The Frontier Experience in the American Midwest

FAIN: FV-50262-10

Illinois College (Jacksonville, IL 62650-2299)
James Davis (Project Director: March 2010 to May 2014)

A four-week seminar for sixteen school teachers to examine the evolving frontiers of the Midwest in their national and international contexts.

Illinois College requests a $94,521 grant from the NEH to fund an intensive, highly interdisciplinary, residential four-week Summer Seminar on "The Frontier Experience in the American Midwest." James E. Davis, will direct the Summer Seminar at Illinois College, in Jacksonville, IL, where he taught history and geography from 1971-2009. The Seminar will take place from June 26 to July 23, 2011. Participants will engage in a four-week interdisciplinary intellectual journey. They will gain understandings of dynamics that operated for many decades in evolving frontiers in the lower Midwest, understanding these dynamics in larger national and international contexts. The Seminar stresses complex interactions among physical environments, people on the scene, and outside powers. In collaborative ways, participants will analyze and evaluate sources and methods and ways of understanding and teaching. The Seminar will prepare participants to share insights with their students and colleagues.