“American Frontiers in Global Perspective” is a three-week school teacher institute for twenty-five participants on frontiers in the American South, Midwest, and West in a comparative international context. The institute aims at a re-evaluation of American frontier history and the idea of American “exceptionalism” (i.e., uniqueness) by a comparison with frontiers in Canada, South America, Australia, New Zealand, and Southern Africa. The institute explores the classic thesis originally articulated by Frederick Jackson Turner, which links American democratic character to the frontier experience; considers possible alternate conceptualizations (e.g., “borderlands,” “metropolises and peripheries”); and looks at specific American frontiers in the South, Midwest, and West, discussing Native Americans and the role of violent conquest. It then offers comparisons with other societies, focusing on the themes of frontiers and empires, “intruder” and indigenous peoples, “cowboys” and gold rushes, social evolution, and conflicts over land use. The institute staff includes co-directors William Katerberg (Western American studies, Calvin College) and Carol Higham (history, University of North Carolina, Charlotte); Calvin College faculty members Robert Schoone-Jorgen (history), James Skillen (environmental studies), and William Van Vugt (history); and Andrew Graybill (history, University of Nebraska) and Richard Slatta (history, North Carolina State University).
