Louisiana

Louisiana Field Seminar

With its rich history, romanticized literary image, incredible biological and geological resources and pressing environmental and policy challenges, a field seminar to the Gulf of Mexico coast adds an exciting dimension to the Williams-Mystic experience.

On site on the Louisiana coast, Williams-Mystic students explore the issues of the largest oil spill in U. S. history at one of the epicenters of the disaster – Grand Isle, featured frequently in the national media throughout the summer and fall of 2010. Williams-Mystic students journey first-hand along the Mississippi's banks and the Gulf coastline to learn how vast land subsidence and hurricanes have shaped the land, the people, and the culture of Louisiana. As we drive through water-soaked towns that now consist only of a narrow strip of land with water on either side, you'll see submerged trees and telephone poles that just a few years ago were on dry land.

You will speak to shrimp fishermen and alligator wranglers. You steam down the Mississippi River on the stern-wheeler Natchez, seeing Mark Twain's river of yesteryear and the overwhelming industry and commerce along its banks today. You will canoe deep into Louisiana marshes and be guided through alligator –haunted bayous on a pontoon boat.

Incredibly complex environmental and policy issues reflect the ever-changing face of the Mississippi River Delta and the Gulf Coast, and are fundamentally intertwined with the literature and history of Louisiana. Experience the land and the people of Louisiana first-hand with Williams-Mystic.