Instructor:
Ms. Emily Satterwhite

Required Texts, available at the Emory Bookstore in the DUC:

Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Small Appalachian Community: 1818-1937, Durwood Dunn
Storming Heaven, Denise Giardina
Appalachia Inside Out Volume I: Conflict and Change, Higgs, Manning, Miller, eds.
Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
Divine Right’s Trip, Gurney Norman
River of Earth, James Still

Also available at the bookstore, but NOT required:

Appalachia Inside Out Volume II: Culture and Custom, Higgs, Manning, Miller, eds
Appalachia in the Making, Pudup, Billings, and Waller, eds.

A number of the required readings for this class are on reserve at the Woodruff library.

Course Description

This class will introduce students to Appalachian Studies through the theme of "Exile, Return, and Sense of Place" in historical accounts, fiction, poetry, autobiography, and documentary film. We will look at the recurrent removals from (and migrations to and from) the region. We will also explore the notion that Appalachia instills in its residents an abiding sense of place that fortifies those who stay and consoles, beckons, or haunts those who leave. The course will complicate assumptions about the uniqueness of the Appalachian region, and about who lives there and how they live.

Course Requirements

I. General Requirements

Because this is a discussion course, your regular attendance (including one Saturday field trip and one evening film screening), consistent preparation, and informed participation in class discussion are essential. Unexplained or excessive tardiness and absences will lower your final grade.

II. Writing Requirements

If you require an extension to complete an assignment, you must make special arrangements with me PRIOR to the due date.

Response Papers: You will be required to complete a series of 8 "short informal papers" (SIPs) of approximately 2 pages in length. It is your responsibility to note SIP due dates on the course schedule.

Formal Paper: Over the course of the semester, you will develop an abstract (paper topic proposal), and formal research paper of 10-15 pages in length, as well as a shorter version of the formal paper suitable for a 15-minute presentation (about 5 pages).

Students who choose to polish their papers with my help may be invited to present their papers at the Appalachian Studies Association Conference in Knoxville, March 24-26, 2000 and at a practice round or "mock conference" for IDS and ILA students and faculty on December 2. Choosing to accept that invitation may necessitate spending time on the paper presentation after the close of the semester. There is a student paper contest ($150 award) which you may enter by sending in your completed paper by January 15, 2000. Some funding may be available for anyone who chooses to attend or present at the March Appalachian Studies Conference.

III. Community Service Requirement

Since its inception in the 1960s, Appalachian Studies has been committed not only to understanding the history and culture of the region but also to working to ensure social and economic justice for Appalachian people. As semester-long Appalachian Studies scholar-activists, you will be required to perform 10 hours of community service. During the first three weeks of the course, you are required to contact one of the following organizations serving Appalachians in Atlanta in order to schedule your community service hours.

Additionally, the class will take one field trip to Cabbagetown, Atlanta (approximately 15-20 minutes south of Emory), in order to see one of the Urban Appalachian communities formed by out-migration during the boom-and-bust coal years.

Please note: You are responsible for any changes in this schedule that are announced in class.

Aug 26
Course introduction, review of syllabus
Explanation of Appalachian Studies conference opportunity

Aug 31
"Taking Exception with Exceptionalism: The Emergence and Transformation of Historical Studies of Appalachia," pp1-18 in Appalachia in the Making (handout)
"Exile, Return, and Sense of Place" p 313 in Inside Out
Mini-lecture: the Invention of Appalachia

SIP #1 due

Sep 2
Guest speaker on Appalachian activism: Dr. Stephen Fisher of Emory and Henry College (Emory, Virginia), author of Fighting Back in Appalachia

Removal of the Cherokee

Sep 7
"Cherokee Accommodation and Persistence in the Southern Appalachians," pp25-44 in Appalachia in the Making (on reserve)
"Red and Black in the Southern Appalachians," pp219-224 in Inside Out
"The Scotch-Irish Heritage of Southern Appalachia," pp2-7 in Inside Out

**SIP #2 due**

Who Belongs in the Great Smoky Mountains?

