The Past Isn't Dead. It Isn't Even Past.

Global Studies is central to the educational mission of Semester at Sea.  It is mandatory for all Semester at Sea participants.  It acts as the core academic experience that connects everyone traveling on Semester at Sea and reinforces the intent of the educational experience of the voyage:  to educate students about the interconnectedness of culture, learning and life.

Professor Bowler is  perfectly qualified to teach this class.  He received his Ph.D. in History from King’s College, University of London.  He is a cultural historian, whose research spans not only Renaissance monarchy, but also the religious content of The Simpsons and the relationship between Aristotle and professional wrestling.  

This morning’s class focused on the continuing historical interconnectedness of cultures, especially of those we are visiting in the Mediterranean.  Professor Bowler started his lecture with the story of the birth of the Minotaur, of the role of King Minos of Crete, of Theseus and Daedalus.  He showed us  how this myth and the characters in the myth have never died;  how, in fact, they have been kept alive for centuries through cultural memory, art and literature.  He showed us how Peter Breugel’s interpreted the myth of Icarus in his sixteenth century painting, The Death of Icarus and he read the opening lines of twentieth century English poet  W.H. Auden’s poem “Musee Des Beaux Arts”  based on this painting.

Professor Bowler showed us how cultures, and the European cultures in particular, borrowed or stole from each other, cultural artifacts and memories.  So, for example, Constantine took obelisks from Egypt to decorate the city of Constantinople, modern-day Istanbul.  He pointed out how political regimes draw on the past to legitimize the present, such as Hitler’s use of the eagle of the Roman legions.  

He reminded us that historical events are often remembered differently by different cultures, and continue in the memory of those cultures.  So the people of Turkey and Australia, for very different reasons, remember the battle of Gallipoli as not just as a great defeat for the British but as the beginning of independence for their own countries. 

Finally, Dr. Ruth Setton, a literature and writing instructor and a novelist, shared  a moving, personal perspective on memory, culture and identity.  She read a brief excerpt from her essay “Living Between Question Marks. ”  The essay, required reading for the students, describes her own sense of living between the past and the present as a Moroccan Jew, whose first language was French and whose Jewish grandfather wrote  in classical Arabic.

Professor Bowler's first Global Studies class provided a dynamic opener to the summer 2010 voyage:  rich in academic discourse and personal narrative, humorous asides and contemporary illustrations.