Ampersand: Rethinking Washu's Relation to Enslavement: Past, Present, and Future

3 units

The goal of our course, Ampersand L61 2722, "Rethinking Wash U's Relationship With Enslavement: Past, Present, and Future, II," (the companion course to L61 2721), is to provide the mentoring, supporting structures, learning experiences, and resources, and above all, the time and space (see "Benchmarks," below), to allow first-year students to produce an original final research paper, 15-20 pages in length, through a graduated process over the fourteen weeks of the spring term. Students will construct this paper on the foundation of the Prospectus that they have produced as the final project for L61 2721 in the previous fall term. This course will also feature a series of engagements with key turning points and conjunctures in the intertwined histories of Washington University and St. Louis city and region, focusing on the rise and development of the modern University in the long emancipation era which has been profoundly shaped by the afterlives of the era of enslavement we have been studying in the fall semester: the Emancipation moment ("Emancipation, Freedom and the Afterlives of Enslavement"); the World's Fair of 1904 and the Construction of the Modern Washington University, Hilltop Campus; 1968-69: The Creation of Black Studies at Washington University; and Contemporary Challenges and Struggles, Washington University in the Era of Ferguson: Past, Present, and Future.