IUPUC lecturer Aimee Zoeller has been using the music of Woody Guthrie for years to teach social justice in her sociology courses, and in 2020 she reached out to the Woody Guthrie Center to inquire about curriculum resources they might have to help teach college level courses. While the Center didn’t have any specific materials, they were able to put her in touch with other professors who were also using Guthrie’s music to teach, and together, they formed the Woody Guthrie Teaching Collective, which consists of Zoeller and four other teacher-scholars including Court Carney, Michele Fazio, Mark Fernandez, and Gustavus Stadler.
The collective began meeting in August 2020 with the support of Deana McCloud, the founding and executive director of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The purpose of the collective is to share teaching resources, ideas for assessment, create interdisciplinary curriculum, and contribute to the scholarship of teaching and learning on Woody and Woody-related themes.
In 2021, McCloud asked the group to create a college-level curriculum that could be used in conjunction with an exhibit planned for the Morgan Library & Museum in the spring of 2022 titled “Woody Guthrie: People Are the Song.” The general purpose of the curriculum is to introduce students to Woody Guthrie, with a specific aim of considering current and historical social problems and phenomena from Guthrie’s perspectives, philosophies, and methodologies. The lessons begin with a short introduction and include discussion prompts and engaging activities that can be implemented across college disciplines, including but not limited to: English, history, sociology, economics, and political science.
It took about a year to create the curriculum using the themes presented in the Morgan Library & Museum exhibit as an organizational structure, but the goal was to make sure the curriculum could stand on it’s own after the exhibit ended. The exhibit is an extension of Nora Guthrie and Bob Santelli's 2021 book, Woody Guthrie: Songs and Art, Words and Wisdom. The curriculum will be useful for professors who make use of the Guthrie and Santelli text for years to come.
The curriculum is broken into five themes which explore Guthrie’s influence on American society, including a sense of place, politics, family and children, love, and his continued influence on music and art even after his death. The collective even created a Spotify playlist featuring music written by Guthrie and performed not only by him, but a number of artists whom he influenced.
Following Nora Guthrie and Bob Santelli's lead, it was important for the collective to develop a curriculum that allowed Guthrie's work to speak for itself, while providing a structure for students to explore the themes using Guthrie's philosophies and approach. For example, Guthrie kept detailed notes of his children's habits, rituals, sayings, and their worldview. Students can study their social surrounding by emulating Guthrie's work.
The Morgan Library & Museum exhibit continues through May 22, 2022. For those unable to visit in person, access to a virtual exhibit can be found at themorgan.org/exhibitions/woody-guthrie.
“A virtual trip to the exhibit, a class on Guthrie, reading books by and about Guthrie, reveals long standing U.S. social problems and renews a commitment to justice,” said Zoeller. “And Guthrie reminds learners of all ages that unity and organizing is our best chance at creating a hopeful present and future.”
The members of the Woody Guthrie Teaching collective include:
Court Carney is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University, where he teaches courses on Black History and American Cultural History. He is the author of Cuttin’ Up: How Early Jazz Got America’s Ear (Univ. Press of Kansas).
Michele Fazio is Professor of English and Co-coordinator of the Gender Studies Minor at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke where she teaches courses on contemporary U.S. ethnic literature, service-learning, and working-class studies. She co-edited the Routledge International Handbook of Working-Class Studies.
Mark F. Fernandez is the Patricia Carlin O'Keefe Distinguished Professor of History at Loyola. In 2012, he was named the Seventh Annual Woody Guthrie Fellow by the Woody Guthrie Foundation and BMI Music Publishers.
Gustavus Stadler is William R. Kenan Professor of English at Haverford College where he teaches courses on 19th- and 20th-century US literature and popular culture. He is the author of Woody Guthrie: An Intimate Life (Beacon Press, 2020).
Aimee Zoeller is the director of sociology and coordinator of women, gender, and sexuality studies at Indiana University Purdue University Columbus. She is a three-time recipient of the Indiana University Trustees’ Teaching Award.
Watch the video below to learn more about Zoeller's work with the Woody Guthrie Center.