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Jenna Chalhoub presenting research

Jenna at the C of C Research Exposition. April 7, 2022. 

Jenna Chalhoub ’22 completed her minor in Southern Studies with a capstone project on Native Americans living in the South since the era of Removal. Jenna’s project not only explores academic sources, but also seeks to learn from Native Americans what their experiences may have been like and what histories and perspectives they would like to share with non-Native people.  She’s also created this Voicethread based on a presentation she did for the College of Charleston Research Expo in April.
We congratulate Jenna for this excellent and ground-breaking work! A week after graduation, she found time to answer a few of our questions about her research.
Q: Tell us how you got so interested in doing this project for your capstone.
A:When assigned the task to formulate a project summarizing my experience in Southern Studies, I realized there was a huge gap in the historic narrative in need of discussion: the Native American perspective. For the project, I aspired to discover what life was like for Native people living in the South from 1830, the year the Indian Removal Act passed, to the present year of 2022. Due to the complexity of this project, it made sense to start local and learn about Tribes with roots much older than Charleston.
With limited published sources, I began to research the history of the Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of South Carolina and the Wassamassaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians. Indigenous People were not provided the opportunity for recognition by the state of South Carolina until 2004, so written sources on these Tribes histories are limited. To grasp a broader Southern perspective, I sought to read narratives written about one of the largest Tribes in the Southeast: the Lumbee Indians of Robeson County, North Carolina. Although reading is informative, making connections with Tribe members and supporting their publicly held events is the most effective and meaningful way to learn about their histories and culture.
Artwork representing the Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe of SCArtwork representing the Wassamasaw Tribe of Varnertown Indians
Q: Is this a topic that was taught in your coursework? 

A: No, not necessarily. Most people are unaware of Native American Tribes living in the South because public school systems have historically not included their perspectives in the narrative. Based on my experience in school, efforts are made to tell the history of how Native people and European settlers interacted during colonization. However, the stories are offered from narrow perspectives and neglect to include the rich and diverse history of Native Tribes before the United States existed, as well as their experiences and contributions to the tale of American history. During the fall semester of 2021, I enrolled in a Native American history class (HIST 215) where I discovered that many Native Tribes remained in the South after the Removal era (1830s) and still live today. One of my first thoughts when I learned about the Edisto’s and the Wassamasaw Tribe was: “Why am I just now learning about these Native communities after I have lived in Charleston for four years?”

Q.  How can C of C professors and students learn more about these communities and their histories?

A. Once I began my research I discovered that sources of information on this topic have been quite limited, and that the first step to truly learn these People’s stories was to make connections with them. As a College of Charleston community, we should continue learning about, listening to, and developing relationships with local and regional Tribes in order to provide a more complete and inclusive history for a place we all call home. My project supervisor, Dr. Julia Eichelberger, and I have worked together to build a bibliography of sources we gathered, so other students and faculty can use them in future research. This is intended to be a continuous growing source that anyone interested in the topic can help us build on. We are also working with Jared Seay to create a Libguide on Native Americans in the South that will be made available. [If you’d like to help us develop this bibliography, please go here to see the work in progress and offer your feedback and ideas.] We hope that these sources will not only help educate the community, but also lead to the development of more classes on the topic. In the meantime, check out this link to learn more about the Native American timeline in South Carolina history.  

Sarah Creel ’22, far right, stands behind Rev. Leondra Stoney ’02 at C of C’s 2021 ‘Land and Labor Acknowledgement.’ Photo by Mike Ledford.

Q: This fall, the College had its first major public event that included a ‘Land and Labor Acknowledgement’. Some C of C faculty researching this topic also attended a webinar about land acknowledgements. One point made in that webinar was the importance of building relationships with present-day Native Americans and learning how one’s institution could learn from and support them. How did you try to build these relationships in the research you did?
A: Every Tribe has different traditions and histories to learn about, and building relationships takes time and patience. After I gathered sources, I connected with Sarah Creel ’22, Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe member, to learn about her family’s traditions, as well as their experiences as Native people living in the South this past century. While these conversations provided a richer knowledge than any book could offer, it only made me want to learn more.
The Edistos held their 45th Annual Powwow this past April (see flyer below) where I had the opportunity to experience an event that showcased some of their traditions such as dance, food, and crafts. These events are open to the public, and are some of the best opportunities to learn about different Tribes and their traditions. Try to attend next year! 

The Edisto Natchez-Kusso Tribe Pow Wow Flyer, April 2022.

