A former, CIC Assistant Director, Cara Lane has taught several classes in the CIC labs, including courses on film adaptations of British literature and reading popular culture. Winter of 2004, she turned her innovative eye to English 381 (Advanced Expository Writing), "Media and Narrative.” This course focuses on analyzing the key agents in television shows, films and web sites, with the primary goal of enhancing student’s awareness of the choices they make in the style and content of their own written work. Students were asked to experiment with their writing, drawing from both pop cultural as well as academic archives. They also analyzed online journals and satirical web sites during their discussion of hypertext. As a part of their final projects, students created blog or parody web sites and discussed those sites in an analytical essay.

Cara was first attracted to the hands-on learning environment of the CIC classroom. She appreciates the ability to bring websites, web projects, and film analysis to students in her class: “We are looking at things as disparate as reality TV shows, the film Memento, and online journals. . . [T]he techniques [these forms of entertainment] employ are all attempts to make their viewers identify with the points of view of their protagonists.”