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这门课程的标题至少传达了两个重要的含义:1)自我认同为阿巴拉契亚人的人认同为阿巴拉契亚人是为了将自己与他人区分开来;2)那些通过各种媒体向更广泛的公众介绍阿巴拉契亚人的人在某种程度上认同阿巴拉契亚社会是特殊的。我们将分析人们理解“阿巴拉契亚例外论”的许多方式，通过讨论地方对身份形成的重要性，仔细研究登山运动员的流行代表，研究身份在区域发展的政治中的作用，以及研究阿巴拉契亚作为“另一个美国”形象的社会学和历史根源。

Filming 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 You will watch movies over the course of this class, but you will also read books, articles, and historical documents related to filmmaking in the mountains.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.