Walking and writing have long gone together.  You might be surprised how many authors saw and still see walking as central to their writing process and how 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, 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. Writers to be studied include: H.D. Thoreau, Virginia Woolf, Teju Cole, Luis Alberto Urrea, Cheryl Strayed, Edgar Allan Poe, Frank O'Hara, and many others.  Theoretical approaches to be brought to bear include: Marxist, Post-Structuralist, Eco-Critical, Feminist, and LGTBQ+.

Required work includes: multiple short essays in different formats (close reading, engagement with walking themes, personal reflection, and creative engagement), weekly walking journals, and a final research essay that revises and expands one of the earlier short essays.