SOUTH CAROLINA CENTER FOR ORAL NARRATION
Director Dr. Michele Reese
Assistant Director Michelle Ross
Location 115 Arts & Letters Bldg.
Phone 803-938-3801, 803-938-3755
Fax 803-938-3712
Email: Michelle Ross, Michele Reese,

The SC Center for Oral Narration was officially established as a Center by the Commission of Higher Education in 1999. Presently housed in Arts and Letters, the Center serves to document, preserve and present oral traditions. Its humble, yet growing collection of publications and documentations is housed in the Center and USC Sumter’s Anderson Library; resources are available to researchers and lovers of oral traditions.

Regular programming sponsored by the Center includes the following: Celebration of the Spoken Word: Fall Storytelling, The Annual Jack Doyle Storytelling Festival, The Spoken Word Series: Poetry and Drama, Reader’s Theatre, and A Scholars’ Tea.

BIO: Dr. Michele Reese is an Assistant Professor of English at USC Sumter and the Director of the SC Center for Oral Narration. She teaches creative writing and American and world Literatures. She has published poems in The Paris Review, Smartish Pace, Valparaiso Poetry Review, and other literary journals. Her first book of poems, Following Phia (WordTech Editions) came out in 2006. She is currently working on a book of poems based on her family's history in Jamaica.

BIO: Michelle Ross, MA Folk Studies; BA Interdisciplinary Studies: As a folklorist and lover of stories, Ross naturally gravitates toward community-based knowledge and activities, and she assigns projects that send her students into the community to explore that knowledge. Ross also works to build and strengthen collaborations with other like-minded organizations, such as Sumter School District 17, SC Storytelling Network, SC Traditional Arts Network; SC Arts Commission, The McKissick Museum; St. Jude Alumni Association, Sumter Iris Festival Commission, and The Copy Shop. Ross is published in the South Carolina special edition of the North Carolina Folklore Journal, and regularly contributes to the SC Storytelling Newsletter. She is also actively involved in two oral history projects: “Storykeepers: St. Jude’s Catholic Church and School”, and “Stories to Celebrate the Life of One Who Has Passed: Mothers of Angels Grief Support Group”. Ross presently teaches ANTH 209 Introduction to Folklore and ANTH 291 Urban Legends: Traditional and Contemporary Narratives in Community Settings