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National
Endowment
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Tentative Schedule
Week I 9 – 11:30 Introduction—Peter Crow Institute director Peter Crow will introduce core faculty Dan Woods and Susan Mead and explain briefly the proposed content and methodology of the Institute, focusing especially on the relevance of regional study to the undergraduate curriculum. The three will lay out the institute format of merging content discussions with considerations of pedagogy, especially ways of getting students involved in what they are studying. Institute scholars will then briefly introduce themselves and their projects. Institute Scholars will meet with core faculty mentors to develop strategies for realistic, meaningful progress on their projects. 2:15-3:30 Creation of the Southern Mountain Stereotype—Gordon B. McKinney Gordon B. McKinney, chair of the history department at Berea College, will lead discussion on how in the 19th Century mountains and the people who lived in them became an important part of the American intellectual landscape. He will discuss the process through which people were named and identified, focusing particularly on the largely positive Yankee stereotype and the largely negative (though similar in many respects) image of the southern mountaineer. 7 – 8 Stratton House Reception—President Jennifer Braaten Tues., June 10 9 – 11:30 Appalachia During the Civil War—Gordon B. McKinney The nation first noticed the southern mountain people during the secession crisis of 1860-1861 when the voters in the southern highlands voted overwhelmingly to reject immediate separation from the union. Professor McKinney will draw on period documents as well as modern scholarship, such as his own (with John C. Inscoe) The Heart of Confederate Appalachia: Western North Carolina in the Civil War, to help institute scholars make sense of this unusual behavior. 1 – 3:30 Appalachia from the Civil War to 1910—Gordon B. McKinney Professor McKinney will explore the industrialization of Appalachia, revealing origins before the Civil War and relating modernization issues to ideas presented in his first two sessions. For example, the creation of the Appalachian stereotype made it much easier for outside corporations to justify their economic and political dominance of the region. And the economic and social destructiveness of the Civil War made local investment and community control of industrialization virtually impossible. Wed., June 11 10 am: Optional Farm Tour—Vaughan Webb 6:30 pm: Movie Matewan Thur., June 12 9 – 9:45 Appalachian Culture and Issues as Reflected in Matewan—Rebecca Bailey Rebecca Bailey, Assistant Professor of History and Geography at Northern Kentucky University, will lead discussion of historical and social context of John Sayles’ depiction of events leading up to and culminating in the Matewan massacre of 1920, encouraging participants to share their own observations of life and culture depicted there. 10:00 – 11:30 Deconstructing Matewan—Rebecca Bailey Professor Bailey will draw on her research for Matewan Before the Massacre (2007) to raise questions about the accuracy of Sayles’ interpretation of events and suggest that the historical background is much more complex than the movie portrays. 1 – 3:30 Industrialization in the Appalachia—Dan Woods Playing off images of industrialization in the movie Matewan, Professor of History and institute core faculty member Dan Woods will build on Professor McKinney’s third session to help participants understand the many faces of Appalachian industrialization and the pushes an d pulls it exerted on inhabitants of the region. Fri.., June 13 7 – 8 Optional bird walk—Todd Fredericksen 9 – 10:45 Appalachian Natural History—Todd Fredericksen Friday’s optional early morning bird walk will be followed after breakfast by a presentation on the distinctive natural history and natural diversity of Appalachia, a session led by Todd Fredericksen, Assistant Professor of Forestry and Wildlife at Ferrum. Using multimedia resources, Professor Frederickson will present a sampling of this diversity and suggest both climatological and geological reasons it. 11 – 11:30 Big Creek People in Action Research Options—Susan Mead Assistant Professor of Sociology and Director of Ferrum’s Service Learning and Bonner programs, Susan Mead will be the institute core faculty member leading planning for the five days at Big Creek People in Action in McDowell County, West Virginia. At this session, she will lay out research needs identified by Big Creek (with knowledge of institute scholars’ interests and areas of expertise) so that participants can begin selecting their top choices. 1 – 3:30 Appalachian Religion—Dan Woods John Sayles’s own role as a hard-shell Baptist minister serves as a useful introduction to the importance and distinctiveness of religious practice in Appalachia. Dr. Woods will lead discussion of the many different varieties of Appalachian religious practice, distinguishing independents from those with denominational affiliation, Baptists from Holiness and Pentecostals, snake-handling Pentecostals from non-snake-handling Pentecostals. 