Regional Study and the Liberal Arts: Appalachia Up-Close

FAIN: EH-50131-07

Ferrum College (Ferrum, VA 24088-2611)
Peter G. Crow (Project Director: March 2007 to August 2009)

A four-week institute for twenty-five college and university teachers on Appalachian history and culture.

Located at the edge of Virginia?s Blue Ridge Mountains, Ferrum College offers a four-week institute (June 8 - July 4, 2008) for college and university teachers to investigate Appalachian issues as a model for bringing regional study into the mainstream liberal arts curriculum. The texts, discussions, and field experiences of the institute illustrate ways of bringing students ?up-close? to their learning, ways especially feasible in a regional context. Regionalism of the 1930s addressed encroachment of modernization into rural lifestyles, whereas contemporary regionalism focuses more on region as a defined unit for reinterpretating generalist/popular assumptions. Guests speakers addressing both approaches are Gordon B. McKinney, Rebecca Bailey, Adriana Trigiani, Phillip Obermiller, Mary Anglin, and Frank X. Walker, authors/editors of most of the major institute texts. During the last week, institute scholars will undertake community-based research in McDowell County, West Virginia.