Overview

To study America means to engage diversity, diversity of place, local institutions, and human experience. To facilitate this kind of learning, American Culture Studies at Washington University in St. Louis annually offers the Lynne Cooper Harvey Summer Seminar in American Culture Studies: On Location -- Exploring America. This seminar will move from year to year to various regions of the United States in order to provide a broader exposure to the people and places that make up this country. Because America itself is such a diverse nation, intense engagement with specific parts of this country can be compared with the effects of studying abroad. By a multidisciplinary examination of place, it is possible to examine the ways in which landscape, environment, historical experiences, and diverging and converging expectations shape the constantly shifting and complex meaning of American culture.

In 2008, the seminar will again be located near Pine Ridge, South Dakota. A brief overview is available on the 2008 summer seminar pages, and more information will be forthcoming in the following weeks.

In 2007, the seminar examined the Mississippi River, from its confluence with the Missouri River to New Orleans, and beyond to the Gulf Coast.

In 2006, the seminar was located near Pine Ridge, South Dakota.