July 8 -
19, 2024
The first week of each course takes place asynchronously and will consist of about 5 hours of work. During the second week of each course, students will interact with their instructor and other students via scheduled video conferencing meetings and will have about 15 hours of work for the week.
The synchronous portion of this course during the second week will be from 6:00 pm – 7:30 pm Monday-Friday.
Rising
7th
8th
9th
The North Carolina coast is frequently referred to as the ‘Graveyard of the Atlantic.’ This moniker is due to the unparalleled number of shipwrecks that have occurred in the waters off the Outer Banks of North Carolina. This course will examine the intersection of coastal North Carolina history with the geography, climate, and physical oceanographic properties of North Carolina’s coastal waters where thousands (yes, thousands!) of ocean-bound vessels have met their untimely end. We will look at select known shipwrecks from the sixteenth century through the twentieth; including research being carried out on Blackbeard’s Queen Anne’s Revenge at East Carolina University and the USS Cythera – a World War 2 vessel that was sunk by German U-boat 80 years ago with a full crew onboard.
This is a humanities course but will take an interdisciplinary approach to contextualize North Carolina’s maritime history. Specifically, elements of archaeology and material culture, oceanography, folklore studies, literary traditions, cultural history, micro-histories, and geographical and climate studies will be incorporated to illuminate the vast and varied past of the Graveyard of the Atlantic.
Christy Davenport joined NCSSM in July 2023 as an Instructor of American Studies and Humanities on our Morganton campus. She teaches both sections of American Studies and enjoys creating challenging senior Humanities courses that often center around cultural and social American experiences. Christy was born and raised in northeast North Carolina and has traveled extensively throughout the southeast United States. She has lived in Savannah, New Orleans, and other coastal Southern areas. She did her graduate work at Mississippi State University where she completed her master’s in history. She is currently completing her doctorate through the writing of her dissertation entitled “From Sundown to Swamp: Finding Limited Freedom in the Great Dismal Swamp.” Her research interests include Southern US history, cultural history, enslaved culture, early and modern US History, and African American studies. Christy earned her bachelor’s degree in history and secondary education at Elizabeth City State University. She has several publications and has presented at national and international conferences. She is an avid baseball fan, loves the outdoors, is a proud plant and dog mom, and enjoys exploring the Morganton area.
BA, History and Secondary Education, Elizabeth City State University
MA, History, Mississippi State University
PhD ABD, History, Mississippi State University