Hi, and welcome to my corner of the woods! I'm Lauren, a '27 from Munger, Michigan. My favorite places on campus include Sanborn (for writing), the river (for paddling), and the Green (for everything else). I'm excited to share a bit about my favorite place with all of you!
I took this class as part of Dartmouth's first year writing requirement. We read a pro cyclist's life narrative, discussed research papers on controversial topics in sports, and wrote our own papers on a contentious sports technology of our choice. I really enjoyed this course's emphasis on discussion, and the small class size!
This was my first class in the classics department, which was super exciting as a classical studies major! We learned about the ancient Olympics and the connections between athletics and other aspects of ancient Greek society. I loved the final project in this class, which involved creating an argument about how the ancient pentathlon was scored!
To conclude my language requirement, I took Latin 3! This class was super exciting because we began to read ancient texts and poetry. We also took a class trip to the Rauner Special Collections library so we could physically handle and read some manuscripts. And as an added bonus, Latin counts as a prerequisite for my classical studies major!
As a part of my language study abroad in Italy, I also took a class on Italian history and culture! We went on field trips to the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, participated in walking tours of Rome, and watched a lot of great cinema in this class! I loved it so much that I decided to minor in Italian.
This class, in addition to being a pre-requisite for my major, was super interesting! I loved learning about archaeology through hands-on projects and lectures that felt like TED Talks.
My favorite course on my Italian LSA+ in Rome is focused on Italian literature, which we are studying in a reverse-chronological order! It has been incredibly fun to see different topics and styles evolve over time and to learn from the works of the best writers.
I’m absolutely loving this hands-on introduction to paleography, and the fact that my class meets at Rauner every day! I can’t wait to hear from our guest lecturers, too, and I’ll be sure to share those experiences on the blog. All in all, Latin 10 was a great way to get back into the language after a term away in Rome.
Before this term, I was no stranger to the Book Arts Workshop here on campus. I've been on visits with my Classics and Latin classes in the past to write with reed pens and lamp-black ink, stitch together our own books, and even use the printing press for a previous final project! So when it came time to think about what I wanted to do for my final project in my Greek and Roman Engineering and Technology class (CLST 12.02) this term, I knew I wanted to do something tactile in the workshop.
I had lots of choices—I considered experimenting with ink, especially after learning a lot about ancient ink-making from guest speaker Richard Spelker this term. I was inspired by his experiments, but wanted to work with something I didn't know as much about.
My project ended up being inspired by one of my fellow students' presentations on papyrus. In CLST 12.02, each student takes on a specific ancient technology or engineering feat and explains it to the class. While listening to the presentation on ancient writing technologies, I realized that although I had translated many papyri, I had never actually thought about how they were made.
To start, I reached out to my friends at Book Arts and asked them for some logistical guidance. I was sent a link to a vendor in Egypt selling raw papyrus strips, and I added them to my cart without hesitation. Two weeks later, the strips arrived in the mail. They looked a bit like corn husks, and I wasn't quite sure what I had gotten myself into—but I was excited to get started! After reading a few articles on the topic, I decided to experiment with different types of water and see how they impact the bonding of the papyrus sheet. To accomplish this, I had to collect some water from Occom Pond.
After a couple of days of soaking, the water changed color!
My other batches were a control, and one that I plan on adding starch paste to during the assembly process.
Although this project is still in progress, I wanted to write about it on my blog because it has been one of my favorite academic endeavors at Dartmouth. It's incredibly rewarding to see the things I've read about happen in front of my eyes, and know that I'm the one who did it! But I couldn't have done it on my own—I have to thank everyone from the Book Arts Workshop, the great people at Dartmouth Library's Conservation Lab, and my professor for allowing me to take on this project.
Some sheets of papyrus, layered between blotting paper, being pressed during the drying process.
I don't have a final result yet, but once I do, I'll be sure to write another post sharing what I find. Until then, I'll leave you all with some images from the papyrus assembly process. I can't wait for my sheets to dry so I can test out writing on them!
This term, I competed in the annual Speech at Dartmouth competition, but would never have had this opportunity without the support of Dartmouth faculty. Read on as I share how I got here!
Dartmouth has so many academic resources, including free newspaper subscriptions! Although this may not seem like a big deal, it's a great accessible way to learn about local and national news!
Dartmouth requires all students to take three PE/Wellness classes in order to graduate. Upon hearing glowing recommendations, I chose to take the wellness sampler offered by the Student Wellness Center as a way to fulfill this requirement.
