ENGL221

In Tucson, we live within the most biodiverse desert in the world, situated at the crux of pressing social, cultural, and environmental issues and opportunities. In this experiential learning-based course, we will take our creative writing outside of the classroom. Students will participate in field trips, meet with experts, and learn field research methods, including interviewing, archival research, and reporting. In addition, students will consider what it means to write about their region in ways that are ethical and accountable while also practicing foundational concepts of creative writing and how these formal elements create meaning, complexity, and reader experiences. Students will learn how to collaborate with community partners engaged in social justice and environmental work outside the classroom setting. As they craft their own research-based nonfiction, fiction, poems, and reporting pieces about this region, they will be trained in how to avoid engaging in an extractive relationship with the community instead of serving them, investigating their responsibility to people they write about, while also identifying and experimenting with a range of aesthetic strategies employed by contemporary writers and peers. Over the course of the semester students will develop a community engagement project meant to enhance their research-based creative writing, allow them the opportunity to demonstrate their understanding of the aesthetic strategies and bolster their awareness of, and investment in, Southern Arizona.

GEED - EPART (Gen Ed: EP Artist)

Fall, Spring

Not Offered

Not Offered

Not Offered

Not Offered

Not Offered