This seminar will provide a deep understanding of the complexity of race, ethnicity, and culture within the stories of historic and contemporary Detroit. Emphasis will be on skills for critical analysis, creativity, and communication, place-based literacies and learning, and learning from and advocating for the city and its people. In this course, we will explore:

• The long history of Detroit, as well as its contemporary relevance (Miles, Sugrue, Foley)
• Detroit’s outsized contribution to 20th and 21st century poetry (Blair, Levine, moore, Hughes, Murray, Langford, Rogers)
• A multiple award-winning dramatic cycle (Morriseau)
• Books for young readers (Shapiro and Brantley-Newton, Yoo, LaDelle)
• Literary novels (Flournoy, Eugenides, Foley)
• Graphic novels (Ahmed, other)
• Literary communities in Detroit (Source Booksellers, others)

Students will engage in a number of high-interest activities throughout the course of the semester, including several field trips and visits with guest speakers, building toward a final project rooted in one of the areas above.