Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 8.09 Appalachian Studies
Presentation #1 Title
Flatalachia Follow-Up: Results of Bringing Appalachian Studies to Flatland Eastern North Carolina
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Why Appalachian Studies in the flatlands of Eastern North Carolina—in Greenville at just fifty-six feet above sea level? Despite differences in geography and topography, Appalachia and Eastern NC are cultural cousins with some shared history and themes, resulting often from their rurality—from early immigrant populations to agrarian enterprises, environmental exploitation, economic voids and social hardships, and marginalization that persists today. In the Spring 2014 semester at East Carolina University, I co-taught an honors seminar titled “Root that Mountain Down: Appalachian Culture & Rural Imaginings in America.” The other professor teaches courses in music composition and popular music, and I teach English composition and edit a folklore journal. The concept of the class began as a quest to bring variety to a full load of service courses and teach something connected to personal music/dance interests. At ASA 2014, I gave a mid-semester report of the humanities/fine arts seminar, including the context for offering the course and the assignment plans for surveying various disciplines’ scholarship, journalism, and popular readings/media about conundrums of environment vs. economics, country/city collisions, economic and health disparities, foodways and handicrafts, instrumental/vocal and sacred/secular music, labor issues, morality and criminality, and perversion and pervasion of the rural. The ASA 2015 presentation will be the second installment of the experience: successes, challenges, excitement from local Appalachian guests, the students’ final analytical and creative project topics, their changed perspectives about Appalachia, connections they made with their own rural backgrounds and Eastern NC, and the students’ evaluations of the course.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Leanne E. Smith teaches in East Carolina University’s Department of English in Greenville, NC, serves on the boards of the Folk Arts Society of Greenville and North Carolina Folklore Society, and is the new editor of the North Carolina Folklore Journal. She received an MFA in Creative Nonfiction at Goucher College and is working on a manuscript about the Green Grass Cloggers.
Flatalachia Follow-Up: Results of Bringing Appalachian Studies to Flatland Eastern North Carolina
Why Appalachian Studies in the flatlands of Eastern North Carolina—in Greenville at just fifty-six feet above sea level? Despite differences in geography and topography, Appalachia and Eastern NC are cultural cousins with some shared history and themes, resulting often from their rurality—from early immigrant populations to agrarian enterprises, environmental exploitation, economic voids and social hardships, and marginalization that persists today. In the Spring 2014 semester at East Carolina University, I co-taught an honors seminar titled “Root that Mountain Down: Appalachian Culture & Rural Imaginings in America.” The other professor teaches courses in music composition and popular music, and I teach English composition and edit a folklore journal. The concept of the class began as a quest to bring variety to a full load of service courses and teach something connected to personal music/dance interests. At ASA 2014, I gave a mid-semester report of the humanities/fine arts seminar, including the context for offering the course and the assignment plans for surveying various disciplines’ scholarship, journalism, and popular readings/media about conundrums of environment vs. economics, country/city collisions, economic and health disparities, foodways and handicrafts, instrumental/vocal and sacred/secular music, labor issues, morality and criminality, and perversion and pervasion of the rural. The ASA 2015 presentation will be the second installment of the experience: successes, challenges, excitement from local Appalachian guests, the students’ final analytical and creative project topics, their changed perspectives about Appalachia, connections they made with their own rural backgrounds and Eastern NC, and the students’ evaluations of the course.
