Splash Biography

DAVID CHMIELEWSKI, Princeton junior studying English

Major: English

College/Employer: Princeton

Year of Graduation: 2024

Brief Biographical Sketch:

At Princeton I focus on media and cultural studies, aiming to understand what cultural objects, from the Simpsons to Shakespeare, can tell us about our lives and the societies we live in. Some of my outside of class work includes working with the Princeton University Art Museum to host events and tours for students and the public and serving on the masthead of The Nassau Weekly, a campus magazine.

I'm a first generation college student from Torrington, Connecticut excited about education equity and public policy.

Past Classes

(Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

H668: Cartoon Appreciation 101 in Splash 2023 (Apr. 22, 2023)

Look no further than the fact that the Simpsons is the longest-running television series in American history to understand that cartoons are important to our cultural conversation. In this class, we'll look across the spectrum of animated TV, including The Simpsons, The Amazing World of Gumball, Adventure Time, and Bob's Burgers, to ask one simple question: what can cartoons tell us? Using the techniques of literary criticism and media studies, we'll unpack cartoons and think about what makes them so great and why that greatness is important. We'll ask why comedy is funny, and, hopefully, learn to expand our definition of what "literature" is worth studying.

H669: Are Toilets Art? Unpacking Modern Art in Splash 2023 (Apr. 22, 2023)

The term "modern art" can often bring up scary ideas of ridiculous objects in museums that one has to pretend to like to seem smart. In this class, we'll try and dispel that image and find out why someone might actually like modern art. We'll look at a variety of works, such as Marcel Duchamp's infamous 1917 display of a urinal, and get into the weeds of what makes modern art tick and how these objects can change how we think about the world.