Megan Mayhew-Bergman
Visiting Asst Professor of English & Amer Lits.
mmayhewbergman@middlebury.edu
work(802) 443-2152
Spring Term: Tuesday and Thursday 10:15-10:45 and 1:00-2:00 and by appointment
Axinn Center at Starr Library 201
Courses
Courses offered in the past four years.
▲ indicates offered in the current term
▹ indicates offered in the upcoming term[s]
CRWR 0170 - Writing: Poetry, Fiction, NonF ▹
Writing: Poetry, Fiction, NonFiction
An introduction to the writing of poetry, short fiction, and nonfiction through analysis of writings by modern and contemporary poets and prose writers and regular discussion of student writing. Different instructors may choose to emphasize one literary form or another in a given semester. Workshops will focus on composition and revision, with particular attention to the basics of form and craft. This course is a prerequisite to CRWR 0380, CRWR 0385, CRWR 0370, and CRWR 0375. (This course is not a college writing course.) (Formerly ENAM 0170) While this course is primarily online, on-campus students will have opportunities to meet in person with fellow students and the professor in small groups and during office hours, if circumstances allow. Off-campus students will be accommodated with additional optional online opportunities to connect. 3 hrs. sem. ART
Fall 2019, Fall 2020, Spring 2021
CRWR 0215 / GSFS 0215 - The Feminine Heroic
The Feminine Heroic
In this class we will explore the hero’s journey in literature as it relates to women and the natural world: who gets to go on the adventure, and who arrives home, transformed? How do race and gender complicate the traditional man-versus-nature narrative? We will discuss character agency, narrative authority, style, and structure — and look at texts where women undertake the journey, including work by Isak Dinesen, Annie Dillard, Camille Dungy, Rachel Carson, Anne LeBastille, Rahawa Haile, and Pam Houston. Students will generate creative and critical work. 3 hrs. sem. LIT
Fall 2019
CRWR 0370 - Advanced Fiction Workshop ▹
Workshop: Fiction
Study and practice in techniques of fiction writing through workshops and readings in short fiction and novels. Class discussions will be based on student manuscripts and published model works. Emphasis will be placed on composition and revision. (ENAM/CRWR 0170, ENAM/CRWR 0175, or ENAM/CRWR 0185) (Approval required; please apply online at http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/enam/resources/forms or at the Department office) (Formerly ENAM 0370) (This course is not a college writing course) While this course is primarily online, on-campus students will have opportunities to meet in person with fellow students and the professor in small groups and during office hours, if circumstances allow. Off-campus students will be accommodated with additional optional online opportunities to connect. 3 hrs. sem. ART LIT
Spring 2020, Spring 2021
CRWR 0380 - Advanced Non-Fiction Workshop
Advanced Non-Fiction Workshop: Writing Truthfully in Turbulent Times
To best assist us in finding our voices, this course plumbs the diversity of nonfiction as a genre and requires us to identify narratives larger than the self. So much is currently at stake. The work we read this semester will underline this for us. We will read new nonfiction works by an eclectic group of authors and thereby deepen our understandings of what it means to live in a time of severe ecological distress, extreme inequality, and virulent strains of all sorts of deadliness, as well as a time of intense hope, and we will write toward the conception of a book manuscript. (any 100-level CRWR course) 3 hrs. sem. ART LIT
Spring 2020
CRWR 0560 - Special Project: Writing ▲ ▹
Special Project: Creative Writing
Approval Required.
Winter 2020, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Winter 2021, Spring 2021
CRWR 0701 - Senior Thesis:Creative Writing ▹
Senior Thesis: Creative Writing
Discussions, workshops, tutorials for those undertaking one-term projects in the writing of fiction, poetry, or creative nonfiction.
Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021
CRWR 1048 / ENVS 1048 - Class&Conservation in US South ▲
Writing Place: Class and Conservation in the American South
In this course we will examine non-traditional conservationists and conservation writing in the American South, with a focus on Georgia and South Carolina. We will read Janisse Ray's Ecology of a Cracker Childhood; work about and by Carol Ruckduschel; John McPhee's Encounters with the Archdruid; work about MaVynee Betsch; and J. Drew Lanham's Home Place. We'll engage virtually with practicing southern conservationists, look for the ways scientists and self-taught scientists are leaning into underrepresented spaces, and, through our own writing, investigate meaningful and rich connections to place. This course counts as a humanities cognate for environmental studies majors. LIT WTR
Winter 2021
ENAM 0500 - Special Project: Lit ▹
ENAM 0700 - Senior Thesis:Critical Writing ▹
Senior Thesis: Critical Writing
Individual guidance and seminar (discussions, workshops, tutorials) for those undertaking one-term projects in literary criticism or analysis. All critical thesis writers also take the Senior Thesis Workshop (ENAM 700Z) in either Fall or Spring Term.
Fall 2019, Spring 2020, Fall 2020, Spring 2021
ENVS 0700 - Senior Independent Study
Senior Independent Study
In this course, seniors complete an independent research or creative project on a topic pertinent to the relationship between humans and the environment. During the term prior to enrolling in ENVS 0700, a student must discuss and agree upon a project topic with a faculty advisor who is appointed in or affiliated with the Environmental Studies Program and submit a brief project proposal to the Director of Environmental Studies for Approval. The expectations and any associated final products will be defined in consultation with the faculty advisor. Students may enroll in ENVS 0700 as a one-term independent study OR up to twice as part of a multi-term project, including as a lead-up to ENVS 0701 (ES Senior Thesis) or ENVS 0703 (ES Senior Integrated Thesis). (Senior standing; Approval only)
Fall 2020
ENVS 0701 - Senior Thesis ▹
Senior Thesis
This course is the culminating term of a multi-term independent project, resulting in a senior thesis on a topic pertinent to the relationship between humans and the environment. Approval to enroll is contingent on successful completion of at least one term (and up to two) of ENVS 0700 and the approval of the student’s thesis committee. The project, carried out under the supervision of a faculty advisor who is appointed in or affiliated with the Environmental Studies Program, will result in a substantial piece of scholarly work that will be presented to other ENVS faculty and students in a public forum and defended before the thesis committee. (Senior standing; ENVS major; ENVS 0112, ENVS 0211, ENVS 0215, GEOG 0120, and ENVS 0700; Approval only)
Spring 2020, Spring 2021