New creative writing and the environment master's approved.
Non-science departments across campus are attempting to find ways of linking
their discipline with the sciences.
The Department of English believes they have found a good one.
"The recognized strength of this University is science and we wanted
to develop a program that would take advantage of those resources at Iowa
State," said Steve Pett, associate professor of English.
"At the same time we want to develop great writers. To us this new
master's seemed like a good marriage."
The Board of Regents, State of Iowa, agreed with the English proposal. The
governing board recently approved a new Master of Fine Arts degree in creative
writing and the environment.
A current MA in English with a specialty in creative writing will be eliminated
and the department plans to reallocate those resources to the new graduate
degree.
The three-year, 54-credit program leads to the terminal MFA degree and emphasizes
creative writing (poetry, fiction and non-fiction) about the environment.
Students will be required to take 15 hours of environmental courses outside
of English, write a thesis (anticipated to be a book-length project), and
pass an oral examination of the thesis.
New graduate-level courses in environmental literature and a multigenre
craft will be added.
"We think this program will offer an original and intensive opportunity
for gifted students of nonfiction, fiction, poetry and drama to document,
meditate on, celebrate and mourn the transformation of our world,"
said Pett, who is co-directing the program with Debra Marquart, associate
professor of English.
"The environment definition is loosely defined," Pett continued.
"We don't want this to become strictly a non-fiction program. We're
hopeful that students will be able to use fiction writing and poetry in
a way that will look at ‘place' and how it influences the world around us."
That could take place in both urban and rural areas.
One of the goals of the program is to develop an off-campus study component
to the major. The department is looking at establishing two to three-week
long programs at locations in Wyoming (at the Department of Geological and
Atmospheric Sciences' field camp) and at the Iowa Lakeside Lab.
"The field study component will be an unique aspect of the major,"
Pett said.
In addition, a new environmental field experience course will be offered.
Students will spend the semester on a project at a governmental or private
environmental organization or farm, or living and working in a specified
natural area.
The department hopes to eventually have 30 students in the "pipeline"
working on their master's. Because the new degree wasn't approved until
mid-March, minimal promotion has been done. Pett anticipates that next fall
about four to five students will be in the program.
"Hopefully we'll slowly integrate the students into the system with
the hope that the following year we can have 10-12 new students," he
said.
That's necessary because the current master's with an emphasis in creative
writing will continue to admit students until 2008. The older degree program
is more of a literature degree with a creative writing emphasis according
to Pett.
"One of the most important aspects of the new program is that it is
a terminal degree in creative writing," Pett said. "Theoretically
the students graduating from our program will find any job in creative writing
would be open to them."
English faculty members Steve Pett and Debra Marquart
