How do you snatch cool? How do you track down that elusive quality, hold it steady and study it?

Sociology professor Audrey Sprenger offers an answer in her spring interterm class, “Jack Kerouac Wrote Here: Crisscrossing America Chasing Cool.”

This first-of-its kind curriculum literally takes students “on the road” as they read selections from Kerouac’s diaries, novels, plays and poetry and visit the settings and inspiration places of Kerouac novels. They will also read and discuss the literature of Kerouac contemporaries such as Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassady.

The class starts in Denver and takes students to Lowell, Mass., New York City, San Francisco and back to Denver-all in 10 days-in a hands-on examination of 1950s beat culture.

“We’re going to raise the ghosts [of beat culture],” said Sprenger. “It’ll be a holistic experience where we’ll read in our down-time, take urban hikes through the cities and have free time to explore cities and work on our documentaries.”

The documentaries are a part of each student’s homework for the class. Everyone will be making a short documentary of the trip and the medium is at the discretion of each creator-students can use audio, video or photography methods, said Sprenger.

In addition, students will be keeping a “postcard diary,” a first-hand account of the trip taken down on postcards from along the way and mailed home.

After flying to Lowell from Denver, the class will investigate Kerouac’s home town and visit his gravesite. The class then has a special invitation to Kerouac’s birthday celebration, at which time there will be an unveiling of his paintings, which have never been shown publicly.

“No one’s seen these things before,” said Sprenger. “It’s so great to be a part of it.”

The highlight for Kerouac and beat culture lovers, she said will be “coming into contact with people who knew and worked with him [Kerouac].”

When the class travels to New York City, the next stop in the cool chase, students will meet with Bill Morgan, archivist for Allen Ginsberg and David Amram, jazz pianist and definitive beat musician. Living people will be a quintessential part of the experience, rather than just reading books and going to museums, said Sprenger. Students will benefit from the first-hand knowledge that these people bring to the encounter.

The music of the beat movement was inseparable from Kerouac’s writing, so Sprenger has written-in a thorough investigation of the jazz, blues, hip-hop, folk and reggae scene while the class is in New York and San Francisco.

In New York City, the class will board a train headed across the country to the west coast. This is when students will read Kerouac’s best known novel, On the Road. Sprenger said that the class lectures will take place on the train.

In San Francisco, the class will meet up with a traveling Jack Kerouac museum that is on the road in different places throughout the year. Sprenger said the museum is packed with rare artifacts of beat culture.

The class will take to the streets of the city to explore the influences and settings for beat literature.

“We don’t pay attention enough to what we read,” said Sprenger. “A book could pull you out into the streets, make you a part of it.”

Finally, the class will fly back to Denver from San Francisco to complete the final leg of the cool chase.

Sprenger said that she hopes the students’ documentaries can be used for display when the original manuscript of On the Road makes a rare appearance in the Denver Public Library system in 2007.

Sprenger said that interested students should sign up now because this is a once-in-a-lifetime class that will not be taught again.

“The class is all about learning the value of education. It’s a rare opportunity that will be intensely fun, but at the same time academic. It’s more than a trip,” she said.

The cost of the class is estimated at $1,300 to $1,500 plus the cost of DU credits, but, said Sprenger, there is financial aid available. Interested students can get ahold of Sprenger at draudreysprenger@mac.com.

The deadline to sign up is March 10. Students can sign up at the Department of Special Programs in Mary Reed 301, or by e-mailing Verna Clark at veclark@du.edu.