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FALL 2015 COURSES

AMERICAN STUDIES

AMST 051.001 First Year Seminar: Navigating America

Instructor: Dr. Rachel Willis

TR 12:30-1:45; Venable G311

51 First-Year Seminar: Navigating America (3). This seminar is designed to teach students how to navigate new

intellectual terrain and process unfamiliar information from a variety of disciplinary perspectives with an emphasis on

discussion, field study, and documentation. Each student will plan, implement, and document an individual short

journey. This voyage of discovery on the campus or in the surrounding community will be chronicled with a

documentary journal and presented to the class in a multi-media format that conveys the individual’s perspective,

journey, and discoveries. Additionally, the class will collaboratively plan, implement, and document a common full day

journey. This required field study will be a core aspect of the experiential education connection for the course.

AMST 055.001 First Year Seminar: Birth and Death in the US

Instructor: Dr. Tim Marr

TR 3:30-4:45; Graham Memorial 213

This course explores birth and death as essential human rites of passage that are invested with significance by

changing American historical and cultural contexts. Since both events define life events that none of us can

recall or relate with experiential authority, examining them offers powerful insights into how culture mediates

the construction of bodies, social identity, and the meaning of human life. In contrast to the American

historical past, birth and death in contemporary United States are often shrouded behind conventions of

privacy and medical confidentiality, even as the questions they raise are prominent in political discourse. This

seminar uses interdisciplinary learning to expose how different processes of cultural power have shaped these

experiences. Readings and assignments are designed to provoke new and complex understandings of birth

and death by examining the changing anthropological rituals, medical procedures, scientific technologies, and

ethical quandaries surrounding them. We will also explore a variety of representations of birth and death in

literary expression, film, and material culture as well as well as in hospitals, funeral homes, and cemeteries..

This course will encourage you to inquire into issues of importance to you and will empower you to seek out

sources and readings that can assist you to deepen and refine your understanding of American cultural

practices and their development over time.

AMST 060.001 First-Year Seminar: American Indians in History, Law, and Literature

Instructor: Dr. Daniel Cobb

MWF 11:15-12:05 Murphy 104

This research seminar provides a broad grounding in American Indian law, history, and literature through an

exploration of the remarkable life and times of Flathead author, intellectual, and activist D’Arcy McNickle

(1904-1977). We will read D’Arcy McNickle’s novels, short stories, histories, and essays, as well as secondary

works about him. Even better, we will be working with D’Arcy McNickle’s diary. Students will have an

opportunity to transcribe, contextualize, and share (probably through digital technologies) what they have

learned about history, law, literature (and much, much more) through his life story.

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AMST 089.001 FYS – American Indian Art in the 20th Century

Instructor: Dr. Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote

MWF 11:15-12:05; Murphy 204

This course examines twentieth century American Indian art though secondary articles, books, a graphic novel,

and art itself. The class sharpens written and verbal communication though in-class discussion, informal, and

formal assignments. Students will hone their visual critical thinking skills as well by examining and analyzing

contemporary American Indian art and representations of Native people.

This course connects American Indian art to vital conversations in American Indian studies such as colonialism,

identity, gender, and tribal sovereignty. We will also address the following questions: How and why does

“contemporary traditional” and “modern” come to describe and even categorize art created by Native people

in the twentieth century? How Native people and others have constructed and contested the idea of the

American Indian art? Additionally, we will examine how artists have engaged with and at times resisted the

markets for their work and their influence on Native art.

AMST 089.002 First Year Seminar: Mobility, Cars, NASCAR and the South

Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Engelhardt

MWF 1:25-2:15; Murphy 204

On July 10, 1949, three female drivers competed at the Daytona Beach Road Course, the second ever NASCAR

event. That same year Victor Green published another volume of his Negro Motorist Green Book, which had

helped African American travelers find friendly places to stay while on the road in the Jim Crow era since 1936.

