Back East: How Westerners Invented a Region

SUMMER COURSE

Flannery Burke, instructor

Join Prof. Flannery Burke for five-days of learning and discussions on the historic SAR campus in Santa Fe.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

This class will use Dr. Burke’s forthcoming book of the same title as a springboard into conversations about how westerners imagined the American East in the 20th century. Discussions of culture in the American West typically center the West of the imagination. But whose imagination? Usually e’. Turns out, westerners did some imagining of their own. Whether in the pages of dude ranch brochures targeted at urbane New Yorkers or conservation advocacy in Washington, DC, Interior Department briefs, westerners imagined easterners as cosmopolitan and condescending, cultured and effete, moneyed and exploitative. We’ll dig deep into the careers of Wallace Stegner, author of Angle of Repose and Beyond the Hundredth Meridian; Era Bell Thompson, an Ebony Magazine journalist who grew up in North Dakota; and Ricardo Sánchez, a Chicano poet who contributed to a robust network of mutual aid in Texas literary circles.

ABOUT THE INSTRUCTOR

Flannery Burke teaches classes in environmental humanities, regional cultures, and Native American and Indigenous Studies at Saint Louis University. Her first book, From Greenwich Village to Taos, won the Ralph Emerson Twitchell Award from the Historical Society of New Mexico. Her second, A Land Apart: The Southwest and the Nation in the Twentieth Century won the Spur Award for Best Contemporary Non-Fiction from the Western Writers of America and was a finalist for the David J. Weber-Clements Prize for the Best Non-Fiction Book on Southwestern America from the Western History Association. Her third book, Back East: How Westerners Invented a Region, will be published by the University of Washington Press in 2025. She has published in peer-reviewed journals on topics ranging from childbirth to the status of gay men in Taos, New Mexico’s art community, and her work includes prize-winning articles on dude ranches and the Sun City retirement community.

COURSE INFORMATION

Classes will be held each morning from 9:00 AM to noon around a table in the SAR Reception Center at the center of campus. After class, enjoy an outdoor lunch in the shade with the instructor and your classmates.

Tuition: $750

Class size is limited to 15 participants.

Registration Deadline: Monday, May 26, 2025

Cancellations and Refunds: Requests for refunds will be considered on a case-by-case basis.

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