Cambridge Conference – Latest Programme

The official programme for the forthcoming conference at the University of Cambridge, “[W]hither the Atlantic World? Understanding the American South in Transatlantic Context,” is now available. You can also view the conference poster.

New Southern Spaces articles: Memory, memorial, place

Unearthing the Weeping Time: Savannah’s Ten Broeck Race Course and 1859 Slave Sale
Kwesi DeGraft-Hanson, Emory University

In 1859, 439 slaves were sold at Ten Broeck Race Course on the outskirts of Savannah. De Graft-Hanson examines how the site of one of the largest slave sales in US history has been instrumental in acts of remembrance, despite not receiving a public marker until 2008.

Discursive Memorials: Queer Histories in Atlanta’s Public Spaces
Artist Collective John Q (Wesley Chenault, Andy Ditzler, and Joey Orr),
Atlanta, Georgia

This article reflects upon the processes and inspirations that animate the John Q collective’s public art project Memory Flash, which “rigorously and playfully engages in the documentation, collection, and presentation of queer southern experiences and stories.” John Q’s interventions into the queer histories of Atlanta begin on Saturday, April 3.

Cambridge Conference – Programme and Abstracts

The programme for the forthcoming Understanding the South, Understanding America Conference, “W[h]ither the Atlantic World?: The American South in Atlantic Context” (Clare College, Cambridge, May 6-8th, 2010), is now available.

Abstracts for the individual papers may also be accessed online.

Facing South – latest edition

Facing South is the online magazine of the Institute of Southern Studies.

Recent articles include a report on the Tea Party movement and its impact upon politics in the South, an analysis of the prevalence of far-right views among Southern Republicans, and a discussion of the legacy of late historian and Civil Rights activist Howard Zinn.

New articles on Southern Spaces journal

Two new articles have recently been published in the Southern Spaces interdisciplinary online journal:

Cameron B. LeBlanc (Emory University), “Preserving the Memory of Ybor City, Florida.”

LeBlanc surveys digital resources documenting Ybor City, Florida, in its early twentieth century heyday as the ‘cigar capital of the world,’ focusing particularly on the unique syncretic cultural identity that grew out of the combined heritages of its Cuban, Spanish, and Italian populations.

LeeAnn Lands (Kennesaw State University), “A City Divided.”

Lands examines the curious heterogeneity of Atlanta’s residential landscape in the late nineteenth century, despite increasing racial and class animosity; and the events that precipitated the turn to residential segregation in the early twentieth century.

Publication: Southern Culture Annual 2009

Ted Olson (ed.), CrossRoads: A Southern Culture Annual 2009
(Mercer University Press)

This new anthology, dedicated to to the interdisciplinary study and artistic appreciation of the South (broadly defined) and Southern culture comprises a range of scholarly and creative work by authors, poets, historians, musicians, and essayists.

Michael Bibler discusses queer plantation literature – Video

Michael Bibler, lecturer in American literature at the University of Manchester, discusses same-sex intimacy in Southern plantation fiction at Outwrite Bookstore, Atlanta GA.

The Understanding the South research network is now live!