ArtsONE is definitely one of the greatest first-year programs available at UBC. As a literature-centred writing-intensive course, it inevitably churns out some pretty accomplished writers, a few of which are a part of UBC’s Her Campus team! Read on as we compare three writers’ experiences with one of UBC’s most acclaimed first-year programs.
AVERY
I am just coming off of my year as an ArtsONE student, and let me tell you, it was great! I was lucky enough to have Robert Crawford of the Political Science department as my seminar leader. He himself began his University career in the ArtsONE program, so he is undoubtedly the King (shoutout to you, Rob). This year (2016/17) our theme was Seeing and Knowing — a pretty ambiguous theme that lead to a pretty random reading list if you ask me!
Some of my favourite texts were Shakespeare’s Tempest, Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, and Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home. In fact, Fun Home was the reason I picked the program in the first place, having read it before and being particularly interested in comics as I am. I was less enthralled by the philosophical work such as Plato’s Republic and Foucault’s Discipline and Punish, and the presence of Darwin’s On Evolution on our reading list frankly puzzled me.
Now here I am, faced with writing two in-class essays for a final exam and dealing with texts that have flown my mind since I read them in September, but I wouldn’t switch it for any other program.
CHIMIE
I was lucky enough to get Robert Crawford as my prof! Have you ever wanted to read Hobbes’ Leviathan without actually reading Hobbes’ Leviathan? Well, then, Crawford’s your guy. Thanks to Rob, Leviathan’s absence from our reading list didn’t matter – I now know more about it than I do about myself.
Joking aside, though, Rob’s great, and as a long-time prof in the program, he definitely knows what’s up.
The theme of Seeing & Knowing seemed cool when I first saw it before class registration, and now that I’ve gone through the course it’s evident I was wrong. It’s not cool – it’s real cool, not to mention real relevant (realevant?) in today’s hyper-visual world. Also, the theme name allowed for a lot of puns, which I am more thankful for than I could ever hope to communicate.
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home was – well, fun, and it introduced me to the world of graphic memoirs. I also enjoyed Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper – it was the best psychological-horror-with-a-dash-of-social-commentary short story on the reading list. As for unfavourites, Plato’s Republic was…tedious………….and City of Glass felt only imitative of the form of a readable/good novel (to put it in Platonic terms, sigh).
The worst thing about the final, other than the fact that it’s gonna be three hours of high-speed internal screaming, is that it means my time in Arts One is over. If there were an Arts Two, Arts Three, etc. etc., you’d find me there.
JACKIE (via interview)
Jackie was a part of the ArtsONE program in the 2012/13 year, and her seminar leader was Dr. Renisa Mawani of the Sociology department. Explorations and Encounters was the theme that year, and colonialism was a central topic of many texts.
According to Jackie, many of the texts “were really formative for me for the rest of my undergraduate years, particularly The Wretched of the Earth by Frantz Fanon and A Small Place by Jamaica Kincaid. I also really loved Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein”. As for the texts she didn’t enjoy? “I didn’t much care for Robinson Crusoe or Kant because they both dragged on and seemed very dry to me”.
For any students currently panicking at the thought of the final exam, Jackie’s advice is that as long as you are familiar with the texts “it should be fairly straightforward”. For anyone interested in taking ArtsONE next year? “[ArtsONE] is awesome and a great way to transition from high school to university especially if you love literature” but if you can’t stand reading you’re better off staying away.
That’s it HCUBC Cuties! If you know any incoming students with a love of literature and no fear of writing, point them to ArtsONE!
Photo Credits: ubc artsone via twitter.com, artsone.arts.ubc.ca