Ferrum College Hosts 4th National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute
For immediate release:
June 3, 2008
June 3, 2008
Contact: Natalie Faunce, (540) 365-4301
nfaunce@ferrum.edu
nfaunce@ferrum.edu
Ferrum College hosts the 4th Biennial Summer Institute for College and University Teachers, funded by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The Institute runs from June 8 through July 4, 2008. The Institute at Ferrum examines Appalachian issues that link regional study to the liberal arts. Ferrum is proud to be part of a select group of institutions of higher education, including Harvard, SUNY Oswego and the University of Tennessee, to receive these awards this year. The nineteen teacher/scholars selected to receive stipends for travel and expenses to participate in the Ferrum Institute represent colleges and universities from 13 U.S. states and Japan.Nationally known guest faculty includes poet Frank X. Walker, historian Gordon McKinney, feminist researcher Mary Anglin, book and CD producer Paul Kuzco, Appalachian musician Ron Short, and migration scholar Phillip Obermiller. Institute alumna Rebecca Bailey will lead a discussion based on her book, "Matewan Before the Massacre: Politics and Coal the Roots of Conflicts in Mingo County." The book, a reprise of events leading up to the West Virginia mine war tragedy known as the Matewan Massacre, is scheduled for publication this month by West Virginia University. The core Ferrum faculty for the NEH Institute includes Dan Woods, Susan Mead and Institute Director Peter Crow. Joining them to make presentations is several other Ferrum faculty members, Todd Fredericksen, Tina Hanlon, Roddy Moore, Lana Whited, Vaughan Webb and George Loveland and Ferrum student, Franki Rutherford. The final week of the Institute is spent in Caretta, West Virginia, where participants engage in community-based research with Big Creek People in Action, a local community development organization.
Dr. Crow says this is an extraordinary opportunity for those who are selected to participate in the Institute. "When the institute is over, participants will have developed ways to incorporate their own regions and localities into their students' learning. They will see how a focus on the near-at-hand can become a window on the wider world. And, most importantly, they will know the excitement of a learning community wherein the community, the professors, and the students all learn together," Crow says.
Visit the Ferrum College NEH Summer Institute site
About Ferrum College
Ferrum College is a four-year, private, co-educational, liberal arts college affiliated with the United Methodist Church. Ferrum offers a choice of nationally recognized bachelor’s degree programs at a cost well below the national average for private colleges.
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