As a professional paper conservator and color science Ph.D. candidate, Leah Humenuck has studied books from every angle and wavelength.

This semester, Humenuck is sharing her love for paper, ink, pigments, and all the material components of a book, in her course, The Secret Lives of Books, a special topics elective offered by the museum studies program in the College of Liberal Arts. She is gaining hands-on experience from the other side of the classroom, working with undergraduate students, sampling an academic career, and adding to her résumé.

While the evolution of the book has been a global accomplishment, Humenuck focuses on book development in the Western world and the influence of parchment, which shaped the form, Gutenberg’s game-changing printing press, and the rise of paper.

Her class teaches students how to assess a book through its materials and construction. Trends in book development point to available materials and choices often based in practicalities, she said.

“There’s more than one way to read a book,” Humenuck said.

She alternates her lectures with lab experiences that focus on handling rare books, mixing pigments, learning about book storage, and papermaking.

“I think the best way to interact with history is to do the history,” Humenuck added.

Christis Shepard, a fourth-year museum studies major from Bayonne, N.J., is enjoying the deep dive into the history of making books.

“We’re currently learning about medieval books, the inks medieval scribes and artisans used, and the techniques used in creating parchment,” Shepard said. “It makes me appreciate the ease we have today in making books and that many of these old books managed to survive into the modern day.”

Humenuck’s class meets in Wallace Library and frequently visits the Cary Graphic Arts Collection, RIT’s special collection of rare books, and graphic design and printing history.

“I wanted to create a class that would intersect with the Cary Collection,” Humenuck said. “I tell my students, ‘While you’re here, use the Cary Collection because it’s phenomenal.’”

Humenuck developed the special topics class at the suggestion of Juilee Decker, director of museum studies and co-director of the Cultural Heritage Imaging lab. Decker knew of Humenuck’s interest in an academic career.

“I enjoy tapping into what students are doing at the graduate level and seeing how they might inform what we’re doing in museum studies,” Decker said.  “I thought that Leah’s expertise as a book and paper conservator would provide a materials perspective on a topic that is related to museum studies.”

With a focus on libraries, archives, and museums, and a tech-infused approach to liberal arts and sciences, RIT’s museum studies program is one of the few undergraduate degree programs of its kind in the United States, Decker added. Interdisciplinary in nature, the program draws upon expertise from multiple colleges and divisions with a book niche.

Steven Galbraith, curator of the Cary Graphic Arts Collection, teaches a course about the history of the book from a curatorial perspective, and faculty at the Image Permanence Institute offer a course about preservation and collections care.

“Leah has served as a mentor and an internship supervisor for a number of my students,” Decker said. “I work with her in a research capacity, so I am aware of her excellent scholarship ethics and her keen eye toward mentoring and developing lifelong learning goals for people.”

The path to becoming a college instructor is different for every Ph.D. student.

The Secret Lives of Books is Humenuck’s first experience writing a syllabus and planning a curriculum for a semester-long class.

Decker gave her guidance about classroom parameters and syllabi. She has also sat in on Humenuck’s classes.

“It’s common that there’s not a precursor to teaching,” Decker said, reflecting on her doctoral degree at Case Western University. “There isn’t a formal class that says, ‘This is how you become an instructor now that you want to share your knowledge of this topic.’”

The opportunity to teach builds upon Humenuck’s experience gained through her many guest lectures and talks, conference presentations, an internship program she created for museum studies, and her semester as a graduate teaching assistant for the Fundamentals of Color Science course.

Christie Leone, assistant dean of the RIT Graduate School, said there are a lot of opportunities for graduate students to gain hands-on teaching experience by working as graduate teaching assistants under the supervision of a faculty mentor. 

Graduate teaching assistants are required to take a training course, GTA Foundations, offered by the Graduate School in collaboration with the Center for Teaching and Learning. The class provides basic background information and introduction to the responsibilities of a graduate teaching assistant at RIT. In addition, some colleges and departments offer their own training specific to their discipline.

Humenuck’s class is giving her a multidisciplinary teaching experience. The elective has drawn 17 students from a variety of majors and with different opinions on materials for preserving information.

“Being able to answer questions and pull a class together with students having different perspectives is something I really enjoy,” Humenuck said.