Take On The South: Recent Episodes
Institute for Southern Studies, University of South Carolina
Take On The South, the podcast of the University of South Carolina's Institute for Southern Studies, examines the highs and lows of the American South through interesting conversations about everything from gumbo to grits, pro wrestling to poetry, and identity to Interstate highways. Join us as we take on the South!
Professor Mark Smith sits down with former South Carolina Governor and Executive Director of the United Nations World Food Programme, David Beasley. They discuss Beasley’s South Carolina roots, his journey to becoming governor, and the impactful experiences that shaped his leadership both locally and on the global stage.Follow us on Take on the South socials!
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Special host Professor Kent Germany interviews Dr. Caroline Grego, author of Hurricane Jim Crow. They explore how the catastrophic hurricane that struck South Carolina during the Jim Crow era became more than just a natural disaster. Tune in to uncover the untold story of how the storm and its aftermath were used to reinforce racial oppression in the South.
College football season is upon us. Join us as we hear informed predictions from our special guest, Connor Smith, about how the Carolina Gamecocks will do this 2024 season!
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Today, Take on the South introduces a brand-new journaldedicated to all things South Carolina, Carolina Currents: Studies in South Carolina Culture. Mark Smith talks with the journal’s editor, Professor Christopher D. Johnson of Francis Marion University, about Carolina Currents—its content, mission, and the topics it covers. Listeners are invited to email Professor Johnson directly if they have questions about the journal: CJohnson@fmarion.edu
In the last episode of season three, Mark Smith is joined by one of the most talented historians of the American South and author of the one of the most important books ever written on the region: Peter H. Wood. Professor Wood is author of Black Majority: Race, Rice, and Rebellion in South Carolina, 1670-1740. A landmark work published fifty years ago, Black Majority has stood the test of time. Find out why on today's episode.
Today on the program we delve into the fascinating world of historic preservation to discover what preservation is, how it works, and what gets to be preserved (and what doesn't). Robin Waites, executive director of Historic Columbia, joins Mark Smith to talk about historic preservation and to reflect on her two-plus decades of leadership in the field.
Emily Allen interviews Dr. Simon Buck, a writer, historian, and musician. His first monograph, on old age and music in the USSouth, is under contract with the University of Illinois Press. He is employed at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on research projects concerning the intersection of British slavery, healthcare, and university education in Edinburgh. The interview focuses on Buck's article “‘Up on Cripple Creek’: Limb Loss, Difference, and Disability Spectacle in Southern Roots Music.”
The story of the South is also the story of Civil Rights. On this episode of Take on the South, we explore how the Civil Rights Movement has shaped the South and how the story continues tounfold. Mark Smith is joined by Professor Bobby Donaldson, a professor in the History department and Director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research, at the University of South Carolina, who shares some remarkable stories about Civil Rights in the American South.
This special episode of Take on the South is a compilation of short segments from the students in the Spring 2024 course Popular Musics of the US South. Each student discusses the history of a particular pop music artist or genre with roots in the South. The students featured in this episode are Brooks Bishop, Josh Browning, Will Byars, Justin Gilbert, Jorden Jeffers, Annie Matson, Chris Nash, Cameran Peake, Logan Rodgers, and Wilson Stokes.
Emily Allen interviews Dr. Sophia Enríquez, who is the Andrew W. Mellon assistant Professor Music, Latino/a Studies, and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. They discuss herwork with Latino communities in Appalachia, the US South, and Mexico.
Dr. Mark Smith of the Institute for Southern Studies is joined by the 2024 McNair Conversation in Southern Studies Honoree, Chief Justice Jean Toal. This discussion explores the Chief Justice’s upbringing in South Carolina, her experience in southern politics, and her signal achievements in the legal field. The McNair Conversation is an annual event in which thinkers, leaders, and just plain interested people from the South are interviewed about their lives and how they understand the region. It is funded in part by a generous grant from the estate of the late Robert McNair, governor of South Carolina from 1965-1971.
What are the origins of higher education? Who were the key figures in its invention and subsequent entrenchment? What role did the South play in its emergence? And where is higher education today? To help answer these questions, Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Michael T. Benson, president and professor of history at Coastal Carolina University who discusses his recently published book, Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University.
