Report on the Cultural Diversity of the American South Institute

The Department of Geography at the University of Tennessee teamed with the Tennessee Geographic Alliance to host a four-week summer institute on the Cultural Diversity of the American South from 20 June though 16 July 2004. The institute was funded by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) with additional funding for materials provided by the National Geographic Society Education Foundation. This was the second time in three years the NEH funded this institute with the Department and the Alliance.

The Cultural Diversity of the American South institute was designated a National Endowment for the Humanities "We the People" project and was supported in part by funds the agency had set aside for this special initiative. The "We the People" initiative strives to encourage and strengthen the teaching, study, and understanding of American history and culture by supporting projects that explore significant events and themes in our nation's history and culture and that advance knowledge of the principles that define America.

Twenty-five K-12 teachers from across the United States were selected by a committee of institute faculty based on applications that included essays, resumes, and letters of recommendation. Selected participants came from all corners of the lower forty-eight states including Long Beach, California; Seattle, Washington; Dover, Delaware; and Bonita Springs, Florida. Tennessee was well represented with four participants from across the state.

The principal objectives of the four-week institute were: (1) to provide the teachers with fresh opportunities to study, to see first-hand, and to experience the increasingly complex and diverse American South; (2) to demonstrate the ways in which geography is related to and draws from other disciplines in the humanities and the social sciences; and (3) to demonstrate how teachers can employ geographical methods to analyze and interpret data and access a rich variety of source materials using primary materials and computers. The daily format of the program varied, but was based on a mixture of lecture, interactive classroom activities, laboratory exercises, map and graph activities, computer-based activities, movies, and a healthy dose of fieldtrips.

Dr. Charles Aiken, Professor of Geography at the University of Tennessee and co-director of the institute, developed the curriculum and served as a primary lecturer. He incorporated a number of guest lecturers and discussion leaders from across the University of Tennessee including professors from Geography, English, Anthropology, History, Earth and Planetary Sciences, and Political Science as well as the College of Law. Dr. Bobby Wilson, Professor of Geography at the University of Alabama, kindly agreed to participate by lecturing on The Civil Rights Movement in the South. Other guest lectures included a local newspaper columnist/historian and a local musician. Major topics covered in the curriculum included The South as a Realm; The Two Souths: Present/Past, Upland South/Lowland South, Rural South/Urban South; A Focus on the Historical and Geographical Differences within the South; A Focus on Southern Culture and Economy; Cultural Diversity of the South in Literature; and The Culture of the Modern South.

Kurt Butefish, Coordinator of the Tennessee Geographic Alliance and co-director of the institute, was responsible for the administrative tasks and day-to-day operations of the program. His job was made manageable by assistance from geography graduate student Claire Jamieson, who was on call 24-7 and capably met every need of faculty members and participants.

Dr. John Rehder, Professor of Geography at the University of Tennessee, served as a primary lecturer and coordinated the seven fieldtrips which included a one-day trip Landform and Cultural Regions of Appalachia-From the Blue Ridge to the Nashville Basin with trip-leader Harry Moore, author of A Geologic Trip Across Tennessee by Interstate 40; a one-day trip to Cumberland Gap National Historic Park; a visit to the Highlander Center, where many civil rights and social justice movements got their start; and a three-day trip Upland South and Lowland South-Rural South and Urban South that included stops in northern Georgia mill towns and plantations, and overnight stays in Athens and Atlanta, Georgia. In Atlanta, the group took an...