Independent Study / Family Interviews

I will be doing an independent study next semester to fulfill a creative writing credit in order to get my creative writing minor. I talked to Erin Dionne about it and about how I could make the independent study relate to my seminar work. I told her about how I plan to interview family members for stories and memories, and she thought that would perfectly for the independent study and with seminar. She suggested that the work might be partially autobiographical, as well as recording what my family members say, and how those things overlap. She thought this could be both visual and in the writing. I have to come up with a course description so here is what I’ve written so far:

"For my independent study I intend to combine the work I have been doing in Senior Seminar with creative writing. I am examining things that get passed down in families, both genetics/ancestry as well as stories/memories and where those aspects overlap. I will be interviewing and talking to my family members to gather stories and memories to work with. I plan on using the independent study as a place to organize and expand upon those stories. Ideally, they will turn into something more than just records of stories and memories, I think they can be tied in really well with my visual work and research for seminar, and I think the overlapping of the two class explorations will parallel the overlapping that I’m exploring in the work as well."

I have also gone through a couple of websites that give tips on the types of questions to ask when talking to family members about family histories in order to create genealogies. I don't plan on taking this question for question because I want mine to be a little more informal but they will provide some good places to start from. I plan on voice recording the talks so that I can make sure I have everything word for word. I think that will be important for my work in the future.