Diddley Bows, Cross Harps, Banjars and Backbeats: The Rhythm and Sound of Personal Agency from Southern African America

This panel critically investigates and informs the construction of southernness, southern identity, and the South past and present. The presentations will promote and expand the notion of a southern epistemology.

The individual presentations will include scholarly investigations into the connections among the symbolic order, various forms of cultural artifacts and multiple readings of these artifacts within the context of critical/transformational pedagogy. How do multiple interpretations of popular culture within conceptualizations of place enhance our understandings of education and how can critical perspectives be expanded to develop a student’s critical consciousness (concerning issues of race, class, gender, and sexual preference within the south)? The absolute necessity, given our postmodern culture, of investigating the connections among the critical examination of place specific culture and its multiple connections with education allows a broad scope for this panel. The presentations of this panel fill a needed gap in the scholarly work on the ramifications of Southern place.