Art of Writing at the Townsend Center for the Humanities invites faculty-graduate student teams from across the UC Berkeley campus to develop and teach new undergraduate non-fiction writing courses for 2021-22.
Art of Writing seminars are upper-division courses committed to teaching undergraduate students critical thinking and writing skills and to developing a lucid and persuasive prose style in the students’ fields of interest. Co-taught by a faculty and graduate student team, these intimate and intensive writing seminars provide individual attention to students’ writing styles and habits, with a focus on the necessary stages of editing and rewriting.
Art of Writing seminar topics and themes vary according to the faculty member’s research interests. Previous courses have concentrated, for example, on environmental narratives and scientific writing; literary, music, and cultural criticism; writing across the partisan divide; the cultures of sports; and social inequality and the body. We particularly encourage submissions from departments underrepresented in our seminar offerings. See the Art of Writing website for a list of previous seminars.
Teams consisting of one faculty member and one graduate student from any UC Berkeley department are invited to apply.
If awarded a grant, faculty members receive one course release and full funding for a one-semester 50% GSI appointment. Prior to teaching the course, the faculty-student team receives a $5000 curriculum development grant, $2500 of which supports the graduate student’s assistance developing the new course, and $2500 of which is available for course enhancements.