{"id":67816,"date":"2023-02-09T14:11:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-09T19:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/?p=67816"},"modified":"2023-03-17T11:40:46","modified_gmt":"2023-03-17T15:40:46","slug":"studying-history-at-its-roots","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/cas\/studying-history-at-its-roots\/","title":{"rendered":"Studying History at its Roots"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Katrina Scalise (COM\u201925)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Each Wednesday of fall semester, students in the Department of Art & Architecture \u201cMedievalism & the Mount Auburn Cemetery\u201d course travel across the Charles River and four miles west to meet in their outdoor classroom on the Cambridge\/ Watertown line: a historic cemetery with picturesque landscaping, notable gravesites, and a significant collection of monuments.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

There, they examine <\/span>the iconography of tombstones, explore the various architectural styles of monuments, deliberate over the meaning of gravestone texts, and compare anthropological themes to the artwork they observe, while also discussing ideas for potential research projects.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe ask big questions like: How do you want to commemorate the dead and why? How do you mourn? The fact that in so many religions, the dread of separation from the people you love is at the root of prayer,\u201d said Associate Professor of Medieval Art Deborah Kahn, the inaugural teacher of the new course. \u201cOne of the parts of the course that is really exciting is that we can deal with monuments \u2014 we are art historians after all \u2014 but we can also deal with these very profound life questions and that is what we will do at the end.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Founded <\/span>in 1831 <\/span>a green space for the bereaved to commemorate loved ones and for residents of Boston to escape city life, Mount Auburn Cemetery was <\/span>the country’s first large-scale designed landscape open to the public. It is<\/span> filled with gently curving avenues and pathways, with memorials placed amidst hills, trees, and ponds, providing an ideal space for undergraduate and graduate students to explore anthropology, art history, and religion in a unique setting.<\/span><\/p>\n

The class was designed to expose students to meaningful opportunities for contemplation, discovery, and original research. \u201cThe chief emphasis is on commemoration, the appropriation of artistic styles, the historical development of the landscape and on monuments by some of the preeminent European and American sculptors of the nineteenth century,\u201d said Cynthia Becker, Professor of African Studies and HAA, and Chair of the HAA Department.<\/span><\/p>\n

Kahn is familiar with the cemetery, having grown up in the area. She attended the nearby Shady Hill School, and would often take walks on the grounds with her parents. She is now working on a book about Mount Auburn, focusing on commemorative monuments and artistic appropriation, which Kahn emphasizes to her students as important art history topics within the cemetery.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI also used to come here with my father who was a doctor at Harvard Medical School, and, with him, it was always a learning experience. I had this very distinct feeling that everybody responds to this place. I\u2019m not yet an expert on Mount Auburn Cemetery, but I am an expert on the emotions that are associated with this place.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Each visit, students arrive at Mount Auburn by their own means, completing readings about that week\u2019s topic ahead of time. Once there, Professor Kahn guided students to carefully chosen sites, related to different architectural and art history themes for students to observe and discuss. After the professor\u2019s guided, theme-focused cemetery tour for the day and dedicated discussion time, students are given the opportunity to explore the cemetery and take notes on topics related to their own interests.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keeghan Bauer (CAS`24), a History of Art and Architecture major<\/span>\u00a0in Kahn\u2019s fall semester section of the course, noted the importance of the out-of-classroom experience, \u201cJust actually being able to see what we\u2019re learning about and being physically present in the space because this class would not work if we weren\u2019t actually coming here,\u201d she said. \u201cIt wouldn\u2019t make any sense.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Iana Nikorich (CAS`24), a double major in Architectural studies and Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, said she enjoyed<\/span>, \u201clearning about topics you wouldn\u2019t normally touch upon in a regular course at BU\u2026 [cemeteries] are not something we discuss in our courses although it is a big architectural topic so that\u2019s been very fun.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[The course], it’s tailored to all of our individual interests as well so we\u2019re not just learning based on a set curriculum,\u201d said Victoria Hatchel, a graduate student in the program. \u201cIf you\u2019re interested in the history of the cemetery or in the medieval monuments, it\u2019s shaped to what we like.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For example, Hatchel completed her reading assignment of the cemetery\u2019s 1831 consecration speech at the cemetery\u2019s Consecration Dell, which dedicated the cemetery with 2,000 graves in the surrounding area.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI realized sitting in my apartment at my computer reading this speech wouldn\u2019t give me the same impact as reading it where [the speech] actually happened,\u201d Hatchell said. \u201cIn the speech the speaker talks about some of the different trees around and I was like, \u2018Oh, those are those trees.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the midpoint of one class, students discussed ideas for their independent research papers, with topics ranging from overcrowding in urban cemeteries, transcendentalism, childhood burials, the feminization and beautification of death, the iconography of dogs, wheat and other nature symbols on tombs, and comparisons to other old cemeteries such as P\u00e8re Lachaise in Paris. Undergrad and grad students excitedly volunteered potential sources and subtopics for their peers to explore in their papers.<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThey teach themselves, that\u2019s the experiential learning,\u201d Kahn said, during the students\u2019 brainstorming session. \u201cYou can\u2019t get this in a classroom.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

At the end of the course, students\u2019 last assignment touches upon the natural cycle of life and death. Students are tasked with picking out an acorn at the cemetery, and propagating it in a location of their choice.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThat’s what the founders would have wanted, it\u2019s a different kind of education,\u201d Kahn said.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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