迈克·雷诺兹 has taught in Hamline's English department since the Fall of 2001, after a brief stint at Oberlin 大学 in Ohio. Since arriving his exaggerated enthusiasm for institutional service has led him into the directorship of Hamline's Collaborative Research program, co-directorship of the Race, 性别, and Beyond faculty development program, and membership (and chair duties) on a range of 大学 and University committees and has served as Associate Provost.
Mike primarily teaches courses in American literature, 电影, 和文化, mostly concentrated in work produced after 1865. He also has experience teaching world literatures (with a particular emphasis on South Africa) and 残疾 studies. He has published on narratives of the Kennedy assassination, multicultural pedagogy in the world literatures classroom, and teaching theory through the 电影s of Spike Lee. 迈克·雷诺兹 received his B.A. 从圣. Lawrence University in 1989 (majoring in English, with a concentration in Creative Writing) and his Ph.D. from the University of Southern California in 2000 (in English). He lives in (and loves) the Hamline-Midway neighborhood.
Mike finds that we sometimes have an unfortunate tendency to draw a hard line between the experiences (and pleasures) of everyday reading and the theoretical abstractions (and difficulties) of (merely) academic ‘criticism.换句话说, people hear “theory” or "English class" and they think of a) work, 不快乐, and b) ivory-tower complexities, not actual interpretive practices. 迈克说"去他的". He believes that cultural theory and critical practice build from a wide range of disparate, 反直觉的, sometimes-difficult philosophies–but, 不管你怎么想, the goal in the classroom is to develop and test-drive rigorous ways to organize our thoughts about how we think, 以及如何(以及为什么), and what) we read (and see, 和知道). Mike believes that every class is full of readers/viewers/writers with a LOT of experience. The goal in class is to build on your existing expertise and skills, help you to become a practicing academic and an even better enthusiast in the stuff you relish; classes in our department will enliven, 无力的, 激励, 扩大, and enrich the ways you interpret.
"I once failed a driving test because I couldn’t parallel park a van, but I could explain to the examiner *why* I failed and how – and so he passed me. 真正的, long-term learning isn't about this test or that essay; good classes help you think about what works and what doesn’t—and help you care less about that final, ephemeral “thing” you produce at this particular moment. The goal is to get really good at knowing yourself and how you practice, so that over the long run you continue to improve."
——迈克尔·雷诺兹
How to Analyze the Films of Spike Lee. Minneapolis, MN: Essential Library, 2010. A manuscript in a series on the teaching of critical theory in high school curricula.
“Misinterpretation: The work of discipline (and other problems) in a general-education World Literature Survey.” Journal of the Midwest Modern Langu年龄s Association 39.1(2006年春季).
“The Glassy Knoll: Identity and Identification in Kennedy Narratives.” JPCS: Journal for the Psychoanalysis of Culture & 社会6.1(二一年春季). 83-96.
最近的演讲
“'I laugh sometimes too’: Viewer pleasure as moral vision in the Coen brothers’ No Country For Old Men.” Annual Meeting of the Society for Cinema and Media Studies, March 2010.
