Ryan Hibbett is an Associate Professor in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences in the Department of English. Dr. Hibbett taught an Honors Seminar titled “Dub Cultures: Literature and Music of the Caribbean and Black Britain” during the spring 2024 semester.
Why were you attracted to offering an Honors Seminar?
I had heard great things about the Honors program from a colleague in English, and Honors seemed like great fit for some of the interdisciplinary, cross-cultural work I wanted to do with literature and music. I liked the idea of teaching to students with diverse majors and interests as well.
How do you teach your subject or specialty to an interdisciplinary group of Honors students?
One thing I try to do is hit things across two tiers: a very focused tier, which introduces students to a particular body of work (in this case, Caribbean dub/reggae poetry), and a broader tier, by which students might be able to forge connections (literature and music, music and politics, etc). My assignments vary across these approaches, and we’ve tried to model to some degree on the artists and authors we’ve studied (writing assignments that also incorporate music and spoken word, for example, or our “Sound System Clash” aka group presentation, inspired by the deejay collectives in Jamaica and Britain).
What are some of your tricks of the trade to engage students in the course materials?
One thing our class has enjoyed doing is hearing from guest presenters whose work relates to our course content: we heard, for example, for spoken-word artists Four Poets One Mic, NIU Music Professor and Steelband Director Liam Teague, and English doctoral student Nicholas Dertinger. This also has created opportunities for students to attend related events outside of class, and to bridge the gap between college and community.
What’s the best thing about teaching Honors students?
It’s been a delight to teach Honors students! They strike me as inquisitive but also open-minded, curious but not quick to judge. They also each bring a lot of unique talent and experience to the table, including things that have applied to the course—we have a student deejay, for example, and a steel pan player.