Twenty years ago, Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates, Jr. found, verified, and published what proved to be the first novel written by an African American woman in America: The Bondswoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts. However, little to nothing was known about Crafts' own life--until now. Mark Smith is joined by Furman University's Gregg Hecimovich, author of The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative, to discuss her remarkable life, the story of his work to piece together Crafts' biography, and the complexity of social interactions in the Old South.
In this episode Ebony Toussaint interviews John Jennings, a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the Universityof California at Riverside. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on hip hop, Afrofuturism, and horror. In this interview we explore Southern folklore, his Mississippi roots, and the phrase Jennings co-created, the Ethnogothic.
In another of our miniseries of rehearsals and evaluations of AI-produced scripts of conversations with famous dead Southerners, Mark Smith is joined by Professor Stephanie Y. Mitchem to talk about Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks. They discuss the famous incident on the Birmingham bus--which AI gets mostly right--the complexities of Parks's identity and activism, and all of the details and nuances that ChatGPT misses.
Mark Smith is joined by Ed Madden, former poet laureate of Columbia, SC, to talk about the role of poetry in recording the history and exploring the places of Southern cities.
Mark Smith asked ChatGPT to produce a scripted interview with the writer William Faulkner. Matt Simmons joins him to discuss that script, the work and background of the South's most famous writer, and the limits and promises of AI.
In this episode Emily Allen interviews Burgin Mathews, who is a writer, a radio host, and the founding director of the nonprofit Southern Music Research Center. He also published the book Magic City: How the Birmingham Jazz Tradition Shaped the Sound of Americain 2023 with the University of North Carolina Press.
Two Englishmen, our own Mark Smith and Dr. Clive Webb, Professor of Modern American History at the University of Sussex, sit down to discuss their very British perspectives on writing the history of the American South. What are the differences in American and British approaches to the topic? What challenges face the British academy and how Britons study the South? The two also discuss Dr. Webb's work, including Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights and Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era.
Emily Allen chats with Marvin McNeill about African American military bands, college marching bands, and brass bands in the South and beyond. McNeill, a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, is Assistant Professor of Music and African American Studies at the Oxford College of Emory University. In this conversation, he centers on the brass band Funky Dawgz, the TBC Brass Band, and the Morgan State University marching band.
Mark Smith is joined by Neil Kinghan, author of A Brief Moment in the Sun: Francis Cardozo and Reconstruction in South Carolina to discuss the life and legacy of one of the more fascinating forgotten figures in American history, the Reconstruction-era South Carolina politician and reformer Francis Cardozo.
Mark Smith is joined by Sarah Gardner of Mercer University to talk about the role the English playwright William Shakespeare played in the military, political, and interpersonal life of the American Civil War.
As conference champtionship season warms up, our new host Emily Allen speaks with musicologist Carrie Allen Tipton about her book From Dixie to Rocky Top: Music and Meaning inSoutheastern Conference Football. They discuss the role fight songs and football have had in shaping Southern identity, school spirit, and the various political meanings of Southern higher ed.
Mark Smith sits down with Mercer University professor David A. Davis, author of the new book Driven to the Field: Sharecropping and Southern Literature, to discuss the development of sharecropping, a labor that shaped so much of the rural South, both black and white, for the 100 years after the Civil War, and its representation in Southern literature.
The speaker for the Institute for Southern Studies' 2023 Neuffer Lecturer in Southern Literature is Ron Rash, a bestselling author of some eight novels, seven books of short stories, and three books of poetry. Before the lecture, he joined Matt Simmons in the podcast studio to discuss his life and work.
In another of our series of AI-generated conversations with famous dead Southerners, Mark Smith is joined by USC history professor Kent Germany to discuss the odd understanding ChatGPT has of our 36th president, Lyndon Baines Johnson
Mark Smith is joined by Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey, authors of the new book Kugels and Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolinato discuss the role of food in situating Jews into the rich story of the South across the generations.
September 22-24th was Family Weekend at the University of South Carolina, and we in Southern Studies held an open house for students, parents, and family members to come in and tell their Southern stories. This episode features highlights from that open house, with reactions to the South from two Iranians, a New Englander parsing what "just Southern enough" means, and a native Carolinian sharing how she fell in love with home after having trouble finding something to eat in Germany.
In honor of Halloween and in an effort to explore the implications of AI, Take on the South is having a special series of "Southern Seances" in October. Each Monday, we will have ChatGPT write a script for an interview between our host, Mark Smith, and a famous dead Southerner. Mark and a guest will dissect what AI got right about the figure, where it made mistakes, and what the experience can tell us about the utility and limitations of AI.
