High Country Humanities is a collaboration between the College of Arts and Sciences at Appalachian State University and community partners in Watauga County. We aim to foster a greater understanding and appreciation of the humanities in the local community, both within and outside the campus.

Upcoming Events

POSTPONED: Brian Harnetty: Words and Silences
Friday, Oct. 18, 2024
8 – 9:15 p.m.

Due to the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene, we are postponing the Brian Harnetty residency in the hopes of rescheduling for a time where more people will have the opportunity to attend and appreciate this exciting visit.

Brian Harnetty is an interdisciplinary sound artist who works with archives and communities to foster social change. He creates sonic encounters centered on place and the transformative power of listening. Since 2010, Harnetty’s projects have brought together history, ecology, and economy in Appalachian Ohio, informed by his family's roots there.

The event will begin with Brian Harnetty in conversation with App State Faculty members Dr. Jacob Kopcienski (Hayes School of Music) and Dr. Cuong Mai (Philosophy and Religion) about Thomas Merton’s life and work, and Harnetty’s composition process. After Harnetty performs “Words and Silences” (~45 minutes), the panel will answer questions and discuss the performance with the audience.

Upcoming Events Presented by Affiliates

Affiliate events are organized by App State academic units and centers or by individual faculty members working with partners from other local and regional organizations.

  • POSTPONED: Brian Harnetty: Talk: Re-Animating the Sound Archive

    Music Humanities Series

    Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024
    6 - 7 p.m.

    Due to the ongoing recovery from Hurricane Helene, we are postponing the Brian Harnetty residency in the hopes of rescheduling for a time where more people will have the opportunity to attend and appreciate this exciting visit. Over the past two decades, Brian Harnetty has located historical recordings that document spoken words and musical performance in archives across Appalachia and the Midwest, including the Berea Appalachian Sound Archives (Berea, Kentucky), the Little Cities of Black Diamonds Archive (Shawnee, Ohio), and the Thomas Merton Collection (Louisville, Kentucky). In this talk, Harnetty will discuss strategies by which people in the present relate to recorded sounds that document the past.

  • Film: Embrace of the Serpent (2015)

    Colombian Film Festival

    Monday, Oct. 21, 2024
    5 p.m.

    Shot almost entirely in black and white, the film follows two journeys made thirty years apart by the indigenous shaman Karamakate in the Colombian Amazonian jungle, one with Theo, a German ethnographer, and the other with Evan, an American botanist, both of whom are searching for the rare plant yakruna. It was inspired by the travel diaries of Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes, and dedicated to lost Amazonian cultures.

  • Film: A Matter of Land (2015)

    Colombian Film Festival

    Wednesday, Nov. 6, 2024
    5 p.m.

    A Matter of Land recounts the first year of application of Colombian's Land Restitution Act from the perspective of a community who decide to engage with the process. The film explores the tensions that arise when such communities come face to face with the complex institutions responsible for enforcing the law. The result of these tensions is a narrative worthy of Kafka, in which a doorway to justice is opened for the sole purpose of demonstrating that no one can pass through it.

  • Evelyn Berry: Craft Talk

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024
    3:30 - 4:45 p.m.

    Evelyn Berry is a trans author, editor and educator from South Carolina. She is the recipient of a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship, 2020 BOOM Chapbook Prize from Bateau Press, 2019 Broad River Prize for Prose and 2018 Emrys Poetry Prize, among other honors. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Gigantic Sequins, beestung, Raleigh Review, Taco Bell Quarterly and elsewhere. Grief Slut (Sundress Publications, 2023) is her debut poetry collection.

  • Evelyn Berry

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024
    6 - 7:30 p.m.

    Evelyn Berry is a trans author, editor and educator from South Carolina. She is the recipient of a 2023 National Endowment for the Arts creative writing fellowship, 2020 BOOM Chapbook Prize from Bateau Press, 2019 Broad River Prize for Prose and 2018 Emrys Poetry Prize, among other honors. Her work has appeared in Beloit Poetry Journal, Gigantic Sequins, beestung, Raleigh Review, Taco Bell Quarterly and elsewhere. Grief Slut (Sundress Publications, 2023) is her debut poetry collection.

  • Dr. David K. Thomson: “Bonds of War: How Civil War Financial Agents Sold the World on the Union”

    2024 Civil War Speaker Series

    Monday, Nov. 11, 2024
    6 - 7:30 p.m.

    Dr. David K. Thomson is an associate professor of history at Sacred Heart University. In his lecture, Thomson will discuss: How does one package and sell confidence in the stability of a nation riven by civil strife? This was the question that loomed before the Philadelphia financial house of Jay Cooke & Company, entrusted by the U.S. government with an unprecedented sale of bonds to finance the Union war effort in the early days of the American Civil War.

  • Maria Dahvana Headley: Craft Talk

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024
    3:30 - 4:45 p.m.

    Maria Dahvana Headley is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author and editor. Her novels include Magonia, Aerie and Queen of Kings, and she has also written a memoir, The Year of Yes. With Kat Howard, she is the author of The End of the Sentence, and with Neil Gaiman, she is co-editor of Unnatural Creatures. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony and by Arte Studio Ginestrelle, where the first draft of The Mere Wife was written.

  • Film: Jaguar: Voice of a Territory (2020)

    Colombian Film Festival

    Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024
    5 p.m.