Q: What do you hope C of C students and faculty will do to build stronger relationships with Native Americans in our state?
A: Aside from using these sources to learn about the histories, C of C students and faculty should incorporate the Native American perspective in the classroom. To access quick, current information about the recognized Tribes in our state, go to South Carolina’s Recognized Native American Indians Entities through the Commission for Minority Affairs website. Here each Tribe in South Carolina has a point of contact listed, their website, or social media handles for the public to access. Following their social media accounts is an excellent way to hear about events they host to educate the public about their culture, as well as opportunities to support them. My hope is that students and staff will reach out to these communities, attend their events, and participate when appropriate. 
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Fall 22 Course Offerings

Posted by: Julia Eichelberger | March 30, 2022 | No Comment |

Study the South in Fall 2022 (and Summer 22!)

These courses count for the minor in Southern Studies. Offered in F 22 unless otherwise noted.

SOST 200-02 Introduction to Southern Studies. Summer II Online, Prof. Adam Jordan

SOST 200-01. Fall 22 TR 1:40-3:15, Prof. Michele Moore

ANTH 306 Historical Archaeology  TR 3:05-4:20

ARTH 338/HPCP 338 American Vernacular Art and Material Culture MWF 9-9:50 Prof Grant Gilmore

EDFS 201 Foundations of Education (multiple sections in F 22; one section is online in Summer II)

ENGL 313 African American Literature. Summer I, Online. Prof. Valerie Frazier

ENGL 364 Black Horror TR 12:15-1:30 Prof. Julia Mollenthiel

ENGL 477/577 Coming of Age in Southern Spaces Flyer for ENGL 477MW 4-5:15  Prof. Julia Eichelberger        For permission to register contact eichelbergerj@cofc.edu

ENVT 452.01  Flyer for Environmental Justice courseEnvironmental Justice Contact Dr Allison Welch welcha@cofc.edu for permission to register for ENVY 452. [Crosslisted with AAST 300.03, no preqs, and URST 397] 

GEOL 257 Marine Geology MWF 1-2, Lab W 205 Prof. Leslie Sautter [Prereq: Geol 103/105]

HIST 210 ST: The Civil War and Reconstruction in the Atlantic World TR 3:05-4:20

HIST 210 ST: African American Sexuality from Slavery to Freedom TR 9:25-10:40 Prof Shannon Eaves

HIST 216 African American History to 1865 TR 1:40-2:55 Prof Mills Pennebaker

HIST 250 ST: Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade TR 1:40-2:55 Prof John Cropper

Pre-req for 200-level History Courses: History 115/116 or equivalent

HPCP 205 Drawing Charleston W 1-4 PM Prof Ralph Muldrow

HPCP 299 Preservation Planning Studio M 2-5 [Pre-req: HPCP 199]

MUSC 222 ST: All That Jazz. Online Summer I Prof. Yiorgos Vassilandonakis

MUSC 365 Ensemble: Gospel Choir T 6:30-9 Prof Brenten Merrill Weeks

RELS 253 Religions of Charleston TR 1:40-2:55 Prof Brennan Keegan

Flyer for WGST Quuer Friendship courseWGST 352 ST: Queer Friendship, Kinship, Comradeship, and Community as Liberation Praxis. MW 2-3:15 Prof. Cristina Domingez

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Events March-April 2022 focused on our region and community

Posted by: Julia Eichelberger | March 16, 2022 | No Comment |

Attend these events to learn more about the South and contribute to making the region a better place for all.

Tuesday 3.15 5:30-6:30 Post & Courier Uncovered panel discussion on corruption in SC, Rita Hollings Center. Get tickets (free) to attend in person or virtually (or see recording afterward)

Wed 3.16. FLASC group on Mental Fitness discussion of  All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake by Tiya Miles, 1-2pm. Professor Miles will attend virtually. If you are interested in committing to reading/discussing the book and meeting the author please Sign up here 

3.16 6 pm  Presentation by authors of Through Mama’s Eyes: Unique Perspectives in Southern Matriarchy Zoom

3.17 4 pm “Bonds of Empire: The English Origins of Slave Law in South Carolina and British Plantation America, 166-1783” by Lee Wilson HTTPS://COFC.ZOOM.US/J/88442608381

3.17 4-5 PM Beyond the Binary: A Facilitated Conversation about Gender Expansiveness, sponsored by GSEC and I-CAN, 14 Greenway

Friday 3.18 2 pm Social Justice Coffee Hour in Stern 205, including Harlan Greene and alum Tanner Crunelle as panelists