First up: Elvis! Mark is joined by Grant Wong, PhD student in the University of South Carolina's History department.
Special music is "Let the Mystery Unfold" by Geoff Harvey.
Mark Smith is joined by Matt Simmons and G.C. Ramey, president of the Gamecock Bourbon Society, for a conversation on bourbon: the regulations that govern it, the history behind it, the stories it tells, how it is produced, the relationship between marketing and storytelling, and the glories of Old Granddad 114.
Mark Smith interviews Wendy Homeyer, a native of Greenville, SC, alumna of the University of South Carolina, and former George W. Bush administration staffer about her experience of the fateful day of September 11, 2001 from within the White House.
Mark Smith sits down with James Williams, CEO of Columbia, SC-based Food People Restaurant Group, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of doing business in the South. Along the way, they discuss why struggles with access to capital continue to lead so many Southern entrepreneurs leaving the region and why so many eventually return home. Finally, how does Southern hospitality shape how business is done in the South, and what does the future for entrepreneurship in the region look like?
In the last of our summer repeats, we get y'all ready for football season! Mark Smith is joined by Andy Doyle, Associate Professor of history at Winthrop University to discuss the origins of college football in the South. How did this thoroughly industrialized, northeastern game associated with New England gentry and the Ivy League--which was originally rejected by Southerners as a "Yankee game"--come to dominate the region? It's a fascinating story full of colorful characters that you'll want to share with all of your football-loving friends and family.
How do roads help to shape and define the South? In this episode, we talk particularly about "Malfunction Junction," South Carolina's most notorious highway interchange, the stretch of highway where I-20 and I-26 come together west of Columbia. What's the history of Malfunction Junction and what does that history tell us about the development of South Carolina over the last several generations? More importantly, what is its future as it transforms into "Carolina Crossroads" over the rest of this decade? Mark Smith is joined by Brian Klauk, project manager of the Carolina Crossroad projects, and Pete Poore, the communications director of the South Carolina Department of Transportation, to discuss.
https://www.scdotcarolinacrossroads.com/
To say "Southern Rock" is a "Southern" musical genre is a truism--but what, exactly, is it? How does the groovy, swaggering Southern Rock of the 1970s connect to the emergence of jangly College Rock in the 1980s and 90s? How does this music tell the story of Southern identity, and how has that music evolved over the last 50 years as Southern identity itself has evolved? And finally, how has the rise of Spotify and other streaming platforms changed the possibilities for creating and engaging the "Southern" in rock music?
Joining Matt Simmons in this lively discussion are Todd Hagstette of the University of South Carolina-Aiken, Jeff Rogers of Gordon State College, and music journalist and critic Robert Dean Lurie, author of the acclaimed Begin the Begin: R.E.M.'s Early Years.
An Englishman, a New Englander, and a Southerner walk into a podcast studio and have...a simply incredible conversation about the South, what ideas we bring to the region, and what we have to unlearn about it to make sense of it and ourselves within it.
Matt Simmons is joined by Mark Smith and Andrew Berns, professor of history at the University of South Carolina, for an electric conversation. We could have gone on for three times as long!
[This is the first of a series of repeats of some of our best episodes during the summer. We will be back with all new episodes with the new academic year!]
Professional Wrestling has a rich history in the South, a history that arguably reaches its apogee in the last 25 years of the 20th century. During that time, many of the major wrestling 'territories' of the region came together to form Atlanta-based World Championship Wrestling; throughout the 1980s and 90s, WCW functioned as the #2 wrestling promotion worldwide. Further, with the post-Jim Crow landscape of the South leading to integration of both performers and audiences and WCW's introduction of Mexican-style lucha libre wrestling into the American context, Southern wrasslin' emerged in the 1980s and 90s as a way to tell the story of a changing South to the nation and the world. How was this story told?
We are joined by Andre Key and Robert Greene, II of Claflin University and Miles Smith, IV of Hillsdale College to discuss the topic.
Mark Smith sits down with Stephanie Melora, owner of Southern Cypress Tattoos in Columbia, SC, to discuss the culture of tattooing in the South and the regulatory environment around tattooing in South Carolina.
Find Stephanie on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/s_melora_tattoos/https://www.instagram.com/southerncypress_tattoo
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Mark Smith sits down with Stephanie Melora, owner of Southern Cypress Tattoos in Columbia, SC, to discuss the culture of tattooing in the South and the regulatory environment around tattooing in South Carolina.
