About this course:
An online course (my first!) taught over a four-week period to twenty-three international and domestic students about narrative structure and digital media. Topics included: video filming and editing, the personal essay, critical reading, narrative devices, the creative commons, interactive platforms, and peer editing. For more information, read the full course outline or view the video portfolio of students' final projects.

Course description (excerpt):
This course will give you an opportunity to both understand and participate in new forms of storytelling that are emerging in our digital media world. We will re-learn the art of creative self-expression in ways that both respect tried-and-true dimensions of narratology, and respond to our new, fast-paced ways of interacting with content online. We will learn from and dissect the films, stories, and interactive sites created by today's leading digital media producers, and we will put these lessons to use as you create engaging, self-expressive narratives of your own. Learn craft, process, and how to use digital media to tell the stories that matter most to you.

Student feedback:

I was impressed by Mr. Mulligan's style of teaching. It was relatable, entertaining, and informative, and held my attention. My experience with him as a mentor was wonderful.

Video portfolio of student work:

Course Website:
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About this course:
A speculative fiction course taught at Brown over a two-week period to thirteen students. In terms of its content, this course served as an introduction to twentieth-century American science fiction (though it did open with selections from Frankenstein). The course's broader goals, however, were to teach students critical reading and thinking skills in preparation for all college-level literature courses. Supplementary historical and autobiographical documents were investigated during discussion to teach students the value of reading with an eye for both form and context.

Course description (excerpt):

Science fiction is frequently treated as unserious, unintelligent, and especially unliterary. But whether or not we think it is beautiful, science fiction can tell us important things about how fiction shapes our perceptions of the world, and our beliefs about how we can change it. In fact, some literary critics have even argued that science fiction teaches us how to imagine new kinds of political action beyond the strange futures that these books explicitly describe. By looking at different authors' hopes, fears, and basic fascinations with their own imagined futures, we open a window onto their societies' ways of thinking about biology, technology, communication, nature, and human history. In reading, discussing, and arguing about these works, students not only lay the groundwork for further independent exploration of this massive genre, but also learn the widely-applicable methods of literary analysis, which will give them an advantage in any high-school or undergraduate freshman humanities course.

Update:

A student has had her final project short story accepted as an honorable mention in the annual science fiction publication competition, "Writers of The Future." Judging by the title, science fiction writers are also the unacknowledged legislators of the (future) world.

Student feedback:

I loved that the course was on a topic that is very rarely taught in schools. I got to spend three hours a day talking about a subject I really love. It was a fun class with a good amount of work, and the work itself was interesting.

Course Website:
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Syllabus:
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