GEN 241 - Rewrite Mississippi: Narratives of Hate and Harmony in Mississippi

3 Semester Hour(s)

This course will examine the identity of Mississippi in the dominant narrative and reconstruct a more honest and equitable illustration of the state through the study of artists, authors, artisans, movements, and moments in Mississippi’s history. Experiential excursions will be embedded within this course to expand the classroom into the city (Eudora Welty house, Smith Robertson Museum, Margaret Walker Alexander house, Mississippi Department of Archives and History, Woolworth’s & other historic markers, etc.) as well as the state (Tennessee Williams festival, Margaret Garner gravesite, Natchez Trace, etc.). The primary objective of this course is to encourage students to rethink the prevailing narrative of Mississippi and work to produce an alternate story of the state that considers many of the unspoken and unwritten accounts that expand the history and future of the state.