Whitman's Civil War
This Massive Open Online Course is now closed, but can be accessed for free online.
July 18-September 5, 2016: The IWP will open the new MOOC Whitman's Civil War: Writing and Imaging Loss, Death, and Disaster. This MOOC will embark upon a journey through Walt Whitman's writings on the American Civil War. Through Whitman's lens, we will explore how writing and image can be used to examine war, conflict, trauma, and reconciliation - in Whitman's time and today. This MOOC will be offered for free.
Instructors
This MOOC will be taught by longtime friends and collaborators Ed Folsom, Whitman scholar and University of Iowa Roy J. Carver Professor of English; and Christopher Merrill, IWP Director and University of Iowa Professor of English.
MOOC Description
Whitman's Civil War will be taught in English as follows: each week, instructors Folsom and Merrill will post a new video class. In this video class, they will discuss the readings for the week (all accessible online) and offer questions for you to discuss with the teaching team.
Each week, a new assignment will challenge you to respond creatively to the class video and readings. This assignment will be multi-genre: you could respond to it by writing a poem or a short nonfiction piece, trying your hand at the art of letters or memoir, or creating a journalistic op-ed or a photojournalism essay. Each assignment will be followed by community feedback with your fellow MOOC students.
Interactive Teaching, International Community
Each week, an experienced teaching team with expertise in literature, poetry, nonfiction, journalism, and photojournalism will lead live discussions of the video topics, readings, and assignments around the clock in the MOOC discussion forum.
No previous experience in literature, writing, or any other course subject is necessary. This MOOC will bring together readers, writers, artists, students, and teachers around the world. Some of you are already deeply familiar with Walt Whitman's writings; others are new to his work. Participants who are nonnative speakers of English, new to online learning, and/or new to writing are encouraged to join this new international community. Our community moderators will actively support your participation.
Workload
The amount of time you devote to this MOOC is up to you. If you wish to engage with the class video and reading, discuss with the teaching team, complete the assignment, and participate in community feedback, we estimate that this will require 5 or more hours of your time per week. Some MOOC participants will spend more time; others will spend less. No particular commitment is required: join us whenever you can!
Optional MOOC Certificate of Completion
Again, this MOOC is freely available to everyone in the world; there is no cost to register. The University of Iowa will offer an optional MOOC Certificate of Completion for a fee of $50.00 USD. You are not required to pay this fee in order to register for and participate in this MOOC. Those who wish to earn the MOOC Certificate of Completion must complete a set percentage of the MOOC coursework. You can read the details of the completion requirements and sign up for the certificate when the MOOC begins on July 18.
Technical Requirements
You will need a computer or mobile device with a stable internet connection that will support your participation. If you would like to take this course but do not have reliable internet access, please contact us at distancelearning.iwp@gmail.com. We will try to facilitate a local MOOC access group where you live.
Every Grain of Light: Writing Poetry in Afghanistan 2016
Course Instructor
Justin WYMER is a writer, editor, and English and literature teacher currently based in Spain. He earned his MFA in poetry from the Iowa Writers' Workshop and his BA in English from Harvard University, where he was awarded the Captain Jonathan Fay Prize for best thesis at Harvard College. He has received awards and fellowships from the Academy of American Poets, Harvard Office for the Arts, and the University of Iowa as well as a Rockefeller International Experience Grant. You can find some of his poems in Boston Review, Conjunctions, Harvard Divinity Bulletin, Lana Turner, Kenyon Review, THRUSH, and elsewhere. A native of West Virginia, he has an unhealthy addiction to hot sauce and loves green mountains. Justin worked as a teaching moderator in the IWP's #Flashwrite Teen Poetry MOOC in Spring 2016.
Course Description
This six-week course will bring together young, aspiring writers in Jalalabad, Kabul, and Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, to explore a diverse selection of poetry and poetic forms, and to refine their own voices through writing exercises and assignments. The course is centered on the theme of how universal experiences in poetry are particularized by the poet—the ways in which ancient and universal concepts such as love, death, passion, and solitude can be made personal through poetic expression. The course title, Every Grain of Light, was adapted from Joanna Klink's poem "Half Omen Half Hope," which the students will study in the course.
Students will gather in the Lincoln Learning Centers (LLC) in their respective cities once per week for a two-hour class session, taught by course instructor Justin Wymer via live video conference held on the Zoom platform. On-site course facilitators will be present at the LLCs for every class to set up technology, answer student questions, distribute reading materials, and assist with translation if needed. In each class, students will be given lessons on a different poetic craft element, read and discuss published poems, write their own poems, and share their work with one another. Three major poem assignments will culminate in a revised and polished portfolio at the end of the course.
