Writing the Now: Dispatches as a Method of Observation and Art
Location
Golden Eagles
Start Date
1-5-2026 9:00 AM
Department
English
Abstract
This project aims to showcase the function of dispatches within the context of Amanda Goldblatt’s ENGL 374N/403 course Writing the Now. The presentation will consist of a selection of student writings composed for Amanda’s class, tackling the task of “writing the now,” or capturing the current social-political climate on the page. The presentation will showcase how the practice of weekly dispatches has encouraged the collective of our class to both engage with the world around us and our own experiences more intentionally and through a critical/creative lens.
The dispatch, as has been laid out for us, is “a work which documents, describes, or considers something you experienced or witnessed this week, through the lens or simply inclusive of a(ny) socio-/political concern” (Goldblatt). The artists with which we are in dialogue have shown and continue to show us a way toward creating more political-engaged art. Influenced by a curriculum comprised of the more literary modes of John Keene and Italo Calvino, to the more formulaically unbound and multi-modal projects of jen(n)ifer tamayo and Lawrence Abu Hamdan, we have been exposed to new ways of having discourse with the ever-present, ever-various cultural, social, and economic issues of our times. Through this Symposium presentation, we will ideally showcase the influences these writers and thinkers have had on our own work, individually and collectively, and how they have informed our ability to put forward a reflection of the world as we see it with the intention of changing it for the better.
For the presentation itself, student presenters will each read a one-page dispatch as evidence of our growth as cultural witnesses as well as to showcase the variance of cultural issues that exist and the various perspectives and experiences that dispatches bring to life. We will follow these readings with a critical discussion led by the graduate students in our class wherein we will more concretely discuss and analyze our influences, our work, and the project of making politically-engaged art that changes hearts, minds, and hopefully, the world.
Faculty Sponsor
Amanda Goldblatt
Writing the Now: Dispatches as a Method of Observation and Art
Golden Eagles
This project aims to showcase the function of dispatches within the context of Amanda Goldblatt’s ENGL 374N/403 course Writing the Now. The presentation will consist of a selection of student writings composed for Amanda’s class, tackling the task of “writing the now,” or capturing the current social-political climate on the page. The presentation will showcase how the practice of weekly dispatches has encouraged the collective of our class to both engage with the world around us and our own experiences more intentionally and through a critical/creative lens.
The dispatch, as has been laid out for us, is “a work which documents, describes, or considers something you experienced or witnessed this week, through the lens or simply inclusive of a(ny) socio-/political concern” (Goldblatt). The artists with which we are in dialogue have shown and continue to show us a way toward creating more political-engaged art. Influenced by a curriculum comprised of the more literary modes of John Keene and Italo Calvino, to the more formulaically unbound and multi-modal projects of jen(n)ifer tamayo and Lawrence Abu Hamdan, we have been exposed to new ways of having discourse with the ever-present, ever-various cultural, social, and economic issues of our times. Through this Symposium presentation, we will ideally showcase the influences these writers and thinkers have had on our own work, individually and collectively, and how they have informed our ability to put forward a reflection of the world as we see it with the intention of changing it for the better.
For the presentation itself, student presenters will each read a one-page dispatch as evidence of our growth as cultural witnesses as well as to showcase the variance of cultural issues that exist and the various perspectives and experiences that dispatches bring to life. We will follow these readings with a critical discussion led by the graduate students in our class wherein we will more concretely discuss and analyze our influences, our work, and the project of making politically-engaged art that changes hearts, minds, and hopefully, the world.