Two Southern Utah State College faculty members will spend five weeks this summer learning more about Christopher Columbus.
Dick Carlson and Leon Chidester, both members of the language and literature department, will be among the 25 participants selected from applicants nationwide in the July 10-Aug. 11 program at the University of California at Los Angeles. The summer institute is being sponsored by the UCLA 1992 Quincentenary Programs and supported by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.Nine distinguished U.S., European, and Latin American scholars of exploration studies will conduct the project in a set of seminars, discussion sessions and museum visits.
Carlson and Chidester intend to read some of the writings of Columbus in Spanish before participating in the institute.
"We will be studying his education and cultural contacts, his knowledge of science, his language skills and the motivations he had to study books by Christian, Jewish and Moslem authors," said Carlson.
The UCLA program was established to help commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria sailing under the direction of Columbus and sighting the New World at 2 a.m. on Oct. 12, 1492.