Thinking With Bartlet’s State of the Union

Last summer, I had the privilege of participating in an on-line roundtable discussing Aaron Sorkin’s work. My piece focused on the potency of Sorkin’s Josiah Bartlet, the president of The West Wing. His poignant articulation of the American Dream is thought-provoking and inspiring. And as I mentioned in that post, fans are still listening. On [...]

When Texts Sell

This project demonstrates how a comparative framework can assist students read unfamiliar texts. Juxtaposing the ever-evocative “Biblezine” with the more apocryphal 4 Maccabees, I show how critical and comparative theories can enrich and enliven the student reading experience. This approach reminds students to keep in the fore the life and death implications that draw an [...]