Gallatin Writing Program
Writing is at the center of the Gallatin curriculum and an important part of many students' concentrations. The Writing Program includes more than 30 courses each semester.
CURRICULUM
Of Gallatin's required courses, two out of three are writing courses: First-Year Writing Seminar I and First-Year Research Seminar are expository writing courses, with each instructor’s class organized around a different theme, such as "The Urban Muse," "Identity in a Multicultural World" and "The Artist in Context." After taking these foundation courses, Gallatin students may choose from a rich variety of Advanced Writing Courses in genres including fiction, poetry, creative nonfiction, advocacy-writing, comedy-writing and documentary-writing. Independent Studies with writing instructors and Internships with numerous New York City media organizations are also available. You can download sample student essays and colloquium rationales.
THE WRITING CENTER
In the Writing Center (Room 423), upper-level Gallatin students are employed
as Peer Writing Assistants, trained to help other students at any stage of the writing process, from brainstorming about a subject to clarifying a thesis to organizing the structure of an essay. Students can make appointments online or drop by during open hours.
EVENTS
At Gallatin Teachers Reading, faculty who have recently published a book read from their work.
At Writers in Progress, Gallatin faculty read from a scholarly or creative work-in-progress.
At Guest Lectures, well-known writers read from and discuss their writing.
THE GALLATIN REVIEW
The Gallatin Review, an annual journal of student poetry, fiction, essays, and visual art, is edited by students under faculty supervision. Each year, awards are given to outstanding published works.
GREAT WORLD TEXTS
Great World Texts is a collaboration between New York University's Gallatin Writing Program faculty and students and New York City public high school teachers and students. Each year we choose a canonical work or "contemporary classic," and develop complementary multimedia classroom resources. Through a special tutorial, undergraduate students become mentors in the high schools, assisting in the reading, discussing and writing about the text. Over the course of the semester, the mentors assist the high school students in developing a creative project based on the book, such as adapting and performing a dramatic scene, transforming a chapter into a serial comic book, inventing a spoken word performance based on the book's themes, and crafting a traditional research paper.
LITERACY PROJECT
The Literacy Project consists of the Literacy in Action course; a writing class for adult immigrants; writing workshops for teachers of adults; and publications.
The Literacy in Action course (co-sponsored by Gallatin's Community Learning Initiative) combines the academic study of adult literacy and English as a Second or Other Language education with supervised volunteer work at four partner institutions: University Settlement Society, Fortune Society, Turning Point Educational Center and the International Rescue Committee.
Gallatin also sponsors a weekly writing class for adult immigrants at University Settlement Society, at which undergraduates serve as student-teachers.
Students plan and participate in an annual, all-day series of workshops for teachers of writing to adults.
LITERACY PROJECT PUBLICATIONS
The Literacy Review is an annual journal of writing from adult literacy programs throughout New York City. Edited by Gallatin students, the book is distributed at a celebration that includes readings by the newly published writers.
Download The Literacy Review Volume 6, Spring 2008
Video from The Literacy Review, Volume 7, 2009. You can also subscribe to a podcast of selected readings from the celebration for The Literacy Review.
Other publications of the Literacy Project include Refugee Writing, co-published with the International Rescue Committee; Where I’m From, words and images from Morocco, Ghana and Italy collected by recent Gallatin graduates; and Writing What We Want, works by University Settlement writers.
