Reflections Magazine Issue #81 - Fall 2014 | Page 19

Feature Article

Spirit of Academic Innovation
Continues at Siena Heights

C

reativity has always been a calling card in the Siena Heights
classroom over the years.
In Siena’s earlier days, it was educating Adrian Dominican Sisters
over the summer months to keep them teaching in elementary and high
schools during the fall, winter and spring.
In the 1960s it was the genesis of the Creative Stages youth theater
program that blazed new trails and connected education to performing
arts like never before.
The 1970s had Siena Heights leaving the Adrian campus to teach
adult and nontraditional students across Michigan and beyond.
Today, that spirit of innovation continues. One course fuses a familiar
concept—food—with one a little harder to grasp—chemistry. Another
combines the endless possibilities of creative writing with the new and
evolving visual arts in a true liberal arts collaboration.
What it means for the Siena Heights student is learning in new—
and sometimes fun—ways.

By Doug Goodnough

Left: Alex Weinstein as The Mad Professor.
Below: Erin Zerbe—aka zerbeTRON.

Comix and the Graphic
Novel: Art AND Creative
Writing Join Forces
What happens when a Mad Scientist
and a zerbeTRON get together? One interesting course that combines creative
writing with graphic and visual design.
This fall, Assistant Professor of English
Alexander Weinstein and Assistant
Professor of Art Erin Zerbe are joining
forces to teach Comix and the Graphic
Novel course.
“Alexander actually approached me
about teaching the course,” said Zerbe,
aka “zerbeTRON.” “We’ve talked extensively about the similarities between the
creative writing process and the visual
arts process, so this seemed like a perfect
opportunity to help our students bridge
the gap and explore creativity in new
and challenging ways.”

“While originally the idea was for
it to be a literature course, I thought
making it a creative writing and art
workshop would be really exciting for
students,” Weinstein said. “Students
would not merely be reading the works
of great artists and writers, but learning
to make their own comics!”
Both share a love of comic books,
and decided to co-teach the class, which
filled quickly last spring. The course
provides critical analysis of comics as
a medium, as well as an intensive exploration of the many aspects of writing,
drawing, editing and publishing comics
and graphic narratives. Students will
create their own comic book in a
“workshop environment.”

Reflections Fall ’14 | 19