Intergenerational Writing: Exploring the American Dream
WRTG 3020, 077 Fall 2023, Tu/Th  3:30 - 4:45 pm

Visual Arts Complex (VAC 1B88) 

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This writing class explores how our identities and desires contribute to shared notions of the American dream across generations. Nineteen Boulder community members from the Baby Boomer (1946-64) and Silent Generations (1925-45) will attend the course alongside undergraduates to support a richer, more nuanced conversation.

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Community Member seats are limited to 19 participants.  These seats are filled by an application process in the Spring of each year.         

 

Students and community members will work closely in pairs as "co-mentors" throughout the semester to write biographical profiles of one another and identify a shared research topic about the American dream. These projects will enhance analytical, rhetorical, and research skills while providing an opportunity to explore topics of personal and intergenerational relevance. 

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Class materials, discussions, and assignments will survey diverse perceptions and experiences of the American Dream and demonstrate how writing can be used to question, reflect upon, and convey complex ideas. We will practice using different writing formats and rhetorical strategies to engage diverse audiences. Each of the major writing assignments will be drafted in stages and workshopped in class. 

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WRTG 3020 fulfills the General Education Upper-Division Written Communication requirement. 

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Meet The Instructor

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Eric O. Klinger
Teaching Associate Professor & Writing Center Faculty Director

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I've taught upper and lower-division writing courses at CU Boulder since 2004. I also direct the Writing Center, an academic support resource providing writing advice and feedback for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and university affiliates. My background is in rhetoric and professional communication, and I'm specifically interested in how conversation and the writing process can shape mutual learning and personal growth. I firmly believe in the liberatory role of college education in promoting problem-solving and progress both at the individual and societal levels. Writing and conversation are elemental to learning because they enable us to shape, articulate, and reflect upon our thinking and that of others. Through this continuum of thought, conversation, and writing, we come to know ourselves and our world.

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