The Good Roads Movement, begun by enthusiastic bicyclists in the late nineteenth century, made grand plans

for a Dixie Highway taking tourists from Maine to Florida and transforming automobile highways across the US

South. This class will look at the culture, history, memories, and meanings of mobility for a diverse range of

people in southern cultures.

AMST 101.001 The Emergence of Modern America

Instructor: Dr. Sharon Holland

MW 12:20-1:10 Hanes Art 121

Recitation Sections: #601 (R 2:00-2:50); #602 (R 3:30-4:20); #603 (F 11:15-12;05); #604 (F 12:20-1:10)

This course traces major themes in American culture as viewed through history, literature, art, film, music,

politics, and popular culture, from the American Revolution to the present. It is not a comprehensive survey

but rather an examination of the ways in which history and the arts interrelate as the present emerges from

the past. Topics include American diversity, the natural environment, the rise of the cities, social criticism, the

cultural impact of war. Readings consist of primary sources: poetry (Walt Whitman), fiction (Ernest

Hemingway and Tim O’Brien), and autobiography (Frederick Douglass and Jane Addams). Each unit will include

the work of an artist or photographer, such as Thomas Cole, Matthew Brady, Jacob Riis, Dorothea Lange.

Topics include the heritage of the American Revolution; slavery, Civil War, and memory; technology and the

environment; writers, film-makers, and artists as social critics.

Rec

Students enrolling in AMST 101-001 must also enroll in one recitation section numbered 101-601 through 101-

604.

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AMST 110.001 Intro to Cultures & History of Native North America (HIST 110)

Instructor: Dr. Malinda Maynor-Lowery

MWF 10:10-11:00; Coker 201

Recitation Sections: #601 (F) 11:15-12:05; #602 (F) 12;20-1:10; #603 (F) 9:05-9:55; #604 (R) 3:30-4:20; #605

(R) 5:00-5:50; #606 (F) 10:10-11:00; #607 (F) 11:15-12:05, and #608 (F) 12:20-1:10

An interdisciplinary introduction to Native American history and studies. The course uses history, literature,

art, and cultural studies to study the Native American experience

AMST 201.001 Literary Approaches to American Studies: Southern Writers

Instructor: Dr. Elizabeth Engelhardt

MW 3:35-4:50 Murphy 204

What did nineteenth century tourists to resort hotels across the US South read while they sat on porches or

took the waters? What novels did the Book of the Month Club recommend to readers interested in the US

South as they sipped cocktails in the suburbs in the middle twentieth century? What do writers tell us about

southern cultures through social media and web-based writing today? We will read popular novels and media

about the south, asking questions about the role of writers and their readers in shaping and understanding

American and southern cultures.

AMST 202.001 "Historical Approaches to American Studies: American Voices."

Instructor: Dr. Seth Kotch

TR 9:30-10:45 Murhpy 204

This course invites you to explore American history and culture through the voices of those who lived it.

Moving forward from the slave era to the recent past, you will approach American history through narratives

as expressed in oral histories, original writing, photographs, music, and film. These narratives will introduce

the human voice, and more broadly human expression, into American history and allow you to explore its

major problems, from issues of race, gender, class and other identities; to the influence of memory and

context on our understandings of our history; to the reliability of different versions of the past and how to

evaluate authenticity, reality, and truth—should it exist—in a historic context.

AMST 234.001 Native American Tribal Studies

Instructor: Dr. Jenny Tone-Pah-Hote

MWF 2:20-3:10 Murphy 204

It is possible to gain a comprehensive understanding of American Indian Studies though the lens of one

American Indian nation. This course examines major discussions in the field, through a discussion of the

Kiowa, a Plains Indian nation located in Oklahoma.

The Kiowa play a unique role in American Indian history, literature, and the arts. This class will take an

interdisciplinary approach to explore Kiowa social, cultural, and political life. We will examine Kiowa efforts to

maintain their tribal sovereignty. We will also analyze the role of law policy, gender, and the rise of intertribal

movements like the powwow. To approach these and other issues, students will read a number of articles,

historical documents, and following texts: The Way to Rainy Mountain by Pulitzer Prize winner, N. Scott

Momaday, The Jesus Road: Kiowas, Christianity and Indian Hymns by Luke Lassiter, Clyde Ellis, and Ralph

Kotay, and Kiowa Humanity and the Invasion of the State by Jacki Rand.

