SWCC

This year’s theme, “A Sense of Place…and Displacement” will focus on how we, as land-dwellers, relate to our environment, what geographic and related economic forces impact our relationship with our place of living and working (i.e., hunger for land vs. the love of place) and, lastly, how we are formed and changed over the years by our sense and pride of place or the loss of a place that we have come to love.

This seminar course is facilitated by professors Ellen Elmes in the fall and April Hess in the spring, with the added support of professors Elizabeth Smith and Greg Horn during both semesters. The seminar is based on informal weekly dialogue between teachers and students. During fall semester, participants will utilize the PBS documentary series, “Appalachia: A History of Mountains & People” to help learners consider the struggles and successes, the issues, the personal perspectives, and the misconceptions in regard to the “sense of place” theme. Topics of discussion will include historical developments of living in the Appalachian Mountains, economic forces that have determined the use, loss, ownership, stewardship and destruction of mountains, and contemporary perceptions and challenges of living harmoniously in Appalachia today.

Day trips will be made during the semester to learn the perspectives of both mining company owners who have provided jobs for workers in mountain top removal, and community members who have experienced the impact of mountain top removal practices in their region.

Although it is not a requirement to take both the first and second semesters of the seminar course, the spring semester always continues and enhances the same umbrella theme of the fall with two added features. One feature for spring 2010, will be to move from focusing on the experience of others to personalizing the sense of place theme. The queries of second semester will include “What is your personal experience of ‘homeplace’?”… “What is your relationship, if any, with the land where you are born and/or where you currently dwell?”… “Do you feel any responsibility for the land on which you live and work or for the environment at large?”

The other added focus of the second semester is the four-to-five-day trip during spring break to a place where firsthand experience of the seminar theme can be gained. The educational travel plans for spring 2010 include a visit to the Old Slave Mart of Charleston, South Carolina, to learn of the displacement experience of slaves at the auction block and beyond.