Lovework: An unfinished syllabus

January-February 2020

Dr. Jeanette Bushnell’s honors class “Lovework: An Unfinished Syllabus” was so intriguingly titled on the course schedule that I absolutely had to sign up for it. I’d never seen something so unabashedly touchy-feely as a course subject, and I, well, loved the idea of spending a quarter thinking about love from every possible angle. The class didn’t disappoint. It got me reading bell hooks (such a good thing!), Robin Wall Kimmerer, and Indigenous creation stories and pedagogy. It also provided the forum for some of my most memorable college discussions and for experiences like the day a sound healer came in and we spent a long time in deep meditation. And most impactfully, it helped me continue a thought that had started putting down roots in me last year -- the idea that “softer” subjects, or even non-soft subjects considered from angles of emotions/spirituality/metaphysics, are not any less interesting or worthy of study and appreciation than the “hard” subjects like STEM. Love is really all that drives any of us -- even though we can technically explain it in terms of pheromones and neurotransmitters, that doesn’t negate the magic of it or invalidate the profound emotional side. This theme has become really personally important to me since taking this class.

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Below is a playlist curated for our class by guest speaker and local musician and activist, Gabriel Teodros, who spent hours with us discussing the role of art and love in constructing a warmer future.