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AMST 235.001 Native America in the 20th Century (HIST 235)

Instructor: Dr. Daniel Cobb

MW 12:20-1:10 Peabody 104

Recitation Sections: #601 (R 2:090-2:40); #602 (R 3:30-4:20); #603 (F 10:10-11:00); #604 (F 10:10-11:00);

#605 (F 11:15-12:05); #606 (F 12:20-1:10)

The idea that American Indian communities would continue to exist in the year 2000 would have confounded

late nineteenth-century federal policymakers. By that time, the Native population had collapsed, the tribal

land base had been all but destroyed, and the allotment and assimilation juggernaut pledged to “Kill the

Indian to Save the Man.” At the dawn of the new millennium, however, it was the system of colonial

administration—not the indigenous peoples subjected to it—that appeared anachronistic. Against terrible

odds and in defiance of dominant expectations, Native communities endured. “Twentieth-Century Native

America” explores this complex and fascinating story. Readings, lectures, and recitation sections will carry

students across Native America from the late nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries. Along the way,

we will engage critically important issues, such as identity construction and contestation, the shifting

meanings of sovereignty and citizenship, and the problems of blood and belonging.

This course is cross-listed with History 235.

AMST 253.001 A Social History of Jewish Women in America

Instructor: Dr. Marcie Ferris

MWF 2:30 – 3:20 Saunders 204 This course will examine the history and culture of Jewish women in America from their arrival in New Amsterdam in

1654 to the present day. We will explore how gender shaped Jewish women’s experiences of immigration, assimilation,

religious observance, home, work, motherhood, family, and feminism. The course will also investigate how factors such

as region, race, class, country of origin, and religious denomination influenced the lives of Jewish women in America,

and in turn, how Jewish women have shaped the national expression of American Judaism. Texts and discussions

consider how these factors have created an American Jewish women’s history that is distinctive from men’s. Students

will examine a variety of sources, including diaries, memoirs, letters, film, recipes, organizational records, and artifacts

that reveal women’s voices that are absent in more traditional histories. The central goal of the course is to integrate

Jewish women into the American past, and thus, fundamentally transform American Jewish history.

AMST 257.001 Melville: Culture and Criticism

Instructor: Dr. Tim Marr

TR 11:00-12:15 Saunders 104

This seminar on Herman Melville examines a creative and deep-thinking nineteenth-century American author

whose works continue to speak with power to readers. We will explore together Melville’s world-embracing

attempts to engage what he called “the great Art of Telling Truth” through fictional imagination. The course

places Melville’s literary expressions in the biographical and political situations when they were composed as

well as across a spectrum of evolving critical paradigms. We will also examine cultural approaches that assess

Melville’s engagement with gender, sexuality, “race,” ethnicity, class, and the politics of the literary

marketplace. Readings include Typee, Moby-Dick, Pierre, The Piazza Tales, and Billy-Budd, Sailor. There will be

a special project on Melville’s Civil War poems. The course will examine the status of Melville and his work

today, especially Moby-Dick and its characters, as central icons of American memory, as shown in recent

popular culture, film, and art.

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AMST 277H.001 Globalization and National Identity

Instructor: Dr. Rachel Willis

TR 2:00-3:15 Graham Memorial 210

277 Globalization and National Identity (3). Considers the meanings and implications of globalization

especially in relation to identity, nationhood, and America's place in the world.

AMST 290.002 Introduction to American Legal Education

Instructor: Dr. Keith Richotte

TR 12:30-1:45 Genome G010

This class will afford students the opportunity to learn and engage with how legal education is conducted in

the United States by mimicking the “1L” experience, or first year in law school. The class is broken into units

that represent the classes that virtually every law school teaches to its first year class. By the end of the

course, students will have an introductory understanding of some of the major principles in some of the most

prominent areas of law, a greater capacity to “think like a lawyer,” and a true sense of life as a law student and

a member of the legal profession.

