Walking and writing have long gone together.  Many authors saw and still see walking as central to their writing process and many integrate the experience of walking into their texts. But walking is such a central human experience that some anthropologists have argued that our turn toward bipedal walking was a crucial evolutionary step and one of the distinctive traits of our species. In this course we will explore the many ways that writers have thought about walking, how it can be a tool for spiritual development, what it expresses about our humanity, how it empowers some and disempowers others, and how it explores our relationship to the environment (natural and not-so natural). We will read about (and practice) walking as a meditative and generative activity. This Capstone is the final required course for the English major. We come together with a wide range of experiences within the major, but the course is supposed to be the culmination of your experiences. As a result, the writing assignments will engage with analytic, theoretical modes as well as reflective and creative essays. I hope that we can practice and celebrate what you’ve learned and allow some space for reflection and self-care during a very trying time. Authors to be read include: Thict Naht Hanh, Bruce Chatwin, Luis Alberto Urrea, William Wordsworth, H.D. Thoreau, Edgar Allan Poe, Virginia Woolf, Frank O'Hara, Chanel Miller, Molly McCully Brown, Teju Cole.

This course will be assessed using "grading by contract." I will discuss this at the beginning of term, but if you are curious about it, you can check out this discussion of the practice:https://writingcommons.org/article/so-your-instructor-is-using-contract-grading/