What does the process of completing this project show you about the range of coursework and other humanities-oriented experiences you’ve had at UNE?
While I haven’t had much experience writing poems for academia, I have taken creative writing classes in which one is meant to take on the perspective of another person. It’s through writing that the author is better able to understand their characters. However, this project featured people who were already living, historical figures instead of simple characters, and so part of this project incorporated researching the various historical figures and building their “character” using these aspects from their real life. I would attribute this skill to the many history classes I’ve taken, as I feel they have allowed me a lot of practice in mixing the results of my research with my own perspective. By completing this project I find a greater comfortability with research, and writing in different styles and genres.
Why did you choose this project?
At first, I wanted to choose a different project from a history class the previous semester, but realized I had no real ideas on how I could continue it. The paper I wrote for that history class was complete, and revisiting it would only be about making the language flow better or converting it to a different medium, which simply didn’t fit with what I wanted to accomplish for a capstone project. However, ever since completing the first version of this book jacket project, I always thought it would be fun to revisit it, if only to make the physical version. I was proud of the work I originally put into the writing, and after first researching the original subjects I felt a sort of kinship with them. It was nice to go back and find other women throughout history that I could feel that way about as well.
What changes in your knowledge, skills, approaches, interests and/or processes does your project suggest to you?
The only real change I found in myself was an expansion of everything I already had. It was less about moulding my skills or knowledge into something new and more about furthering them in order to better utilize them. I was more interested in history, more skilled at writing, at identifying aspects individuals put into their writing that show their unique perspective. It’s my belief that this project was the actual moulding, the proof that these skills could change their trajectory and come together to make something new and likely better than any other creative work I’ve completed.
Which particular aspects of the project best illustrate those changes
If you look at my original project, the core feelings and thoughts haven’t changed. For me, this assignment was always about looking through a different lens, about taking feelings and struggles that women authors have faced across centuries and finding their similarities and differences to comment on. However, there is certainly an added care I was able to put into this final project that I couldn’t do for the original, specifically in making the physical version and producing something that would be seen by more than just one professor. Since I already had practice with the necessary writing skills to connect each aspect of those researched feelings and struggles, I had more time to research binding the pages, putting together the cover, and making each poem visually different.
