Applications are being accepted for Shepherd University’s National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Summer Seminar for Teachers scheduled from July 7-27. The seminar, “Voices from the Misty Mountains,” will serve to enlighten and engage participants in the Appalachian writers, artists, and artisans of the past several decades.
During the seminar, participants will take part in an Appalachian storytelling workshop led by award-winning storyteller Adam Booth; explore the music important to the region with Appalachian Heritage Festival Director Rachael Meads; discover Appalachian literature with Dr. Sylvia Bailey Shurbutt, 2006 West Virginia Professor of the Year; take an Appalachian road trip to the Culture Center in Charleston, the Hawks Nest Industrial Disaster site at Hawks Nest State Park, and the Great Gorge Bridge; and interact with the producer, directors, and actors of the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF), including a stage reading of “Long Time Traveling,” a play by Appalachian writer Silas House, who was Shepherd’s Appalachian writer-in-residence in 2009. The CATF summer series is known for its cutting-edge theater that challenges public prejudice, stereotyping, issues of class and racial intolerance, and the status quo — all ideas explored through the literature, music, and storytelling presented in this NEH Summer Seminar for teachers.
For more information and application materials, visit www.shepherd.edu/ahwirweb/neh/, or contact the NEH Seminar Project Director Dr. Shurbutt at sshurbut@shepherd.edu.
