1. The Journey to the Underworld In Greek Myth and Modern Film
A Freshman Seminar

2. Freshman Seminar: Goals and Objectives
Intellectual Community
Participatory Learning
Collaboration
Communication
WRITING
SPEAKING/ ORAL
LISTENING/ AURAL
VISUAL
MUSIC
BODY

3. COMMUNITY What factors build a successful community?
What factors detract from such success?
How does one know when one belongs to a successful community?
What is an “intellectual community” and why is it important?

4. PARTICIPATORY LEARNING
When was the last time that you experienced “deep learning”? What were the circumstances?
What did you learn? What was learned? Content? Perspective? Self-realization?
How did learning change you?
Did learning occur in a vacuum? What factors, people, etc. enabled the learning process?

5. COLLABORATION
Is collaborative performance more important than individual performance? Why? Why not?
What can be learned through collaboration that can’t be learned otherwise?
What does it mean to collaborate productively?
What is at stake for the individual?
What is at stake for the group?

6. COMMUNICATION What are the elements of good writing?
What are the elements of good speaking?
What are the elements of good listening?
What can visual and musical communication achieve that writing and speaking cannot?
What is the value of research in terms of communicating effectively?
What is at stake?

7. The Journey to the Underworld: Why???
Persistent Meta-Myth
Text and Great Literary Works
Material Culture
Visual Culture
Stories
The Universal and the Human Imagination

8. Preliminary Research Questions: using textual, material, and visual culture
What were the burial practices of the ancient Greeks?
What are the Eleusinian Mysteries and what do we know about them?
What is Orphism, and what do we know about it? Why is Orphism important to understanding Greek notions about the Afterlife?
What was Plato’s view of the Afterlife? How did Plato’s view differ from the general beliefs of Plato’s contemporaries?