Being South Carolina Humanities’ Student Research Fellow for 2018 was such an honor and a terrific experience for me! My project focused on
South Carolina literature’s value in South Carolina curriculum
. Through this research project, I completed a survey of South Carolina literature spanning time periods, genres, subjects, and authors. I found similarities stretching across county lines, and I realized drastic cultural differences throughout our state’s history. On top of that, I got to meet some authors and poets as well as influential people in the lives of some of South Carolina’s most famous writers like Pat Conroy. After conducting all the interviews, looking through the survey responses, and reading a great deal of literature, I constructed a presentation that not only argues for South Carolina literature’s place in public education but also explains how to implement the literature into the classroom. I have had the privilege to present several times to aspiring educators, and it is my deepest hope that through this project and through South Carolina Humanities’ support, South Carolina literature can find its way into more and more of our classrooms.
John Sterling Poole
SC Humanities 2018 Student Research Fellow