Create Intellectual and Social Awareness Through Memoir Writing

Presented by Dr. Edvige Giunta

Department of English

Thursday, December 6, 2007

2:00 – 3:30 PM

Center for Teaching and Learning

Enhance Student Engagement Through Writing

Memoirs can help create or sharpen awareness of social issues and help students develop a better understanding of what it means to practice citizenship in a culturally complex world while engaging in the critical activity of writing. The workshop entails a discussion of the strategies of memoir writing and the creative processes underlying the genre and how they can best be used in a variety of disciplinary contexts. We will discuss the ways in which memoir privileges the memory as an organizing device as opposed to chronology or other organizing principles.

The major focus of the workshop will allow participants to explore the workings of memory; participants will engage in hands-on exploration of the various components of memoir, including memories, stories, imaginative reconstruction, research, use of material culture, and critical reflection.

Seminar participants will become familiar with memoir writing strategies that will enable them to write personal stories rooted in a multiplicity of contexts and to listen imaginatively and critically to the stories of others. Learn how the memoir empowers students to write about themselves and thus become historians of their lives.