A new, free, six-week online course that explores the stories, music and art of the American South will be offered Oct. 13 to Nov. 28. (Watch an introductory video about the class.)
The massive online open course, or MOOC, has been developed and is being taught by UNC’s William Ferris, Joel R. Williamson Eminent Professor of History and senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South.
“The American South: Its Stories, Music and Art” considers how these things serve as a window on the region’s history and culture. Participants will see how the region’s distinctive sense of place defines music and literature in each generation. From small farms to urban neighborhoods, from the region itself to more distant worlds of the southern diaspora — stories, music, and art chronicle places and the people who live within them.
A native of Vicksburg, Miss., Ferris was the founding director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, where he taught for 18 years.
The former chairman of the National Endowment for the Humanities, Ferris has conducted thousands of interviews with musicians ranging from the famous (B.B. King) to the unrecognized (Parchman Penitentiary inmates working in the fields). He has written or edited 10 books and created 15 documentary films. He co-edited the massive “Encyclopedia of Southern Culture” (UNC Press, 1989), which was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. His most recent book “The Storied South: Voices of Writers and Artists” (2013), was published by the University of North Carolina Press.
Ferris’ films include “Mississippi Blues” (1983), which was featured at the Cannes Film Festival. He has produced numerous sound recordings and hosted “Highway 61,” a weekly blues program on Mississippi Public Radio for nearly a decade. He also has published his own poetry and short stories.
To sign up for the course, visit https://www.coursera.org/course/south.
