I had my first day of class for my "American Regionalism" class, and it was extremely interesting.
I had a whole lecture prepared around theoretical approaches to the question of region and of regionalismin American history and American studies (don't worry, I won't detain you here with it) and then it turns out that the students are utterly unaware of the geography and regional cultures of the US. Absolutely no idea in what ways Minnesota might be different than Mississippi or NYC from Hell-fer-Sartin (or even where they both are relative to each other). They do not have any association for concepts like "red state" "hillbilly" "Peoria" "New Jersey" or even "Chittlin Cookin' Time in Cheatum County," or any other standard conceptions Americans maintain. It isn't a surprise, of course, but for some reason I didn't fully anticipate the depth of it.
This makes my class significantly more interesting and challenging to teach. It allows me to skip ahead of the various mythology puncturing-- which is something that is essential when teaching American students-- but it also means that the basic context for the whole approach to understanding regions in the US is radically different. It means questioning the whole concept of regional distinctiveness and identity. And so on.
We are starting out talking about the Midwest, of course, it being the core and wellspring and a nether region of the soul. But the bulk of the semester is focused on the South and on Southern culture. Many things to explore--everything from contecting Appalachia to world systems theory to snake handling to the African origins of the old time mountain banjo.
Speaking of Appalachia, this "Appalachia" brand mountain bike was parked at Sogang when I arrived today.
I had a whole lecture prepared around theoretical approaches to the question of region and of regionalismin American history and American studies (don't worry, I won't detain you here with it) and then it turns out that the students are utterly unaware of the geography and regional cultures of the US. Absolutely no idea in what ways Minnesota might be different than Mississippi or NYC from Hell-fer-Sartin (or even where they both are relative to each other). They do not have any association for concepts like "red state" "hillbilly" "Peoria" "New Jersey" or even "Chittlin Cookin' Time in Cheatum County," or any other standard conceptions Americans maintain. It isn't a surprise, of course, but for some reason I didn't fully anticipate the depth of it.
This makes my class significantly more interesting and challenging to teach. It allows me to skip ahead of the various mythology puncturing-- which is something that is essential when teaching American students-- but it also means that the basic context for the whole approach to understanding regions in the US is radically different. It means questioning the whole concept of regional distinctiveness and identity. And so on.
We are starting out talking about the Midwest, of course, it being the core and wellspring and a nether region of the soul. But the bulk of the semester is focused on the South and on Southern culture. Many things to explore--everything from contecting Appalachia to world systems theory to snake handling to the African origins of the old time mountain banjo.
Speaking of Appalachia, this "Appalachia" brand mountain bike was parked at Sogang when I arrived today.
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