By: Reshelle Bihasa, Staff Writer
Unlike most classes, Xavier University’s First-Year Seminar (FYS) course about Bob Dylan allows students to explore his music, songwriting and how they connect to the world.
Inspired by the artist, Professor Graley Herren has continued to teach his FYS course focusing on the musician’s notable works as part of Xavier’s core curriculum since 2015.
The course navigates Dylan’s art as a professional musician and life by analyzing many of his songs from a variety of perspectives like music, literature, film, performance, culture, history and politics with class discussions.
“Dylan provides an inspirational case study in how you can start out as a young nobody and end up achieving great things by following your calling,” Professor Graley Herren said. “All FYS sections are supposed to touch upon some shared concerns: vocation, library research, crafting an argument supported by evidence, considering an interesting topic from the perspective of multiple disciplines; Dylan’s work lends itself perfectly to all those learning objectives.”
Dylan is often called the “voice of a generation” through his songwriting and widespread transitioning genres of music ranging from folk, rock, gospel, country and blues. Eventually he became the first musician in history to win the Nobel Prize in Literature for his powerful messages and themes in his lyrics.
“I like the class because it’s actually knowledge that you can talk to people about, you can talk to people about Bob Dylan,” sophomore finance major Owen Schumacher said. “At the start of this course, I didn’t like his voice at all. I think he’s one of those people you listen to 10 songs by him and you think he’s annoying, but you listen to 60 songs, and this guy is one of the best songwriters. It grows on you.”
Many students in the class have also found this course impactful, becoming fans of Dylan and his music.
Professor Graley Herren’s First-Year Seminar course highlights the history and impact of Bob Dylan’s music, impacting Xavier students.
“As a first-year student, my Bob Dylan class has taught me how to look at literature from a multitude of different viewpoints. I didn’t know much about Bob Dylan in the beginning, but throughout the course I began to fall in love with his music and accept that his unfiltered, direct personality is what makes him so unique!” first-year biology major Izzy Hughes said.
Additionally, Professor Herren has hosted “movie nights” for his students in the Kennedy Auditorium, screening movies such as “A Complete Unknown,” starring Timothée Chalamet as Dylan and the film “I’m Not There.” Each event has pizza, funded by the FYS program, directed by history professor Randy Browne.
“I loved the 2024 biopic ‘A Complete Unknown’ starring Chalamet as Dylan, and I was pleased that it served as a gateway for a lot of young people to encounter Dylan’s artistry for the first time,” Herren said.
“I decided that it might be fun to draw special attention by having a movie night, serving as a community building event for the class, and it would save students the expense of having to rent the movie on their own. I liked this experience a lot and hope to repeat it in the future.”
Professor Herren highlighted that he wants his students to recognize the importance of music all around us, inviting others to explore the course as a unique FYS option.
“We include music in the most important moments of our lives – weddings, funerals, celebrations and rituals of every kind. I hope students leave my class with the tools necessary to better understand and deepen their love for the songs that matter most to them,” Herren said.
Furthermore, Herren plans to release an upcoming book called “Dylan in Cincinnati” in Fall of 2026 from the University Press of Mississippi. Dylan is also set to perform in Cincinnati this summer on July 10 at the Riverbend Music Center.