Preface First-Year Reading and Writing Program at USC Upstate

Preface

First-year Reading and Writing Program

Preface Goals

The intent of this series of programs is to help USC Upstate first-year students make connections to each other and to the university and community, practice skills and explore ideas that contribute to success in college, and discuss how a deeper understanding of a shared reading can inform the way we make personal decisions and influence public policy today.

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Preface is a first-year reading program that introduces students to the joy of reading critically and using academic disciplines and methods to approach the complex issues in our communities, nation, and world. Preface combines guided reading of a common book with special events and discussions, in which students engage questions raised by the book with university, community and national experts. We read, think and talk together in order to see how concentrated, research-based attention to any subject can bring new solutions to light.

First-year students read the Preface text in English 101 and attend related events throughout the fall semester.

While Preface is geared primarily toward first-year students, it offers a calendar of events that are relevant to a wide range of university courses as well as the community. Events are planned in close cooperation with USC Upstate departments and organizations and are free and open to the public.

This Fall, first-year writing students will read:


One Foot in Eden

Ron Rash (Author)

Schedule of Events

Thursday, September 14, 2023

Session Title: Raising the Dead: ‘Resurrecting Lost Lives and Lost Places

Session Time: 5 - 6 p.m.

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Poetry Writing Workshop for local high school students 1 - 2 p.m.

Tuesday, September 19

Session Title: Old-Time Medicine and Women Healers

Speaker: Kristi Miller, USC Upstate

Session Time: 3 - 4 p.m.

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Tuesday, September 26

Session Title: The Environmental Impact of Dams

Speaker: Peter Brewitt, Wofford College

Session Time: 3 - 4 p.m.

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Thursday, September 28

Session Title: The Cherokee: Jocassee Valley's Original Inhabitants

Speaker: Paul Grady, USC Upstate

Session Time: 10:45 - 12:00 noon

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Tuesday, October 3

Session Title: Missing Bodies and Murder Mysteries

Speaker: Michele Covington, USC Upstate

Session Time: 4 - 5 p.m.

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Thursday, October 12

Session Title: The History of the Jocassee Valley

Speaker: Claudia Hembree

Session Time: 4 - 5 p.m.

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Tuesday, October 17

Session Title: Lake Jocassee, Then and Now,

Speaker: Alan Stuart, Duke Energy

Session Time: 4 - 5 p.m.

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Wednesday, October 25

Session Title: Veterans and PTSD

Speaker: Stefanie Keen, USC Upstate

Session Time: 3 - 4 p.m.

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Thursday, November 2

Session Title: Infertility as Disability: How Rhetoric Impacts Access to Healthcare

Speaker: Monika Herr, USC Upstate

Session Time: 3 - 4 p.m.

Location: Tukey Theater, Library Building Map pin icon

Thursday, November 9

Session Title: Sheriff Alexander’s Reflections on Southern Natural History

Speaker: Jonathon Storm, USC Upstate

Session Time: 3 - 4 p.m.

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Wednesday, November 15

Session Title: Global and Local Displacements: Refugees, Sex Trafficking, and the Consequences of Urban Renewal

Session Time: 12 - 1:30 p.m.

Location: Olin B. Sansbury, Jr. Campus Life Center Map pin icon

Panelists
Brandon Baughn
Director, World Relief South Carolina
Aryaa Regmi
Human trafficking program coordinator for the South Carolina Human Trafficking Task Force, Office of the Attorney General.

Meghan Smith
Director of College and Career Readiness at the Spartanburg Academic Movement and Spartanburg City Councilmember.

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South Carolina Humanities

The mission of South Carolina Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. This not-for-profit organization presents and/or supports literary initiatives, lectures, exhibits, festivals, publications, oral history projects, videos and other humanities-based experiences that reach more than 250,000 citizens annually. South Carolina Humanities receives funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as corporate, foundation and individual donors. It is governed by a volunteer Board of Directors comprised of community leaders from throughout the state.