Saturday March 19 Awakening of the Ancestors Through Music: A Gullah Geechee Homecoming. Dance (ring shout) and choral program sponsored by International African American Museum at Mt Moriah Missionary Baptist Church, 7396 Rivers Avenue, N Charleston. 3:45 Dance program 4:00 Choral program. Virtual and in-person attendance options. For more information and to register, visit chscp.co/awakening-ancestors

March 20:  Avery Bottle Tree rededication with Libation Pour by Priestess Osun Wonuola Efunlayo (11 AM) and Open House

March 22  College Libraries and Office of Institutional Diversity community workshop – “Beyond the Filter: Telling Stories with Photographs of Family and Community.” Addlestone Library, Room 127 (or via Zoom), 12:30pm. More information and registration: https://library.cofc.edu/event-beyond-the-filter-tuesday-3-22/

March 24 Avery Research Center and African American Studies Decolonizing the Curriculum lecture – Dr. Erica Dotson: “Black English and Honoring Linguistic Dexterity.” Click Here to Register

March 26 African American Settlement Community Historic Commission Fundraiser for 1904 Long Point School building with Charlton Singleton

Mar 28 Friends of the Library book discussion with historian Orville Vernon Burton (Clemson) and civil rights lawyer Armand Derfner on their book Justice Deferred: Race and the Supreme Court. Mckinley-Washington Auditorium, Avery research Center, 125 Bull Street, 6pm. Register for the in-person event or the simulcast on Zoom.

Mar 30 6 pm Conversation with Margaret Seidler and Polly Sheppard, sponsored by CSSC, location TBD Dorothea Benton Frank series visiting writer — Natasha Trethewey, Nonfiction/Poetry Reading. 7PM, Randolph Hall, Alumni Memorial Auditorium.

Mar 31 7 PM Poetry reading by US Poet Laureate Natasha Tretheway Alumni Hall

April 4 7 PM Charleston Area Justice Ministry’s Nehemiah Action Assembly, 3659 W Montague Avenue

April 5 Women’s and Gender Studies’ fourth “Feminism in Motion” event, celebrating student accomplishments. 3pm, EHHP Alumni Center.

April 7  College-wide Research Expo featuring student research and creative activities from across campus. This event is scheduled for the morning of Thursday, April 7, 2022 in TD Arena

April 18 Center for the Study of Slavery in Charleston’s Annual Lecture featuring Professor James Spady, editor of “Fugitive Movements: Commemorating the Denmark Vesey Affair and Black Radical Antislavery in the Atlantic World”  (Time and Location TBD)

April 22-23 Edisto Natchez-Kusso Annual Powwow, Ridgeville, SC

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Spring 2022 Course Offerings

Posted by: Julia Eichelberger | October 5, 2021 | No Comment |

C of C departments provide many opportunities to study our region’s history, ecosystems, and culture (literature, music, art and architecture, and more). The following Spring 22 courses count for the minor in Southern Studies. Join us as we explore our region and learn how to make it a better place for everyone who lives here.

African American Studies 

AAST 300/LACS 310 Race and Diasporic Connections in  U.S. & Latin America. 12:14 TR Don Polite

AAST 300/HPCP 290  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Historic Preservation (either online or TR 9:25) Barry Stiefel

Art History

ARTH 290 African American Art TR 12:45-2 Mary Shelley Trent

ARTH 338/HPCP 338 American Vernacular Art and Material Culture,

Biology

BIOL 301 Plant Taxonomy MWF 11, Lab M 1-5. Jean Everett

BIOL 334    Herpetology TR10:50 Lab T 12:30-4:30, Allison Marie Welch

Education

EDFS 201 Foundations of Education (multiple sections)

English

ENGL 241/SOST 241 Studying Southern Cultures and Literature. TR 1:40 Scott Peeples

ENGL 360 Charleston Writers TR 9:25. Julia Eichelberger

ENGL 364 19th Century African American Novels. Michael Duvall

Geography

GEOG 219 Reading the Lowcountry Landscape  Online Annette Watson

Historic Preservation and Community Planning

HPCP 299 Preservation Planning Studio M 2-5 James Ward

HPCP 285 Drawing Charleston. W 1-4 Ralph Muldrow

HPCP 290/AAST 300  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Historic Preservation (either online or TR 9:25) Barry Stiefel

History

HIST 217 African American History Since 1865, MW 2-3:15 Ann Pennebaker

HIST 225 History of the South since 1865 TR 12:15 Tammy Ingram

HIST 304 History of South Carolina

HIST 304 U.S. Civil War and Reconstruction, 1845-1877. MW 2-3:15 Wendy Gonaver

HIST 320 Special Topics in Lowcountry History: Charleston Architecture T 5:30-8:15 Robert Stockton

