April 16, 2007
Bowling
Green, Ky. - Western Kentucky University is writing a new chapter on providing learning opportunities for students with “Literary New England,” a two-week May term course.
A dozen University Honors program students are preparing to spend their May with some giants of American literature -- Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, Henry David Thoreau, Harriett Beecher Stowe, Emily Dickinson, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bronson Alcott, William Bradford, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Mark Twain.
But the students will be doing more than reading and studying the authors’ works; they will be visiting the authors’ homes and other historic sites during the May 13-26 course.
“The goal of domestic travel is to make the works come alive,” said Walker Rutledge, the English faculty member teaching “Literary New England.” “There is no substitute for the intensity of on-site learning.”
Rutledge has taken other student groups on weekend or day trips to Ernest Hemingway’s home in Oak Park, Ill., and William Faulkner’s home in Oxford, Miss. “This, however, is a very extended domestic trip and is the first of this nature that we’ve done,” he said.
The WKU group will leave from Louisville on May 13 for the trip that includes visits to several historic sites, a viewing of the Emily Dickinson collection at Harvard’s Houghton Library and even a whale-watching excursion off the coast of Massachusetts.
“The opportunity is absolutely wonderful,” Rutledge said. “I’m hoping more of these domestic travels will be sponsored. Exploring the locales associated with America’s literary treasures ultimately makes the material as personal as the people who created it.”
The students already have been reading selected works by the authors and will participate in lectures and discussions during the trip.
Dr. Craig Cobane, director of the University Honors Program, said “Literary New England” is part of a larger WKU effort “to get our students out of the classroom and into the real world.”
“If we want to attract the best students to WKU, we have to provide them with opportunities outside the classroom setting,” Dr. Cobane said. “In the Honors program, we hope to be the vanguard in offering creative, risk-taking classes. Domestic travel experience is one more place where Honors is taking the lead.”
Students participating in “Literary New England” include the following: Robert Deignan, Jessie Magee and Brooke Shafar, all of Louisville, Ky.; Dawn Winters, Rebekah Russell, Isaac Russell, Cameron Carr-Calvert and Belita Goad, all of Bowling Green, Ky.; Laura Hess of Auburn, Ky.; Shawn Bivin of Franklin, Ky.; and Ashley Belcher of Owensboro, Ky.
Graduate assistant Derick Strode has helped coordinate the trip and make the travel arrangements.
Among the sites included on the itinerary are the following:
In Concord, Mass.: Walden Pond, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Ralph Waldo Emerson’s House, The Old Manse (home of Hawthorne and Emerson), Orchard House (home of the Alcotts), Minute Man National Historic Park, Concord Town Museum.
In Salem, Mass.: Salem Witch Museum, House of the Seven Gables.
In Plymouth, Mass.: Plymouth Plantation, Mayflower II.
In Nantucket, Mass.: Nantucket Whaling Museum, Maria Mitchell Observatory.
In Boston, Mass.: Longfellow’s House, Houghton Library on Harvard’s campus to see their Emily Dickinson collection, Freedom Trail.
In Amherst, Mass.: Emily Dickinson’s home.
In Pittsfield, Mass.: Arrowhead, the home of Herman Melville.
In Hartford, Conn.: Mark Twain’s Steamboat home, Harriet Beecher Stowe’s home.
Rutledge said the trip wouldn’t have been possible without financial support and assistance from several WKU offices – the Division of Extended Learning and Outreach, Continuing Education, English Department, Graduate College, Potter College of Arts & Letters and the Honors program.
Sharon Woodward and Alicia Pirtle in the Division of Extended Learning and Outreach have worked extensively with Rutledge on the “Literary New England” course. Pirtle will be joining the group for the trip.
“It is very exciting for us to work on such an engaging project,” said Woodward, director of Continuing Education. “The role the Continuing Education office plays in supporting credit courses is valuable to both our students and faculty. We can provide administrative support for projects similar to the New England course where there are many details that need to be arranged in order to be successful.”
More WKU news is available at www.wku.edu. If you’d like to receive WKU news via e-mail, send a message to WKUNews@wku.edu.
For information, contact Walker Rutledge at (270) 745-3043.
-WKU-
"A leading American university with international reach"
Office of Media Relations
Western Kentucky University
1906 College Heights Blvd., Bowling Green, Ky. 42101-3576
Phone: (270)745-4295 - Fax: (270)7455387 - E-Mail: western@wku.edu