Dr. David Buyze Q&A

Teaching in the MLA since:				2018
Specialty/Area of Research:				Interdisciplinary
MLA Courses Taught:				Transnational Literature Intimate World Literatures Global Memoirs British Music & Memoir David Bowie: Persona, Music, & Meaning Music, Fashion, and Style

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How many years have you been teaching in the MLA program and what class or classes have you taught?

I have been teaching in the MLA program since 2018. I teach the following courses: Transnational Literature; Intimate World Literatures; Global Memoirs; British Music & Memoir; David Bowie: Persona, Music & Meaning; and Music, Fashion & Style.

Tell us a little bit about your specialty or area of research?

My interdisciplinary scholarly interests extend through the Americas to Europe, South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East in focusing on issues of conflict, identity, race, gender, ethnicity, religion, globalization, nationalism, and colonial/postcolonial paradigms. My thinking is deeply framed by critical theory, philosophy, and psychoanalysis as modes of inquiry, and I am particularly interested in cultural, social, and political issues of marginalization and how existential, social, and national dimensions of liberation can occur within literary and artistic forms of expressions. I am also currently focusing on dimensions of music and literature as counter-cultural forces that shape and inform alternative ways of thinking and being in the world.

How does your background inform your teaching and scholarship?

My background in critical thinking enables vital ways to deeply reside within varied modes of inquiry and perspectives that foster greater forms of empathy and affiliation with others that are different from one’s experience and awareness of the world.

How do you try to make the material in your class engaging considering most students complete their MLA degree 100% online?

My classes incorporate collaborative discussions and the use of multimedia alongside the critical interpretation and analysis of critical and literary texts. In addition, the online platform ArcGIS StoryMaps is utilized in some classes which enables students to leverage the use of images, audio, video, and mapping alongside written narratives in deepening how the texts and other course materials can be understood and illustrated.

What is an interesting fact about yourself that you like to share with your students?

I am writer on music and culture for Atwood Magazine.

What advantages do you think there are to getting a Master’s Degree in the Liberal Arts? How can it be helpful in the “real world”?

An MA degree in Liberal Arts can build a cornerstone of thinking and being in the world which provides one with the critical skills to create meaning and significance in one’s life, and in enabling vibrant ways to inhabit alternative cultural perspectives of humanistic global experiences.

What do you hope students walk away from your class having learned or gained?

Being able to think contrapuntally, and critically inhabit the perspectives and experiences of others.

Tell us about any upcoming publications you are working on.

I am currently writing a column on music and cities for Atwood Magazine.

How do your courses relate to events that your students experience or read about on a day-to-day basis?

My courses relate to day-to-day events as the course materials expose ways of thinking and reflecting on life, existence, society, and the world in ways that are not typically encountered in popular news outlets.

Why would you encourage students to pursue an MLA degree?

Being able to think otherwise about one’s life and the lives and experiences of others in the interdisciplinary platform of the liberal arts creates invaluable critical tools that can be carried throughout one’s life in creating a more humanistic and cosmopolitan manner of being in the world.