Find Stephanie on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/s_melora_tattoos/
https://www.instagram.com/southerncypress_tattoo
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
Mark Smith is joined by Matt Childs, professor of history at the University of South Carolina, to discuss the longstanding connections between the South, Latin America, and the Caribbean. They discuss shared cultural practices, economic realities, and histories and the idea that, in some ways, the South has always been akin to the more southerly parts of the Americas than the US North. Childs argues that, in order to understand the South as more than simply "the place that is not the North," we need to place the region into hemispheric and global contexts, looking for places of interconnection that transcend national borders.
Mark Smith talks to Southern Studies alumna Emily Ames (University of South Carolina class of '23) about her senior thesis: an examination of nearly 50 years of recipes in Southern Living magazine. How do these recipes, and their evolution over time, speak to how the South's ideas of itself and the region's place in America?
Mark Smith talks to Southern Studies alumna Emily Ames (University of South Carolina class of '23) about her senior thesis: an examination of nearly 50 years of recipes in Southern Living magazine. How do these recipes, and their evolution over time, speak to how the South's ideas of itself and the region's place in America?
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Jennifer Gunter spoke with the poet, Christian J. Collier. He is a Black, Southern writer, arts organizer, and teaching artist who resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His works have appeared in several journals and poetry reviews. A 2015 Loft Spoken Word Immersion Fellow, he is also the winner of the 2020 ProForma Contest and the 2019-2020 Seven Hills Review Poetry Contest. His most recent work The Gleaming of the Blade, was named the 2021 Frost Place Competition Editors’ Selection.
They discussed the parameters of spoken word and the power of language. Collier also talked about ways he uses race as a way at getting at a number of other issues such as intimacy and vulnerability. His take on the South is that we exist in a multitude of Souths, some not necessarily evident to all residents.
What does a South Carolina-born child understand about the South and Southern identity? Mark Smith is joined by his eight year old daughter, Rose, for an intriguing (and adorable) short interview that reveals much about how ideas such as "South" are put into larger social, pop cultural, and familial contexts as children begin the process of understanding their place in the world.
We're back with another conversation!
Just in time for the Kentucky Derby, Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Gabi Kuenzli of the USC history department for a discussion of the role of horse racing in the South. What's the historical background of the sport in the region? How does horse racing point to the ways in which the South has long been a global phenomenon, particularly in its connections with Latin America?
Video version of this conversation:
https://youtu.be/CFMYmk1u_Gk
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Our eclectic, alphabetic tour of the South continues with a look at the South's iconic spirit: bourbon. Matt Simmons discusses the origins and name of the drink, the relationships between the South and the West, bourbon as place-in-a-glass, the differences between Tennessee and Kentucky whiskeys, how Jack Daniel got his start, a whiskey-related museum curated by teetotalers, Walker Percy's mint julep recipe, and more.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Kentucky Encyclopedia, edited by John E. Kleber, et al., University Press of Kentucky, 1992.
The Lost Story of Nearest Green, the Slave Who Taught Jack Daniel How to Make Whiskey
Granville Whiskey Decanter Museum
Walker Percy's essay "Bourbon" is most easily found in the posthumous essay collection Signposts in a Strange Land
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email: digitalussouth@gmail.com
Thanks to:
Episode Image: "A Glass of Bourbon Whiskey" by ctj71081, CC BY-SA 2.0
Music by Alex_Kizenkov
Music by
In the first of a new series we're trying out, Matt Simmons introduces "The Southern Almanac." We begin with azaleas, and take a tour around the South, checking in with how this beloved bush connects mountains and the coast, golf and gardening, New England Southophiles and Lowcountry abolitionists, and round it off with a poem by Sidney Lanier.
Mentioned in the episode:
Clemson Extension Service
Elizabeth Lawrence's A Southern Garden
Magnolia Plantation
The Grimké Sisters
Constance Fenimore Woolson's Rodman the Keeper
The New Georgia Encyclopedia on the Masters Tournament
Sidney Lanier's "The Bee"
Get in touch with us:
IG, Twitter, and Facebook--@uofscsouth
Email: digitalussouth@gmail.com
Music by
Dr. Mark Smith of the Institute for Southern Studies is joined by the 2023 McNair Conversation in Southern Studies Honoree, Lou Kennedy. Ms. Kennedy is an alumna of the University of South Carolina and the CEO of Nephron Pharmaceuticals. This discussion touches on economic development, the doors a Southern accent opens, and the challenges faced by women in business.
