Athens, Ga. – The University of Georgia’s Franklin College of Arts and Sciences will offer a summer course focusing on the rhetoric of the civil rights movement at the Gwinnett University Center in Lawrenceville, where UGA provides bachelor’s and master’s degree programs.
The course, “Speech Communication 3330: The Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement,” includes a “rolling classroom” tour of historic civil rights sites in Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
The course is open to students enrolled in UGA undergraduate degree programs in Gwinnett, as well as students enrolled on the Athens campus, and meets the university’s cultural diversity requirement and the Franklin College’s multicultural requirement. Non-UGA students may enroll in the course as transient students. Transient applications are due May 15 and are available online at http://www.uga.edu/~gwinnett/admissions/undergraduateAdmissions.html.
The class will meet at the Gwinnett University Center, just off Highway 316 at Collins Hill Road, Monday through Thursday from 11 a.m. to 1:45 p.m. July 11-Aug. 2, with the tour scheduled July 29-Aug. 1. Students will travel more than 1,500 miles by bus to Birmingham, Montgomery and Selma, Ala.; Jackson, Miss.; Memphis, Tenn.; and Atlanta. Along the way, foot soldiers of the civil rights movement will share their personal experiences with the students.
Rita Van Zant, speech communication instructor with UGA at Gwinnett, is responsible for the creation of the course, which is being offered for the second time this year. “The course places the study of rhetoric in the context of the actual historic environment in which the oratory took place,” she said. “This trip helps students gain a better understanding of the power of persuasive rhetoric in a social movement.”
Students will pay tuition and fees for the summer session (short session II), plus an additional fee of $85 for the four-day, three-night tour. On the trip, students will be responsible for the cost of their lunch and dinner and any incidental personal expenses.
A few spaces may be available for nonstudents who are interested in participating in the tour, according to Van Zant. A $150 deposit per person is required of each nonstudent participating in the tour. For more information, contact Van Zant at UGARVZ@aol.com or 678/407-5239.
