One of the greatest courses I ever followed!\n\nInteresting, documentary, not even one minute boring, very well organized and easy to follow.\n\nMusic is part of our history.
Bill Ferris is a wealth of knowledge and experience - I only regret missing out on the classroom dynamic of a Ferris-led discussion of Southern arts, particularly the Blues.
by MALAMATENIA G
•This course is really a treasure I've recently discovered!
by phunguyen
•I really enjoyed this course. Very interesting!
by Archana A
•The course was very interesting and inspiring.
by Juan V
•Was an hell of a ride! Enjoyed it thoroughly.
by Paulette B
•Thank you for presenting this information.
by John W
•An excellent and thought provoking course.
by Esther R
•Really interesting. Lots of good content
by Dario
•
Very interesting, great professor
by Carmen B
•Very interesting and informative.
by David L M
•Absolutely loved this course.
by Samanta G P
•Excepcional! Me encanto!
by Deniz N E B T
•So much fun! Very inter
by Daniel G
•A lot of fun. thanks
by P G
•Excellent content
by Joao P A
•Excellent!!
by Tim R
•Fantastic!
by Shelton D
•I think some very tough choices were made to fit the course online. It is a successful course, but you can tell that a more in depth version of the course would probably be exciting. You would certainly go further, if you were enrolled at Chapel Hill, and had a couple semesters to contemplate the topic.
The instructor is a person who made his own videos and recordings of local storytellers, artists and musicians over a long period of time. You can tell he is a very active collector of local lore. So, he tries to feature this material, sensibly. Some of this material you was great.
On the other hand; the knowledge of the course is really only a beginning to what could be learned. For example, when mentioning the photographers or painters of the South, you are not able to see a large number of their pictures. Likewise, when talking about the major writers, such as Faulkner, you do not get to read many longer excerpts of their work. This course provides the names to reference; starting points for further study. The instructor trusts you to investigate these resources on your own.
by José D
•I took this course with a special interest on the musical aspect, namely the blues, of course. In that regard the course is very superficial, but has some interesting stuff even so. The other aspects of literature, painting, and the more popular arts (kilts, oral traditions, etc.) where a nice surprise. This course gives a view of a cultural aspect of America that is very interesting and mostly unknown, particularly, I guess, to a non American. I advise this course to anyone who is interested in ethnology, folklore and popular art and music and is not already familiarized with the American South.
by Ann M
•This course was a great introductory material to the life and the oral tradition of the American South. It explored the deeper areas of Southern life and localised the culture through one-on-one recordings and interviews. One suggestion is that in the last class, Prof. Ferris could have provided a synopsis of the course material. The pace of the teaching is adequate and the modules enable the learner to seek more information as needed. I thoroughly enjoyed taking this course.
by Arturo T S
•Es una muy buena introducción al estudio de la cultura del sur de los Estados Unidos y al mismo tiempo un panorama para buscar más información sobre ciertos temas como el blues, las tradiciones orales, la religión, la vida cotidiana y los grandes creadores de la literatura y la música inmersos en la tradición del sur estadounidense.
by Deleted A
•Really interesting. Just a shame that all sources used are limited to the instructor's own work (books, photos and videos), and also that the tone is very monotonous which sometimes makes it hard to lose interest.
by Emily Z
•An insight into an storied culture. My main complaint is that this class is much less of a structured class, and more a string of glimpses into specific and sort of semi-random aspects of Southern culture.
by Sue J D
•I watched many of the videos. It was very interesting. I particularly liked the stories/video clips of musicians. I do hope you have seen The Song Catcher..this reminded me of it.
by Bernardo F B E
•This course is complete and does offer very good information on the music, stories, and art of the American South. I really enjoyed the blues music information presented to students.
by Echo W
•interesting, the photos, the film and voice records really bring us back to the time in the past, which also help me know what the real south is.