Spring 2021 Reflections

Jayne Mathis: 

"This course also made me think about the way I interact with writing. At this point in my life, I’m so familiar with writing in the Roman script and English language that I’ve taken the idea of reading and writing for granted. There was some point, though, in the middle of learning about the rigorous training that Mesopotamian scribes went through to learn cuneiform, where the thought hit me that eventually, they would be able to read and write just as naturally as I can today. They would look at the cuneiform signs and not see a bunch of meaningless lines as I would, but entire words and concepts would pop into their minds as easily as they do for me when I read English. More than that, they would be able to see one word and recall an entire line of a story they’d memorized, which I can’t do except for some lines in certain stories (and, honestly, mostly memes) that have gotten stuck in my head for whatever reason. Something about how that sunk in, that these people who are thousands and thousands of years removed from me still thought and processed things in the same way I do, absolutely blew my mind."

Brittany Lehn:

"I want to start by saying how much I enjoyed this class. With everything being online, I think the class went very well. I really enjoyed and appreciated how the class had a relaxed and open atmosphere. Now by saying relaxed, I don’t mean that we could just slack off and not do our readings or assignments or participate in discussion. I mean that I feel the class was very open to discussion about the topics and expanding our thoughts about why something was the way it was or how that affected them or even us today. I loved that we didn’t just learn about the scripts and how they work, how they came about, and who used them, but that we also talked about how writing affected their society, their culture, and their morals. I feel we really went in depth with the topics, for example with Cuneiform. We talked about how was recorded, how writing that impacted their society, their roles within society, what scribal training was and how that is different than our education today, how writing influenced power, etc. We talked about how writing was very elitist and the people who knew how to read or write were either the people in power or the people working for them.  I thought it was pretty interesting that in the scribal training many of the students were sons of the teachers. Working for the rich and powerful led to the idea that education and being literate was important in excelling in life and society. I feel this is still somewhat true to this day. Whether we like it or not, having a higher level of education gives you more access to a better or higher paying job."

Madeleine Ackerburg: 

"After much deliberation, I ultimately ended up studying Cherokee script due to my personal interest in the topic due to my great-grandmother’s heritage and culture. It was incredible to learn about the history surrounding the Cherokee people-–which I found equally important in understanding the reasoning behind Sequoyah’s decision to create the Syllabary. Even though I heard my great-grandmother talk somewhat about the history of her people and the culture she grew up with, I had absolutely no idea that the Cherokee used to number around 22,500 people in 1650, and occupied over 40,000 square miles of land in the Appalachian Mountains, Georgia, Tennessee, and parts of North and South Carolina. Before attending the University of Iowa, I had been given plenty of vague information from my teachers in middle school and high school––information that wrongly assumed Cherokees had lived in tipi’s and practiced under-developed hunting and gathering techniques. From my own research, I actually discovered that the Cherokees had been an advanced society with log cabins and centralized housing, that they possessed knives, axes, chisels and wove baskets, as well as practiced advanced methods of farming––cultivating corn, beans, squash, as well as furnishing deer, bear, and elk into meat and clothing. This information was purposely left out of many textbooks given to me in high school, as well as any information explaining how many Cherokee people were forced to cede more than two million acres and forcibly evacuate from their land prior to the creation of the Syllabary."

Emilie Wilson: 

"To me, a journalism student, writing was being creative, informative, and about collecting your thoughts as words on paper. I was intimidated when my peers, a lot of them linguistic students, answered the question with a level of insight that I could barely understand. What the heck was a morpheme?

Signing up for this class I thought maybe I would learn about typewriters and the invention of the keyboard, but I never thought what I would learn would unlock a new perspective and a completely new way of thinking about writing. This class challenged me and my thoughts about writing, culture, and language. I learned about how writing was a tool, how it changed cultures, how cultures changed writing, and, finally, I learned what the heck a morpheme was."

"This course has completely changed my perspective on how I think about writing, and I now appreciate and understand the creativity it takes to invent a script, and the impact it has on a culture. After taking this class, I think about writing when I read, when I work, and as I’m typing this now. I understand now that the invention of writing is everywhere, and has changed much more than words on a page."

Bryan Herran: 

"I specifically enjoyed learning the evolution of each writing system and asking questions like, which system came first? What was the reason for this system developing? How did this writing system inspire this other one? And so on. The intricacies and developments of each writing system was very engaging. Also, I appreciated how the instructor guided the discussion and made it easier to understand the development and uniqueness of each system. Apart from enjoying the journey from Cuneiform to Greek, I also saw ways I could relate my major and this class."

Cathryn: 

"Finally, I liked getting to apply my knowledge of linguistics in a new context. I am a French and linguistics student. As such, much of my background in the realm of language has focused on spoken language. I haven’t often had cause to apply it to the written word. I think learning about how a spoken language influences the creation and evolution of a written script deepened my understanding of certain linguistic principles (especially phonology and morphology). That is a benefit I certainly did not expect to get out of this course. I now have more appreciation and understanding of those concepts, which will definitely benefit me as I move forward in my academic career as a linguistics student."

Sophia: 

"Taking this class has helped me understand a little more about my major. When I originally got into Communication Studies I was really unsure with where that major would take me and what career field was possible to get into, but after taking our class and hearing about all the other communications majors during the class when we had Professor Ryan come to visit our class I realized that my major could lead me in whichever way I intended it to and that all of the classes I am fortunate enough to take in my college career are supposed to stare me into understanding things I enjoy learning about."

Camellia Pham: 

"Lastly, all of the presentations by professor Ryan Shosted, Professor Phillip Lutgendorf and by my classmates are the most thought-provoking experiences from this class."