By Victoria Lindsay Levine

Paintings by Melinda Smith '91

Ancient Puebloan pottery... the cultural symbolism of Our Lady of Guadalupe... the intersections between folklore and kitchen recipes... Students in the Southwest studies program at Colorado College create and fulfill a fascinating variety of research projects on their way to understanding the region's unique characteristics.

One of the first Southwest studies programs established at an institution of higher education (in 1971), ours remains the only such program at a liberal arts college, offering a major and minor in Southwest studies at the undergraduate level as well as a master of arts in teaching. The program immerses students in the people, cultures, and histories of the American Southwest, examining relationships to the region's physical geography, natural history, and environmental issues. It links ideas, place, and practice in an unusual way, using the college's location and Block Plan format to enable extended field study off-campus.

More than 20 faculty members from 14 different academic departments and interdisciplinary programs teach Southwest studies courses, serving nearly 600 students each year through more than 40 courses in the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. Courses emphasize field-based learning, intercultural experience, and original research using primary sources and taking full advantage of our location, our museum and archival collections, and the Geographic Information Systems (GIS) lab, installed in 2001 through a generous grant from the W.M. Keck Foundation.

As early sponsors of First-Year Experience and service-learning courses, Southwest studies has remained on the leading edge of the college's curricular innovations. In addition, as the sponsors of two performing arts ensembles - Mariachi Tigre (a mariachi band) and El Grupo Folklórico (a Mexican folkloric dance troupe) - Southwest studies provides an important interface between the college and the broader community.
We anticipate a bright future for our program as the college works toward becoming the gateway to the Southwest.

Victoria Levine is professor of music and W.M. Keck Foundation Director of the Hulbert Center for Southwestern Studies.

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