Finding Creativity with Dr. Dwyer-McNulty 

At we get ready for the new spring semester, we already miss the incredible professors who carried us through last Fall. We’re really going to miss Dr. Dwyer-McNulty, the Writing for College professor. During her Writing For College classes, the Marist Italy students produced some incredible writing that we’ll be releasing in the coming days – so keep your eye out over the new few weekends, since we’ll be posting the perfect reads for you to cozy up with a cup of tea. While you wait, here are some questions we asked her about her love for fashion and literature, the inspiration she’s gained from her experiences in Florence, and advice on how students can embrace their creativity, even while studying in one major. Here’s what she had to say: 

What made you interested in teaching? How did you become a teacher?

What made you decide to come and teach in Florence for the semester?

I haven’t taught here before but I’ve been to Florence before. I came here in about 2007, when Marist was first getting their relationship with LDM off the ground, and I was the core director. At Marist, students take about a third of their classes in the core and there’s a lot of opportunity to pick and choose classes yourself. But some classes, especially now, are required, like your First Year Seminar and Writing for College. The Italian faculty and LDM didn’t have a core curriculum the same way we had in Poughkeepsie. So, I was invited to come to talk about what the core is and why we value it. 

Then I came back again in 2015. I had just published a book on Catholic clothing and all different styles of it. I wanted to have more of an in-depth look at how religious clothing was depicted in artwork. So, I applied to write a blog and walk around Florence doing this blog. I’ve shared my blogs with my classes and this was a chance to try a new genre of writing for myself. Because, typically, my writing was academic, and this was academic too, but there’s definitely something more conversational in a blog. 

Then I came back again in 2019. This time I applied to do the footwork to develop a First Year Seminar, and this one would be about something with regard to fabric and fashion. At the time, I was interested in the creation of the loom and Leonardo da Vinci’s connections to the Loom. So, I planned that trip in 2019 to go to all museums that had to do with either clothing, clothing accessories, or clothing production. It was a great way to spend three weeks in Florence, and I went to Venice, I went to Arezzo, and I went to Stia. 

Then we had covid, of course, and that interrupted thing, but I put in an application to teach a first-year seminar here. But a friend said to me, “You know it’s probably a good idea to be versatile. If you aren’t selected for First Year Seminar, would you be willing to teach college writing?” And I said, “Of course!” It would be wonderful to spend time on what I consider the delivery system of content. So, when I submitted my application, I was chosen to teach college writing. 

So, a friend of mine who had taught here before had used walking as a theme and he wasn’t actually sure how well it worked. But I thought it was terrific to, A) get out of a classroom, and B) because it ties in with one accessory often very important to walking, and that’s shoes!  

How did you find a way to combine the two of your interests? Do you have any advice for students trying to do that? 

Your work will always be easier to complete and to pursue if there’s passion behind it. That intersection is going to create something unique. Really, my work on catholic clothing was about the erasure of fashion. It was about uniformity and diminishing any kind of splendor. It was a very unique topic, and someone said to me, “You know, sometimes it takes years to write a book. You have to have something that you will not lose interest in for that length of time.”  

So that is why you have to pursue that kind of niche on the side. That’s going to keep you committed, it’s going to keep you interested, and other people are going to be attracted to it. Your interest will be infectious, and people will say, “gosh, I never thought about that.” 

Has Florence inspired you in any way?

There had been this topic that I had kind of put to the side, related to fashion, and I’d been doing a lot of work related to clothing. It has to do with second uses, the recycling of fabric and garments, and what kind of garments will be used again and how. I’m interested in resurrecting that topic. 

For instance, people here used to donate their wedding dresses, sometimes to make clerical garments or a baby’s baptismal clothing. And it’s interesting that two populations who are supposed to be virginal, with the baby and, well, we don’t with the bride, but that clothing is kind of permissible to be used for someone going into religious life. So, I find that that kind of second-use clothing and the journey of that fabric is fascinating. And being in Florence, when I see chasubles that have been cut down or a surplus that becomes alter linen, like what are these different uses? 

In the beginning of class, we have to do our self-portraits. Does that have to do with getting our creativity flowing for the beginning of class? 

Yes. I think it’s settling into the space and doing something that ideally is relaxing, since there’s no pressure that we’re artists. Also, it’s telling a little story about yourself visually for that day. Whether it’s “I wish I was in bed’, “I just had the best grilled cheese sandwich”, “I’m going on a trip this weekend.” Whatever that story is, you’re beginning that process of telling it. So, we’re drawing that and when we go into our reading and writing, that’s another way of telling a story. 

Do you have a favorite part of the self-portrait exhibition? 

Do you have a favorite book, or genre? Why is it your favorite? 

I really love Barbara Kingsolver, and I love “The Poisonwood Bible”. It’s a terrific book, and it’s historical and goes through the history of a family. I really do love it when an author does a wonderful amount of research and brings their own expertise. Barbara Kingsolver also wrote a book called “Animal Vegetable Miracle” where she does this experiment with her family of living of the land for a year. She’s really driven by environmental issues and sustainable living. And she’s a great writer so she did a great job documenting it. 

I will say, one of my, possibly, all-time favorite books is by Emily Hahn. She was a writer for The New Yorker, I believe. She went to college in the 1920s and was a writer in the early 30s and gets caught up in the Second World War. When you look at Asia, the war really starts in the early 30s, and she’s in China at the time. She’s had this fascinating life. She gets addicted to opium, but she knows she can’t go traveling in China and be addicted to opium because if she’s caught, she can be executed. So, she goes to a German doctor to help her kick this opium habit. But later, she’s working for the New Yorker and missing this deadline, so she writes this memoir about her life, and it’s fascinating.  

Her life hit so many kinds of fascinating and frightening periods during that move into the second world war. Also, she met expats who were Jewish who were traveling, and as Europ is moving into the war, they lose their country. They have no Homeland. They had been German Jews when they left, and now there’s no country for them to go back to. It’s just an amazing memoir, and it’s called “No Hurry to Get Home”.