AMST 292.001 Historical Seminar in American Studies

Instructor: Dr. Seth Kotch

TR 11:00-12:15 Murphy 204

Historical Seminar in American Studies: Crime and Punishment uses a variety of sources to explore Americans'

experiences with crime and punishment from the strict laws of the New England Puritans to the newly urgent

conversation about policing in minority communities. Students will use archival material, historical

scholarship, images, film, art, and other sources to encounter rebels, revolutionaries, duelists, brawlers,

gangsters, hobos, yeggmen, cops, robbers, protestors, wardens, mobs, moonshiners, chain gangs, judges,

juries, executioners, and others with an aim to understand American history and culture through the lens of

bad behavior and responses to it.

AMST 365.001 Women and Detective Fiction: From Miss Violet Strange to Veronica Mars

Instructor: Dr. Michelle Robinson

MWF 10:10-11:00 Greenlaw 305

Traces the origins of detective fiction and major developments in the history of the genre with a focus on

women authors and protagonists. Examines literary texts including fiction and film, with close attention to

historical and social contexts and to theoretical arguments relating to popular fiction, genre studies, and

gender.

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AMST 392.001 Radical Communities in Twentieth Century

Instructor: Dr. Michelle Robinson

MWF 12:20-1:10 Murhpy 204

The goal of this course is to examine some of the radical developments in American religious history from the

turn of the twentieth century to the present. We will consider how the language, ideas, and cultural products

of religious outsiders responded to and influenced mainstream ideas about what American communities could

(and should) look like in terms of gender, race, economics, and faith-based practices. We will closely examine

primary documents (sermons, short stories, documentary films, newspaper articles) by believers and their

critics, secondary sources by historians, and documentary films, in order to think about the challenges these

religious outsiders posed to religious, social, and political institutions in the United States. Our studies may

include the Ghost Dance Religion, Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science, early Pentecostalism, the Catholic

Worker Movement, Nation of Islam, Jim Jones’s Peoples Temple and other movements.

AMST 486.001 Shalom Y’all: The Jewish Experience (JWST 486)

Instructor: Dr. Marcie Ferris

MWF 10:10-11:00 Caldwell 105

This course explores ethnicity in the South and focuses on the experience of Jewish southerners. Since the

arrival of Sephardic Jews in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, southern Jews have blended

their regional identity as Jews and as Southerners. This course explores the “braided identity” of Jews in the

South—their relationships with white and black Gentile southerners, their loyalty to the South as a region, and

their embrace of southern culture through foodways, language, religious observance, and other expressive

forms of culture. The course traces the history of Jewish southerners from the colonial era to the present,

using film, museum exhibits, literature, and material culture as resources. Throughout the course we consider

the question of southern Jewish distinctiveness. Is southern Jewish culture different from Jewish culture in

other regions of the country, and if so, why? Is region a significant factor in American Jewish identity?

Students will explore these issues through class discussion and writing assignments.

This course is cross-listed with JWST 486

AMST 489.001 Writing Material Culture

Instructor: Dr. Bernie Herman

T 3:35-6:25 Center for the Study of the American South –The Love House 410 E. Franklin Street

Writing material Culture is a reading seminar that examines multiple perspectives that shape the

understanding and interpretation of objects and images of all sorts. Our readings explore the ways in which

material culture can be written and the application of an array of approaches for analysis and writing. Our

readings, however, do not superintend an overview of a field as diverse as its subject matter, but offer

examples of strategies that can be combined and applied to the scrutiny of things. Consider each of our

readings as a critical tool that has a place in an analytical toolbox and recognize that you will constantly add to

your stock of tools. Together, we work on an online occasional, student-edited journal entitled Southern

Things. Each person chooses a "Southern" object and explores its narrative richness over the course of the

semester leading to publication. For an example, see volume 1 from Spring

013 http://southernthings.web.unc.edu.

