Ithaca College

Students in ENGL 29701 gain real-world experience without leaving the IC Campus. This is an ideal course for students who plan to apply for off-campus internships in future semesters, or want an opportunity to apply their writing, media-creation, management, marketing, or coalition-building skills before entering the job market.

ENGL 29701 02 Prof Dev: ITHACON prep (3.0 credits)

INSTRUCTOR: Darlynne Overbaugh

STUDENTS: Open to all students

 OBJECTIVES: Students will have the opportunity to help create, run and assess ITHACON, Ithaca’s long-running comic book convention, which will be held on the IC campus in the Spring of 2020. This course allows students to use the skills they have acquired in their courses in a real-world setting without the expenses and complications that often accompany traditional internships.  Students will have the opportunity to craft their own section of the event (workshop, panel, on-going instructional activity) and they will gain marketing and event-planning skills as they support the event as a whole.  The second part of the course will focus on the study the evolution of convention culture and non-traditional pop culture-related employment opportunities through readings, guest speakers, and focused panels.  Students will do their own study of some aspect of pop/convention culture and present their findings in a final paper.

FORMAT/STYLE:  Lecture, discussion, small group, collaborative activities.  Students are required to attend ITHACON on the weekend of March 21-22.

GRADING:  Performance of convention-supporting activities, reflection on event and personal achievement, weekly assignments, presentation of final project or paper.