Hello Marvelous People of the Gonzaga Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies,
Please consider our DPLS 779 Leadership and Film class for the spring! This class occurs on Thursday nights (on the doctoral schedule) and is imbued with a deep dive into the nature of leadership in the context of great films, great thoughts, and the crucible of our shared humanity. Definitely one of my favorite classes in our program, not just for the content and the love, but also because it is cross-listed with leadership students from undergrad, masters, and doctoral levels and creates a unique blend of powerful learning in which we experience life and leadership together.
Here’s the course description for you and the films we will engage together during class:
Leadership and Film (LDRS 489.04, ORGL(COML) 689.01, DPLS 779)
Thursdays, 6-10 p.m., 1/17, 1/31, 2/07, 2/21, 3/07, 3/21, 4/04, 4/11 (Note: This class will meet on January 31 instead of January 24 as the other DPLS classes do.)
This course features a Collaborative Classroom combining four vital leadership learning communities: the Comprehensive Leadership Program for Gonzaga undergraduates, the Masters of Organizational Leadership Program, the Masters of Communication and Leadership Program, and the Doctoral Program in Leadership Studies. The course initiates a thoughtful consideration of the nature of leadership as depicted in film. Through seeking understanding in dialogue with fellow learners, students are encouraged toward greater discernment of the person, the collective, and the context with regard to the dynamic systems involved in leadership. Film provides unique insights to investigate character and motive, as well as culture, allowing us to access meaning and significance through theoretical, analytic and dialogic inquiry. The course helps form in students the ability not only to be leaders, but in the words of Robert Frost, “awakeners.” Through the time spent viewing films and entering into discourse, we will become more sophisticated observers and practitioners of leadership as we seek to understand the essence of leaders through artistic representation. Reflection, introspection, and personal engagement aimed toward a richly layered encounter with the lives of leaders contributes to the formation of a more enduring and authentic leadership response to personal, organizational, and global complexities.
Texts
Film: A Critical Introduction by Maria Pramaggiore & Tom Wallis, Pearson/Allyn and Bacon, 2006
A Very Short, Fairly Interesting and Reasonably Cheap Book about Studying Leadership by Brad Jackson & Ken Perry, Sage Publications, 2008
Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation by Parker Palmer, Jossey-Bass, 1999
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire, Continuum, 2000
American Masculine by Shann Ray, Farrar, Graywolf, 2011
Films (tentative schedule)
Amazing Grace
Crash
Doubt
Smoke Signals
The Crucible
Moneyball
Once
-Shann Ferch