Studies in Writing: Writing about Objects

What might a hairbrush, a voter registration card, or a guitar reveal when treated not as background, but as narrative, witness, and agent? Bridging theories of rhetoric, culture, and materiality with creative nonfiction, we’ll examine how objects reveal hidden histories and ask us to consider writing as a deeply material act. We will ask:

• How do we write with and about objects? What ethical questions do those approaches raise?
• Why write with or about objects at all? What theories underlie such work?
• When do objects come to matter—in grief, in history, in transition, in use?
• Where are objects situated—in domestic space, museums, the everyday? What spatial or disciplinary contexts inform how we engage objects?

Drawing inspiration from works like the Object Lessons series, Rhetoric, Through Things, Trans Hirstory in 99 Objects, and My Life in 100 Objects, students will locate and research a series of objects and write short essays that combine storytelling, analysis, and reflection.