Interesting Class Topics/Themes

In an earlier post, I was all excited about an idea for a class wiki: "Minnesota Literature." Since then, I've been toying around with variations on the theme, since "literature" is sometimes thought of narrowly as only poetry, drama, novels, and short fiction. But I don't want the class or the wiki to be that limiting, especially since some/many students might have reading (and, thus, research) interests in other forms of "literature"--memoirs, autobiography, biography, history, self-help, letters, essays, all the various forms of journalism, etc. Not to mention all the various forms of novels--romance, mystery, science fiction, historical, etc.

So I was thinking of "Minnesota Writing." Or "Writing Minnesota." Or "Minnesota Writers." And I was still excited about the idea.

Then we went to a confirmation party last weekend, where I visited with my nephew who is in his first year at the University of Minnesota at Morris. He was telling me about his first-year writing course and how excited he was about it. And the class topic/theme? Was there one? What was it?

Conspiracy Theories.

And he was saying things that every writing teacher would love to hear. "The readings are so interesting and engaging." "It's fun to go to class and listen to him try to convince us of things." "The topics really get me to think and keep me thinking." "The writing we do is real. We're not just writing to him; we're writing to people we hope to convince about our ideas." "My friends in other writing class aren't reading and writing about anything nearly as interesting."

(When I got home and looked at the UMN-Morris bookstore website, I could kind of see what he meant. A few sections were using a straight "inquiry and academic writing" kind of text. I've done that a lot in the past. One section seemed to be focused on Nature Writing. Seems to make sense for Morris. And one section, well, I couldn't really figure out what they were doing.)

And his enthusiasm is infectious. But I know NOTHING about conspiracy theories--although I've always been interested in them. I love the Dan Brown novels and all the JFK information, among other things. But I've never formally studied conspiracy theories, so would I really feel comfortable about using a theme like that in my classes?

And what would my students think? Some would love it. Some might wonder if it's a history class instead. Some might hate it, have no interest in it. And what about my students from many other countries and/or cultures? What would they think? Would any of the topics even interest them or apply to them? Could they relate? Would they have any background knowledge to draw upon? And any of the "Christian" conspiracy theories might not interest my Jewish or Muslim or Native American students--and might in fact irritate my very deeply religious Catholics or Lutherans. (It is Minnesota, ya know!)

What now?