Clark Hall Room 206, 11130 Bellflower Road
“But where did York sleep?”—this question posed by Professor Pillow’s then 12-year-old son while touring the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center cuts to the heart of colonial absences in American history and present-day memory. Although a detailed life-size recreation of the Corps of Discovery Cape Washington Winter Camp portrayed camp life and showed where all members of the Expedition slept, including William Clark’s dog, York was not mentioned. There was no sleeping space identified for York, Clark’s slave. This lack continues to erase York’s presence as a slave from the Expedition, except when needed to make a point about the generosity of Clark and the freedom York surely experienced on the trail. In her talk, Pillow, chair and professor of Gender Studies at the University of Utah, explores York’s absences and presences through three primary themes of the expedition: voting, sex, and sleeping arrangements. This analysis provides a re-reading of the Expedition with gender, slavery, and conquest as central to any present-day retelling and re-understanding of the Expedition.
Dr. Pillow is a 2022 Hildegarde and Elbert Baker Visiting Scholar in the Humanities.
This lecture will also be live-streamed at case.edu/livestream/s1.
If attending in-person, registration is requested. Register .
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