Who Do You Think You Are: A Creative Nonfiction Workshop
MMH 709
Subject & Catalog Number
Course Information
Description
People don't just happen. In this workshop-based class, students will explore the capacity of memoir and cultural criticism to illuminate their understanding of memory, connection, and self-making. This course is as invested in the craft of writing as it is in interrogating how storytelling functions within systems of power. Students will be asked to consider what the work is doing to us, and what we are using our own work to do to others. In particular, this course will investigate the role social determinants of health play in self-making. Classes will alternate between workshop discussions, in-class writing exercises, and close readings of nonfiction by Lucille Clifton, Eula Biss, Carmen Maria Machado, Toni Morrison, Vivian Gornick, Hanif Abdurraqib, and Kiese Laymon, among others.
Class Notes
Class location: Barker 018
If you are interested in joining the course, please complete this application by August 21, 2026. A maximum of 15 students will be selected to join the course. We will follow up with everyone who applies by email once decisions are made.
Available for Harvard Cross Registration
