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- Vital Statistics:
Time: Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30-4:00
Location: Cupples I-115
- Course Description
This central multidisciplinary course for the Hewlett program in
American Culture Studies is taught by faculty members from biology,
English literature, and history. The focal point of the course is the
1804-06 "Voyage of Discovery" led by Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark--an event that dramatically altered the nation's identity,
expanding the country's perception of America's enormous diversity and
giving special urgency to the issue of how much difference the United
States can contain, geographically institutionally, and culturally.
Using selections from the expedition Journals, the course
will provide an introduction to the varied, sometimes conflicting, ways
that different disciplines examine a problem: history, literature, art,
anthropology, economics, political science, and the natural sciences, as
well as race and gender theory. Set in its historical context, the
expedition invites students to investigate how peoples of vastly
differing cultures (then and now) meet and interact; how and why people
seek to explore the unknown; how they come to terms with their
environment, map it, and use technology to master it; how they seek to
understand plant and animal life; how they respond to disease and injury;
how they gather and develop "knowledge," and accept or reject
information; how leaders assess public needs and define political
responsibility.
Students will choose which questions to investigate and help to
determine the disciplinary paths to follow in this effort. We will meet
for formal lectures and small group discussions, and students will pursue
independent research that will lead to writing projects and
presentations. The course will also involve field trips to sites along
the expeditionary route.
- About the Instructors
Unlike most other classes, this course involves a team of
professors. Indeed, it is not entirely limited to one "course." The
materials you study for this class will also provide the basis for
assignments in Expository Writing (E Comp 100). Each of the
instructors brings his or her own background and specialty to the course.
The goal is to expose students to a broad range of topics and approaches.
Equally important, students should engage instructors who share their
interests.
 Peter Kastor followed a path to
St. Louis similar to that of Lewis and Clark, but with far less privation. He arrived
in 1998 from Albemarle County Virginia, home of Thomas Jefferson as well as both the
Lewis and Clark families. He is currently working on a book
that examines the struggle to
incorporate the people and land the United States acquired through the
Louisiana Purchase.
Office: 130 Old McMillan
Phone: 935-7663
Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 12:00-2:00.
E-Mail:
pjkastor@artsci.wustl.edu |
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