HIST 321 Race, Violence, and Memory in American History

Jewish Studies

JWST 315 Southern Jewish History TR 1:40 Ashley Walters

Latin American Studies

LACS 310/AAST 300 Race and Diasporic Connections in  U.S. & Latin America. 12:14 TR Don Polite

Music

MUSC 365 Ensemble: Gospel Choir T 6:30-9 Brenten Merrill Weeks

Southern Studies

SOST 241/ENGL 241: Studying Southern Cultures and Literature TR 1:40-2:55 Scott Peeples

SOST 400 Southern Studies Capstone Project (Express I) 3:05-4:25 Julia Eichelberger

 

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Fall & Summer Semester 2021 Course Offerings!

Posted by: stahlal | March 23, 2021 | No Comment |

Get a Major in “Home”! 

Click here to download flyer for Southern Studies Fall 2021 Course Offerings

Summer 2021

Updates on Spring 2021 Semester at CofC

EDFS 201 – Foundations of Education – Brian K. Lanahan -Online

MUSC 222.4 – All That Jazz: A Guided Tour of America’s Music – Yiorogos Vassilandonakis – Online

SOST 200.o1 Intro to Southern Studies  Adam Jordan — Online

Fall 2021

AAST 300 – Rooted and Sovereign: Black Decolonial Landings – Tamara T. Butler -MW 2:00 – 3:15 (ONL)

ARTH 261 – Fine and Decorative Arts of Charleston – Patricia Marie Dillon – TR 12:45-2

ARTH 338 – American Vernacular Art and Material Culture – Richard Grant Gilmore – MWF 9:00-9:50

ARTH 396 – Architecture of Memory: Museums, Memorial and Monuments – Nathaniel R. Walker – MWF 12:30 – 1:20

ARTH 339 – History of American Interiors (cross listed with HPCP 339) – Richard Grant Gilmore – MW 3:25-4:40

EDFS 201 – Foundation of Education (Multiple Sections)

ENGL 313 – African American Literature – Valerie D. Frazier – MWF 12:00 – 12:50

Update on Fall 2021 Semester at the College of CharlestonGEOL 213 – Natural Hazards – Steven C. Jaume’ – MWF 12:00 – 12:50

GEOL 257 – Marine Geology – Leslie R. Sautter -TR 10:50 – 12:05

HONS 172 – Honors Introduction to Southern Studies – Julia Eichelberger – MW – 2:00 – 3:15

HPCP 299 – Preservation Planning Studio – James L. Ward -M 2:00 – 5:00

HPCP 285 – Drawing Charleston – Ralph Charles Muldrow – W 1:00 – 4:00

HIST 210 – History of the Appalachia – Sandra D. Slater – MWF – 1:00 – 1:50

HIST 215 – Native American History – Christophe J. Boucher – TR 1:40 – 2:55

HIST 310 – The Long Civil Rights Movement – Shannon C. Eaves – TR 1:40 – 2:55

Updates on the Spring Semester

 (ONL)

MUSC 365.01 – Gospel Choir: Ensemble – Brenten Merrill Weeks – W 6:00 – 8:50

POLI 330 – Southern Politics – Heyward G. Knotts – TR 9:25 – 10:40

SOST – Intro to Southern Studies – James L. Ward MWF 11:00 – 11:5

(Photos courtesy of The College Today)

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Finding the Spirit of South Carolina

Posted by: stahlal | November 11, 2020 | No Comment |

Photo Courtesy of “Spirit of South Carolina” Facebook Page

By Abby Stahl

Nestled in the Charleston harbor is a special opportunity awaiting the students of the College of Charleston. The Spirit of South Carolina is a tall ship built to historical specs that offers students the chance to connect with the history and community of Charleston through the very waterways that built up commerce and trade. We got to sit down with one of the program’s key administrators, Professor Blake Scott of the International Studies Department, to talk about what the College’s partnership with The Spirit offers not only students but also the community.

The ship travels through the old maritime route followed during the Triangle of Trade that allowed the early colonies, like Charleston, to build up major port cities. Manned by a small crew of trained sailors but also with the aid of the students on board, the ship travels through the Caribbean, into Havana and back up to Charleston, stopping in other southern port towns along the way. This spring, the ship would have arrived home just in time for some of the major 250th anniversary celebrations taking place for the College, and the 300th anniversary for the city in the spring, but those fell through due to the Covid outbreak that happened that March. Study onboard has been enjoyed by several students in the past couple of years, not only at C of C but also the Citadel, and the ship has hosted many tourist and local events of the city.

