In Fall 2015, I had the opportunity to co-teach a directed reading course for the Theology Department on the Catholic Novel with Dr. Tim O’Malley. While interdisciplinary co-teaching is often avoided because it can drain faculty resources, such classes have the advantage of modeling a high-level interdisciplinary dialogue for students. In discussing religion and literature in particular, cross-departamental courses have the distinct advantage of paying attention to the way literary form shapes theology—and sometimes even pushes against the stated theological values and aims of a text—while maintaining a rigorous commitment to theological nuance.
One of the students, Anna O’Connell (a Junior at The University of Notre Dame), was kind enough to write this review of “The Catholic Novel” course and my teaching:
“I had the opportunity to participate in a class entitled ‘The Catholic Novel’ that was co-taught by Dr. Jessica Hughes. The class was structured so that every two weeks we would read a novel, write a paper exploring the novel, and then have a class discussion. We read novels ranging from East of Eden by John Steinbeck to Dirt Music by Tim Winton and The Violent Bear It Away by Flannery O’Conner. What immediately struck me about Jessica was her passion. She genuinely adores discussing and teasing out literary elements, theological themes, and connections between the two. Jessica would provide a strong academic background and context for us to then dive in and dissect the book together. This vivacious, yet grounded, approach to our discussions helped create a comfortable environment where I felt both encouraged to share my ideas and opinions and challenged to think more deeply. Jessica would also tie the themes of the novel that we read to different pop culture references, other books, or real life experiences that made what we were learning relevant and relatable. Jessica’s genuine openness and enthusiasm allowed me to more actively engage in the texts, rid me of the fear of needing to have the ‘perfect’ answer every time, and form and share my own analyses of the texts. Jessica’s supportive, yet challenging, attitude was not only present when having discussion in class, but also in providing feedback on my written work. For every paper that I wrote, she would provide lengthy feedback which both highlighted my strong points and focused on certain areas to expand on further. She would take an idea I had started and ask questions to provoke me to think deeper; to not simply end where I was, but to make the idea more complete. As a student who was trying to learn, improve, and be challenged, yet also needed affirmation for my work, Jessica’s feedback was extremely helpful. Over the course of the semester, I felt I was able to better pick out the central themes and more directly connect them to the literary form of the text as a result of her guidance.”Jessica Ann Hughes