Appalachian Studies 650

APST 650: Appalachian Cultural Competency for Professionals

Prerequisite: None

Credit Hours: 3

With a focus on several sub-regions of Appalachia, students will gain a historical understanding of how local color writers, stereotypes, natural resource extraction, and political economics in these areas have influenced their current conditions. Students will be exposed to an overview of the history of the Appalachian Region from its earlist European explorers and their interaction with Native Americans to its settlement by various ethnic groups. There will be an emphasis on events in the late 19th century up to the latter 20th and early 21st centuries and how these events have shaped the formation of the Appalachian region, residents' identities, and the creation and continual evolution of a formal Appalachian Studies discipline that began in the 1960s.

Detailed Description of Course

With a focus on several sub-regions of Appalachia please refer to this Appalachian Regional Commission map (http://www.arc.gov/research/MapsofAppalachia.asp?MAP_ID=31), students will gain a historical understanding of how local color writers, stereotypes, natural resource extraction, and political economics in these areas have influenced their current conditions. Students will be exposed to an overview of the history of the Appalachian Region from its earlist European explorers and their interaction with Native Americans to its settlements by various ethinc groups. There will be an emphasis on events in the late 19th century up to the latter 20th and early 21st centuries and how these events have shaped the formation of the Appalachian region, residents' identities, and the creation and continual evolution of a formal Appalachian Studies discipline that began in the 1960s. Students will analyze the impacts of natural resource extraction and so-called forms of development on communities and specifically how law and policy related to such activities have determined, either advertently or inadvertently, Appalachian economics. Students will study the effects of single-industry economies on the health, educational, social, and cultural institutions in communities. They will identify other factors, whether local, regional, national, and/or international, that have influenced the region's political economy. Moreover, students will study grassroots movements and community development efforts that have responded to or are currently responding to the politics that shape the economies and how such movements work to eradicate political disenfranchisement among communtiy members combatting social and environmental injustices.

Detailed Description of Conduct of Course

The course will generally be offered online, asychronously. We will use Wikispaces for the online discussion platform because it is more intuitive and easier to follow threaded discussions than D2L. Students are generally expected to post substantive content multiple times/week related to the assigned readings and others' comments/questions. The instructor will typically post prompts or questions to begin the online discussions. Students will participate in assignments and acitvities, including but not limited to writing-to-learn activities and case studies.

Goals and Objectives of this Course

Students will be able to:
1) Identify historical events unique to Appalachia
2) Explain how these unique historical events have formed the region's political economy
3) Explain how these unique historical events have shaped residents' cultural identities
4) Explain how the region's image has been molded by literary treatments over the course of more than a century
5) Identify Appalachian stereotypes
6) Explain how Appalachian stereotypes have served various individuals, groups, industries, and businesses at the expense of the residents and environment, including social, cultural, and political implications
7) Explain environmental impacts in the region
8) Identify grassroots efforts to combat various exploitations and oppressions

Assessment Measures

May include the following but are not limited to these:

Online discussion contributions, reading logs, final scholarly paper, final exam.

Other Course Information

None

Review and Approval

December 11, 2016