    This film took a decade to complete. It is about love, affection, respect, humility, temperance and courage; about balance with oneself and the other. It is a tour through the mountains, jungles and plains where the jaguar has directly engaged with humans, creating a journey of chants, myths and cultural traditions which narrate the history of the human-jaguar relationship, and speak to the importance of preserving this severely threatened species.

  • Maria Dahvana Headley

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024
    6 - 7:30 p.m.

    Maria Dahvana Headley is a #1 New York Times-bestselling author and editor. Her novels include Magonia, Aerie and Queen of Kings, and she has also written a memoir, The Year of Yes. With Kat Howard, she is the author of The End of the Sentence, and with Neil Gaiman, she is co-editor of Unnatural Creatures. Her short stories have been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson, Nebula and World Fantasy Awards, and her work has been supported by the MacDowell Colony and by Arte Studio Ginestrelle, where the first draft of The Mere Wife was written.

  • Eleanor Davis: Craft Talk

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, March 20, 2025
    3:30 - 4:45 p.m.

    Eleanor Davis is a cartoonist and illustrator. Her books include How To Be Happy, You and a Bike and a Road, Why Art? and The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. Her latest graphic novel, The Hard Tomorrow, won the LA Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels and Comics. She lives in Athens, Georgia.

  • Eleanor Davis

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, March 20, 2025
    6 - 7:30 p.m.

    Eleanor Davis is a cartoonist and illustrator. Her books include How To Be Happy, You and a Bike and a Road, Why Art? and The Secret Science Alliance and the Copycat Crook. Her latest graphic novel, The Hard Tomorrow, won the LA Times Book Prize for Graphic Novels and Comics. She lives in Athens, Georgia.

  • Juliet Escoria and Scott McClanahan: Craft Talk

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, March 27, 2025
    3:30 - 4:45 p.m.

    Juliet Escoria is the author of You Are the Snake (Soft Skull, 2024), Witch Hunt & Black Cloud (CLASH Books, 2023) and Juliet the Maniac (Melville House, 2019). She lives in West Virginia. Scott McClanahan is an author and filmmaker based in Beckley, West Virginia. He’s written eight books including Crapalachia, Hill William and the Sarah Book. He’s a co-founder of Holler Presents, a production company and small press.

  • Juliet Escoria and Scott McClanahan

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, March 27, 2025
    6 - 7:30 p.m.

    Juliet Escoria is the author of You Are the Snake (Soft Skull, 2024), Witch Hunt & Black Cloud (CLASH Books, 2023) and Juliet the Maniac (Melville House, 2019). She lives in West Virginia. Scott McClanahan is an author and filmmaker based in Beckley, West Virginia. He’s written eight books including Crapalachia, Hill William and the Sarah Book. He’s a co-founder of Holler Presents, a production company and small press.

  • Lillian-Yvonne Bertram: Craft Talk

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, April 10, 2025
    3:30 - 4:45 p.m.

    Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an African American writer, poet, artist and educator who works at the intersection of computation, AI, race and gender. They are the author of Travesty Generator (Noemi Press), which received the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Anna Rabinowitz prize for interdisciplinary work and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. They are also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship.

  • Lillian-Yvonne Bertram

    Hughlene Bostian Frank Visiting Writers Series

    Thursday, April 10, 2025
    6 - 7:30 p.m.

    Lillian-Yvonne Bertram is an African American writer, poet, artist and educator who works at the intersection of computation, AI, race and gender. They are the author of Travesty Generator (Noemi Press), which received the Poetry Society of America’s 2020 Anna Rabinowitz prize for interdisciplinary work and was longlisted for the 2020 National Book Award for Poetry. They are also the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Poetry Fellowship.

Mission

High Country Humanities seeks to sponsor and support local humanities events that are open to the public. In some cases, we will promote humanities events organized by our community partners, and in other cases, we will organize events ourselves. Whether the event takes place on the Appalachian State’s campus or elsewhere, High Country Humanities events will be open to everyone in the public interested in the humanities.

Get Involved

High Country Humanities welcomes faculty and community input. We invite local stakeholders to contribute to this initiative. To get involved, please contact hchumanities@appstate.edu. Here are a few ways to participate:

  • Suggest an event for us to promote.
  • Nominate a community leader or humanities expert to serve on the advisory board.
  • Volunteer to help organize or staff an upcoming event.
  • Want to receive announcements about upcoming events? Subscribe to our mailing list

Donors and Sponsors

If you are interested in making a donation to support High Country Humanities, or if you are a local vendor who wishes to sponsor an upcoming event, please contact hchumanities@appstate.edu. Contributions of any amount make a difference!

App State High Country Humanities Receives Grant from North Carolina Humanities

App State High Country Humanities Receives Grant from North Carolina Humanities

College of Arts and Sciences
Oct. 17, 2023

High Country Humanities has received a large grant from North Carolina Humanities. This $20,000 grant will help fund a series of free public events relating to the theme of “Connecting Local and Global Rural Cultures,” including workshops, panel discussions, guided tours and interactive lectures in which humanities experts will help the public learn about a broad range of rural cultures.

North Carolina Humanities
National Endowment for the Humanities

This program is supported in part by North Carolina Humanities, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, www.nchumanities.org.

Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this website do not necessarily represent those of North Carolina Humanities or the National Endowment for the Humanities.