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This course’s title conveys at least two significant meanings: 1) people who self-identify as Appalachian people are identifying as Appalachian to distinguish themselves from others, and 2) those who present Appalachian people to the broader public through various media are identifying Appalachian society as exceptional in some way. We will analyze many of the ways people understand “Appalachian exceptionalism” by discussing the importance of place to identity formation, scrutinizing popular representations of mountaineers, examining the role of identity in the politics of regional development, and studying the sociological and historical roots for Appalachia’s image as “the other America.”

Documenting Appalachia is a semester-long exploration of feature films and documentaries about the southern mountains. You will watch movies over the course of this class, but you will also read books, articles, and historical documents related to filmmaking in the mountains. In addition, you get to go on a weekend-long field trip to Whitesburg, Kentucky, where you’ll participate in a service project for Appalshop — an organization that uses media to provide Appalachian people with the resources and expertise to tell their stories to a broad audience. Finally, you’ll work with a small group to conceptualize, design, storyboard, and film your own documentary about some element of Appalachia. These films will be shown at a year-end film festival that will be open to the entire campus community.

What’s a gandy dancer? Which side are you on? And why did Gastonia Gallop? Such questions beg an examination of the ways work and music are bound together in modern Appalachian culture, and this course examines those connections while investigating intersections of musical and social history in this region. You’ll focus on three main themes: work music, music about work, and music as work. The entire class also completes service-learning components at area music events.