The Creative Writing faculty recently reached out to Jeffrey Meriwether, the Associate Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Education (SHAE), about the potential to partner with other programs within SHAE that are more arts oriented. Creative Writing and English were partnered together at a time where it made most sense for the department, but now moving forward we must think about where they are located in pedagogies, where they are located in the university culture, what their students are working on for academic success, and what the scholarship is of the different faculty.
This time around, Creative Writing saw itself, as based on updates to its curriculum, that it was going in a particular direction that embraced arts more and having art speak more towards where their scholarship is. This ultimately came across in the context of a larger discussion about academic prioritization which gave all the programs across campus the space to think about where they were, what they were doing, and if they wanted to think about going in new directions, and that is exactly what Creative Writing has done.
When asked if there would be any changes to the curriculum, Dean Meriwethter stated, “their curriculum goes with them and their curriculum is not changing, but if it were to change, it would be a reflection of where faculty thinks the curriculum should go.” Changes in the curriculum happen regardless of the types of modems that take place, but currently the only change is the department itself.
With regard to what happens in the future, this provides them the space to have deeper conversations with their colleagues and with performing arts, and something new might even come out of that. Dean Meriwether then stated that, “the curriculum is dynamic and you shouldn’t always be teaching the same stuff, to which our colleagues in Creative Writing have taken to heart.” He explained to me that this year SHAE really wants to provide spaces where students and faculty can have chats about an array of topics that position ourselves in ways that you could talk to people that you never had before, which in turn will create better outcomes for academic and educational success.
In addition to this news for the SHAE, it’s worthwhile to note that taking the course either Film 400: Curation & Festival Production or CW 450: Literary Publishing will now fulfill the requirement for the Feinstein Service Learning.
