University College

Bugs Bunny & American Culture

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For nearly three decades in the twentieth century, the Bugs Bunny character appeared in over 170 animated shorts. He became—and continues to be—a global phenomenon, a veritable pop-cultural portal into history, art, music, opera, language, literature, and film.  In this course, we will examine and discuss the character of Bugs Bunny and his cultural impact and significance in aesthetic, narrative, and interdisciplinary contexts through such starting points as narrative & storytelling; music; politics; literature; and history.  Students will engage in both classroom and online discussions, and extensive individual and group research and writing.

NOTE: This course is offered as a hybrid (at least 50% online).

Course Details
Prefix: 
UCO
Course Number: 
1200
Section Number(s) and Day/Times Taught: 
153: T 9:30am- 10:45am- hybrid
157: T 11:00am- 12:15pm- hybrid
173: R 9:30am- 10:45am- hybrid
175: R 11:00am- 12:15pm- hybrid
Term: 
Spring 2026
Categories: 
The Arts
Instructor(s)

Donald Presnell

Dr. Don Presnell holds MA degrees in English and Spanish from Appalachian State University and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from App State's Reich College of Education. He is the author of Wandering The Wild Wild West: A Critical Analysis of the CBS Television Series (2021) and co-author of A Critical History of Television's The Twilight Zone, 1959-1964 (1998). He has created and taught multiple iterations of First Year Seminar, including “The Narrative Art of Comics”; “The Twilight Zone”; “Doctor Who: TARDIS Travels in General Education”; “Dr. Seuss and Y(our) World”; “The Simple Complexity of Peanuts: Exploring the Perennially Popular Comic Strip”; and “The X-Files: Science Fiction Search for Truth.”

He has been nominated for both the Brantz Award for Outstanding Teaching in First Year Seminar (2012, 2019) and the Harvey R. Durham Outstanding Freshman Advocate Award (2014, 2017, 2018) at Appalachian State University. He is currently the Director of the Common Reading Program and a Senior Lecturer in the First Year Seminar program. His interests include multimodality; literature; comics and graphic novels; film and television studies; English and Spanish; pedagogy and instructional design; educational leadership; and baseball.