6 - ? Optional dinner, music, and dance at Floyd—Susan Mead Week II Mon., June 16 9 – 11:30 Appalachian Music—Vaughan Webb In Sayles’ Matewan, music is the medium through which miner families of different nationalities and colors first find a common bond. Blue Ridge Institute and Farm Museum Assistant Director Vaughan Webb will highlight the remarkable scope of historical and contemporary traditional music in Appalachian balladry, blues, gospel, bluegrass, old-time string band tunes, and examine how the regional traditions have adapted to the cultural influences of modernization. 1 – 3:30 A Writer’s Journey In and Out of Appalachia—Adriana Trigiani Adriana Trigiani, author of a recent trilogy of novels dealing with contemporary Appalachia, is the daughter of Italian immigrants. She will entertain discussion of her central character who, like herself, grows up in Big Stone Gap, Virginia, and then, especially in the Milk Glass Moon, reaches beyond Appalachia to her relatives still living in Italy. Trigiani will discuss the forces which pushed her out of Appalachia and pulled her to New York city, the setting of her latest novel. 7 – 8 Jack Tales Performance—Rex Stephenson, Jody Brown, and Jack Tales Players 8 - 10 Reception at Crows’ house Tues., June 17 9 – 11:30 Miner Migrants of Appalachia—Phillip J. Obermiller Sayles’ Matewan dramatizes an uneasy influx of African-American and Italian immigrants into Appalachia in the early 1920s. In the 1950s, however, people of all ethnicities were moving out of Appalachia. Why did this happen? How did the migration affect the mountain communities people left and the places they ended up? Phillip Obermiller, who has published widely on recent Appalachian population issues, will lead this session and generate discussion of his book (with Thomas E. Wagner) African American Miners and Migrants: The Eastern Kentucky Social Club. 1 – 3:30 Appalachia and International Regional Issues—Phillip J. Obermiller In the afternoon session, Professor Obermiller will turn the institute’s attention to broader regional considerations, examining Appalachian issues in an international context, considering parallel regional issues in places such as Scotland, Wales, Catalonia, and Southeast Asia. Professor Obermiller will entertain questions raised in Appalachia in an International Context: Cross-National Comparisons of Developing Regions, a compilation of essays he edited with William Philliber. Wed., June 18 9 – 3 Optional Appalachian Industrial Sites Tour—Dan Woods Thurs., June 19 9 – 10:15 Regional Study: Pedagogy—Core Faculty , Carolyn Thomas, Participants Peter Crow, Susan Mead, Dan Woods, and Carolyn Thomas will begin this session by explaining Ferrum’s Appalachian Cluster, three general education courses at Ferrum with the common theme of modernization in Appalachia, which 10 – 16 students take concurrently. A panel of institute scholars will be invited to add their insights and experiences using regional study in undergraduate classes. 10:30 – 11:30 Women in Appalachian Folktales and Legends—Tina Hanlon and Lana Whited Ferrum English professors Tina Hanlon and Lana Whited will lead a discussion on what certain legends and folktales of Appalachian women such as Polly Vaughn, Frankie Silver, Mutsmag, and Ashpet (mountain version of Cinderella) reveal about mountain genre roles and mountain women, as well as mountain storytelling traditions. 1 – 3:30 Appalachia and Feminist Concerns—Mary K. Anglin Drawing from her book Women, Power, and Dissent in the Hills of Carolina, Mary K. Anglin will discuss how an intriguing research methodology helped her gain insight into ways women working in a western North Carolina mica plant have contributed to household and regional economies for over a century. Professor Anglin will also show how, without labor unions, these women added their own interpretations of gender and culture to memories and family/ community ties in order to exercise control over their work and their lives. Fri., June 20 9 – 9:45 Dispelling the Myth of a Monochromatic Appalachia—Susan Mead 10 – 11:30 The Affrilachian Poets—Frank X. Walker Appalachian and African-American poet Frank X. Walker will read from his work, including poems from Affrilachia and more recent volumes, and discuss his discovery of invisibility, family resources, ethnic resources, racial conflict, coping mechanisms, and poetic and leadership talent within himself, including formation and mentoring of a group called the Affrilachian Poets. 