STU prof reminisces on his 24-year collection of student work

Sitting at a table at his regular marking spot, The Happy Baker, St. Thomas University English Professor John Muise was eager to share the contents of a backpack teeming with students’ creative projects he had kept over his many years of teaching

In his courses, Muise has developed a tradition of giving his students the opportunity to submit a creative piece for an assignment rather than the typical English essay.  

“I’ve gotten … everything you can conceivably imagine in terms of short stories, films, portraits, posters, plates, landscapes, music, all of these sorts of things,” said Muise.

In the Short Story course that he is currently teaching, the first assignment, with the option of submitting a creative piece, will soon be due. Muise has been bringing the old works into class recently to inspire his students.

Dating back as far as 2001, his collection represents more than just assignments submitted for marks. Rather, they offer a historical look into past STU students in a personal way that the grad photos hung up in George Martin Hall simply cannot convey. 

“If I revisit a student work, it’s because there’s so much TLC invested in these things,” said Muise.

“Sometimes I get quite worked up and I break into tears.”

A few of the student creative projects Muise has collected since 2001 (Brianna Lyttle/AQ)

In one such example, Muise received a CD titled “Dear Victor,” which he explained is a hip-hop track about the novel Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. The student behind the beat went on to become a teacher. 

As well, Muise also has a VHS tape from 2002 created by a student who is now a head executive for Rogers Media in Toronto, expressing pride in watching his students flourish post-graduation.

Another story Muise shared was how he ran into a student whose work he kept, the work being a large painted rock with a landscape themed around Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer.

“It’s just one of those things I’m fortunate enough to have kept. It’s home on a shelf in the kitchen and then just to the left of it, there’s a serving plate on the wall made by Grace [Finlay].”

The serving plate created by the aforementioned current student Finlay was an homage to Catherine Mansfield’s The Garden Party, which led him to describe a portrait depicting Mansfield that he received from another student.

“It’s a crow portrait, sort of like with [a] satin collar and some kind of necktie around Catherine Manfield’s neck. So it’s textured.”

Another student from 2011 brought in a circus-themed poster for the short story Hunger Artist by Franz Kafka. 

“He decided to produce a circus poster that was in keeping with the time period—you know, the early 20th century… and we’ve got the fasting, hunger artist in a cage.”

Other works of various mediums from students include: a Jeopardy game themed around short stories, a scrapbook of poetry, a recipe book themed around each short story covered in Muise’s Short Story course, a graphic novel adaptation, a travel guide for the fictional planet in a sci-fi novel, a watercolour painting, a pamphlet, a Claymation short film and knitting.

“Pretty much they dominate my small place,” Muise said affectionately of his students’ projects.

The collection dates back to when Muise was one year into his university teaching career in 2001 after he and his wife developed an emotional bond with his students. It was then that he got the idea to allow students to submit creative pieces in place of essays.

“Then I said, you know, why not make it a requirement? You have to submit a certain number of essays, but one creative piece, unless someone comes up to me and says, ‘I can’t, I’m scared,’ and I’ll say, ‘You can submit an essay.’”

Muise also shared an anecdote about how in that same year, he and his wife threw two parties for his students at the end of each semester.

“One of the students was in a punk band and he asked if he could get his band to play [at the party],” Muise recalled. “I had no idea what I was getting myself into … and it’s the loudest thing I ever heard in my life. I never heard anything that loud ever and they played all night till six o’clock in the morning.”

Muise explained how he wanted to be vulnerable with his students to allow them to be comfortable enough to be vulnerable with submitting creative pieces to him.

“It’s frightening for some students to submit these things so I try to make them comfortable.”

“They’re difficult to grade … but, almost all the time, it’s obvious that more blood, sweat and tears go into a creative piece than into an essay.”