Course Description

Failure. Losing. Rejection. Defeat. A look around American society and throughout history reveals that countless noble efforts and ideas have failed. This course will investigate notable failures and "losers" in America's past and present. The course will weave together economics, history, and psychology in order to address how and why these failures occurred. Just as significantly, we will study how the rejections were received. The course will begin with Articles of Confederation and end with the New Mexico Spaceport. In between we will consider winless basketball teams, real estate collapses, failed inventors, and spectacularly flawed political experiments. Students (and the instructor) will be asked to consider failure and losing on a more personal level as well. And we will, of course, debate the very definition of failure itself.

Texts

1. Nikole Hannah-Jones, The 1619 Project: A New Origin Story
2. Pat Conroy, My Losing Season
3. Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle: A Memoir

Requirements

Students will be assessed on their participation, writing, and speaking.

About the Instructor(s): Ryan Swanson

Ryan Swanson is a Professor and currently the Chair in the Honors College at UNM. He also serves as the Director of the Lobo Scholars Program. Ryan has published widely on the role of athletics in the United States. In the classroom, he teaches courses on sports, history, and failure. During the pandemic, Ryan was one of those professors who frequently forgot to unmute himself while talking on Zoom.