Kent Wicker

My most recent LS 770 course was The Ambiguities of Satire.  In it, we traced the Western tradition of satire, but focused mainly on current issues. Is anything beyond the pale?  Who and what are proper targets for satire?  Is punching down ever right? Does satire lower our resistance to political critique, or make that critique seem less serious? How can satire compete with reality in a Trumpian age of postmodern “truthiness”? 
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I also regularly teach LS 750, the Graduate Liberal Studies (GLS) core course in identity and culture. I have developed several versions that relate to my own academic interests, including:
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• The Located Self: Discovering One’s Place in the World focuses on the lived experience of place. How do our natural and built environments shape our identities and relationships with others? How are our ideas of self and others written into the cultural landscape -- or rewritten imaginatively?
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• The Embodied Self: Flesh, Soul & Mind  focuses on how human identity is grounded in our sensory experience of the material world. What is the relationship between body, brain and mind? How do age and ability affect our identities and experiences? What hopes or fears are reflected in our fascination with robotics and alien bodies?
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• To the Ends of the Earth: Encountering the Cultural Other focuses on the Western self in its encounter with others. How do Western notions of identity change during the course of European travel and expansion? How has globalization affected our understanding of selfhood and otherness?