Editorial: Events add to Charleston's rich maritime history | Editorials | postandcourier.com

Photo courtesy of Sylvia Jarrus, The Post & Courier

Classes offered aboard included Beginning Sailing, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, and Caribbean Crossroads, appealing to a wide variety of majors and minors. Distinguished C of C faculty were sailing alongside students on board. The ship was even set to meet with Dr. Scott and his students studying abroad in Havanan, Cuba when they docked for two weeks.

Though the global pandemic put a halt to most of the program’s Spring calendar for last year, they found creative ways to continue in a socially distant manor and hope to return stronger than ever with more chances for student involvement in the future. The ship played host to the Port Cities Conference and still stands as a point of pride in the harbor. It represents not only where we came from but rather what we are, as it offers both the public and students an interactive window into history. Sure to be a unique way to see the world both now and then, the Semester at Sea program hopes to return once it is safe to do so. To learn more and to see what it’s like to live out a Semester At Sea, check out the video!

under: Uncategorized

S 2021 Course Offerings

Posted by: Julia Eichelberger | October 20, 2020 | No Comment |

Spring 2021 will bring lots of courses where students can learn more about the South. All these courses count toward the minor in Southern Studies!

This list will be updated as more information becomes available. If you are planning to teach or enroll in a course that is focused on the South and that’s not on this list, please contact the program director, Grant Gilmore, gilmorerg@cofc.edu to see if it can be added. 

AAST 340 Race, Violence, and Memory in American History TR 9:25-10:40 + online  Dr. Mari Crabtree

AAST 360 Mass Incarceration and Its Roots  TR 10:50-12:05 + online Dr. Mari Crabtree

ARTH 338/HPCP 338 American Vernacular Architecture and Material Culture  9-9:50 + online

BIOL 333 Ornithology  Online  Dr. Melissa Hughes

ENGL 313 African American Literature 11-11:50 MWF + online, Dr. Valerie Frazier

ENGL 315 Black Women Writers TR 12:15-1:30 + online, Dr. Lisa Young

ENGL 350 Mark Twain  TR 9:25-10:40 + online, Dr. Mike Duvall

EDFS 201 Foundations of Education (Multiple Sections)

FYSE 115 The Wonderful World of Real Estate According to King Street MW 2-3:15 + online Dr Elaine Worzala

HPCP 290 Charleston Architecture W 1-4 Online Professor Ralph Muldrow

HPCP 340 Buildings & Landscapes of the College of Charleston TR 1:40-2:5 + online Prof James Ward

HPCP 299 Preservation Planning Studio Professor James Ward  M 2-5 PM + online

HIST 217 African American History Since 1865 TR 1:40 + online Dr. Shannon Eaves

HIST 222 History of South Carolina T 5:30-8:15 Professor Robert Stockton

HIST 225 History of the South Since 1865 TR 12:15-1:30 + online Dr. Tammy Ingram

HONS 250 Black Religion and Black Nationalism  TR 12:15- 1:30 Dr. Matthew Cressler

MUSC 222 All That Jazz: A Guided Tour of America’s Music  Online Professor Yiorgos Vassilandonakis

SOST 175 Religion in the U. S. South  MWF 11-11:50 + online  Dr. Elijah Siegler

SOST 200 Intro to Southern Studies   Online   Dr. Barry Stiefel

SOST 400 Southern Studies Capstone Project   Online  Dr. Grant Gilmore

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Pin Your Mark on History

Posted by: stahlal | September 16, 2020 | No Comment |

Though my graduation may not have gone according to plan, I did in fact get to wear white in the Cistern!

Hi! My name is Abby L. Stahl and I wanted to introduce myself as the Graduate Assistant for the Southern Studies program. I’m already helping manage the program’s Instagram account and now am excited to be part of a new project, an online inventory of the College’s monuments and markers.

Though I’m new to Southern Studies, having never minored in it myself, I’m far from new to the South. I was born and raised in Greenville, S.C. and spent all four of my undergraduate years at College of Charleston majoring in English and Theatre and minoring in International Studies. As a Southerner and scholar and with the recent events swirling through our consciousness, I understand the importance of acknowledging our history. I’m a firm believer in not shying away but exploring both the positive and negatives to find untold stories, to better know exactly what we see every day, and to begin to heal. The removal of the John C. Calhoun statue, the protests held by the Black Lives Matter movement, the acknowledgement of slave labor that built this city and the recognition of ties between the history of slavery and racism and the College’s own story–these are vivid moments of a Charleston community growing for the better. In my opinion we are not removing history, but acknowledging which parts of history we glorify and which parts we have tried not to recognize, erasing the story of those who came before and preventing the healing of whole communities still feeling the effects of this history today. That’s why when Dr. Eichelberger came to me with the idea of asking students to collect images of the markers and names in the College’s landscape, it felt like the perfect idea at the perfect time.

