Through its grant-funded project “Roots and Routes: Stories of Migration in the High Country,” Appalachian State University is providing an avenue for High Country Hmong refugee and Latinx migrant families to share their stories and histories, as well as their contributions to Western North Carolina.
Dr. Shanan Fitts and Dr. Greg McClure — both faculty in the Reich College of Education’s Department of Curriculum and Instruction — received $19,269 in grant funding from the North Carolina Humanities Council, as well as $50,077 in matching funds from App State, in support of the digital storytelling project.
As part of the project, Fitts and McClure led a series of workshops in July 2021 in which Latinx participants shared, explored and learned from each other’s migration experiences, producing a video capturing their experience in the process. Latinx is the gender-neutral term for people of Latin American origin or descent.
The workshops culminated in a presentation of the participants’ videos and discussions, and Fitts and McClure shared the participants’ videos — along with the project’s curriculum — at App State’s 2021 Research and Creative Activity at Appalachian virtual event, hosted by the Office of Research, and the university’s 2021 Global Symposium, hosted by the Office of International Education and Development.
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