Humanities and Fine Arts 191HFA5 - FYS-Getting to Know Western MA

The history and literature of Western Massachusetts is as fertile as the soil of the Connecticut River Valley that sustains it. This is not your average history or literature course. Discussion and course participation will be creative and exploratory in nature. We will connect with the past as a way to better understand our present surroundings. Topics include the Norwottuck native tribe and early settlement, slavery in Massachusetts, the Quabbin Reservoir, the Northampton State Hospital, Robert Frost and Emily Dickinson. We will read, explore our surroundings, write creatively and interact with the Library?s digital and special collections.

Open to first-year Humanities and Fine Arts Exploratory Track students and first-year HFA Majors.