Sep 9
Cades Cove: The Life and Death of a Small Appalachian Community: 1818-1937, Durwood Dunn

Sep 14
Cades Cove

"For the Greater Good": TVA and the Blue Ridge Parkway

Sep 16
Read history of Tennessee Valley Authority in TVA brochures (on reserve)
"The Blue Ridge Parkway and Myths of the Pioneer" Phil Noblitt (on reserve)

**SIP #3 due**

Buying the Land Out from Underneath Us

Sep 21
Storming Heaven, Denise Giardina
Mini-lecture: Deep mining, Strip mining, Mountain-top Removal and Denise Giardina’s run for governor of West Virginia

Sep 23
Writing Workshop: Paper Abstracts (bring in ideas for conference proposals)

Sep 28
Storming Heaven

***Appalachian Studies Conference Paper Abstracts Due***

Sep 30
Storming Heaven

?**SIP #4 due**

Men and Women in the Mines

Oct 5
"The Miner’s Work," pp127-132 in Inside Out
"Because the Earth is Dark and Deep," pp135-145 in Inside Out
"Aliens in Southern Appalachia, 1900-1920: The Italian Experience in Wise County, Virginia," pp 250-263 in Inside Out

Oct 7
Writing Workshop: Conference Papers

***Oct 12 Fall Break—No Class***

When Mines Open and When Mines Close: Moving to Work

Oct 14
River of Earth, James Still

Oct 19
River of Earth

**SIP #5 due**

Oct 21
River of Earth

***Oct 25 evening screening of Fast Food Women and Justice in the Coalfields***

Oct 26
discussion of Fast Food Women and Justice in the Coalfields
in class: viewing of photographs by Earl Dotter

Urbanization: Insiders Move Out, Outsiders Move In

Oct 28
"Living City, Feeling Country: The Current State and Future Prospects of Urban Appalachians" pp320-329 in Inside Out
"The Brier Losing Touch with His Traditions" p 330 in Inside Out
"Shiloh" pp332-340 in Inside Out

**SIP #6 due**

***Saturday, Oct 30***Field Trip: Cabbagetown, Atlanta***
Accompanying us will be guest lecturer Dr. White, professor of urban and Atlanta history

Nov 2
"Seeing Appalachian Cities", Emily Satterwhite(handout)
Read around in "Urban Appalachia" issue of Now & Then (on reserve), especially "The Dancing Bear Can Waltz But She Can’t Do the Lambada," interview with Amy Tipton Gray and Norma Meyers Thompson.
in class: discuss "No Minority," p264 in Inside Out and cartoons by Anthony Feathers

Nov 4
Writing Workshop: Paper into Presentation

***Appalachian Studies Conference Paper First Drafts Due***

Heading West

Nov 9
Bean Trees, Barbara Kingsolver
"Barbara Kingsolver: Moving On" Meredith Sue Willis (handout)

Nov 11
Bean Trees

Returning Home

Nov 16
Divine Right’s Trip, Gurney Norman

Nov 18
Divine Right’s Trip

***Appalachian Studies Conference Presentation Drafts Due***
Drafts will be returned to you on November 30 so that you can make final changes prior to your Dec. 2 presentations.

The Power of Home

Nov 23
"Brier Sermon—‘You Must Be Born Again’" Jim Wayne Miller (handout– also pp423-427 Inside Out Vol II)
"Heritage" James Still (handout-- also p741 in Inside Out Vol II)

**SIP #7 due**

***Nov 25 Thanksgiving Break-- No Class***

African-Americans at Home in Appalachia

Nov 30
"Stranger in Paradise," and "If You See Me Coming," short stories in White Trash, Red Velvet (on reserve)
"Chattanooga Black Boy: Identity and Racism," p140-151 in Names We Call Home (handout)
Selections from Colored People, Henry Louis Gates (handout)

**SIP #8 due**

Last Thoughts

Dec 2
Exile, Return, and Sense of Place Panel Presentation
Invited guests: IDS and ILA students, faculty

Dec 7
Wrap-up; evaluations

Dec 12 ***Final Draft of Full-length Paper Due***

***March 24-26, 2000 Appalachian Studies Conference, Knoxville, Tennessee***