How does the material you take notes with influence your learning process?

We are in the Booth Room of the University Library at Utrecht Science Park. Students from several programmes, including Dutch, Art History, Literary Studies, Celtic, and History, are hunched over tables full of writing materials. Parchment, vellum, quill pens and goose feathers are spread among modern laptops and tablets.

The students are working in groups, writing the same sentence over and over again, each time using a different surface or writing tool. One student frowns as the ink from a quill pen flows unevenly, while another tries to make graceful curls with a goose feather. Others attempt to scratch letters into tree bark with a stone. "This feels a bit different than typing on a laptop."

Some students take the experiment a step further and start exploring unorthodox writing methods. While one tries to type on a keyboard with a stylus – originally intended for inscriptions on clay tablets – another uses chalk to write a sentence on her arm. 

Photo: Renske Hoff

Long horizontal characters
The experiment is being organised by Renske Hoff, Kila van der Starre and Nike Stam, who teach the courses  "The Carriers of Literature", "Medieval Celtic Palaeography" and "Palaeography of the Early Modern Period" at the Faculty of Humanities. The goal is to let students experience how the choice of a text carrier – such as parchment, bark, stone or a laptop – and the writing technique used – such as decorative curls or clear block letters – influences the form and interpretation of a text.

Photo: Renske Hoff

"The choice of a particular medium and a particular script or font has a lot to do with the genre, the time, the place and the impression one wants to make," Hoff explains. In the late Middle Ages, for example, religious texts were often printed in the Gothic Textura script, which radiated authority and seriousness, befitting Bibles and other theological works.

"Script forms also developed in a specific way because the material enabled certain movements and shapes and not others," Hoff continues. For example, the use of papyrus in ancient Egypt led to long, horizontal characters, while parchment in the Middle Ages allowed for more detailed and curled letterforms.

Practicality vs. meaning
The experiment in the Booth Room has provided the students with a variety of insights. For starters, they found out that not all writing materials are user-friendly. "As a left-handed person, I had a hard time writing with ink on parchment", one student said. "I had to hold my hand in an unnatural position to prevent myself from smudging the ink."

The students also concluded that the charm and personality of handwriting are lost when typing. "A typed Valentine's card would be a lot less romantic than a handwritten version," teacher Nike Stam remarks.

However, not all students were equally excited about the workshop. "I don't understand how writing with a stone on bark could teach me anything," says a student of Dutch Language and Culture. At another table, however, students were more enthusiastic. "Now I understand better how writing and text transmission developed, and what that means for its accessibility," says a History student.

Photo: Renske Hoff

The Special Collections
The students who participated in the workshop also had access to the Special Collections of the University Library, where they could view historical manuscripts, printed books and other objects with text on them; and then compare them with modern media.

"We have made a wide selection of materials," says curator Andrea van Leerdam. "We receive many donations, often from professors or bibliophiles who leave behind special pieces. That's why we have such a big collection, spread over several floors and depots. Each of these pieces shows how text can manifest itself in different forms."

Two students, one studying Dutch Language and Culture and the other Art History, are looking at a book from the Middle Ages. Their assignment: not only try to read it but also feel it, smell it and analyse the object's physicality from the perspective of their own discipline.

"I would never think of smelling a book," says the student of Dutch Language and Culture. "I usually focus on the content, but this old book feels fragile and precious, which makes me handle it more carefully than, say, the modern book on graphic design we just looked at. Maybe that vulnerability also makes the content feel less accessible."

The Art History student nods. "Form is actually the first thing I look at because I always approach artworks materially for my studies. But it is interesting to do that with someone who focuses on the text. Suddenly you see how the combination of form and content creates meaning."

Photo: Renske Hoff

What is a Course Hub?
Looking to offer students a broader view of their field, the Faculty of Humanities is introducing several Course Hubs this year. These hubs bundle thematically related courses, allowing students to approach a subject from different angles. The initiative comes from the core team of the Languages and Cultures Sector Plan and is funded by the university programme Interdisciplinary Education.

"The idea is that students not only experience interdisciplinary collaboration but also develop a deeper insight into their own field of study," says Nina Geerdink, a member of the Languages and Cultures core team.

Although the university is increasingly committed to interdisciplinary education, and this is an important element in the educational reform the Faculty of Humanities is going through, funding the project remains a challenge. "We couldn't design new courses because other courses would have to be scrapped," Geerdink explains. "That's why we looked for ways to connect existing courses with joint activities so that students can become acquainted with interdisciplinary collaboration without it being at the expense of the curriculum."