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AMST 510.001 Indian Law and Policy

Instructor: Dr. Keith Richotte

TR 9:30-10:45 New East 301

This class will engage in an in-depth study of the federal government’s legal and political interactions with

tribal nations and peoples from the founding through the present day. Often couched as, the “Indian

problem,” this class examines how the federal government has sought to solve the “problem” through

treaties, legislation, litigation, and other political and legal means. By the end of the course, students will have

a thorough understanding of the major policy eras and movements in the field of federal Indian law, the major

pieces of legislation that have defined the field, and the major court cases that have shaped the law, as well as

other political and legal efforts that have defined the relationship between the federal government, the

states, and tribal nations and peoples.

AMST 691H Senior Honors Thesis (ASIA 691H)

Instructor: Dr. Morgan Pietelka

R 6:00-9:00 New West 103

This course is cross listed with Asia 691H. AMST 691H is a research and methods course designed to help

senior Asian Studies and American Studies majors research and write an honors thesis. Our objectives are to

review some major issues in Asian and American Studies and interdisciplinary area studies in general,

investigate how each student’s research topic fits into these larger debates, review the writing conventions of

the appropriate discipline and field, and help students produce innovative, insightful, and articulate research

essays. EE.

Students who complete and successfully defend an honors thesis will graduate with honors. Asian Studies students will also participate in the senior colloquium in the spring, where each student will give a short presentation summarizing their thesis research. Completed theses will be entered into the Carolina Digital Repository.

Students writing an honors thesis will be enrolled in AMST 691H/ASIA 691H by the department once their

thesis applications have been approved

AMST 700.001 The History and Practices of American Studies

Instructor: Staff

W 3:35-6:15 TBA

The History and Practices of American Studies will acquaint students with American Studies as an

interdisciplinary field. A close look at the emergence of the field of American Studies in the 1940s and 1950s

will be followed by considering its expansion into new areas and the self-reflexive evaluation of the field.

Reading will consist of journal articles and books; weekly reflection papers will take the place of a concluding

seminar paper. Visiting faculty members will share insights into new work in fields including American Indian

and Indigenous Studies, Southern Studies, Foodways, Visual Culture, Popular Culture, Music, Ethnography, and

other areas. Graduate students from American Studies are required to take this course in their first semester,

and students from other disciplines are especially invited to join in the conversation.

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AMST 850.001 Digital Humanities Practicum

Instructor: Dr. Robert Allen

M 3:35-6:25 Greenlaw 431

This course approaches digital humanities through practical experience in a lab setting and seminar-style

reflection upon and discussion of that experience. Administered through the Department of American

Studies, the Digital Innovation Lab shares with it a commitment to public humanities that integrates

community engagement, digital technologies, and inter-disciplinary inquiry; to preparing graduate students to

work effectively in academic and non-academic settings; and to realizing synergies across all areas of academic

practice: research, engaged scholarship, graduate training, and student learning. We also benefit from and

share the department’s emphasis on place: the local, the regional, the national, and the trans-national, rooted

in our role as public research university supported by the citizens of North Carolina. Participants will work

with Will Bosley, General Manager, and other staff of the DIL to contribute to ongoing DIL project work and to

augment and expand published projects. In addition to exploring and evaluating a range of digital humanities

tools, they will learn to use DH Press to design and implement digital humanities projects and explore

different ways of visualizing digital humanities data for academic and non-academic audiences. They will gain

valuable experience in developing effective work practices and hone project management and

communication/presentation skills of particular relevance to interdisciplinary, collaborative, public-facing

digital humanities practice. This course counts toward the UNC-CH graduate certificate in digital humanities.

