Writing across Rome

Abstract

I am writing this column in Rome. Yes, Rome, Italy. I am here for two weeks as part of St. John's University's Summer Writing Institute for faculty. What an opportunity! During the first week, which just ended, we spent much of the day discussing how to incorporate more writing into our courses. There are 20 of us and we come from a variety of disciplines, ranging from chemistry to literature, sociology to biology. Two years ago, the University launched an ambitious Writing Institute to provide substantial support for student writing. New Writing Center facilities were constructed, and the faculty hired to teach composition. A Writing Across the Curriculum program (WAC) was begun last year, and that's where Rome comes in. Faculty need direction in ways to use writing in their courses as well as time to plan. What better way to do both than to spirit them away to Europe where we can have classes at the University's new Rome campus and discuss writing over lunches and dinners of Italian food. Heaven! To make it even better, after a week of classes, we have a week to ourselves to explore Rome, and can even invite family or friends to join us. In addition to discussing student writing, we are also to work on our own writing. We've broken up into small groups, each including a member of the Writing Institute staff. We share writing that we are working on and comment on each other's drafts. I know what you are thinking: All of this could be done in New York. But the point is, that it's difficult to do this in New York because there we all have a dozen other things to do-in labs, offices, homes. In Rome, we are removed from all that, and can really talk about writing, quite literally, morning, noon, and night. And we do. However, actually doing our own writing is more difficult. The combination of five hours of class each day, jet lag, and long Italian dinners, makes fitting in writing a stretch. I do manage to take some notes during the week, read a few articles, and do for my writing project. That's really what I want to write about here, thus fulfilling my writing obligation, so I have the week ahead to enjoy Italy. I have a hard time figuring out what to work on in Rome. I don't want to do anything that requires a lot of research, since there was a limit to how many books and papers I could pack. So I decide to develop an idea I'd had a few months ago. I'm interested in the visual aspects of biology and in how biological information is organized visually, for example in the complex diagrams used to communicate genomic information. Also, over the past few years I've taken a couple of trips with a woman who likes to visit churches, so I've seen many from various eras in a number of European cities. Among my favorites is San Clemente here in Rome. Most Roman churches, no matter how ancient, were done over in the Baroque style during the Counter Reformation. So if you like Baroque, Rome is the place to visit--but I don't. San Clemente is a hybrid where there was substantial redecoration, but some of the older church remains, particularly a magnificent 12th century mosaic in the apse. It dawns on me that this mosaic is a very complex visualization not too dissimilar from genomic diagrams. They are both products of their times, designed to convey information about what the cultures in which they were created valued highly. I decide that this is a perfect idea to write about in Rome. I can visit San Clemente and other churches with such complex images, and see what they can tell me about the issue of organizing information visually. In other words, I can sightsee and do research for my writing at the same time. You can't beat that. San Clemente While others are slaving away on their laptops during our morning writing time, 1 go off to San Clemente. I have been there twice before and each time, I've marveled at the mosaic, but this is the first time I have really sat and studied it, making notes and simple sketches. …