A Word About Professors

I am of the opinion that how much you get out of a class is directly contingent upon the person teaching it. Having been born into a family chock full of teachers (and planning to become some semblance of one myself, someday), I'm always interested to experience the teaching style of any new professor, and how it works for me and how it doesn't. This semester marks the first time since winter quarter of my first year at K that I haven't known anything about the professor going into a class. At our very small, tightly-knit school, one can usually just shout out a professor's name in the cafeteria and chances are that someone in your immediate vicinity will have some helpful information on how to deal with him or her. So, essentially, I was flying completely blind coming into this. Not something I'm used to.

Being at an English speaking university in a country that does not speak English will get you some very fascinating scholars. A mix of ex-pats from all over the world who have made their home in Rome, and some Italians and even some native Romani who speak beautiful English and seem to know absolutely everything. My professors are a pretty comprehensive mix of these things, and since I haven't said a whole lot about the (formal) scholastic part of this adventure, I thought I would give some info about my classes and their very diverse group of leaders.

Roman Imperial Art and Architecture: Monday 9-12 with Dr. Jan Gadeynne

There's a reason that I love going to school in Rome, and this class is perhaps the best summation of that reason. None of the classes will ever be taught in a classroom-- every single class is on-site somewhere in Rome. Professor Gadeynne is Belgian, I think, but he's lived in Rome for a lot of his professional life, and no wonder. The guy is a positive fountain of information of all kinds on the Roman Empire. We were standing on an overlook out onto the forums of Julius Caesar and Augustus, and he could illustrate just from the scattered ruins just how the temples and malls looked. And I could imagine them! It was actually a very cool experience. He's very funny, too. He gives people who are late a lot of crap and his favorite segue seems to be "and all this shit I've just told you...". I love professors who swear. I don't know why. He walks very quickly, and seems to be impressed by the fact that I can handily keep up with him while the rest of the class is half a block behind us. Thanks, Mom! ;)

Intensive Elementary Italian: Monday-Thursday 3.40pm-5.05pm with Prof. Maurizio Mamorstein

It's an Italian class. And our Professore is an American (born in New Jersey to Italian immigrant parents... and yeah, I can't explain the Mamorstein) who moved back to Italy around 20 years ago and lives there pretty much full time. He speaks beautiful Italian, which is very easy to understand, given its similarities to French. The only complaint I would have about Maurizio is that he can very accurately explain and illustrate concepts, but he doesn't let us turn to eachother and talk, so I don't feel as confident as I might otherwise feel with using the Italian I know in real life here. I have this class everyday, which is good for my comprehension, but bad for my patience. I won't explain, because I'll sound mean and judgey. This is probably my most helpful (immediately) class.

Mythology: Monday & Wednesday 5.15pm-6.40pm with Prof. Manuela Giordano

Well, you would think that this calss would be fantastic, fascinating and really useful for the study of Baroque art... but it's a little disappointing. Our Prof is Italian, and while she speaks great English, she also has this way of making you feel like you're standing in front of a firing squad each time she asks you a question, which are always very vague, and if you don't answer in exactly the terms she would have used, even if you use synonyms... she just has a way of making you feel like an idiot. Now, for some odd reason I seem to know a whole lot about this particular subject without really trying, which means that I rarely look like a dumbass, but instead end up answering all the questions because everyone else is too intimidated by her vague questions to which she expects exacting answers to even volunteer. She also goes off on tangents that have very little to do with her subject, like proxemics. We spent twenty minutes in class on proxemics before getting back to Apollo. Oh well, hopefully I'll pick something up. If I don't get a concussion from losing control and slamming my head against the desk first.

Villas, Palaces and Gardens in the Renaissance and Baroque: Wednesday 9-12 with Dr. Paul Gwynne and Prof. Daria Borghese

Yup. Her name really is Borghese. Like the Popes. And the Gardens. And the Villa. And yup, that's not a mistake. She's Italian; the sweetest person and most knowledgable about her subject (specifically gardens). Dr. Gwynne is British, and awesome, and very, very sarcastic at the same time that he's scary smart. Possibly my favorite thing about him is the way he pronounces RenAAYYYYYYsahnce and Barack. Yeah, there's an artistic epoch named after the President of the United States. Who knew? This is another one of those classes that is taught exclusively on site. Yesterday we went to three churches, all built in the 13th century, and we visited a garden in a cloister of a nunnery. I accidentally made Dr. Gwynne aware of the fact that I aspire to teach art history, much as he does, and now he's gotten into the habit of grilling me at each new site about my analysis, and calling me Professor. Given his characteristic sarcasm, I don't know quite how to take this. But the class is fascinating, and I don't think I'll ever get over how cool it is to sit in a monastic garden while learning about monastic gardens...

Magna Grecia: Tuesday 6.50pm-8.15pm with Dr. Paul Gwynne

It's a class for the 9 Kalamazoo College girls that Dr. Gwynne himself has described as "basically an excuse to go to Sicily for a week." So more on that when we go to Sicily.

Art For Art's Sake: Tuesday & Thurday 2.05-3.30pm with Dr. Terry Kirk

I'm pretty much obsessed with this class. There's nothing really like it at K, and it's exactly what I feel has been missing in my education. It's basically a theory and methods class discussing the WHY and the HOW of the discipline of Art History. I've had some experience with the different schools of criticism, but only practically, and never in theory. The class is a lot of reading, a LOT of reading, but all of it is interesting. Also, praise be, the other around 9 kids in the class seem to actually like what they're doing and are happy to be able to discuss it competently with others who are just as passionate. It's my only class here that is full of people who actually look and act like they want to be there every class. The reason for our enthusiasm lies in the person of Professor Terry Kirk, our white polo-shirt collar poppin'-too much energy havin'-like, five languages speakin'-tiny pencil thin mustache right on top of his lip havin' brilliant leader. The guy has so much energy, and knows so much, that it's impossible not to feel energized, but at the same time mentally annihilated when you leave that class. He's a fervent supporter of the Socratic method, which means that there's no nodding off. Ever. Unless you want to look really dumb. Makes for some great discussion, which I thrive on.

All in all, it should be a pretty interesting semester. I'm taking the equivalent of 22 credit hours (whatever that means) and 6 classes in lieu of K's usual three. Who knows how this will go? Should be fun to find out!