Help our Historypin collection grow!

Dr. Eichelberger describes the project as follows: “We need students to help us analyze what and how C of C remembers, and how best to celebrate those who’ve contributed to the College and upheld our shared values. This summer, the Historical Review Taskforce was formed to advise President Hsu regarding campus markers, monuments and named buildings. As members of the Task Force, Harlan Greene, Bernie Powers and I realized that C of C has no comprehensive list of every named buildings & commemorative or interpretive sign now on campus, and we thought that C of C students could help us compile that list.  Southern Studies has now launched this project on Historypin, a map-based website. Students can now join Historypin and help us document and reflect upon every single College of Charleston location where there’s a marker, named building, interpretive sign, monument, or other commemorative item. In addition to our main campus in downtown Charleston, C of C occupies space on Bull Street (Avery Research Center), Concord Street (Harbor Walk), and on Lockwood Avenue (Riley Center), as well as Patriots’ Point in Mt. Pleasant, Grice Marine Lab on James Island, and the Stono Preserve west of Charleston on the Stono River. Help us create a comprehensive list of the hundreds of commemorative markers that exist in all these locations. ”

Commemorative marker for Elizabeth Jackson, mother of President Andrew Jackson, located in Cougar Mall.

Historypin is a social media platform that works similarly to Pinterest.  Anyone with a free account, including you, your friends, and the rest of the College community, can “pin” or post pictures and facts to map locations. Your pins will be seen worldwide by anyone else who uses this platform to explore our neighborhood and its history.

Below every “pinned” picture, in the comment section, we can all swap stories and facts about the site, the building’s construction, or the people it’s named for.  As interesting pins accumulate, I’ll be posting updates via our Instagram account, and we hope to run a scavenger hunt and congratulate those who’ve pinned the most locations or made the most thoughtful comments on other people’s pins. Our project is being co-sponsored by the department of Historic Preservation and Community Planning.

Together this process will allow us not only to know more about the very buildings that we walk through and live in every day here on campus, but we can also spread greater awareness of the histories of these locations and the people who built them. So I’m inviting all of you, Cougar to Cougar, to sign up for Historypin, pin your mark on history and make this historic campus more of a home for all of us and all who came before!

Large or small, state-sponsored or unofficial, we want to map everything!

Here’s a fun fact to leave you on. Did you know that, according to one marker, Andrew Jackson’s mother is buried somewhere near Cougar Mall? Pretty odd to see a large stone plaque commemorating her on your walk between classes, huh?

Please Check Out Our Historypin Page Via The Link Here – Markers & Names At the College of Charleston And Let Me Know of Any Questions or Information At My Email – stahlal@g.cofc.edu

under: C of C Program in Southern Studies, Charleston History, Historic Buildings, Historic Preservation and Community Planning, Markers, Monuments, Research Projects, Students

Faculty Publications and 2019-20 Events

Posted by: stahlal | September 9, 2020 | No Comment |

Researching the South: Publications by C of C Faculty

2019-2020

Matthew Cressler wrote & co-authored a series of articles called Beyond the Most Segregated Hour; Reparations, Restructuring and Relationships for Religion News Service.

Adam Domby published, and gave myriad interviews about, The False Cause: Fraud, Fabrication, and White Supremacy in Confederate Memory U of VA Press, and “Loyal Deserters and The Veterans Who Weren’t: Pension Fraud in Lost Cause [field_main_title]” in Brian Jordan and Evan C. Rothera (ed.) The War Went On: Reconsidering the Lives of Civil War Veterans (LSU Press, April 2020). He also published “Counterfeit Confederates,” Civil War Monitor, Vol. 10, No. 3, Fall 2020; “The Lost Cause Was A False Cause,” Charleston City Paper, February 19, 2020: “Nikki Haley Gets The History of the Confederate Flag Very Wrong,” Washington Post, December 8, 2019.

Shannon Eaves co-authored “Tell the Stories of Those Who Have Enriched Charleston’s History,” with Adam Domby and Cappy Yarborough, Charleston City Paper, on July 1, 2020.

