Teachers wanted to study Gullah culture of GA, SC

Two university researchers are looking for dozens of teachers to travel to Georgia and South Carolina to study the culture and traditions of the Gullah, descendants of slaves living along the Southern Atlantic coast.

University of Connecticut professors Robert Stephens and Mary Ellen Junda have been awarded a $180,000 grant by the National Endowment for the Humanities to conduct workshops for 80 elementary and high school teachers next summer.

The groups will visit the Penn Center, a South Carolina nonprofit dedicated to preserving Gullah Culture, and travel to Sapelo Island, where about 50 slave descendants still live off the Georgia coast.

Because their ancestors lived on isolated islands, the Gullah are considered to have retained more of their African roots and traditions than any group in America.

Online: http://www.gullahvoices.org

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