Sep 21, 2010 - Claremont, CA -

Harvey Mudd College made Daily Beast’s Hot College Courses list for its course, "Ghosts and the Machines."

Taught by Assistant Professor of Religious Studies Erika Dyson, the class explores the interrelations between occult mediumship, modern media and technology in Europe and the United States from the 19th century through the present. The class was offered for the first time at HMC last fall. It will be taught for the second time this spring.

"I was quite surprised that the Daily Beast named the course to the "hot college course" list, although I was also delighted," said Dyson. "It was the first class I taught at HMC last year after being hired, and I had chosen to teach it in large part because I was excited that I was not only allowed, but encouraged, to teach interdisciplinary courses by the Humanities, Social Sciences and the Arts Department, and to teach courses which combined my interests in occult religions, sciences and technologies.

"I was also eager to see how HMC students would grapple with religions and technologies that confuse those categories to such an extent that it is difficult, if beside the point, to try to disentangle them. Not surprisingly, the students blew me away," she said. "Their willingness to challenge themselves, me, and the authors we read, as well as their creativity, smarts and enthusiasm, all made my experience teaching the course deeply gratifying. The Daily Beast mention simply added to that gratification."

Topics for the course include: ghostly visions and magic lantern phantasmagoria; American spiritualism and the telegraph; phrenology and rise of the archive; psychical research and stage magic; radio’s disembodied voices; and spirit photography and therapeutic light therapies; psychic television; magic on film.

Dyson, a specialist in science and religion who received a Ph.D. from Columbia University, examines topics such as the interfaces between occult religions and technologies; intersections between social-change activism and religion; and American religious history.

Read The Daily Beast’s list of Hot College courses.