WRITING THE ESSAY II: STORIES FROM ELSEWHERE: The children’s stories are always shuffled, stuttered, always shattered beyond the repair of a narrative order. The problem with trying to tell their story is that it has no beginning, no middle, and no end,” Valeria Luiselli writes in her nonfiction book Tell Me How It Ends. This shaping of a narrative from scattered fragments, memories and events applies not only to the immigrant experience, but also to the process of writing nonfiction itself. Where do we find a beginning, middle and end? How do we decide what to include and what to leave out, what is important to our story and what is not? In this course, students will examine different kinds of immigrant voices and how they choose to frame their stories, as well as considering how the very words we use to describe people--immigrants, refugees, illegal aliens, expatriates--also work to shape our narratives for better or for worse. We will read a variety of sources, including essays, short stories and magazine articles, as well as analyzing narrative techniques in other media, such as documentaries, movies and podcasts. Readings will include texts by Valeria Luiselli, Edwidge Danticat, Junot Diaz, Albino Okero-Ochello, and Pico Iyer, among others.

WRITING THE ESSAY I: RE-CLAIMING AND RE-SEEING RACE IN THE REAL AMERICA. This course offers students the opportunity to engage with the interdisciplinary field of critical race and ethnicity studies. Using the methods of cultural studies, we will analyze race and ethnicity as products of culture that infiltrate and shape all other experiences of identity and of daily life in the United States. To that end, we’ll read theory, study real-world cases studies, and explore artistic (literature, film, art) expressions and representations of what Toni Morrison called the “wholly racialized society that is the United States.” This first-year research seminar asks students to explore the ways in which the United States has wrestled with race since its inception and during this unprecedented time in history. Students will have the opportunity to engage with this practice by writing, conducting research, and workshopping and revising their own writing.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: ENVIRONMENT AND LOSS. Much of contemporary environmental journalism focuses on dramatic “disasters,” but what happens after the television cameras and reporters have long gone? The term “solastalgia” was coined a decade ago by the environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht to describe the inability to derive comfort from one’s surroundings due to negative environmental change. In short, it’s a kind of homesickness felt at home. This psychological impact teaches us that environmental writing must be as much about the lived experience of people in their environment as it is about the physical space that surrounds them. Through a wide range of environmental narratives including, but not limited to, personal essays, magazine features, nonfiction books, podcasts and documentaries, in this writing-intensive course we will examine how other writers approach the world around them, as well as exploring our own relationships to the environment (whether it be an area of devastation or simply your own neighborhood) as both personal and political space. We will also discuss the different lenses through which environmental stories might be experienced, as well as considering who “gets” to tell these stories and why. Readings will include texts by Rachel Carson, Elizabeth Kolbert, John McPhee, Lauret Savoy and Jason Ward.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: BEING YOUNG. This course will examine the social, psychological and political concept of youth, as constructed by and reflected in a variety of texts by writers such as Mark Greif, James Baldwin, Arthur Rimbaud, William and Dorothy Wordsworth, Eileen Myles, M.K. Gandhi and many more. We'll read poetry, fiction, letters and essays for, by and about the young--lyric celebrations of youth, nostalgic reflections on past youth, stories of formation as well as texts in which youth is the culmination of life. Each student will work on one extended research-based writing project that pertains to this topic.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: RETURN OF THE QUEER PAGE. In this first-year seminar we will read, discuss, and respond in writing to a multiplicity of queer texts, from foundational works of queer theory to contemporary fiction, essays and poetry. This course will consider the relationship between body and text, and we will practice close reading a wide range of LGBTQIA textual bodies; queer pages that work to counter hegemonic norms. This course will be a practice in how to incorporate ourselves into our research, and we will explore the intersections of personal essay and scholarly research. This course views research as a conversation and an act of community and solidarity. We will practice responsible and rigorous engagement in the intersections of our own experiences and the (written) experiences of others, learning how to place ourselves among them. We will practice how to speak with, and not for. We will read queerly, and define what that means for us as we go along. Texts may include work by: Sara Ahmed, Judith Butler, Samuel Delaney, Audre Lorde, E. Patrick Johnson, José Esteban Muñoz, Dean Spade, Candace Williams, and Monique Wittig.

WRITING THE ESSAY II: RACE IN THE REAL AMERICA. ‘Re-Claiming and Re-Seeing Race in the Real America’ offers students the opportunity to engage with the interdisciplinary field of critical race and ethnicity studies. Using the methods of cultural studies, we will analyze race and ethnicity as products of culture that infiltrate and shape all other experiences of identity and of daily life in the United States. To that end, we’ll read theory, study real-world cases studies, and explore artistic (literature, film, art) expressions and representations of what Toni Morrison called the “wholly racialized society that is the United States.” This first-year research seminar asks students to explore the ways in which the United States has wrestled with race since its inception and during this unprecedented time in history. Students will have the opportunity to engage with this practice by writing, conducting research, and workshopping and revising their own writing. Readings may include works by James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ibram Kendi, Michelle Alexander, Robin DiAngelo, Saidiya Hartman, Audre Lorde, Kimberly Crenshaw, Claudia Rankine, Edwidge Danticat, Natalie Diaz, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, and others.