What is the cultural landscape of the south? Does it look different when you are from California or New York? That’s the question this class tried to answer. When we gathered at the beginning of the semester, we learned that only one student was from the south. Everyone else was from at least 500 miles away, and many of them had not ventured off of campus very often. As the teacher, this was interesting for me because I grew up in North Carolina, and even though I lived out of state for almost 20 years, this is my home.

Each student found his or her own unique way to explore the South. I was fascinated with what they found. They each approached they projects differently and documented extremely varied aspects of our community. They also each documented them with their own vision, and that varied greatly as well. Topics included architecture, farming, Hispanic culture, football, decay, performance and good ole southern food.

So please take a look at these projects. Each is very focused, but I hope that as you taste them all, you may experience the flavor of our current Southern Cultural Landscape.