Another blow struck in the name of diversity.
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College students assigned comic books, best-sellers
By Joe Killian
Staff Writer
GREENSBORO -- When college students take that trip to the bookstore
each semester many think they know what they'll be buying: the new
edition of the same weighty old tome their parents bought when they
took the course 30 years ago.
But for an increasing number of courses, the standard texts are
anything but ordinary: comic books, modern best-selling novels and
controversial nonfiction.
"If there's a really popular book or something on a controversial
subject, people notice it. We'll sometimes sell out," said Jessica
Robinson, textbook manager at UNCG's campus bookstore. "If students
have to have the book for a class and they've all sold out, we'll
sometimes have to re-order them."
One such book is "*****: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word," a
book from lecturer Tracey Salisbury's African American Studies course.
The popular book by Randall Kennedy examines the history of the word,
how it's used and why. Although it was praised by some people, others
were offended when it was published in 2003.
The same class also reads "Beyond the Down Low," a book about
"straight" black men who have sex with gay men.
Salisbury said she encourages her students to read the books in public
to see the reactions they get and the conversations they start.
Salisbury also uses "Birth of a Nation," a comic-book novel by Aaron
McGruder, creator of the popular cartoon strip "Boondocks." And she's
not the only professor outside the art department assigning comics. An
English 105 class this semester was required to read "Watchmen" -- a
dystopian comic about superheroes who are outlawed by presidential
order and struggle with existential dilemmas.
For many professors, the question of what makes a good text isn't
always a simple one.
"I think it's necessary to push the envelope on texts to keep up with
the students and what they're reading," said Fran Arndt, a UNCG
professor who teaches a detective fiction class. Her students read
classics such as "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes" and "The Maltese
Falcon," as well as modern best sellers such as "The No. 1 Ladies
Detective Agency."
"It's also about showing them that there are things being written
right now that work well and demonstrate what we're teaching," Arndt
said. "We're not talking about something that happened then. We're
talking about something that's relevant right now."
Students said they appreciate professors who break from dusty academic
tradition to find their texts.
"You know what kind of class it's going to be from the way the
professor chooses a textbook," said Shannon Taylor, a sophomore at
UNCG. "If it's exactly what you expected when you walk in, the
professor could just be going through the motions and teaching the
same thing the same way they've been doing it for 20 years or
whatever. If they choose something they think will interest you and
challenge you, you know they really care."
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