House of Roots and Bones: Hoodoo Scholarship and Preservation

HOODOO SCHOLARSHIP & PRESERVATION
LEVEL 600 — ADVANCED SCHOLARSHIP
HORB SCH 601 — Reading the WPA Slave Narratives Critically
Trains students to work critically with WPA-era interviews of formerly enslaved Black Americans. Students examine interviewer bias, dialect transcription, memory, and the collection’s value and limitations. The course establishes the documentary discipline necessary for serious Hoodoo scholarship.
HORB SCH 602 — Folklorists, Ethnographers & the Documentation of Hoodoo
Examines the people who documented Hoodoo, conjure, and Black Southern life. Students compare collectors, their methods, and biases while learning to evaluate published claims. The course teaches source criticism as a form of cultural protection.
HORB SCH 603 — Black Newspapers as Sources for Conjure History
Teaches students to use historic Black newspapers to investigate workers, advertisements, court cases, and community references to conjure. Students learn database searching, name variation, and contextual reading. The course opens a major documentary window onto post-emancipation Hoodoo history.
HORB SCH 604 — Advertisements for Root Doctors, Readers & Spiritual Workers
Studies advertisements placed by spiritual workers in historic newspapers. Students examine language, services, and claims while comparing ads with other evidence. The course reveals how Hoodoo operated as both community practice and professional service.
HORB SCH 605 — Mail-Order Hoodoo & the Rise of the Spiritual Supply Industry
Examines catalogs, packaged products, and supply houses that helped standardize twentieth-century Hoodoo. Students study how commercial production changed access to materia and influenced practice. The course distinguishes older traditions from modern commercial conventions.
HORB SCH 606 — The Great Migration & the Movement of Southern Conjure
Examines how Black Southern migration carried Hoodoo into northern, midwestern, and western cities. Students study networks, churches, music, businesses, and urban adaptation. The course traces how Southern practices traveled, changed, and survived in new environments.
HORB SCH 607 — Hoodoo in Blues, Gospel & Black Folk Music
Examines roots, crossroads, love work, gambling, and spiritual language in Black musical traditions. Students analyze lyrics, artists, and historical context without taking songs as literal instructions. The course shows how music preserved and reshaped conjure imagery.
HORB SCH 608 — Hoodoo in Black Southern Literature & Oral Storytelling
Examines conjure in folktales, oral narratives, fiction, memoir, and Black Southern literature. Students analyze how storytellers use rootworkers, haints, and spiritual belief to communicate cultural knowledge. The course compares literary depictions with historical testimony.
HORB SCH 609 — Separating Historical Evidence From Internet Folklore
Teaches students how to investigate online claims about Hoodoo history and practice. Students learn source tracing, reverse citation, and identification of unsupported claims. The course distinguishes old tradition, regional tradition, family practice, commercial convention, modern innovation, or dispute based on evidence.
HORB SCH 610 — Building a Hoodoo Research Archive
Teaches students to build a durable research collection with proper documentation and preservation. Students learn citation, metadata, file organization, transcription, and access control. The course prepares practitioners to preserve family knowledge and historical materials for future generations.