Instructor: Jessica Restaino
email: jrestain at astro dot temple dot edu

How can the written word gain the power to prevent rape?  “Writing Women Safe” will attempt to answer this question by combining writing skills and community service.  We will be dealing with a difficult topic this semester: the reality of sexual violence against women.  However, we will approach this topic empowered with a momentum for change, education, and activism.  After a couple weeks of study—reading, writing, thinking, and really discussing the issue—we will begin off-campus training at WOAR (Women Organized Against Rape), a non-profit organization committed to sexual violence prevention and education.  Working in teams, we will use our writing skills to serve WOAR, producing educational pamphlets that can be used throughout the Philadelphia community.  WOAR will select one team’s pamphlet for mass production; this will be an honor that stands to reach thousands.  WOAR is Pennsylvania’s largest distributor of educational materials on sexual violence, and is currently in need of materials about the important issues of statutory rape and date rape.  Obviously, this is where we’ll come in, working together and using our skills to serve WOAR to the best of our ability.  This class will allow you to sharpen your college writing skills, while reminding you that these skills are going to take you far beyond your college years.  The community that surrounds the University walls also has a place for writing.  We will learn that writing can be a form of education and empowerment, making women’s lives safer from the threat of sexual violence.

Faculty: Christine Flanagan
email: c dot flanag at usip dot edu

COURSE GUIDELINES
This writing class will be different than courses you may have taken in the past because there will be an experiential component to this course. Our experiences focus on issues of Community and Power, specifically here, in West Philadelphia. A series of experiences will serve as a kind of “text” that we will analyze; our readings and personal experiences will also shape our analysis of these experiences. Writing will be our way to clarify, articulate, question, and draw conclusions about Community and Power—so while you sharpen your writing skills, you will be equally sharpening your skills of observation, your ability to read and confront difficult texts, and your critical analysis skills. This is a new, experimental course strategy. I welcome your feedback at any time.