Participants should plan to spend at least one additional hour each week in the lab during business hours

working on small-group projects. Enrollment is limited and is by permission of the instructor. Expressions of

interest should be sent to Professor Robert Allen: rallen@email.unc.edu

AMST 902.001 Ph.D Research Seminar

Instructor: Dr. Patricia Sawin

W 3:30-6:20 Phillips 301

Over the course of the semester each student, in consultation with the professor teaching AMST 902 and

his/her advisory committee, will prepare his or her professional portfolio and dissertation proposal. Students

will workshop drafts to assist each other in preparing the most effective portfolios and proposals. The course

will also involve readings and guest speakers to explore approaches to dissertation research and writing;

pedagogy and syllabus design; exhibit design; publishing; and other issues especially relevant to the career

goals of the students in each cohort.

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CHEROKEE

CHER 101 The Cherokee-Speaking World

Instructor: Dr. Ben Frey

Day: MWF Time: 2:30-3:20 Classroom: Murray G205

01 The Cherokee-Speaking World: "Hadolegwa Tsawonihisdi'i" (3). This course presumes no knowledge of

Cherokee. Students are introduced to basic vocabulary oriented around classroom objects, daily routines,

descriptions of people and objects, and simple narration in the present time. By the end of the course,

students will be able to introduce themselves and others, identify and describe objects and people, discuss on-

going and daily activities, follow simple directions, comprehend and repeat simple narratives, and participate

in rudimentary discussion of themselves and others. This course will introduce the use of the Cherokee

syllabary and will be held in the Cherokee language. Texts and class materials will be provided digitally.

FOLKLORE

FOLK 77.001 FYS: Poetic Roots of Hip-Hop

TR 11:00-12:15 Wilson 217

“There ain’t nothing new about rapping.” That’s what elders from a host of African American communities

declared when hip hop first exploded onto the scene. This “new” form, they claimed, was just a skilled re-

working of poetic forms that had been around for generations. Each elder seemed to point to a different

form—some to the wordplay of rhyming radio deejays, others to the bawdy flow of streetcorner poets, still

others to the rhymed storytelling of sanctified singers. And each was right; elegant rhyming has indeed

marked African American talk for generations. Yet because most such rhyming was spoken, its history remains

hidden. In this seminar, we’ll explore this lost history, searching the historical record to uncover hidden

heritages of African American eloquence, rhymed storytelling, and sharp social critique. Our goal is nothing

short of writing the prehistory of hip hop, by revealing the everyday poetries that, for generations, have

defined what it means to be African American. Towards this end, students will meet with oral poets and hip

hop emcees, and also conduct original archival research, leading to team-based class presentations and

individual papers. Throughout the semester, students will also attend a range of poetic events, thus honing

their skills at hearing and appreciating the eloquence that surrounds us all.

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FOLK 202.001 Intro to Folklore (Anth/Engl 202)

Instructor: Staff

MW 9:05-9:55 Gardner 08

Recitation Sections: #601 (R 3:30-4:20); #602 (R 5:00-5:50); #603 (F 10:10-11:00); #604 (F 12:20-1:10)

Folklorists seek to understand how people interpret and make sense of the world. The study of folklore asks

how, in a world flooded with commercial and highly refined cultural products, people use those particular

materials that they themselves create and re-shape in order to express who they are, where they belong, and

what they value. In this course we will look at diverse forms (or “genres”) of folklore, including song,

architecture, legend, and food. We will consider how vernacular expressive culture is learned, what it does for

people, and why these processes and products persist through time and space. Students will be introduced to

the discipline of Folklore’s central research methodology, ethnography, and have an opportunity to practice

that approach in individual and group research projects.

This course is cross-listed with ENGL/ANTH 202.

Note: Students enrolling in FOLK 202-001 are also required to enroll in one recitation section numbered FOLK

202-601 through FOLK 202-604.

