Creative Writing and Journalism Minor

Program Director: Dr. Dawn Lonsinger, Associate Professor of English Literatures & Writing
Professors: McEwan, Sullivan
Associate Professor: Miller
Assistant Professor: Buozis
Visiting Assistant Professor: Dean
Lecturer: Vigneri

The Creative Writing & Journalism Minor offers students courses in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, screenwriting, playwriting, journalism and digital media. The curriculum is designed to prepare students to be imaginative thinkers and writers who will excel in whichever career path they choose, from professional writer to business entrepreneur, from theatre director to marketing executive, from neurologist to lawyer to journalist. All our courses teach students how to write for a general audience, and also focus on narrative, on how to tell stories. The program’s goals are to provide students with a fundamental understanding of the various genres in writing, to introduce them to the nuances and possibilities of written language, to teach them how to conceptualize and empower them to write successfully in their unique and beautiful voices, and to acquaint them to the multiple traditions and innovations of the written form.

In all Creative Writing & Journalism courses, students will explore how ethical writing is central to literature and journalism, which means not only avoiding plagiarism but understanding how bias and exclusive language (language that perpetuates racism, sexism, stereotypes and discrimination) can mar writing. As a faculty, we are committed to inclusive pedagogical strategies and to teaching work written by historically marginalized writers. Our classes create a collaborative generative space rather than a space of hierarchy, competition, uniformity, and showmanship, which predictably harms writers of color and other marginalized groups the most — advancing flexibility, humility and empathy over control and domination. We encourage students to create work that challenges rather than reinforces stereotypes and conventional power dynamics, emboldening students to imagine other structures of value. And we acknowledge our own limited subjectivity and biases, as well as there being no universal aesthetic voice.

Courses are taught by faculty in the English Literatures & Writing, Film Studies, Media and Communication, and Theatre departments. Students may major in any College major (other than English & Creative Writing) and minor in Creative Writing & Journalism. Students are permitted to double-count two courses toward fulfillment of the requirements in various other programs.