Creative Writing Courses on Campus, University of Minnesota Morris
French 2002w: Intermediate French. Fourth semester of French. Taught through creative writing, reading fiction, and studying grammar. Students read a novel, study and review grammar, and write a text each week. Class discussion is in the form of a writing workshop for peer-written texts.
French/Humanities 3034: This course, in Spring 2026, taught by Lisa Bevevino, introduces students to the forms of French poetry from the 19th to 21st centuries alongside music as a way to understand rhyme, meter, and sound. Many French forms used today come from medieval troubadours who in turn found many of them from people farther east or south of what is now France, especially from African and Arab traditions. English and French poets in the 19th century had a renewed interest in the Middle Ages through Victorian medievalism. In this class, we will study forms and texts through reading, creative writing, and music. Students may compose poems or songs and will write an analytical essay on a published poem. Students taking French 3034 will write in French, and students in Humanities 3034 in English.
French 3410: Medieval and Early Modern Studies: Introduction to Old Occitan: Creative Writing and the Troubadours. The Troubadours considered Occitan, at the crossroads of French, Spanish, and Italian, the best vernacular for lyric poetry. Poetic innovation flourished at the courts from Auvergne to Catalonia. Learn the grammar of this medieval language as you translate lyric texts and compose and workshop parallel modern poems in a variety of forms. Non-French students and students below French 3xxx write and workshop their poems in English, and French students above French 2002 wanting to count the course for the MEMS elective in the major write and translate in French. Language of instruction is English. Meets Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) requirement in French major
French/Humanities 3034: This course, in Spring 2026, taught by Lisa Bevevino, introduces students to the forms of French poetry from the 19th to 21st centuries alongside music as a way to understand rhyme, meter, and sound. Many French forms used today come from medieval troubadours who in turn found many of them from people farther east or south of what is now France, especially from African and Arab traditions. English and French poets in the 19th century had a renewed interest in the Middle Ages through Victorian medievalism. In this class, we will study forms and texts through reading, creative writing, and music. Students may compose poems or songs and will write an analytical essay on a published poem. Students taking French 3034 will write in French, and students in Humanities 3034 in English.
French 3410: Medieval and Early Modern Studies: Introduction to Old Occitan: Creative Writing and the Troubadours. The Troubadours considered Occitan, at the crossroads of French, Spanish, and Italian, the best vernacular for lyric poetry. Poetic innovation flourished at the courts from Auvergne to Catalonia. Learn the grammar of this medieval language as you translate lyric texts and compose and workshop parallel modern poems in a variety of forms. Non-French students and students below French 3xxx write and workshop their poems in English, and French students above French 2002 wanting to count the course for the MEMS elective in the major write and translate in French. Language of instruction is English. Meets Medieval and Early Modern Studies (MEMS) requirement in French major
Writing Intensive Courses on Campus, University of Minnesota Morris
French 3011w: Reading and Analysis of Texts. A survey of literature from France and from across the Francophone world. Study poetry, novels, theater, and film, and develop reading skills and methods of analysis.
Capstone Research Seminar on Campus, University of Minnesota Morris
French 4902: French Senior Seminar. Students work in consultation with the course instructor in one of two tracks: they either develop a project they began in another French elective course or they develop a project related to another major. For either track, students undertake a significant research project (in terms of both length and depth) and present their findings in a formal presentation in French.
Community Workshop
Prairie Inklings: A Writing Club for Kids. A bi-weekly meeting for silent writing, exchanging writing, and creating activities to make writing challenging and fun.
All text, content, and images are copyright Lisa Shugert Bevevino, except those copyrighted by others from whom I have borrowed. All rights reserved.