FOLK 490.001 Special Topics: Traditions in Transition: Jewish Folklore and Ethnography

Instructor: Dr. Gabrielle Berlinger

W 3:30-6:20 Saunders 204

This course will be cross-listed with JWST (#tbd)

This course introduces students to the variety of folkloristic expression in Jewish American communities today, as well as

to the ethnographic documentation of such expression. We will examine Jewish storytelling, humor, ritual, custom,

belief, dress, and food, among other genres of folklore, using the history of Jewish folklore and ethnology to provide

context for their current forms. Drawing upon ethnographic studies, literary sources, historical documents, films, and

field trips, we will discuss what makes these forms of vernacular expression Jewish, how source communities interpret

them, and how ethnographers document them, to engage such issues as representation, identity, memory, and

tradition. Students will learn ethnographic skills to conduct a final community-based fieldwork project. Multimedia

components are welcome.

FOLK 562H Oral History/Performance

Instructor: Dr. Della Pollack

TR 11:15-12:05 Murphy 111

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FOLK 571.001 Southern Music (Hist 571)

Instructor: Dr. William Ferris

TR 8:00-9:15 Center for the Study of the American South - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

THE LOVE HOUSE - 410 East Franklin Street, CB # 9127 -Chapel Hill, NC 27599-9127

This course explores the music of the American South and considers how this music serves as a window on the

region¹s history and culture. We will first consider the South and how the region¹s distinctive sense of place

defines music in each generation. From the Mississippi Delta to Harlan County, Kentucky, from small farms to

urban neighborhoods, from the region itself to more distant worlds of the southern diaspora, southern music

chronicles places and the people who live within them.

Our course covers a vast span of southern music and its roots, from ballads to hip hop, with numerous stops

and side-trips along the way. We will examine the differences between bluegrass and country, zydeco and

Cajun, and black and white gospel. We will also study the influences of southern music on American classical

music, art, dance, literature, and food. The class also includes guest speakers and performers. We will listen

to field recordings were made by collectors like Alan Lomax and will consider the impact of these recordings

on contemporary music. We will also view documentary films on southern music and will discuss how these

films enrich our understanding of each musical tradition.

FOLK 790.001 Public Folklore

Instructor: Dr. Glen Hinson

TR 2:00-3:15 Center for the Study of the American South - University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

THE LOVE HOUSE - 410 East Franklin Street, CB # 9127 -Chapel Hill, NC 27599-9127

This graduate seminar addresses the world of public folklore, exploring theory and praxis in public sector

cultural work. Focusing on the ways that cultural workers (folklorists and others) bring their understandings

to broader publics, and the ways that we can convey these understandings in full collaboration with the

communities being represented, this course explores broad issues of representation, cultural politics, touristic

display, and culturally-based economic development. While so doing, it remains eminently pragmatic,

drawing participants into conversation with public folklorists, inviting them to attend (and assess) public

folklore events, and charting the ways that public cultural outreach translates in the 21st century. At the

seminar’s close, each participant will have written a fundable proposal for a public folklore project.

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FOLK 850.001 Approaches to Folklore Theory

Instructor: Dr. Patricia Sawin

T 3:30-6:30 Greenlaw 526A Folklore is not a thing, let alone a single, determinate object. It is, rather, a category of cultural analysis and a way of

looking at our cultural world. It was developed as part of the project of European Modernity and had significantly

different definitions and impacts in succeeding eras. Indeed, the “problem” with folklore (in the sense of both a

practical challenge and a fascinating intellectual question) is that folklore is taken to stand for so many different partially

overlapping or even contradictory objects. What, then, might it mean or entail to study folklore in the 21st century? This

graduate seminar is designed to do three things. First, the readings provide one relatively systematic overview of many

of the major issues and perspectives that have characterized the study of folklore over the past two centuries and more.

Second, written work will require students to apply selected theories to bodies of data in order to understand the

continuous process whereby theory illuminates data and data inform new theory. Third and perhaps most importantly,

our discussion is intended to model a way of thinking historically about the discipline, recognizing how definitions of the

folk and folklore and consequent ideas about the social role of folklore and what questions one might productively ask

of such material have emerged from the political and social developments of various periods. Students’ challenge will be

to use this perspective to develop a form of folklore study that responds progressively to the realities of the global

culture in which we now operate.