Spring 2020 Course
SOST 101 – TTh 10:15-11:10AM
The Literary South
Instructor: Dr. Matthew Simmons
CAROLINA CORE AIU CREDIT
This course will introduce students to important literary texts of the American South,
ranging from European contact through the 21st century. We will also emphasize the
interplay of Southern literary output with and in reaction to important historical
and political trends. Within the Carolina Core, this course meets the Aesthetic and
Interpretative Understanding learning outcome in that students will be able to interpret
the literature of the American South, which will help them understand the human condition
as it is expressed through literary output.
SOST 301– MW 2:20-3:35PM
Intro to Southern Studies: 1580-1900
Instructor: Dr. Jennifer Gunter
This course explores the history and culture of the American South from the colonial
period to the advent of the Jim Crow racial hierarchy. Using studies that focus on
the American South produced by scholars representing a variety of academic disciplines,
this course seeks to unpack the fundamental phenomena that shaped the region and facilitated
its “uniqueness.” In particular, this course raises questions about the intellectual,
cultural, social, political, and economic forces that distinguished the region from
other parts of the nation. Paying close attention to overlapping and interrelated
social constructs, this course looks to art, religion, folklore, literature, and historical
narratives and events in order to uncover the origins of “the South” that dominates
the American imagination.
SOST 302 – TTh 1:15-2:30PM
Intro to Southern Studies: The 20th Century
CAROLINA CORE GLD/GHS CREDIT
Instructor: Dr. Matthew Simmons
This course will examine the ideas, political movements, economics, and people that
shaped the South in the 20th century, chiefly through reading history, memoir, and
fiction. Rather than strictly covering the years 1900-1999, this course will begin
with the end of Reconstruction—the primary event that shaped the development of the
South in the 20th century—and will conclude roughly with the presidency of Jimmy Carter
(himself a Southerner). The late 1970s/early 1980s marked the beginning of a radical
shift in the South’s demographics, politics, economics, and settlement patterns which
resulted in a South very different from that of the preceding decades; this ‘contemporary
South’ is covered in SOST305 (which I’m teaching this summer and next fall, if you’re
interested).
SOST 298– TTh 4:25-5:40PM
Topics in Southern Studies/Southern Black Folklore
Instructor: Dr. Nancy Tolson
SOST 500 – TTh 2:50-4:05PM
Southern Discomfort: Public Health and the American South
Instructor: Dr. Mindy Spencer
The American South possesses a unique health and disease profile that has contributed
to the idea of Southern distinctiveness. Throughout history, the South has experienced
regional disparities that have largely gone unresolved, even with the public health
revolution. The purpose of this 3-credit course is to investigate these topics through
lecture, film, and guided readings. Each interdisciplinary lecture will cover a different
aspect of health in the South, ranging from an examination of the endemic diseases
of the antebellum period to the current HIV/AIDS crisis. We will also spend time discussing
the ethical implications of the pellagra and
Tuskegee experiments and the lasting impact these experiments had on health-related
research.