SALISBURY, N.C. - Dr. Maria Vandergriff-Avery, an assistant professor of sociology at Catawba College, is attending Ferrum College's second National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College and University Teachers June 3-29.

From a range of disciplines and at both campus and community locations, the Institute will examine Appalachian issues that link regional study to the liberal arts. Dr. Vangergriff-Avery will participate with others representing many regions of the country, not just Appalachia. The twenty-five teachers selected for the NEH Summer Institute, "Regional Study and the Liberal Arts: Appalachia Up Close," will receive stipends of $2,800 each.

The June NEH institute at Ferrum brings together faculty members from throughout the United States to pursue the exciting opportunities in liberal arts learning that regional study provides. The first part of the institute brings to the Ferrum campus nationally- known authors Robert Morgan, Lee Smith, Altina Waller, Crandall Shifflett, and Anita Puckett, whose fiction and research focuses on Appalachia. The second part shifts to Caretta, West Virginia, where institute scholars will be doing community-centered projects such as interviewing black coalminers, reproducing and displaying community photos, or constructing a website for the local community action center.