The McNair Conversation is an annual event in which thinkers, leaders, and just plain interested people from the South are interviewed about their lives and how they understand the region. It is funded in part by a generous grant from the estate of the late Robert McNair, governor of South Carolina from 1965-1971.
Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Amy Snipes of Penn State to discuss the state of Latino farm labor in the South. What policies--both formal and informal--created the current reality of the South's agricultural sector being dominated by Latino labor? How does this echo previous eras of agricultural labor in the South? What current challenges are faced by Latino farm laborers? How do Southern cultural norms create a space in which Latinos feel comfortable doing seasonal farm labor in the South?
Professor Kent Germany of USC's History department steps in as a guest host to interview David Masciotra, author of I Am Somebody: Why Jesse Jackson Matters, about the life of the civil rights leader and Democratic party stalwart, and how Jackson's Southerness informed his work.
Mark Smith is joined by Abbe Schriber, Assistant Professor of Art History and African American Studies, to discuss the the connections between art, regional identity, and African American history.
Mark Smith is joined by UPenn history professor Mia Bay, author of the recent bookTraveling Black, to discuss the history of travel segregation. The conversation discusses familiar challenges in the Jim Crow South, but also points to the development of travel segregation in the Northern United States.
Check out our YouTube channel for video recordings of interviews! New videos are posted on the Monday after the audio podcast.
In January 1958, the Ku Klux Klan decided to hold a rally outside of the small town of Maxton, North Carolina. The goal was to intimidate local Native American groups and inscribe their place within the Jim Crow hierarchy--but when large numbers of armed Indians showed up, the plan backfired spectacularly.
Matt Simmons is joined by Judge James Lockemy, the recently-retired chief judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals, to discuss the background, events, and aftermath of what is now remembered as the Battle of Hayes Pond, as well as the place of Native Americans, and particularly the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina, in the story of the South.
We're in the midst of bowl season, and we figure some of y'all are itching for even more football content--we're here for you! On today's episode, Mark Smith is joined by Andy Doyle, Associate Professor of history at Winthrop University to discuss the origins of college football in the South. How did this thoroughly industrialized, northeastern game associated with New England gentry and the Ivy League--which was originally rejected by Southerners as a "Yankee game"--come to dominate the region? It's a fascinating story full of colorful characters that you'll want to share with all of your football-loving friends and family.
This will be our last episode of 2022. We'll see y'all in the new year!
Mark Smith is joined by Ted Mauro, Chair of the South Carolina Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights, to discuss the history and consequences of civil asset forfeiture in South Carolina.
Two sons of Columbus County, North Carolina walk into a podcast studio...
We were honored to have Jason Mott, the National Book Award winning author of Hell of a Book, join us in this episode. Matt Simmons interviews Mott about their mutual home county, place, the stories we can tell and not tell, myth, and the very nature of home itself, all through the lens of this fantastic novel. Join us for this great conversation!
From D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation through this past summer's smash hit, Where the Crawdads Sing, the South has always been a key locale of Hollywood's vision of America. How does the region feature in America's cinematic imagination? How does Hollywood use the South, and how has the South on screen evolved over time? Matt Simmons is joined by a panel of guests today to discuss. You'll leave with a list of movies to watch!
An Englishman, a New Englander, and a Southerner walk into a podcast studio and have...a simply incredible conversation about the South, what ideas we bring to the region, and what we have to unlearn about it to make sense of it and ourselves within it.
Matt Simmons is joined by Mark Smith and Andrew Berns, professor of history at the University of South Carolina, for an electric conversation. We could have gone on for three times as long!
Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Julius Fridriksson, the Vice President for Research at the University of South Carolina, to discuss the challenges and opportunities a major Southern university faces--and those it can help solve through research. Join us for this wide-ranging conversation about funding streams, the interactions of state and federal government agencies, modeling civil debate and engagement, science and the productivity of disagreement, and how the University of South Carolina's forthcoming new health sciences campus will position UofSC to be a national leader for years to come.
How do Prohibition, religious revivalism, and Jim Crow intersect in the late 19th century? How does a proper understanding of these intersections shape how we make sense of the post-Reconstruction South, including how we conceive of notions of "liberal" and "conservative" and our idea of capital-P Progress?
