Writing Gender and Sexuality In this course we will read, discuss, and write creative works that explore issues of gender and sexuality. Readings will include stories, poems, and essays by James Baldwin, Ana Castillo, Peggy Munson, Eli Claire, Alice Walker, Michelle Tea, Alison Bechdel, and others. The course will include writing workshops with peers and individual meetings with the instructor. Every student will revise a range of pieces across genres and produce a final portfolio. We will do some contemplative work and will engage with choreographer to explore movement in conversation with writing, gender, and sex.

Acting Your Age: Meanings of Adulthood* In this course we will take up the question of “what is adulting”? Is it something one becomes or is? Or something one does? Why is it part of a global conversation about changing economic and social conditions? And how does that impact you? To explore these questions, we will read articles by social scientists and discuss essays and poems by writers such as Audre Lorde, Tina Fey, Sandra Cisneros and Warsan Shire. We will visit archives to look for traces of adulting in former Middlebury students and engage in storytelling with children and elders at community sites. The course will culminate in a student-led, public facing creative installation on adulting.

Acting Your Age: Meanings of Adulthood In this course we will take up the question of “what is adulting”? Is it something one becomes or is? Or something one does? Why is it part of a global conversation about changing economic and social conditions? And how does that impact you? To explore these questions, we will read articles by social scientists and discuss essays and poems by writers such as Audre Lorde, Tina Fey, Sandra Cisneros and Warsan Shire. We will visit archives to look for traces of adulting in former Middlebury students and engage in storytelling with children and elders at community sites. The course will culminate in a student-led, public facing creative installation on adulting.

Writing and Power Power: who has it, who doesn’t, and what does it have to do with your writing? This course both instructs students in how to access power in academic contexts and to critique power structures. We’ll learn how power connects to literacy, and how it's shaped through rhetorical contexts. Students will explore their own power as writers and thinkers while engaging in meaningful personal, reflective and argumentative writing. The professor will work with each student extensively on their writing process and development, and we'll create a writing community. This course bears elective credit but does not fulfill the college writing requirement.

Feminist Joy In this course we will examine a range of discourses about pleasure, happiness, and joy as well as explore these topics more experientially. How have feminists interrupted gendered, raced, and ableist notions of happiness? As Sara Ahmed asks, can there be joy in being the “killjoy”? What is the role of laughter and joy in survival, anti-oppression work, and healing from trauma? We will trace the "pleasurable feminisms" of leading Black feminists and sex positive feminists such as Audre Lorde, adrienne maree brown, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Gayle Rubin, Betty Dodson, as well as investigate our own inherited and intentional perceptions of pleasure. Assignments will include research, writing and workshops.

English Language in Global Context In this course we will discuss and write about the dominance of English in the global landscape. Course readings and films offer an interdisciplinary approach to the topic. We will begin the course with a geographic and historical overview of World Englishes and then will examine the impact of English language dominance on individuals and societies, emphasizing themes such as migration, globalization, education, and identity. Throughout the course, we will explore the relevance of these issues to educators, linguists, and policy-makers around the world.

Writing Race and Class In this course we will take a literary and intersectional approach to topics of race and class. Readings include stories, essays, poems and videos by writers such as James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Gloria Anzaldúa and Kelly Tsai. Students will respond to critical and creative writing prompts, conduct fieldwork, and design two writing projects of their own. The class format will include conversations with guest writers, writing workshops, contemplative activities, and individual conferences with the instructor. Students will preferably have prior experience in discussing issues of race and class, although introductory theories will be made available to provide frameworks for discussion.

Outlaw Women In this course we will read and discuss literary texts that feature women who defy social norms: daring survivors, scholars, “whores,” queers, artists, servants, revolutionaries. Texts include Powell’s The Pagoda, Duras’s The Lover, Lorde’s Zami, and Nafisi's Reading Lolita in Tehran. The course will take postcolonial and global approaches to desire and difference and to narratives of resistance, rescue and freedom. We will discuss rhetorical practices, such as écriture féminine, and readerships, such as women’s book groups, through a transnational lense. Students will develop their critical imaginations through discussion, contemplation, research, and analytical and creative writing.

Catharine Wright

Reviews and ratings for Catharine Wright at Middlebury College.Catharine Wright teaches Writing Gender & Sexuality, Acting Your Age: Adulthood, Writing and Power and more.  Explore top rated instructors and find the best for you.Is Catharine Wright good ? Find out on MiddCourses.

I took this course with Professor Wright in Fall 25. There were three main papers, which weren't too hard to score well on as long as you are working on tweaking your writing style to what Professor Wright is looking for (which is, I would say, a solid 7.5/10 standard). Lots of reading and annotations in the beginning of the course, more research based at the end. IMPORTANT TO NOTE that the concepts of power that you write about include mainly race, linguistic attributes, gender, and socioeconomics. Finally, Professor Wright can be a little scatterbrained with Canvas and deadlines, but she is great about clarifying if you ask. 

This course was very chill and a good combination of creative writing and gender studies. It gave students a lot of space to reflect. Class sometimes felt a bit repetitive, and Catharine's teaching style wasn't always my favorite, but there was lots of time for discussion and writing exercises built into the class.

This class pushed me out of my comfort zone. I found the meetings with Catherine difficult because sometimes it didn't feel like she was listening to what I was saying. I had a meeting with her that lasted almost an hour where I barley got a word in. The class was interesting though