1 – 3:30 Poetry Writing Workshop—Frank X. Walker For eight years Executive Director of Kentucky’s Governor’s School for the Arts, Frank X. Walker is a talented creative writing teacher as well as award-winning poet. In the afternoon, he will help institute scholars tap into their often hidden reserves of creative talent to produce some surprising poetry and have a little fun at the end of a very full week of activities. Sat., June 21 11 – 4 Optional boat trip on Smith Mountain Lake—Carolyn Thomas Week III Mon., June 23 9 – 10:00 Labor Issues in Appalachia—Dan Woods and George Loveland The central plot of Sayles’ Matewan revolves around the conflict between a coal company dominated people and the labor union which seeks to bring solidarity among the miners. Core faculty Dan Woods and George Loveland, Associate Professor of Library Science at Ferrum, will lead discussion of Appalachian labor issues, including the textile, furniture, and paper mill industries as well as coal mining. 10:15 – 11:30 Union Ownership of Canton, N. C., Paper Mill—George Loveland The morning session will close with George Loveland sharing insights into his book, Under the Workers Caps: From Champion Mill to Blue Ridge Paper, about a labor union in Canton, North Carolina, whose members have bought and now operate a paper mill for which they formerly were workers alone. 1 – 3:30 Appalachia as a Window on Global Ecological Issues—Todd Fredericksen and Carolyn Thomas In the afternoon, Dr. Frederickson and his Ferrum colleague Professor of Biology and Environmental Science Carolyn Thomas will help institute scholars understand how bellwethers in Appalachia help ecologists understand such planet-wide problems as habitat destruction, invasive species, global warming, water pollution, and fresh water scarcity. Tues., June 24 9 – 11:30 Community Redevelopment in Southwestern Virginia—Peter Crow Peter Crow will lead a discussion of the narrative which emerges in his recently published Do, Die, or Get Along: A Tale of Two Appalachian Towns, how that narrative of two southwestern Virginia coalfield towns challenges and supports conclusions institute scholars may have been reaching from sessions thus far. Crow will also show how the narrative links cultural considerations with sociological and ecological problems. 1 – 3:30 Preparation for Community-Based Research in McDowell County, West Virginia Institute scholars will be broken into teams according to the community-based project with which they will be involved at Big Creek People in Action. They will then undertake whatever advanced training and preparation as may be needed. Any additional meetings at Ferrum or Breaks Interstate Park will be scheduled at this time. Thur., June 26 9 – 11:30 Participant-led sessions based on projects Institute scholars will make 10 – 15 minute presentations on their project work. 1 – 2:45 Participant-led sessions based on projects Institute scholars will make 10 – 15 minute presentations on their project work. 3 – 3:30 Field Trip Briefing Core faculty will lay out details for the weekend at Breaks and the five days with Big Creek People in Action. Institute scholars will be encouraged to ask questions, voice concerns, and make suggestions. Fri., June 27 9 – 11:30 Participant-led sessions based on projects Institute scholars will make 10 – 15 minute presentations on their project work. Week IV Breaks (Evening, Fri., June 27 – lunch, Sun., 29) Friday afternoon, June 27, the institute will move to Breaks Interstate Park at the boundary of eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia. Institute scholars will have the weekend to make optional visits to an exhibition mine in Pocahontas, Virginia, or to the actual town of Matewan in Mingo County, West Virginia. They will also have the weekend to hike, boat, or just relax at the beautiful park, where one evening institute core faculty will arrange to have a caller teach square dance lessons. Big Creek People in Action (dinner, Sun., June 29 – lunch, Fri., July 4) Sunday, the institute moves to Caretta, West Virginia, where institute scholars will stay in dormitory-type facilities while they undertake community-based research projects related to important goals of Big Creek People in Action. Each day, there will be occasion for institute scholars to reflect in a structured manner on what they are experiencing and its relationship to sessions at Ferrum and to their own individual projects. The precise nature of the research projects at Caretta will be determined in the spring of 2008. However, they are likely to fall into one of two categories. Oral History/Listening Projects will involve interviewing families who bring in photographs for display, interviewing African American families in the area, interviewing women on equity issues, interviewing people who maintain traditional cultural practices (for example, art, music, medicine), interviewing people in local churches as part of a CORA project. Brainstorming /Planning Projects will involve helping community leaders organize local interest groups (for example, writers, artists, performers, storytellers, book group, movie group, or women’s circle) or helping them expand the offerings of the community center library or helping them tap into resources that could be made available by the West Virginia Endowment for the Humanities or West Virginia Endowment for the Arts. The institute will conclude at lunch, Friday, July 4, with presentation of NEH certificates and instructions for submitting institute evaluations
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