Will Ryan

William Ryan, co-director of the Writing Center and a faculty associate in the School of Social Science, has been at Hampshire since 1980.

Before then, he was a counselor at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont, and also a high school history and English teacher. He has a B.A. and M.Ed. from the University of Vermont, and an M.A. in American history from the University of Massachusetts.

A freelance writer with an interest in outdoor recreation, he has written two books on fishing and serves as a contributing editor at Gray's Sporting Journal, where he edits and writes a column on the history of hunting and fishing.

Recent and Upcoming Courses

Writing About the Outdoors
This seminar will explore approaches to writing about people in the outdoors - as they live, die, love, work, play, transform nature, or simply contemplate the world. We will read and study a number of genres including traditional nature writing, historical accounts, creative nonfiction, fiction, and academic analyses. These readings will serve both as models of good writing and as introductions to the rich discourse about people in the outdoors. There will be regular writing assignments, including portraits, analysis of primary historical materials, literary journalism, advocacy, and creative expression. Students will be expected to contribute to class discussion and group critique in an informed and constructive manner.
Division III Writing Workshop
Division III Writing Workshop: This workshop provides assistance to students who are engaged in large writing projects and research papers in any of Hampshire's five schools. The course offers a structured, three-hour block of time in which to write and receive feedback on pre-writing (brainstorming, outlining, etc.), writing, and revision. Special attention will be paid to the writing process: conceptualization, organization, and pacing oneself through work blocks and writing anxieties. In addition to having access to structured writing time, participants will have the opportunity to meet individually with the instructor(s). Because this class supplements work already in progress, no formal instructor evaluations will be provided and the completion of this workshop will not count as course credit or advanced learning activity.
Special Projects
Writing for Hampshire - and Beyond.
This seminar will explore writing in both the academic and public domains. How do we write about the subjects we study and love, and engage a larger audience? We will read and critique a number of genres including academic analyses (in the natural and social sciences, as well as cultural studies), travel accounts, memoir, creative non-fiction, and fiction. We will pay attention to narrative choices, as well as the social and cultural dimensions of the writing. These readings will also help develop some criteria for peer review of written work.
Field Study Semester
Introduction to Writing
This course will explore the work of scholars, essayists, and creative writers in order to use their prose as models for our own. We'll analyze scholarly explication and argument, and we'll appreciate the artistry in our finest personal essays and short fiction. Students will complete a series of critical essays in the humanities and natural sciences and follow with a personal essay and a piece of short fiction. Students will have an opportunity to submit their work for peer review and discussion; students will also meet individually with the instructors. Frequent, enthusiastic revision is an expectation. Limited to Division One Students. In this course students are generally expected to spend at least six to eight hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time. This course will be reading, writing, and discussion-intensive.
Writing Nature: Writing Society
This course will use writing as a way to notice the natural world more closely. We will read American and Russian authors for whom being in nature and writing about nature led to a deeper understanding of their social conditions. We will consider a variety of narrative positions, including those of naturalists, hikers, tourists, mystics, activists, scientists, sportsmen, soldiers, prisoners, workers (firemen at Chernobyl Nuclear station, for example), explorers and others. We will try to understand how and why women and men of the last two centuries constructed nature as they did. Comparative assessments of the two cultures will inevitably emerge, although that is not our only focus. We want to examine (and develop) our own ability to think about our environment critically and responsibly. As our natural habitat grows increasingly fragile, we hope most of all to understand ourselves in it. We will read and write analytical and creative prose, and poetry, and will devote considerable attention in class to reviewing our written work.