Scholars from across the United States and Canada will gather at Washington University Nov. 6 and 7 for the inaugural International Creole Corridor Symposium.
The public is invited to attend the symposium, sponsored by WUSTL and Les Amis (The Friends), the region’s Creole cultural heritage preservationist organization, located in St. Louis.
The Creole Corridor, located on both sides of the Mississippi River from St. Louis to Ste. Genevieve, Mo., and from Cahokia, Ill., to Chester, Ill., is in the nomination process to become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The corridor provides the best introduction to French colonial life available anywhere in the United States.
Colonial America was not exclusively defined by the 13 colonies and historic cities like New York, Boston and Philadelphia.
In the same year that Williamsburg, Va., was founded in 1699, French Jesuit priests founded Cahokia, Ill., just across the Mississippi River from what would become St. Louis some 65 years later.
Three University faculty members will join scholars from Canada, Yale University, Louisiana State University and the National Park Service to present papers underscoring the historical and cultural importance of the Creole Corridor in colonial America. Baronne Isabelle de Laroulliere will represent the French Heritage Society in Paris.
WUSTL scholars and their topics are: Peter Kastor, Ph.D., associate professor of history and of American Culture studies on “Governing Others: Inventing the American Notion of Empire”; Stamos Metzidakis, Ph.D., professor of French and of comparative literature on “From Riverbank to Riverbank: Desperately Seeking French America”; and Robert J. Moore, Ph.D., adjunct professor in University College, on “Determine l’Effacement: The French Creole Cultural Zone in the American Heartland.”
A guided tour of the corridor will be held from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Nov. 6 and will begin at Brookings Hall on the University’s Danforth Campus. Lunch is included in Ste. Genevieve. A reception for registrants follows with the presenters from 6-8 p.m. in a private home in the Central West End.
The symposium will be held from 8:30 a.m.-5:30 p.m. Nov. 7 at the Danforth University Center.
Registration is $75 before Saturday, Oct. 31, and includes the tour, reception and symposium. Registrants for the symposium and reception only may deduct $30 from the fee. WUSTL students have a discounted registration fee of $5 for the symposium and $12 for the bus tour. Registration form and payment is due by Oct. 31.
For more information, including a reservation form and symposium brochure, e-mail creolecorridor@gmail.com.