Ferrum
College will host its second National Endowment for the Humanities Summer
Institute for College and University Teachers June 3-29, 2004. From
a range of disciplines and at both campus and community locations, the
Institute will examine Appalachian issues that link regional study to
the liberal arts. Leaders expect to choose participants from many regions
of the country, not just Appalachia. The twenty-five teachers selected
for the NEH Summer Institute, "Regional Study and the Liberal Arts:
Appalachia Up Close," will receive stipends of $2,800 each. Institute
faculty are Cece Conway, Stephen Fisher, Tina Hanlon, Patricia Johnson,
Clyde Kessler, George Loveland, Ralph Lutts, Susan Mead, Roddy Moore,
Robert Morgan, Anita Puckett, Franki Patton Rutherford, Crandall Shifflett,
Lee Smith, Carolyn Thomas, Altina Waller, Vaughan Webb, and Daniel Woods.
NEH Institute Director Pete Crow was named
Outstanding Educator of the Year in 2003, an award given to teachers
in United Methodist-related schools who have made an extraordinary impact
on their students, peers, the institution, church and community.
“The institute is important to Ferrum, not
only for being listed alongside institutes such as Harvard, Princeton,
Duke, Amherst, Newberry Library and the like, but because it puts Ferrum
at the forefront of colleges and universities providing and promoting
innovating liberal arts learning appropriate to the times,” Crow said.
The June NEH institute at Ferrum brings together
faculty members from throughout the United States to pursue the exciting
opportunities in liberal arts learning that regional study provides.
The first part of the institute brings to the Ferrum campus nationally-known
authors Robert Morgan, Lee Smith, Altina Waller, Crandall Shifflett,
and Anita Puckett, whose fiction and research focuses on Appalachia.
The second part shifts to Caretta, West Virginia, where institute scholars
will be doing community-centered projects such as interviewing black
coalminers, reproducing and displaying community photos, or constructing
a website for the local community action center.
The public is invited to two free held as a
part of the Institute. Robert Morgan will be reading at 7:00 pm, Mon.,
June 7. Lee Smith will be reading at 7:00 pm, Mon., June 14.
“Our higher educational system not only fragments
learning into discreet disciplines but constructs barriers between the
parts. Regional issues such as coalmining in Appalachia provide can
be examined from historical, literary, sociological, environmental,
economic perspectives, thereby providing an integrative learning environment
for students and teachers alike. These regional issues can be examined
not only through texts but on-site through experiential learning, thereby
breaking down yet another traditional academic barrier, that between
thinking and doing,” elaborated Crow.
Crow spoke on the previous NEH Institute at
Ferrum, “Participants from the 2002 institute have written about how
the experience transformed their teaching or in some instances simply
gave them confidence to use regional authors or issues in their classes.”
For more information on the NEH Institute
at Ferrum College this summer visit this site:
http://www.ferrum.edu/neh04/
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. For
more information on Ferrum, visit www.ferrum.edu.
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