Matt Simmons is joined by Brendan J.J. Payne, author of Gin, Jesus, and Jim Crow, in a wide-ranging conversation to discuss these ideas.
Gin, Jesus, and Jim Crow at LSU Press.
It's a story of moonshine, politics, Reconstruction, reform, populism, labor unrest, and rioting as we explore the history of the South Carolina State Constabulary and the development of state-level law enforcement in SC. Matt Simmons is joined by Mark Huguley, the mayor of Arcadia Lakes, SC, a retired SC law enforcement officer, and amateur historian for a fascinating and colorful conversation.
Why does a Japanese man work his way across the entire United States to study Christianity in Columbia, South Carolina? Once in Columbia, how does he become an influential reformer of one of the most notorious prisons in American history? This is the story of Frankie San: soldier in the Japanese Imperial Army, friend to a cowboy, Lutheran pastor, educator, librarian, and minister to those on death row. Matt Simmons is joined by Shannon Smith and Scott Reeves of the James R. Crumley, Jr. Archives to discuss this fascinating story of humility, faith, social justice, and belonging.
The Frankie San Project
When an Englishman enters a Columbia, SC tattoo parlor, he finds himself participating in an unearthing the serendipitous connections of Southern history, fathers and son, and art as an access point to history. Join Mark Smith as he and Columbia, SC-based tattoo artist "Spirit" share their incredible story, discuss the development of tattooing in the South, and think through how art works to reinforce history.
Mark and Spirit discuss Eldzier Cortor's 1973 painting, Still-Live: Past Revisisted in the course of the conversation.
https://tattoosbyspirit.com/
In the first episode of our new season, we think through how roads help to shape and define the South. In particular, we talk about "Malfunction Junction," South Carolina's most notorious highway interchange, the stretch of highway where I-20 and I-26 come together west of Columbia. What's the history of Malfunction Junction and what does that history tell us about the development of South Carolina over the last several generations? More importantly, what is its future as it transforms into "Carolina Crossroads" over the rest of this decade? Mark Smith is joined by Brian Klauk, project manager of the Carolina Crossroad projects, and Pete Poore, the communications director of the South Carolina Department of Transportation, to discuss.
https://www.scdotcarolinacrossroads.com/
In one of our most instructive episodes yet, Mark Smith is joined by Connie Schulz, Distinguished Professor Emerita of History at the University of South Carolina, for a fascinating conversation about her life and work. Along the way, we learn about the development of public history as an academic discipline, the evolution of how we study the role of women in our national history, and the differences between digital and analog editions of the papers of historical figures. Dr. Schulz also gives us an overview of the Pinckney family, one of the leading political dynasties of the Revolutionary and Early Republic periods, and explains how studying the personal papers of major historical figures also gives us insight into the lives of the otherwise lost-to-history individuals with whom they interacted. Finally, we're given a view into how historians work within and gather archival materials and how the all-important grants process works.
You're certain to learn a thing or two in this episode! Join us.
When Sean Dedmon, a 2022 graduate of the University of South Carolina, was looking for a project for his senior thesis, he decided to look through the archives of The Gamecock, UofSC's student newspaper. There, Sean found a debate about how students understood and memorialize the Civil War spanning five decades. The evolution of this debate parallels changes at the University and the state of South Carolina's place in broader national conversations. In this second of our summer special episodes, Mark Smith interviews Sean about his findings.
The political primary season is in full swing in the South, and Joshua Meyer-Gutbrod of UofSC's Political Science department joins Mark Smith to discuss in this first of a series of special summer episodes.
The final podcast of our first season!
In the inaugural event of the Institute for Southern Studies' Conversations on the American South series, Mark Smith is joined by Thavolia Glymph, Peabody Family Distinguished Professor of History at Duke University. In addition to talking about her work--especially her books The Women's Fight: The Civil War's Battles for Home, Freedom, and Nationand Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household--Dr. Glymph talks about how growing up in South Carolina shaped her understanding of her own self, her scholarship, and the South as a place understandable through the multiplicity of its stories. The wonderful conversation is followed up by an equally interesting question and answer period.
Thanks for listening to the first season of Take on the South--see y'all in August with new episodes!
