{"id":120,"date":"2018-06-17T17:53:04","date_gmt":"2018-06-17T17:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/?p=120"},"modified":"2018-06-17T22:07:18","modified_gmt":"2018-06-17T22:07:18","slug":"day-7-the-first-day-of-class","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/?p=120","title":{"rendered":"Day 7: The First Day of Class"},"content":{"rendered":"

(by Carol)<\/em><\/p>\n

The title of the course I’m teaching is “Adoption & Adaptation: Florence Feminism and English Literature and Film<\/a>“.\u00a0 It is cross-listed as both an English course and a Women’s Studies course.\u00a0 Curiously, none of the students registered for it as a Women’s Studies course; it’s curious because only one is an actual English major.\u00a0 (Note to Self: ask them why.)\u00a0 I have six students.\u00a0 They let me take their picture, and so here they are:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\"My

My Creative Students: Mariah, Jordan, Zoe, Lindsey, Jonathan, Aron<\/p><\/div>\n

Initially, when I first proposed this special topics course, I argued, “Florence has long been a haven for British and American feminist discourse and debate over questions ranging from gender roles to sexuality, from anti-feminism and anti-anti-feminism to male-centricity and womansim.”\u00a0 That’s not quite true.\u00a0 That is: Italy as a country has been such a haven, and Florence is just one Italian city that has fueled it.\u00a0 Nevertheless, several points of history and fiction are set in Florence.\u00a0 For example, Renaissance humanist \"TheGiovanni Boccaccio (16 June 1313 \u2013 21 December 1375), who devoted much of his writing to women, and who was from Florence, set the beginning of The Decameron<\/em><\/a> inside the Basilica di Santa Maria Novella<\/a>.\u00a0 The course covers several works by both women and men (some feminists, some not)\u2014from Italy, from England, and from the United States\u2014from the late Middle Ages of England to the present, including The Little Hours<\/em><\/a>, which is an improvisational film loosely based upon The Decameron<\/em>‘s first and second stories of Day Three.<\/p>\n

The class is located in an old building (are there any new buildings in Florence?), down the street from the Galleria dell\u2019Accademia di Firenze<\/a> (Academy of Florence Art Gallery).\u00a0 Students, faculty and staff have access to the building 24\/7 (with a key card), which is nice.\u00a0 The building partially surrounds and has access (via several French doors) to a little courtyard where people can sit at tables and work or relax.\u00a0 Kent State University’s logo is all over the place (inside and out).<\/p>\n

\"Kent

Kent State University Florence Institute Courtyard<\/p><\/div>\n

Indeed, one day Pam and I were about to enter the building, and an American tourist shouted to her husband, “Look! Kent State University!”\u00a0 While the building definitely has a rustic, slightly decaying, aura about it, it also surrounds the visitor with antiquity and beauty. Just inside from the courtyard, through a choice of two sets of French doors, one enters a study that features some tables, a piano, and two couches.<\/p>\n

\"Part

Part of the ceiling of the study just inside from the courtyard.<\/p><\/div>\n

\"More

More of the same ceiling (further away from the center and including two walls).<\/p><\/div>\n

There is another lounge of sorts on the second floor, as well as several computer stations and a Reading Room — plenty of places for students to plop down and study or relax.<\/p>\n

I am excited about teaching this class.\u00a0 These students seem to be very bright, eager, creative, and fun!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(by Carol) The title of the course I’m teaching is “Adoption & Adaptation: Florence Feminism and English Literature and Film“.\u00a0 It is cross-listed as both an English course and a Women’s Studies course.\u00a0 Curiously, none of the students registered for … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":130,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,2,18,13,17,16,15,12,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aron-gates","category-carols-stories","category-dday-7-june-4","category-jonathan-gonzalez","category-jordan-worrell","category-lindsey-patterson","category-mariah-hicks","category-students","category-zoe-harr"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153,"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions\/153"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/houndingproductions.org\/floundering-in-florence\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}