North Carolina Humanities Council

Road Scholars Speakers Bureau

The North Carolina Humanities Council has been offering speakers, free of charge, to public audiences since 1990. All presentations are grounded in the humanities.

This year's catalog of Road Scholars includes 59 speakers whose lectures focus on issues of history, literature, philosophy, ethics, religious studies, linguistics, jurisprudence, history and criticism of the arts, sociology, and certain aspects of social science.

This new listing of speakers brings to the public a variety of presentations that explore the nuances of identity and community. Some of them start in North Carolina, revisiting rural farm life, regional folklore, the dynamics of ethnic populations throughout the state, and the history of local traditions. Others discuss the legacies of historical events including the Wilmington Race Riot of 1898, the Harlem Renaissance, and the Holocaust.

Some explore the history and techniques of art, from Latin American music to North Carolina crafts. Others widen perspectives on a variety of literary genres, including poetry, autobiography, and oral history.

The scholars explore the celebrations and struggles of race relations, the experiences of immigrants, the stories of women in untraditional roles, and the lives and works of historical figures.

They discuss ways to use literature, music, and art as cultural expression, and they contemplate the need for educational reform. These presentations span past and present, factual history and timeless theory, and traditional and innovative interpretations of our literary canons.


>> Road Scholar Travel Regions >> Download Guidelines >> Download Application >> View Road Scholars 2007/2008 Catalog		For grant information, information on a specific speaker or to receive a current catalog by mail, contact: Carolyn Allen Tel: (336) 256-0140 callen@nchumanities.org

2009 Programs Added: Rob Amberg The New Road and Today’s Mountaineers William Anderson The Eastern Band of Cherokees in Western North Carolina Jim Bunch North Carolina’s U-Boats: u-85, u-701, u-352 Janie Leigh Carter John Day in Liberia: Southern Baptist Missionary and a Founder of the Republic Katherine Mellen Charron Septima Clark, Citizenship Education, and Women in the Civil Rights Movement William Henry Singleton’s Recollections of My Slavery Days: a North Carolina Slave’s View of the Civil War and Its Legacies William Cobb Radical Education and the Rural South The Second Slavery: Southern Tenant Farmers Kevin Duffus The Last Days of Black Beard the Pirate Georgann Eubanks Literary Trails of the North Carolina Mountains Literary Trails of the North Carolina Piedmont Benjamin Filene Lead Belly, the Lomaxes, and the Construction of America’s Musical Heritage O Brother, What Next? Making Sense of the Folk Fad Small Stories in the Big Picture: How Can Museums Bring Ordinary People’s History to Life? Frances Hawthorne Picturing America: Dorothea Lange, “Migrant Mother” Picturing America: Mary Cassatt, “The Boating Party” Picturing America: Martin Puryear, “Ladder For Booker T. Washington”	Mary Elder Lasher Women’s Issues: Similarities Among American, African, and Asian Women Alex Macaulay It’s Not Just a Game: Sports and Society in North Carolina Roots Music and the American South Tom Magnuson Moving Into the Carolina Backcountry: Colonial Era Transportation in the Carolinas and Virginia, 1585-1785 General Greene’s Genius: the Strategic Brilliance and Wit of the Race to the Dan North Carolina’s Oldest Roads: Geography, Physics, and Geopolitics of Movement in Pre-Modern Times in the Old North State Joseph Mills Dancing Through the Depression North Carolina in a Bottle: An Overview of the NC Wine Industry and Wineries Willie Nelms Rockabilly Head to Toe America’s Music Down to Its Roots Judith Paterson Writing Family and Local History from Genealogical Data, Oral History and Family Lore Marcia Tabram Philips Life as a Moravian in Old Salem: Keeping the Traditions of the Brethren Cindy Ramsey A North Carolina Icon Brought to Life: Sea Stories of Sailors Aboard the WW II Battleship North Carolina Laurel Sneed Thomas Day, Cabinet Maker: Man in the Middle Larry Reni Thomas Carolina Jazz Connections Gail Williams Picturing America: Immigration in North Carolina Picturing America: Purposeful Art or Art For Art’s Sake Billy Yeargin The American Tobacco Culture: Our Heritage Meltonia Young Stories From the Underground Railroad

2008 Programs Added: Tom Sanders, PhD Divided Iraq: Why the Conflict? What’s Going on in Latin America? Hiking the Appalachian Trail Lucinda MacKethan, PhD Gone With the Wind? Never: Scarlett O’Hara and Southern Womanhood Slave Voices in North Carolina Huck vs. Harriet: Historical Debates Over Uncle Tom’s Cabin and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Andrew Angyal, PhD Green Design and the Quest for Sustainablility Anna Fariello Objects and Meaning Through History Southern Craft: A Revival in the Mountains	John Beck The Changing South: Who’s Benefiting, Who’s Losing Southern Cooking, High and Low: A Short History of the Cuisine of the South David Carr Communities, Conversations, and Cultural Institutions Remembering What to Remember: September 11, 2001 in Fiction Randell Jones In the Footsteps of Daniel Boone The Overmountain Men of 1780 and Their Campaign to the Battle of King’s Mountain Scoundrels, Rogues and Heroes of the Old North State