University offers literature lessons inside and out

Monterey, California
Monterey, California
Simpson University students have the opportunity to get a truly immersive experience in literature this May if they sign up for an innovative pilot study course at the Redding, California, school.

During the three-week course “Literature and Landscape of California,” the students will read novels based in California and then camp out in those same places.
 
“We are excited about this opportunity to offer students some different ways to learn and receive credit,” Simpson University Provost Gayle Copeland said. “Our May term serves up what’s best about a liberal arts education in concentrated form: It’s three weeks of intense intellectual — and sometimes physical — exploration of a question, an issue, a place or an idea that could well change a student’s life, or even the world.”
 
Under the guidance of English Prof. Nicole Kenley and outdoor leadership Prof. Rob Simpson, students will undertake three one-week trips, returning to campus on weekends. On the first trip, they will read works by Jack London and John Steinbeck and travel to San Francisco and Monterey; on the second, they’ll study Mary Hunter Austin, Raymond Chandler and David Masumoto, with visits to Death Valley, Los Angeles and the Central Valley; and during the third, they will travel to Sierra and Calaveras County to attend the Calaveras County Fair & Jumping Frog Jubilee in conjunction with studying Mark Twain’s “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.”