A new University of Oklahoma course is challenging traditional ideas of the American West by centering diverse voices and lived experiences, blending classroom learning with real-world academic engagement.
Inspired by the theme of the Western Literature Association (WLA) Conference held in Oklahoma City in September 2025, the Honors course, HON 2973: “Words of Fire” (WC), drew from topics from the conference’s title and panels to shape its curriculum. Students explored a wide range of texts, from the historical journals of Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to speculative fiction by Ursula K. Le Guin.
The course, taught by Dr. Timothy Bradford, culminated in the study of three major works: Paradise by Toni Morrison, set in Oklahoma; There There by Tommy Orange, set in Oakland, California; and Under the Feet of Jesus by Helena Maria Viramontes, set in Southern California. Together, these works encouraged students to reconsider dominant narratives of the frontier through multicultural and contemporary lenses.
“Westward Expansion, pioneers, cowboys, and saloons are familiar elements of American western narratives,” the course description notes. “But how do these narratives change when complicated by multicultural perspectives?”
Throughout the semester, students examined how voices often excluded from traditional western narratives—such as Latine cowboys, post-Emancipation Exodusters, Chinese railroad workers, Cherokee Freedmen—reshape our understanding of the American West.
The course also offered students the opportunity to attend and volunteer at the WLA conference, run by OU Professor and Associate Dean, Dr. Kalenda Eaton, who was the organization ‘s president in 2025. Approximately one-third of the class participated, gaining firsthand experience in academic scholarship while connecting with experts in the field.
Students’ final projects reflected the course’s interdisciplinary and inclusive approach. Topics included Native American theater, Native American soldiers in the Vietnam War, and cultural cuisine in Oklahoma. Others produced podcasts exploring themes such as heroism in Westerns and representations of gender and identity on the frontier.
By integrating literature, history, and experiential learning, the course provided students with a deeper, more nuanced understanding of the American West—one that moves beyond stereotypes to highlight resilience, diversity, and the complexity of cultural narratives.
