Rural Studies - Professional Development

Southeastern Conference on Family Relations

The Rural Studies program at ABAC relies very much on learning outside of the classroom. This learning includes conference trips and presentations like the conference attended in March of 2011. Two Rural Studies students and Rural Studies Club members accompanied Dr. Darby Sewell and Rebecca Cofer (co-advisor to the Rural Studies Club at ABAC) on a trip to the Southeastern Conference on Family Relations in Birmingham, Alabama. The students, faculty and staff were able to attend sessions which directly related to their classes in the Rural Studies program. In addition, the students, faculty and staff member presented on their program at this conference.

Flannery O’Connor Conference

Funded through Student Activities and the Rural Studies Club, three representative from ABAC were able to attend the Flannery O’Connor Conference in April 2011 in Milledgeville, GA. ABAC English professor Dr. Jordan Cofer, himself a scholar in the area of Flannery O’Connor and Matthew McCullough, an ABAC student, presented at this national conference. McCullough was the only undergraduate whose paper submission was accepted to present. Ms. Rebecca Cofer, co-advisor to the Rural Studies Club accompanied the group on this trip, where beyond conference sessions, the group was able to tour O’Connor’s home and meet many renown O’Connor scholars. Focusing on the Arts and Culture track in the Rural Studies program, this conference directly related to O’Connor’s writing as seen compared to her rural upbringing in Milledgeville and the largely rural settings of most of her stories. With a goal to attend graduate school in the field of English, this was McCullough’s first professional conference in his area. Rural Studies Club members hope to attend the O’Connor conference again in the future.”