Undergraduate Students Included in The Classic

Four undergraduate students in Art History courses have been published in the latest issue of The Classic, the Writing Intensive Program’s journal of undergraduate writing and research. Their work can be read in the current issue, 6.2, online here.

Undergraduate English major Kaitlyn Page was included in this issue for a piece written in Professor Shelley Zuraw’s ARHI 4200 course. Kaitlyn Page’s article “Piero di Cosimo and Fra Angelico in Romola: 15th Century Representations of 19th Century Art Discourse” analyzes George Eliot’s novel Romola to explore competing artistic movements in Renaissance Italy and nineteenth-century England. 

Three of the four students wrote pieces during Zuraw’s ARHI 2311H course.  An introduction written by Zuraw was included in the journal and establishes a specific perspective from which to read the students’ work. Zuraw states,

“Last fall, rather than merely add works of art from, for example, Africa and Asia, to the survey, I added writing projects that were intended to reveal cultural perceptions at specific points in time and space… Instead of a separate series of lectures on Asian art, the class “visited Asia” through the eyes of Marco Polo and his famous  travel journal… What has always struck readers about Marco Polo’s text is the descriptive power of his words. Marco Polo tells you clearly and directly what he sees and then why he thinks that is worth recording. He also tried to present the unique customs and actions of the people he meets on his journey. One way to appreciate the travelogue and the ekphrasis of the author is to try it yourself. Each student was asked to write, in the style of Marco Polo, a description of something fantastical or something concrete in their life.”

The three contributions included in The Classic “consider customs, political realities, and the familiar in three places using similar syntax to and the same boundless curiosity of a thirteenth-century Italian merchant.” 

Charlotte Taylor’s “Travelogue on Israel” 

Isabelle Garcia’s “Travelogue on Hilton Head Island” 

Hannah Namgoong’s “Travelogue on New York City” 

The Writing Intensive Program (WIP) gives Franklin College of Arts and Sciences faculty the opportunity to offer writing intensive courses that provide students with writing opportunities and instruction across the disciplines. Writing intensive courses are one of the AAC&U’s “High-Impact Educational Practices” that have been shown to benefit student learning and engagement. WIP’s core principles are that teaching writing means interpreting and guiding the writing process and responding to student work in productive and helpful ways that encourage revision.