Panola College Course Traveling to Texas Hill Country

Just in time for Oktoberfest, Panola College is offering a new course with field trip to explore Texas music, art and religion. Humanities 1302 – Survey of Texas Culture – will be a distance learning course ending with a field trip. The course begins September 18 and runs through October 27. Instructors are Mike McGowan, Freddy Mason, and Ann Boland.

The field trip will be October 5-8 and includes stops at Alto, Crockett, Austin, Kerrville, and Fredericksburg. The trip fee of $160 covers transportation, hotel expenses, and admission to events. Students, however, are responsible for food and incidental expenses.

The course features “Crossroads”--the influence of American Indians, Anglo-Americans, African American and Mexican Americans, as well as Germans, Czechs, and Cajuns on Texas’ music. The trip will feature barbecue at the Camp Street Café in Crockett where the Gillette Brothers will sing cowboy music. The music curriculum will also include a stop at the Texas Music Museum in Austin.

“The Legacy of Texas Art” will cover pioneers of Texas art. The class will study cultural artists of Texas. Historical artists from Texas who create works of landscape and portraits will be included. The students will study art at the new Blanton Art Museum at the University of Texas, and tour the Texas State Capitol.

The effect of religion on Texas’ culture will also be included in the survey course, with a focus on the Caddo Indians. The class will look at the lifestyles of the American Indians in Texas and their early settlement, their religious beliefs, worship practices and their conflicts with the European settlers. The field trip will take students to the Tejas Village and the Caddo Mounds where the first Spanish mission in Texas was built.  

Catholicism and the German Lutherans and the impact of those faiths on Texas culture will be key features of study in this. The field trip’s last stop will be in Fredericksburg to enjoy Oktoberfest.

Those in the community who would like to participate can register for the course in the student success center. Payment for the three-semester-hour course will be due at the time of registration, and is in addition to the trip fee. For additional information call 903-693-2027 or send an email to mmcgowan@panola.edu.