By Denise Shapiro
To cope with the COVID-19 pandemic, English student Que’Aire Anderson has been hosting Paint ‘N Sip art sessions at home with family and she decided to take pole dancing classes. “I wanted to do something to build my confidence and lose weight,” she said. Mina Basmaci, who is majoring in English and Religious Studies, has been channeling her “inner grandmother,” baking cheesecake and learning the xylophone. And Raymond Matthews, who is in the journalism track of the Professional Writing Minor, says the quarantine has spurred him to write more, particularly personal essays and commentary.
These are just a few of the many creative ways Arts and Humanities students at UC Santa Barbara have been coping with an unusually difficult time, forced to study from home — be that in the midst of family or in a rented space with friends. We checked in with five students to see how they are doing, heading into the final stretch of the fall 2020 quarter. Their responses show their resourcefulness and imagination, and how strong a role creative arts play in their lives at a time when the social aspect of college life has been radically curtailed.
From urging fellow students to be more careful, to describing the music they have discovered during this pandemic, these undergraduates opened up about how they have handled studying at UCSB during the still-critical public health crisis.
Click on this video on the UCSB Humanities and Fine Arts YouTube channel to hear what they have to say.
Mina Basmaci, who is majoring in both English and Religious Studies at UC Santa Barbara, displays one of her pandemic masks, from where she is studying at home in Sacramento.
Denise Shapiro is a third year Film and Media Studies Major at UC Santa Barbara and the student intern videographer for the Division of Humanities and Fine Arts.