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Sociology Student Project Spring Break 2009
Review the information below to learn more, or click to view the slideshow.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park:
Sociology and Honors students enrolled in "Imagining Appalachia" spent two full days hiking in and exploring the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Course readings provided them with an overview of the establishment of the Park and its role in generating tourism in the region.
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Overlooking Mountain Top Removal:
Outspoken against the practice of Mountain Top Removal, former coal miner Larry Gibson gives students a view of his property. Once situated on one of the mountain's lower elevations, Gibson's land now sits on the terrain's highest point.
Cherokee Artist:
Cherokee artist and storyteller Davy Arch shows students how traditional Cherokee artwork reflects their people's strong storytelling tradition.
Pottery Workshop:
Sociology students try their hand at creating traditional Cherokee stamped pottery in a workshop hosted by the Museum of the Cherokee Indian in Cherokee, North Carolina. Students learned how the practice was revived in recent years through the work of dedicated tradition bearers and cultural specialists.
Native American Dance:
FSU student Patrick Abrams learns the Grasshopper Dance from Cherokee Tradition Bearer Bo Taylor. Deeply attached to his culture, Taylor has become an ambassador for Cherokee traditions. In addition to being a prize winning dancer, he has worked hard to learn the Cherokee language and offers full immersion language classes to others.
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Prepping Mountain City Traditional Arts:
Sociology and Honors students enrolled in "Imagining Appalachia" clean the shop space in preparation for the opening of Mountain City Traditional Arts. Students worked through the semester to prepare the shop, which opened on May 30, 2009.
Relaxing in the water:
Sociology students take a moment to cool themselves off after hiking the five miles to Abrams Falls in the Cades Cove area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
In the Mountains of West Virginia: FSU students stand with MTR activist Larry Gibson in front of his West Virginia home. An inspirational figure, Gibson, a former coal miner and lifelong WV resident, Gibson has had dogs killed, solar panels destroyed, and his truck run off the road by those seeking to intimidate him into stopping his activism.
State Line Image:
Students stop to take in the view at the Newfound Gap in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The trip provided them an opportunity to experience first hand some of the places they'd read about in their course materials.
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