IUPUC professor helps develop curriculum focused on Woody Guthrie

IUPUC professor Aimee Zoeller poses for a photo at a Woody Guthrie exhibit at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

An IUPUC professor has been instrumental in developing a college curriculum centered on the life and music of famous American folk singer Woody Guthrie.

IUPUC lecturer Aimee Zoeller for years has used Guthrie’s music 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: Court Carney of Stephen F. Austin State University, Michele Fazio of University of North Carolina at Pembroke, Mark Fernandez of Loyola University, and Gustavus Stadler of Haverford College.

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 its 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 is broken into five themes that 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 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.

“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,” Zoeller said. “And Guthrie reminds learners of all ages that unity and organizing is our best chance at creating a hopeful present and future.”