Dr. Michael Woods, editor of the Andrew Jackson Papers project and professor of history at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, joins Mark Smith to talk about the seventh president of the United States. How do lore and historical fact interact as we examine Jackson? What complexities about the man, his political circle, and the first third of the 19th century are revealed in his papers? Dr. Woods also discusses the process of editing this massive collection of papers and the challenges faced by Jackson's biographers.
https://thepapersofandrewjackson.utk.edu/
The Cambridge Union debate between James Baldwin and William F. Buckley, Jr. was a flashpoint in the Civil Rights Movement. Nick Buccola, the author of the award-winning The Fire is Upon Us: James Baldwin, William F. Buckley Jr., and the Debate Over Race in America, joins Mark Smith to discuss how this debate between two New Yorkers, taking place in England, has Southern contexts.
(Mark Smith's microphone was acting up in this episode)
The coming of electricity to rural South Carolina in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s was one of the great societal shifts in the state's history. More than just the story of electricity, it's the story of economic development, public/private partnerships and their associated political complexities, the environment, labor, and changes in how South Carolinians understood themselves and their place in the world. Lacy K. Ford, Jr., former Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences and emeritus professor of History at the University of South Carolina, explores these interconnections in his new book, Empowering Communities: How Electric Cooperatives Transformed Rural South Carolinaand joins Mark Smith to discuss the story.
The South is home to some of the most economically dynamic cities and metropolitan areas in the country--but also a large number of places left behind by the ending of the previous economic order in the late 20th Century. Why do some Southern communities thrive while others lag? How do history, policy, and geography shape the economic fortunes of the South's small towns? And finally, what practical steps can be taken to help the South's small towns and rural areas thrive once again? Matt Simmons is joined by Jeremy Ward, a 2021 graduate of the University of South Carolina's economics department who is currently doing graduate work at Georgia Tech, to discuss these exact questions.
What do three seemingly disparate works--the first truly significant American film, The Birth of a Nation, the first American musical, Showboat, and the first American opera, Porgy and Bess--share in common? How do they tell authentically American stories and inescapably Southern stories--and do they call into question the very distinction between American and Southern? Mark Smith interviews Geoffrey Galt Harpham of Duke University about his forthcoming book, Citizenship on Catfish Row, about these very questions.
Citizenship on Catfish Row (forthcoming from UofSC Press)
In this episode, we talk to UCCRP Co-Leads, Timika Wilson and Kate Schoen. They discuss the process they underwent from learning of these atrocities through creating the project and erecting the markers. The project is sponsored by the Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) and they worked closely with them to develop and install two of the makers. The third was erected to honor the lives of twelve men who were lynched in 1871 by local members of the Ku Klux Klan in an event known as the Union Jail Raid and Massacre. It was a collaborative effort with the South Carolina Department of Archives and History’s (SCDAH) State Historical Marker program and was funded by South Carolina Humanities. (Hosted by Jennifer Gunter)
Timika M. Wilson, UCCRP Co-Lead (Union County, SC), Programming Committee Chair, and Fundraising Committee Chair (Interim)
Kate Borchard Schoen, UCCRP Co-Lead (at large) and Equal Justice Initiative Coalition Liaison https://eji.org
Facebook -- https://www.facebook.com/groups/UCCRP
Union County Community Remembrance Project https://www.unioncountycrp.com
To say "Southern Rock" is a "Southern" musical genre is a truism--but what, exactly, is it? How does the groovy, swaggering Southern Rock of the 1970s connect to the emergence of jangly College Rock in the 1980s and 90s? How does this music tell the story of Southern identity, and how has that music evolved over the last 50 years as Southern identity itself has evolved? And finally, how has the rise of Spotify and other streaming platforms changed the possibilities for creating and engaging the "Southern" in rock music?
Joining Matt Simmons in this lively discussion are Todd Hagstette of the University of South Carolina-Aiken, Jeff Rogers of Gordon State College, and music journalist and critic Robert Dean Lurie, author of the acclaimed Begin the Begin: R.E.M.'s Early Years.
While Hollywood has made the 54th Massachusetts Infantry the best-known African American unit in the Civil War, it was not the first--that distinction goes to the 1st South Carolina Volunteers, a unit based out of the SC Lowcountry, made up of formerly enslaved soldiers from South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida. Theirs is a great Southern story, of freedom, courage, tragedy, and intimate knowledge of place. Why is this unit so little-known in the 21st Century? And what actions are local leaders in Beaufort, SC taking to make theirs a nationally-known story? Mark Smith is joined by Valinda Littlefield, professor of History and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina, to discuss.
