UHON 301: Scotland as Text

Taught by Amaris Ketcham, Associate Professor, Honors College, ketchama@unm.edu

What is it about certain places that embeds itself so deeply into our essence, molding our perceptions, defining ourselves, and imprinting upon generations? How does the spirit of a local environment inform national pride and identity, and in turn, shape its stance on the global stage? This course focuses on the dynamic interplay between belonging and artistic endeavor within the cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh. Scotland's most iconic cities have long been epicenters of cultural and artistic brilliance. Glasgow, with its industrial roots, has metamorphosed into a thriving hub of contemporary art, music, and literature. Edinburgh, the historic and literary heart of Scotland, boasts the title of UNESCO’s first City of Literature. The region’s unique blend of history, culture, and geography has made it a beacon for those seeking inspiration and identity.

Adopting the methodology of reading place as a text, students will immerse themselves in direct observation, documentation, and creative thinking exercises. Through reflective writing tasks, interviews, and interactive discussions, learners will distill their insights and observations. Using these tools, students will apply humanistic inquiry across disciplines to develop their own distinctive creative projects. By weaving together diverse learning modalities via experiential strategies, the course encourages students to hone their communication, critical thinking, and creative faculties, while deepening their socio-cultural understanding and appreciation of Scotland’s storied Lowlands.

Students Learngin Objectives:

1. Apply humanistic research and interdisciplinary inquiry across disciplines to interpret Scotland’s rich narratives and foster individual creative projects.
2. Develop clear and compelling writing styles while enhancing verbal and non-verbal communication competencies through interactions with locals and peers.
3. Analyze, synthesize, and evaluate information to produce informed views and creative interpretations of Scotland’s multifaceted stories.
4. Develop innovative thought processes and artistic expressions influenced by immersive experiences in Scotland, as demonstrated through creative assignments.

UHON 301: Creative Pulse: Scotland

Taught by Jonatha Kottler, Lecturer III, Honors College, jkottler@unm.edu

Scotland is a vibrant country, and part of what makes it so special is how much they value creativity. There is government support for all kinds of creative projects, and writers find financial and educational support at every stage of their careers, from learning to write, becoming emerging writers, and being practiced published authors that share their work with the world. Glasgow has a thriving writing community for poets, playwrights, screenwriters, memorists, genre writers and fiction writers of all kinds. From the Glasgow Zine Library to the Glasgow Women’s Library, there are all sorts of venues, activities, and opportunities for writers. Edinburgh is a UNESCO City of Literature and hosts the annual Edinburgh International Book Festival, which hosts over 500 writers at “the largest public celebration of words in the world.” It boasts a National Library (a library of record, like the Library of Congress in America) and dozens of bookshops. Students will have the opportunity to read, meet, and learn from six local writers (three from Glasgow, three from Edinburgh) as well as work on their own writing projects, explore ekphrastic writing, cafe writing, and to visit, among other places, the birthplace of Sherlock Holmes, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Harry Potter.

Student Learning Objectives:

1. Analyze and interpret creative works by living authors.
2. Learn from multiple writers and create new literary work.
3. Articulate the formal and conceptual motivations of one’s work in written and verbal forms.
4. Gain exposure to the Scottish literary world and the people who create it.

Faculty

Amaris Feland Ketcham

Amaris Feland Ketcham occupies her time with open space, white space, CMYK, flash nonfiction, long trails, f-stops, line breaks, and several Adobe programs running simultaneously. As a writer and artist, Amaris explores the combination of text, image, and place. She has written two poetry books, A Poetic Inventory of the Sandia Mountains and Glitches in the FBI; a camping guide to New Mexico, Best Tent Camping: New Mexico; and a graphic novel, Unfiltered: A Cancer Year Diary (coming out in 2023). Her work with Poetic Routes, in interactive poetic cartography of Albuquerque, has been adopted by the Albuquerque City Planning Department, as a way to use poetry as a means of understanding neighborhoods and community character throughout town.

Amaris is the Faculty Advisor for the nationally acclaimed arts and literature magazine Scribendi. In addition to teaching the ins and outs of literary publishing, she teaches nonfiction and poetry comics, narrative journalism, handmade books and zines, and creative placemaking. She has painted murals throughout Albuquerque, acted in a radio drama about the Badlands National Park, and taken students on multi-week camping trips along the Lewis and Clark Trail. Amaris is currently the Chair of the Student Publications Board and volunteers with the Arts-in-Medicine program.

Research Interest:

Creative writing (creative nonfiction, narrative journalism, and poetry), nonfiction and poetry comics, zines and handmade books, graphic design, place as text, and creative placemaking.

Jonatha Kottler

Jonatha Kottler’s creative work explores the ways in which literature and culture impact and support us in our lives, and how they have done so throughout history. She is a fierce advocate for body acceptance and mental health.

Jona (rhymes with Donna) earned a BA in English from UNM and she is a graduate of UNM Honors. She has an MA in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College and an MFA in Creative Writing from the Institute for American Indian Arts.  Her work has been featured nationally and internationally in NY Magazine’s The Cut, The Guardian, Longreads, and Audible. She has written creative nonfiction, comic books, short and feature films, and is currently finishing a novel.

Jona’s interdisciplinary honors courses include explorations of villains in literature and film, law, Greek literature, epics, activist writing, creative writing, film appreciation, Shakespeare, and modern indigenous writers. She will have honors student teachers in two of her upcoming courses in 2025: The Art of Film, and Legacy of Myth and Magic.

Research Interest:

The Literary Canon; Anti-Racist Writing Workshops; Indigenous Writers; Grief in Literature, Women in the West, Greek literature, Graphic Storytelling, Independent Film, Marvel and DC.