Whether you think The End is Near (or Far), a pair of ACC classes in the Spring can help you understand it.

Though the classes have separate course designations and two professors, they are called by a common name: Literature and Psychology of the Apocalypse. To enroll, students must take LIT 115, taught by Jamey Trotter, and PSY 102, taught by Allison Hagood.

Both classes are GT-Pathways program classes and part of ACC’s Great Books program. The classes have been taught before (by the same professorial duo), and they’re back because of the interest shown in them.

In case you’re a little rusty on the precise definition of apocalypse, check out what the Merriam Webster dictionary says: a great disaster: a sudden and very bad event that causes much fear, loss, or destruction. Religious meanings exist, as well — none particularly pleasant.

If you’re a huge “Walking Dead” fanatic or someone who just loves science-fiction and the apocalypse, these classes could be for you. Both Trotter and Hagood share that enthusiasm. Who wouldn’t want a zombie enthusiast as his or her professor?

Hagood even has a bumper sticker that declares: I’d Rather Be Killing Zombies. And Trotter has a love for apocalyptic literature.

“While we were sampling the fare at a local brewery, we began talking about the possibility of this class,” Trotter said. “They say the best ideas are formed on cocktail napkins, and we fulfilled the destiny of that cliché.

“The class offers a unique way to study literature and psychology'” he said. “Students who enjoy the Walking Dead, for example, will love this class.

“We begin the semester with a study of the Walking Dead, for it represents what draws people to fiction based on the cataclysm, which is that when you are walking around town or on campus even, we are sort of zombie-like in our engagement with our cell phones,” Trotter said.

Assignments in this class center around the apocalypse. For example, all the literature in Trotter’s portion is of apocalyptic focus.

Literature and Psychology of the Apocalypse certainly stands out among course offerings: two separate classes, two teachers and the subject of the apocalypse.
But that’s not all that sets it apart. Students can go outside the classroom at times.

“Last semester, we celebrated the value of nature with a pond-side poetry reading at Hudson Gardens – because we were reading about an environmental collapse in Friend of the Earth by TC Boyle, a book published at the turn of the 21st century that imagines some rather unfavorable weather disasters,” Trotter said.

Hagood’s Psychology course theme covers how stress, disaster, survival, aggression, cognition, lifespan development, personality, abnormal psychology and other concepts would manifest in extreme situations.

The classes use movies and music to illustrate the apocalyptic theme, and they are carefully coordinated.

“Allison and I are literally in each other’s class as a student every day, so we know what has been covered and what is discussed,” Trotter said. “Allison’s and my teaching styles differ to the point that they are complimentary of each other. It’s a great pairing, like wine and cheese.”