Appalachia in the Classroom

Theresa L. Burriss is the Chair of Appalachian Studies and Director of the Appalachian Regional & Rural Studies Center at Radford University, Virginia. She is the contributing senior editor of Pluck! The Journal of Affrilachian Arts & Culture, and her publications on the Affrilachians have appeared in the journals Appalachian Heritage and Iron Mountain Review, as well as in the books An American Vein: Critical Readings in Appalachian Literature and Encyclopedia of African American Literature.Patricia M. Gantt is Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of English at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.  She is the editor of the five-volume Student's Encyclopedia of Great American Writers. Her work on Appalachian writers has appeared in Iron Mountain Review, An American Vein: Critical Readings in Appalachian Literature, Her Words: Diverse Voices in Contemporary Appalachian Women's Poetry, and Breaking Boundaries: New Perspectives on Regional Writing.

• * Dedication and Acknowledgments * Introduction * Part One: Creative Teaching of Appalachian History * One. Intro to Appalachian Studies: Navigating Myths of Appalachian Exceptionalism Emily Satterwhite * Two. Listening to Black Appalachian Laundrywomen: Teaching with Photographs, Letters, Diaries, and Lost Voices Elizabeth S. D. Engelhardt * Three. The Southern Highlands according to Hollywood: Teaching Appalachian History through Film John C. Inscoe * Part Two: Appalachian Literature and Folktales in and out of the Classroom * Four. Building Bridges with Ron Rash's The World Made Straight: Results from One University and High School Partnership Erica Abrams Locklear * Five. The Feast Hall, the Arsenal, and the Mirror: Teaching Literature to Students at Risk Jeff Mann * Six. I Hear Appalachia Singing: Teaching Appalachian Literature in a General Education American Literature Course Linda Tate * Seven. "Way Back Yonder" but Not So Far Away: Teaching Appalachian Folktales Tina L. Hanlon * Part Three: The Novel in Appalachia * Eight. Teaching Modern Appalachia in Wilma Dykeman's The Far Family Patricia M. Gantt * Nine. Fred Chappell's I Am One of You Forever as a Subject for Literary Analysis and an Alternative Image of Mid-Twentieth-Century Appalachia Ricky L. Cox * Ten. Startling Morals: Teaching Ecofiction with Barbara Kingsolver's Prodigal Summer Felicia Mitchell * Part Four: Appalachian Poetry and Prose * Eleven. Appalachian Poetry: A Field Guide for Teachers R. Parks Lanier Jr. * Twelve. From Harlem Home to Affrilachia: Teaching the Literary Journey Theresa L. Burriss * Thirteen. Teaching the Poetry and Prose of Marilou Awiakta grace Toney Edwards * Fourteen. Toward "Crystal-Tight Arrays": Teaching the Evolving Art of Robert Morgan's Poetry Robert M. West * Contributors * Index

"Designed to serve as a pedagogical tool for instructors at postsecondary institutions, this book provides how-to strategies for teaching the literature and culture of Appalachia to students who may or may not live in the area…. Summing Up: Highly recommended." (Choice) "This volume does many things well. Essays in this work serve as primers on Appalachian history, on folklore and the oral tradition, on ecocriticism, and on service-learning." "The fourteen essays in this fine new collection remind us that 'teaching the region' can be about far more than understanding the history, circumstances, and cultural production of a particular set of counties in the eastern United States. … Its broadest value… may be as a meditation on the nature of teaching and learning, and in particular, the teaching of critical thinking and the subversion of unexamined notions of how the world is made." (Journal of Appalachian Studies) "In this book, (Burriss and Gantt) have engaged some of the region's foremost post-secondary teachers to share their best ideas for teaching about the region. For example, John C. Inscoe on teaching history, Erica Abrams Locklear and Jeff Mann on teaching literature, Ricky L. Cox on teaching the novel, and Grace Edwards on teaching poetry." (Appalachian Heritage)