Travel and Learn at U.Va. Will Explore Jefferson's Vision For the Future of America

WHAT: 21st annual Jefferson Seminar on the Lawn

"Jefferson's America, America's Jefferson"

WHEN: June 10-14, 2009

WHO: Open to the public

COST: $1,485 to $1,685 per person


May 19, 2009 — Thomas Jefferson was energized by the idea of creating a new world — politically, culturally, socially, even physically — and he offered a blueprint for the future and an agenda for reform in his "Notes on the State of Virginia."

Jefferson's vision is the subject of a University of Virginia Travel & Learn program, to be held June 10-14.

U.Va.'s 21st annual Jefferson Seminar on the Lawn, "Jefferson's America, America's Jefferson," will examine how Jefferson's great successes impacted not only his time, but also our understanding of ourselves as a nation; his struggles and failures foreshadowed many of the great debates that continue to this day.

Program leader Peter Onuf, U.Va.'s Thomas Jefferson Foundation Professor of History, teams with three visiting professors, including Annette Gordon-Reed, winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize for History for her work, "The Hemingses of Monticello," to explore the ways in which the third president's vision was realized — or not — over the course of his lifetime and beyond.

Participants have the option of staying in the original student rooms on the University of Virginia's Lawn, the heart of the Jefferson-designed Academical Village. The program includes special after-hours tours of Jefferson's homes, Monticello and Poplar Forest, including rooms not normally open to the public.

The five-day program is open to anyone and costs $1,485 per person with no lodging provided, $1,640 including a single room on the Lawn, or $1,685 in an air-conditioned single room at Brown College, near the Lawn. Full payment is required at registration.

Learn more at www.virginia.edu/travelandlearn/2009jefferson, or by calling 800-FIND-UVA (800-346-3882) or 434-243-2277, or by e-mailing travelandlearn@virginia.edu.

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