time teaching the class since her sebaticle from FSEM instruction.
“It’s a seminar that unpacks and analyzes a popular culture text in a similar fashion to any cultural text,” said Kreider. “It looks at television from an academic standpoint.”
According to Walker, “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” has been off the air long enough for it to be relevant to academic studies. The show aired from 1997-2003 and continues to be widely popular.
“No one has stopped studying Jane Austen or Charles Dickens. Why stop studying it because it’s modern?” said Walker.
The course description contains themes ranging widely from romanticism and feminism to witchcraft and individual responsibility.
For the class’ final project, students must create their own “Buffy Studies” unit, complete with a lesson plan and course theme.
According to Dr. Kreider, this allows the students to delve deeper into their favorite aspects of “Buffy Studies,” while giving them the freedom to incorporate their own scholarly interpretations of the show.
“I also love it because I get to know the freshmen and mold them into good students, said Kreider.
“They come out of here as critical consumers of culture.”
“Buffy Studies” or “Buffyology” has led to the publication of quite a few books on the subject.
Included in this “Buffy lore” is a collection of essays titled “Buffy in the Classroom,” which were co-authored by Dr. Kreider.
“I think FSEMs are an amazing way for professors to teach their passions,” said Kreider.
There are several online academic journals, associations and an academic Biennial Slayage Conference.
“It’s only recently that academics have really gotten into film and it’s become a major media,” said Kreider. “What’s unique about Buffy is that it’s sophisticated enough to make it worthy of study.”
