Jamie Weaver, a thesis-year Book & Paper student, will be traveling to Romania on a Fulbright Award In the fall of 2014. She will be teaching English and study local folk arts and storytelling. Weaver will arrive having already taught both English composition and interdisciplinary arts courses at the university level, and will be pursuing a college teaching career as part of her professional life as an artist and scholar.

Weaver grew up in rural West Virginia and finds herself deeply inspired by the complex geography, history, and culture of Appalachia. Her artist books explore her Appalachian experiences by embracing, questioning, and sometimes subverting the traditional folk stories, beliefs, and practices in which her childhood was steeped.

In Romania, she plans to organize a book arts club after classes to introduce bookbinding and illustration techniques to students and community members. Participants will learn how to express their own stories or collected bits of folk wisdom in visual form by experimenting with various book structures, materials, and imagery.