Maymester

• The Poet in Paris

  
  The Poet in Paris offers an intermediate-level course in poetry-writing to undergraduate creative writing majors (and non-majors with the approval of the instructor) in Paris, France, over the month-long Maymester term. Students participate in intensive workshops with the instructor and guest instructors, as well as literary and other events meant to stimulate the creative process, deepen the students' sense of history and language, and expand the range and ambition of their poetry. There are excursions to museums, cafes and bookshops in and around Paris, meetings with French and expatriate poets living and working in Paris, and opportunities for the students to perform their original work for international audiences. Students in the course typically generate a dozen to twenty new poems over the course of the four-week program.
  
  The course is fully commensurate with ENGL 406 currently taught at USC, is strictly limited to 12 students, and is intended for mature undergraduates who have some sophistication about how to comport themselves in other cultures and who are able to make arrangements at their own expense for transportation, lodging and meals. For information on how to apply, please contact Professor Green at lgreen@usc.edu.

• Writing on the Rez  (ROLLING DEADLINE)

  
  Writing on the Rez is a month-long literature/video documentary course offered in the USC Maymester program. The course will bring up to twelve USC students to Leech Lake Reservation for a month-long immersion writing experience where they will study and work with Native American students from Bemidji State University and the surrounding area. All students will spend one-third of their time reading everything from treaties to Native American fiction and nonfiction and traveling to Leech Lake, White Earth, and Red Lake Reservations for first-hand immercial experiences, one-third of their time writing nonfiction essays and articles based on those experiences, and one-third of their time shooting, editing, and creating collaboratively a feature-length documentary film about contemporary Native American lives to be screened at the end of the Maymester at the American Indian Resource Center and once again at USC in the fall.
  
  Course Goals and Expectations
  This course is designed to collapse the distance between what we all imagine about Native American lives and how those lives are expressed on the ground, to bring USC students into direct contact with their Native peers and vice versa, to collectively and productively question the assumptions we share about culture and communication, and to, with the final documentary project, share our discoveries with a wider audience. This is not a study of Native life; rather, it is a study with Native peoples and between Native people and the wider world. Students will have a chance to socialize with and interview tribal members, attend cultural events (such as powwows), examine tribal structures and government, schools, and engage in cultural activities (subsistence gathering and fishing, etc.). This course is ideal for American Culture and Ethnicity, English, History, and Cinema students.
  
  All students are expected to read a great deal, write daily, and interact socially and professionally with a great number of people of all ages in the broader Native community. Students are also expected to be able to work and travel independently as they document their experiences and exhibit the motivation and self-direction necessary for independent work.

   

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  EXTENDED COURSE DESCRIPTION - SPRING 2013

  
  
  ENGLISH 444--Maymester in Minnesota: Writing On the Rez

   

  Professor David Treuer
  USC Department of English
  treuer@usc.edu
  406 THH
  office hours Tuesday 12-2 or by appointment

  
  
  

  Course Description:

  Writing On the Rez is a month-long course offered in the USC Maymester program between May 15 and June 15, 2012. The course will bring up to twelve USC students to Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota for a month-long immersion writing experience where they will write, study, and work with Native American students from Bemidji State University. All students will spend 1/3 of their time reading everything from treaties to Native American fiction and nonfiction and traveling to Leech Lake, White Earth, and Red Lake Reservations for first-hand immersion experiences, 1/3 of their time writing nonfiction essays and articles based on those experiences, and 1/3 shooting, editing, and creating (collaboratively) a documentary about contemporary Native American life. This years focus will be on American Indian soldiers and veterans of WWII, Korea, Viet Nam, the Gulf War, and Iraq and Afghanistan.

  The class will meet four days a week in the morning to discuss readings and to analyze student writing. Typically we will present and discuss the readings on Monday and Tuesday. Students will focus on their writing on Wednesday and Thursdays and some evenings will be spent out in the community. In addition to the classroom work and nonfiction writing the students—in pairs and small groups—will shoot video documentary footage on and around the reservations, at their discretion and based on the relationships and experiences they forge with the place and people over the month of study.

  
  
  

  Course Goals and Expectations:

  This course is designed to collapse the distance between what we all imagine about Native American lives and how those lives are expressed on the ground, to bring USC students into direct contact with their Native peers and vice versa, to collectively and productively question the assumptions we share about culture and communication, and to, with the final documentary project, share our discoveries with a wider audience. This is not a study of Native life; rather, it is a study with Native peoples. Students will have a chance to socialize with and interview tribal members, attend cultural events (such as powwows), examine tribal structures and government, schools, and engage in cultural activities (subsistence gathering and fishing, etc).

  
  
  

  Students are expected to read a great deal, write daily, and interact socially and professionally with a great number of people of all ages in the broader Native community. Students are also expected to be able to work and travel independently as they document their experiences and exhibit the motivation and self-direction necessary for independent work.

  
  
  

  The Environment:

  Students will be houses on the Bemidji State University campus in Bemidji, MN and can (if they wish) take their meals at the cafeteria on campus. (Students may also elect to find their own lodging off campus). Classes will be held in the American Indian Resource Center, the home of the Bemidji State University American Indian Studies Program, one of the oldest such programs in the country. Situated in the beautiful lakes region of northern Minnesota not far from the Canadian border, Bemidji is a small town on the Mississippi River, (population 10,000) surrounded by three large Ojibwe reservations: Leech Lake, White Earth, and Red Lake (total reservation population: 30,000).

  
  
  

   The Instructors:

  DAVID TREUER is Ojibwe from Leech Lake Reservation in northern Minnesota. He is the author of three novels, a book of essays, and the forthcoming book of nonfiction: Rez Life. His writing has also appeared in Esquire, Bomb, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, and Slate.com. He is the winner of a Pushcart Prize, the Minnesota Book Award, and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Bush Foundation. A professor of literature and creative writing at USC, he divides his time between Los Angeles and Leech Lake Reservation.

  
  
  

  ELIZABETH DAY is Leech Lake Ojibwe. An experienced filmmaker and educator she has written and directed a number of highly successful short films and features. She is the recipient of a Bush Artist’s Fellowship, and has worked as a community arts coordinator and gallery manager and also has worked as a program director and case worker at Ain Dah Yung in St. Paul.

  
  
  

  **** The Maymester course is described in “Spring 2013 English Course Descriptions” on the English Department website and the application can be downloaded from here as well: http://dornsife.usc.edu/engl/undergrad-maymester/

   

  
  
  

  *** Rolling Deadline for applications ***

   

• Featured Videos
  
  The American Indian Lives Project: Volume 1, Ojibwe Country
  
  (Runtime 1:02:15)

  
  
  The Poet in Paris 2012
  
  (Runtime 23:39)