Julia Eichelberger published “Remembering and Rewriting Gullah Narratives,” introductory essay for U of SC’s 2020 edition of John Bennett’s collection of Gullah-inspired tales, The Doctor to the Dead.

Mary Jo Fairchild, Aaisha Haykal, and Barrye Brown (former C of C / Avery colleague) co-authored “Between Accession and Secession: Political Mayhem and Archival Transparency in Charleston, South Carolina” in the edited collection Libraries Promoting Reflective Dialogue in a Time of Political Polarization.

Grant Gilmore was in the news for his work creating N95 masks using 3D printers and then organizing their distribution to hospitals. A project he worked on with preservationists, historians and the family of Esau Jenkins culminated in September 2019 with the display of Esau Jenkins’s restored VW bus on the National Mall as part of the “Cars on the Capitol” series.

Jenkins Backyard Daylight 01

Photo of the Jenkins VW volkswagen as part of the “Cars on the Capital” project. Article by Nick Williams.

Joanna Gilmore contributed to an op-ed with Ade Ofunniyin and The Gullah Society, “Mayor Tecklenburg’s Comments on Charleston Protestors Not Helpful,” Post and Courier June 18, 2020.

Harlan Greene, Julia Eichelberger, and Ron Menchaca created Discovering Our Past: College of Charleston Histories, a map-based website commemorating the history of the College of Charleston and the spaces that are now part of its campus. With local researcher Sarah Fick and graduate student Grayson Harris, they researched stories for 13 locations and established a venue where future research on C of C can be made available to the public.

Harlan Greene published an essay in a collection, “To Make Their Own Way in the World”: The Enduring Legacy of Zealy Daguerreotypes”.

Maureen Hays co-authored The Stono Preserve’s Changing Landscape, Lowcountry Digital History Initiative, 2020.

Melissa Hughes co-authored “Continuously choosy mates and seasonally faithful females: sex and season differences underlie size-assortative pairing,” Animal Behavior 2020, vol. 160.

Gary Jackson wrote the poem “Forward and Back: Commemorating the 250th Anniversary of the College of Charleston.

Adam Jordan writes a regular column, “Southern Schooling,” for The Bitter Southerner. All Y’all started a column as well; Adam’s 2020 posts (“Y’all Means All,” “Giving Voice to the Voiceless,” “Hillbilly Roll Call”) can be found here:  https://www.allyalledu.com/pastcolumns. (Adam would probably have used his column to report on the All Y’all Social Justice Collective educators’ conference scheduled to be held in Charleston in July 2020, but COVID-19 had other plans.)

Young and old turned out for Joe Biden in South Carolina.

Joe Biden rally in South Carolina as part of the article “Why South Carolina Was So Personal for Joe Biden” by Dr Joe Kelly. Photo by Damon Winter.

Joe Kelly wrote an op-ed for the New York Times, “Why South Carolina Was So Personal for Joe Biden,” March 1, 2020. He and Rich Bodek co-edited Maroons and the Marooned:  Runaways and Castaways in the Americas, University of Mississippi Press, 2020.  Kelly wrote the Introduction and Chapter 9,  “Maroons and the American Epic.”

Gibbs Knotts co-authored “Partisan Realignment and the Politics of Southern Memory,” forthcoming from LSE US Centre Daily Blog on American Politics and Policy, and “Switching Sides but Still Fighting the Civil War,” forthcoming from  Politics, Groups, and Identities. He published “Rethinking the Charleston Runoff Requirement” in Charleston City Paper, November 20, 2019.

Gibbs Knotts and Jordan Ragusa co-authored First In the South: Why South Carolina’s Presidential Primary Matters with U of SC Press, and made numerous appearances discussing the book during primary season in Winter 2020.  They also published “South Carolina Will Align the Democratic Calendar.” The Post and Courier, March 5, 2019, “Studying Politics in an Early State: Lessons from Being ‘First in the South.’”  Political Science Now, January 9, 2020, and co-authored with Karyn Amira “Exit Poll: Overdevelopment and Flooding Motivated Charleston Voters. The Post and Courier, November 8, 2019.

Brittany Lavelle Tulla co-authored “Croxton at Kings Mountain: Implementation and Elaboration of the National Park Service Aesthetic,” Arris: The Journal of the Southeast Chapter of Architectural Historians,  2019, vol 30.

Simon Lewis continued to edit the journal Illuminations, with issue 35 including artwork and an interview with Charleston artist Colin Quashie.

