Teaching 

“The personal is political”: Popularized by feminist activists in the 1970s, this phrase suggested that mundane experience – domestic work, reproduction, childcare, as well as gendered education and socialization processes – were deeply implicated in larger systems of political power. Narrating those experiences, calling them into question, was a political act that stood to reorder society. In the decades since, the notion has become commonplace. But how do writers – of any gender or other identity category – most effectively discuss and describe the political implications of their subjective experiences? What forms and platforms are most appropriate, and for which audiences or ends? In this workshop, students read a range of classic and recent works of personal writing (Woolf, Orwell, Baldwin, Adichie, Coates, and others) and develop their own voices as they grapple with the politics of individual experience. Group discussions and peer workshops will be supplemented by individual conferences with the professor.  We will read essays from a variety of writers, including Porochista Khakpour, Hanif Abdurraqib, Alexander Chee, Cathy Park Hong, James Baldwin, Esme Weijun Wang, Jaswinder Bolina, Chang-Rae Lee, George Orwell, Rebecca Solnit, and others.