IAS Faculty Present Work at Annual Association of Writers and Writing Programs (AWP) Conference

IAS faculty members Amaranth Borsuk, Sarah Dowling, and micha cárdenas attended the annual AWP conference in Los Angeles this April, where they presented work on panels and took part in off-site readings.

cárdenas presented on a panel “Necessary Hybridity: The Politics & Performance of Making Multigenre, Multimedia, Multiethnic Literature Visible.” The panel addressed what happens when hybridity is considered through the lens of political and aesthetic necessity. From queer politics to POC feminism to postcoloniality, hybrid forms have been a critical part of making visible otherwise illegible experiences.

Sarah Dowling’s panel “How to Free a Tamed Tongue: Creative Writing and Multilingual Students” asked what it means to teach creative writing to multilingual students in the US. Seeking ways to encourage multilingual students to free themselves from the hegemony of English-language-centered writing, even while composing partially or primarily in English, the panelists shared methods for honoring our students’ (and our own) various Englishes.

Amaranth Borsuk spoke on two pedagogy panels. The first, “Janus-Faced: The Writing MFA in Art School and the University” addressed the benefits of teaching creative writing outside of traditional departments of English. Borsuk talked about the interdisciplinary and cross-genre structure of our MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics with its cohort-based curriculum. In “Ekphrasis in the Digital Age: Beyond Mere Description,” panelists shared techniques and readings that encourage students to practice an ekphrasis that pushed beyond instrumentalization of the work of art.