Asalaam Alaikum,
I originally submitted this in December for THiNK, the magazine of the College of Liberal Arts at my alma mater, Purdue University. Unfortunately, I was the only one who responded to the call for "Favorite Purdue Classes" so, they scrapped the section for the forthcoming issue. But, I thought I'd just reprint it here.
Although I’m a political scientist by training, the most influential class I ever took at Purdue was in the English department. In the spring of 2002, I took “American Regionalism” with Prof. Sean “Kip” Robisch and I have never been the same.
Robisch changed the way I read American prose and poetry, the way I understood the interplay between nature and literature, and the way I had been underestimating the power of words. As we crossed the U.S. from Ken Kesey’s Oregon to William Faulkner’s Mississippi, Robisch gave us the tools and understanding to make the American landscape come alive. It’s almost like he taught me to finally appreciate America and its beauty as expressed through its best writers.
Robisch has been so influential in my life that I even dedicated my Masters thesis to him. I am a better person, writer, environmentalist and teacher because of him. I took multiple classes with several Purdue professors in political science and yet, it has been one class I took almost seven years ago that has left the greatest impression on me. Kip Robisch’s class was the best I ever had at Purdue and there are thousands of his students across the globe who probably feel the same way.
In Purdue Pride,
Shyam K. Sriram
BA 2002, Political Science
Instructor, Department of Business and Social Sciences,
Georgia Perimeter College
Clarkston, Georgia
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