{"id":4095,"date":"2020-04-15T17:22:34","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T17:22:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/?p=4095"},"modified":"2020-04-15T17:22:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T17:22:34","slug":"storytelling-during-the-time-of-the-plague-new-block-8-course-added-in-response-to-coronavirus-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/2020\/04\/15\/storytelling-during-the-time-of-the-plague-new-block-8-course-added-in-response-to-coronavirus-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Storytelling During the Time of the Plague:  New Block 8 Course Added in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <strong>Miriam Brown \u201921<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Assistant Professor Amanda Minervini originally planned to teach a gastronomy class in Italy during Block 8. When the coronavirus pandemic forced her to make new plans, she created a course specifically with the pandemic and online format in mind \u2014 Storytelling During the Time of the Plague: Boccaccio and \u2018The Decameron.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wanted to teach a topic as relevant as possible to the current situation, and I wanted to tailor the new course to online teaching, instead of adapting an existing one,\u201d Minervini says.<\/p>\n<p>Set in 1348, \u201cThe Decameron\u201d by 14th-century Italian author Giovanni Boccaccio is a collection of 100 stories told by a group of young adults sheltered in the Tuscan countryside after leaving Florence to escape the plague. For the group, listening to and telling stories is more than just a way to pass time.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe first line of \u201cThe Decameron\u201d says: \u2018It is human to have compassion on the afflicted,\u2019\u201d Minervini says. \u201cSo first of all, this is a course about compassion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The course is inspired by the digital humanities, and much of the course material is already online through The Decameron Web, a project curated by a group from Brown University. Students will have a flexible online schedule and will have multiple options for assignments and ways to explore The Decameron Web, which Minervini hopes will give them room to be creative and tie content to their own personal interests.<\/p>\n<p>Minervini says the Block Plan is one-of-a-kind in being able to adapt courses to changing circumstances.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is no other system that would allow me to develop and teach a whole course in response to a rapidly changing situation like this,\u201d Minervini says.<\/p>\n<p>Students can still choose to sign up for the course online. It satisfies one unit toward the English major, and no knowledge of Italian is necessary.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-attachment-id=\"4096\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/2020\/04\/15\/storytelling-during-the-time-of-the-plague-new-block-8-course-added-in-response-to-coronavirus-pandemic\/salvatore-postiglione-scene-of-the-narration-of-the-decameron-copy\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/files\/2020\/04\/Salvatore-Postiglione-Scene-of-the-Narration-of-the-Decameron-copy.jpg?fit=1000%2C663&amp;ssl=1\" data-orig-size=\"1000,663\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;1&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Salvatore Postiglione &#8211; Scene of the Narration of the Decameron copy\" data-image-description=\"\" data-image-caption=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/files\/2020\/04\/Salvatore-Postiglione-Scene-of-the-Narration-of-the-Decameron-copy.jpg?fit=300%2C199&amp;ssl=1\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/files\/2020\/04\/Salvatore-Postiglione-Scene-of-the-Narration-of-the-Decameron-copy.jpg?fit=640%2C424&amp;ssl=1\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-4096\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/files\/2020\/04\/Salvatore-Postiglione-Scene-of-the-Narration-of-the-Decameron-copy.jpg?resize=300%2C199&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Narration of Decameron\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/files\/2020\/04\/Salvatore-Postiglione-Scene-of-the-Narration-of-the-Decameron-copy.jpg?resize=300%2C199&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/files\/2020\/04\/Salvatore-Postiglione-Scene-of-the-Narration-of-the-Decameron-copy.jpg?resize=768%2C509&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/files\/2020\/04\/Salvatore-Postiglione-Scene-of-the-Narration-of-the-Decameron-copy.jpg?w=1000&amp;ssl=1 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Miriam Brown \u201921 Assistant Professor Amanda Minervini originally planned to teach a gastronomy class in Italy during Block 8. When the coronavirus pandemic forced her to make new plans, she created a course specifically with the pandemic and online format in mind \u2014 Storytelling During the Time of the Plague: Boccaccio and \u2018The Decameron.\u2019 &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/2020\/04\/15\/storytelling-during-the-time-of-the-plague-new-block-8-course-added-in-response-to-coronavirus-pandemic\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Storytelling During the Time of the Plague:  New Block 8 Course Added in Response to Coronavirus Pandemic&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":648,"featured_media":4097,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4095","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-campus","category-general-news","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/files\/2020\/04\/A-Tale-from-the-Decameron-1916-John-William-Waterhouse-copy.jpg?fit=1000%2C630&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/648"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4095"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4098,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4095\/revisions\/4098"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4095"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4095"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.coloradocollege.edu\/atb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4095"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}