Bob: I you know, went to college and the second side of me was developing at this time, at the same time, and it's a side that I thought my students would understand, but more and more they don't. I found solace as so many people my generation did, going to movies.

Paul: For Bob Cowgill, Associate Professor of English, cinema is not an escape but rather a potent reflection of our reality. He challenges his students to re-evaluate their world through the lens of film and to read beyond the script. Augsburg University educates students to be informed citizens, thoughtful stewards, critical thinkers, and responsible leaders. I'm Paul Pribbenow, the President of Augsburg University and it's my great privilege to present the Augsburg podcast. One way you can get to know some of the faculty and staff I'm honored to work with every day.

Bob: In my 20's I owned what is now the Cedar Cultural Center. It was a movie theater at the time. Uh, I and a partner went to a bank and made a proposal to run a movie theater and to our amazement, at the age of 22, they gave us a loan to do it. All through my 20's I was in the movie business and um, at Augsburg I kinda am able to blend these two elements of my personality ah, because of my experience in the movie business and knowing a lot about the history of film, I get to teach film from the perspective of an English professor, not from the perspective of a filmmaker, and I also get to teach Literature and Writing.

I'm like anyone in my generation. I ... There's many films I don't admire. (laughs) In fact, one of the jokes in, in our department is that uh, my colleague, Doug Green, goes to the movie a lot and he tends to like everything and I tend to hate everything, but there are films that I like. Actually, ah, my Intro to Cinema Arts class, three times a term instead of me selecting a screening, they vote on a film out in the, in the world to see and of course they voted to see Black Panther, and I think to the students' surprise, they expected me to hate it. I really liked it. I think it's ah, a very important popular movie, even a landmark movie.

Believe me, I, I have s- you know, my moments with European art films, but the two best films of the last two, ah, two years that I've taught have been this one and Get Out, comic horror film that's about race and um, it's, it's funny, it's, it's scary but not really, but although people tell me they're scared by it. I think we have we ah, a student body that is hungry to talk about issues of diversity in both cases the students just are ready to talk and you can shape them and, and push them in directions that lead to new insights that they bring to the table.

But my favorite films are those that are connected to the French New Wave and the European art cinema of the 50's, 60's and 70's. Um, those films answered a need in me and they still, I think, hold up uh, aesthetically, and they, they still open a lot of vistas for students. Um, and so, I, I, I feel it's part of my job here to expand, even though our students have seen enormous amounts of, of visual media, to expand their aesthetic experience.

I think our students today, like all of us, are sated, inundated, overwhelmed by the glut of narrative in visual media that they take in. I'm very much with Henry David Thoreau with this idea that we crave one thing really, above all and that's reality. And all of our escapist movies might lead us to think otherwise but no, I think we crave some connection to an emotional reality, a representational reality. I think cinema is ultimately about an encounter.

It's becoming harder and harder for our students to have discreet aesthetic experiences. We are constantly checking our phones. We are having multiple texts going at once. Um, we are watching Netflix and getting up and doing something else, and taking it later. Our students have a culture that's almost trained them to be distracted and if they're asked to focus, they are, they're nervous. Well, my job, I think, is partly to get them to train themselves to focus and again, there's no straight line to do that but I think that's necessary if you're going to be an artist. I think it's necessary if you're going to be a mature adult encountering culture.

Paul: That was Bob Cowgill, Associate Professor of English. Thanks for listening to the Augsburg podcast. I'm President Paul Pribbenow. For more information, please visit Augsburg.edu.