The course will begin on July 13 and end on August 24, 2016. The Embassy of the United States in Kabul promoted the course to young writers in Afghanistan and selected 30 participants, ten in each of the three locations. These students were chosen to participate in the course based on their enthusiasm for and commitment to the study of creative writing.
Course Facilitators
Abdul Latif MAL was born in the Achin district of Afghanistan, completed his primary education in Pakistan, and returned to Afghanistan to study in the Pashto language department under the Languages and Literature faculty of Nangarhar University. He subsequently completed an MA in Social Research and Educational Development at Karlstad University in Sweden. In 1998, he established the Shinwari English Language and Computer Institute in Ghanikhil District, which has since graduated hundreds of students. From 2010 to 2012 he served as the Director of Innikass Radio in Jalalabad, and from 2008 to 2014 he served as President of the South Asia Free Media Association. He has represented Afghanistan at a number of international education conferences around the world.
Farkhonda RAJABE is a writer and human rights activist. The author of the short story collection [Cold Hands] (2008), she has also edited poetry collections of young regional poets, among them Drang dar Rang [Focus on Color] and Farda Waraq Bezan [Look Forward to the Future]. She directs the Partaw Cultural House in Mazar-i-Sharif, whose Dari-language monthly Partaw she edits. She is a graduate student in the Department of Dari Literature at the Faculty of Languages and Literature of Balkh University.
Kawa SAHAB is a writer, human rights activist, and legal expert based in Kabul, Afghanistan. After completing a BA in Law and Political Science at Balkh University in Mazar-i-Sharif, he went on to earn a MA in Art in Conflict Resolution from Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi, India. He has worked in legal positions for a number of organizations, including the Afghanistan Civil Society Forum Organization, the Civil Society and Human Rights Network, and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, and was involved in the drafting of Afghanistan’s Access to Information Law. He currently works as a Legal Advisor for Transboundary Water for the Ministry of Energy and Water.
#Flashwrite Teen Poetry MOOC
This course is now closed, but can be accessed for free online.
#Flashwrite Teen Poetry MOOC
March 30-May 3, 2016: The IWP offered its first MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) designed exclusively for teenage students. Writers age 13-19 were invited to write new poems and to share and discuss their work with fellow writers around the world. No writing experience necessary: this MOOC welcomed new writers and experienced poets alike.
Early college credit opportunity
Students who completed this #Flashwrite MOOC had the opportunity to continue on to take an optional #Flashwrite Workshop for University of Iowa undergraduate credit.
MOOC Information for Students
Students were encouraged to learn craft elements of poetry from MOOC Instructor Daniel Khalastchi, Associate Director of the Frank N. Magid Center for Undergraduate Writing at the University of Iowa and author of the poetry collections Manoleria and Tradition; work with a teaching team comprised of graduates of the Iowa Writers' Workshop; Write new poems; share and discuss your poems with fellow writers around the world; experience the University of Iowa's creative writing community; earn a free Statement of Accomplishment from the University of Iowa by completing the MOOC; and after completing the MOOC, they could enroll in an optional four-week workshop and earn an undergraduate credit from the University of Iowa.
MOOC Information for Teachers
Teachers were welcome to audit this MOOC; bring a global poetry community into your classroom; utilize the course structure and materials to satisfy Common Core standards; build local and international connections with fellow creative writing and English teachers; and support your students in pursuing optional university credit through the University of Iowa's Department of English.
#Flashwrite Teen Poetry Workshops
Would you like to earn university credit early?
May 16-June 13, 2016: Students who completed the #Flashwrite MOOC could enroll in an optional University of Iowa #Flashwrite Teen Poetry Workshop for one university credit. Each online workshop was taught by a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop with a substantial teaching and publication record and was limited to 15 students. Enrollment requirements: completion of the #Flashwrite Teen Poetry MOOC and payment of a $398 USD tuition fee.
Workshop Information
Are you eligible to earn credit? The #Flashwrite Teen Poetry MOOC and the #Flashwrite Teen Poetry Workshop was taught in English. To complete the MOOC and the Workshop to earn University of Iowa undergraduate credit, fluency in English was required to fully engage with the course materials, complete writing assignments, and participate in written discussions with fellow students and with the teaching team.
This opportunity to earn credit was available to teenagers who had not yet embarked on higher education.
Instructor
Daniel KHALASTCHI is a first-generation Iraqi American from Iowa. He received his MFA in Poetry from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and was awarded a writing fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown in 2006. Khalastchi currently serves as the Assistant Director of the Undergraduate Certificate in Writing Program at the University of Iowa and as a founder and co-editor of Rescue Press. His first book of poems, Manoleria, was published in 2011 after winning the Tupelo Press/Crazyhorse First Book Prize.