ENGL3850S: Writing and Community (52232)

Davis, Elizabeth

TR 11:00 AM

Park Hall 0149

This course will explore the concept of community, both within the classroom (i.e., a community of peers concerned with providing critique and support for each others' work), and without through exploration of the various communities in which we participate, and the role of written communication in the development and maintenance of those communities.

Key questions this course will engage with include:

  • How is community identity formed and maintained and how does writing figure into that process?
  • How can writers contribute to their communities in productive ways?
  • How does digital media/technology impact the communication and writing practices of communities?
  • How are rural communities finding ways to survive and thrive in the 21st century?

For our service-learning component this semester, we will be working with two communities in the Archway Partnership, one of the University of Georgia's Public Service and Outreach units, to tell the stories of a couple of those communities' unique assets by studying the history of the communities, talking with community members, and researching the impact - both actual and potential - of these assets for the continued growth and development of the communities. Our stories will be about Moultrie, GA's Boys and Girls Club, which is celebrating its 10th year anniversary this year, and Pulaski County's 750 year old Muscogee Creek Indian canoes, discovered along the Ocmulgee River, one of the main waterways in the state that has been crucial to the development of both indigenous and white settler communities. We will have opportunities to travel to Moultrie and Hawkinsville (though this is not a requirement and you will be able to succeed in the course even if you are unable to visit the communities) and to meet and talk with community members via videoconferencing and face-to-face meetings here in Athens.