A wide shot of a ceramics studio, featuring students working with pottery wheels and other tools.

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Terri Griffith

Associate Professor, Adjunct

Contact

Bio

Adjunct Assistant Professor, Liberal Arts (2002). BA in Writing, Literature, and Publishing, 1990, Fairhaven College, WA; MFA in Writing, 2002, SAIC. Books: We Will Think This Through Together: Conversations on Art & Practice (2018); Say It While You Still Mean It: Conversations on Socially Engaged Art (2017); The Essential New Art Examiner (2011); and the novel So Much Better (2010). Recent Publications: “Poor Sue: 1950s Aspirational Femininity in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room” in From Essentialism to Choice: American Cultural Identities in Their Literary Representations (2018) and “Gracie Allen for President!” (2016), both with Nicholas Alexander Hayes.

Current Interests

My current research and writing centers on media constructions of race and gender in the Miss Rheingold advertising campaign.

Courses

Title Department Catalog Term

Description

When Sherlock Holmes made his debut in 1887, no one, especially not his creator Sir Arthur Conan Doyle could have predicted the success of the first consulting detective. Sherlock Holmes has been adapted on the stage, to film, television, comic books, board games, video games, and by other authors into their own detective novels. Even today, we are surrounded by new versions of this favorite character. In this writing course, students will begin by writing essays based on canonical works, then move to writing critical analyses of contemporary interpretations, ending by imagining the future of Sherlock Holmes.

Class Number

1563

Credits

3

Description

Eating is a necessity, yet what and how we eat is influenced by many things. Ethnicity, religion, gender, class, and personal values all shape what ends up on our dinner plate or even if we have a plate at all. In this course, students will read well-known food writing by authors, as well as writing by lesser-known authors who write for more specific audiences. Through in-class writing, formal essays, and a final research paper and presentation, students will explore their own experience with the culture of food.

Class Number

1565

Credits

3

Description

American and European literary tradition has long included authors that contemporary readers would recognize as queer. Yet works that openly address queer sexualities and gender are relatively new. In this course students read a variety of works starting from ?the invention of homosexuality? (1890s) to the present with particular focus on issues germane to the genre: societal constraints on content, the subtext of cloaked sexuality, and authorial responsibility to the queer community. Assignments include two 10-page literary analysis papers. Readings include works by Walt Whitman, James Baldwin, and Susan Sontag.

Class Number

1630

Credits

3