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Southern literature, and particularly Southern poetry, has a long and rich tradition. How does poetry continue as a vital literary genre in the contemporary South? How does it provide us a means to explore the ambiguities and evolutions of the region in the late 20th and early 21st centuries? Join us for a lively discussion between Matt Simmons and Ray McManus, professor of English at USC-Sumter and an award-winning poet himself, about the state of poetry in today's South. Hosted by: Matt Simmons
In this special series of episodes, Jennifer Gunter interviews the recipients of the 2021 Ellison Fellowship, an award given by the Institute for graduate students to pursue their research projects. In this last episode, Gunter interviews Raven Gadsden, a graduate student in UofSC's English Department, whose research examines the literatures of the Gullah/Geechee people. Hosted by: Jennifer Gunter
In this special series of episodes, Jennifer Gunter interviews the recipients of the 2021 Ellison Fellowship, an award given by the Institute for graduate students to pursue their research projects. In this episode, we learn about the research of Jordan Davis, a graduate student in UofSC's Anthropology Department, who examines the archaeological record of the interactions of African Americans and Seminoles in Florida. Hosted by: Jennifer Gunter
In this special series of episodes, Jennifer Gunter interviews the recipients of the 2021 Ellison Fellowship, an award given by the Institute for graduate students to pursue their research projects. Up first: Spud McCullough, a graduate student in UofSC's Anthropology Department, with a project on Gullah/Geechee Tour Guides in the South Carolina Lowcountry. Hosted by: Jennifer Gunter
In this special series of episodes, Jennifer Gunter interviews the recipients of the 2021 Ellison Fellowship, an award given by the Institute for graduate students to pursue their research projects. In this second episode, Gunter interviews Archie Crowley, a graduate student in UofSC's Linguistics Program, with a project on linguistic practice and activism by transgender individuals in the South. Hosted by: Jennifer Gunter
How can dance tell the story of Black progress? This episode features Tanya Wideman-Davis and Thaddeus Davis, Associate Professors of Dance and African American Studies at the University of South Carolina and founders of the Wideman Davis Dance company. They discuss their evolutions as dancers and activists who center their work on often invisible stories of Black Southerners. In their words, their work involves, "centering Black existence--its history and liberation." Hosted by: Jennifer Gunter
In this 'minisode,' Mark Smith is rejoined by UofSC political scientist Joshua Myer-Gutbrod for a brief discussion of the aftermath of the Virginia gubernatorial election. What were the causes of Glenn Youngkin's win? What does this tell us about the state of Southern politics, especially in light of the continued nationalization of politics within the region? Finally, what's the next interesting story in Southern politics?
Professional Wrestling has a rich history in the South, a history that arguably reaches its apogee in the last 25 years of the 20th century. During that time, many of the major wrestling 'territories' of the region came together to form Atlanta-based World Championship Wrestling; throughout the 1980s and 90s, WCW functioned as the #2 wrestling promotion worldwide. Further, with the post-Jim Crow landscape of the South leading to integration of both performers and audiences and WCW's introduction of Mexican-style lucha libre wrestling into the American context, Southern wrasslin' emerged in the 1980s and 90s as a way to tell the story of a changing South to the nation and the world. How was this story told? How do we still hear some of this story echoed in today's World Wrestling Entertainment? Can the WWE still tell distinctively Southern stories? Andre E. Key and Robert Greene, II of Claflin University and Miles Smith, IV of Hillsdale College join the show to discuss. Transcript
All eyes are trained on the governor's race in Virginia. Will Terry McAuliffe manage to fend off a burgeoning challenge from Glenn Youngkin and keep the Governer's office Democrat? How are national events shaping the race? And what might the outcome mean for the future of southern politics more generally? University of South Carolina political scientist, Joshua Meyer-Gutbrod, shares his insights on what is shaping up to be a critical election Hosted by: Mark Smith
What is Southern Studies? What was it fifty years ago? And how has the study of the US South changed in half a century? To answer these questions, we talk with the doyen of Southern Studies at the University of South Carolina, Walter Edgar, Professor Emeritus of History and host of South Carolina Public Radio's wildly popular "Walter Edgar's Journal." Hosted by: Mark Smith
What is "Take on the South"? A brief conversation between Mark Smith, Director of the Institute for Southern Studies, and Matt Simmons, an instructor in the Institute, about this podcast--its origins and aspirations; how it works; and topics it will cover. Hosted by: Matt Simmons