Judge Memorial English teacher selected for national workshop on Southern culture

Intermountain Catholic

+ Enlarge

Linda Simpson

SALT LAKE CITY — Linda Simpson, a Judge Memorial Catholic High School English teacher, will participate in a week-long workshop, "The Most Southern Place on Earth: the Music, Culture and History in the Mississippi Delta," at Delta State University in Cleveland, Miss., July 13-19.

Simpson was selected from a national applicant pool to attend one of 20 summer study opportunities supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, a federal agency that each summer supports Landmarks of American History and Culture workshops so that teachers can study with experts in humanities disciplines.

Dr. Luther Brown, associate dean for Rural and Regional Studies, will direct the workshop. The topics offered will range from "Emily Dickinson: Person, Poetry and Place" to "Partisans and Redcoats: the American Revolution in the Southern Backcountry." Workshop participants will travel throughout the Mississippi Delta, visiting historic places and attending lectures.

Before Simpson leaves for Mississippi, she has some requirements to fulfill. She has to read four books from a selected list and 12 articles that deal with different aspects of Mississippi history, literature, music and culture, she said.

"It will be a rigorous, intensive workshop because part of the obligation of getting a $1,200 stipend is creating lesson plans before I leave or soon thereafter," Simpson said. "There will be teachers from all over the country attending and they are not just high school teachers. The principles involve extending a deeper understanding and knowledge of the humanities."

Simpson is interested in the literature of the American South, of which she said there are so many wonderful writers; for example, Faulkner.

The Judge Memorial English department recently took the senior class on a field trip to the Sundance Film Festival to see Freedom Summer, which commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Movement.

"The film takes place when idealistic college students from all over the country went to Mississippi to try to register people, particularly African-Americans to vote," said Simpson. "The film documented a whole different side of the United States; racism among politicians and how difficult it was for Americans to exercise their right to vote and exercise their rights as American citizens."

Simpson applied for the workshop by writing a letter that stated her appreciation for the power of place in "our stories in our own lives," she said, adding that her senior students are working on a project about a place that is significant to them. "In the end they will have four pieces of writing and an art project about that place. I also want the juniors studying American literature to understand that these works are usually anchored in a specific historic time and a real place, and that these stories have a universal truth about who we are."

Simpson would like to bring back to her students a deeper understanding of the Southern culture. "While I have visited some southern states, I am an outsider looking in," she said. "I would like to enhance what I do know from the literature I’ve read and get a sense of the richness of the history and culture, and playing the violin, I know that music is a real important part of the culture and a blend of the African-American tradition and white tradition."