Mark Long and Mark Sloan’s exhibit Southbound: Photographs of and About the New South has been exhibited in museums in North Carolina and Tennessee and is now at  two museums in Meridian, MS. The Southbound catalog was honored with the Alice Award in 2019.

Kameelah Martin co-edited The Lemonade Reader: Beyonce, Black Feminism, and Spirituality, Routledge, 2019.  

Anthony McCutcheon as Sam Maybank, Mario Richardson as Young Kofi and Asha Simmons as Mrs. Huger rehearse a scene from “The Cigar Factory.” From the article “Author Michele Moore adapts her novel “The Cigar Factory” into stage play” by Adam Parker.

Michele Moore’s novel The Cigar Factory was presented as a staged reading which sold out all performances at the Queen Street Playhouse in February. (See photos of cast in Post & Courier)

Harriet Pollack published “Evolving Secrets: The Patterns of Eudora Welty’s Mysteries” in Detecting the South in Fiction, Film, and Television, eds. Deborah Barker and Theresa Stuckey, University Press of Mississippi and edited New Essays on Eudora Welty, Class, and Race,  December 2019, also with Mississippi. She edits a series for UP of Mississippi, Critical Perspectives on Eudora Welty.

Bernard Powers was interviewed for numerous articles including the City Paper’s August 12 2020 “Should We Be Talking About Reparations” and the Post and Courier’s podcast on the Calhoun Monument, which aired just as the monument was finally removed from its pedestal. His newest book, 101 African Americans Who Shaped South Carolina, will be out in October from USC Press.

The Office of Institutional Diversity created “If These Walls Could Talk,” a documentary about the creation of Randolph Hall and the College’s ties to slavery. English adjunct faculty member Michael Owens wrote the screenplay and OID’s Director of Diversity Education Charissa Owens was the producer of the documentary, which will be screened on campus this fall and features numerous C of C faculty sharing their expertise on enslaved workers and artisans in Charleston and at C of C.

The Pearlstine/Lipov Center for Southern Jewish Culture sponsored Research Fellows Daniel Gulotta, who studied archival materials on Isaac Harby and Andrew Jackson, and Jillian Hinderliter, who researched Southern Jewish Women & the Women’s Health Movement.

At 35 Chapel Street, current owner discusses renovation with students

At 35 Chapel Street, current owner discusses renovation with students of the first year seminar class “Studying Abroad in Our Hometown.” Photos provided by seminar professor Dale Rosengarten.

Dale Rosengarten created Studying Abroad in Our Hometown: A College of Charleston First-Year Seminar,” composed of students’ field trip logs from Spring Semester 2019 & published Sept 2019  as a downloadable PDF.

Hayden Ros Smith published Carolina’s Golden Fields: Inland Rice Cultivation in the South Carolina Lowcountry, 1670-1860, Cambridge UP, 2019. He was advisor for the upcoming International African American Museum exhibit, “Carolina Gold,” and environmental historian for the NSF grant in progress, “Collaborative Research: Emergence and Evolution of a Colonial Urban Economy” (award number: 1920835).

Barry Stiefel and Nathaniel Walker organized the symposium Architectures of Slavery: Ruins and Reconstruction, held on campus in October 2019.

Robert Stockton wrote “Commerce and Class: New Approaches to Charleston History” (review essay), Journal of Urban History, 2020, Vol. 46(4) 914–921.

Nathaniel Walker co-edited Suffragette City: Women, Politics, and the Built Environment, Routledge, 2020.Suffragette City : Women, Politics, and the Built Environment book cover

Brian Walter wrote “Nostalgia and Precarious Placemaking in Southern Poultry Worlds: Immigration, Race, and Community Building in Rural Northern Alabama,” in Journal of Rural Studies ,December 2019.

Allison Welch co-authored “Development Stage Affects the Consequences of Transient Salinity Exposure in Toad Tadpoles,” Integrative and Comparative Biology, Oct 2019, vol. 59 no. 4. She also co-authored (with Wendy Cory)“Naproxen and Its Phototransformation Products: Persistence and Ecotoxicity to Toad Tadpoles (Anayrus terrestris), Individually and in Mixtures,” Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, 2019, Vol 28, no 9.

Marjory Wentworth wrote a poem, “A Confederate Dialogue Between John C. Calhoun and Dylann Storm Roof,”  in Charleston City Paper, June 18, 2020

Leah Worthington, Rachel Donaldson, and Kieran Taylor (Citadel), co-authored “Making Labor Visible in Historic Charleston,” Labor: Studies in Working-Class History of the Americas, March 2020, vol. 17, no. 1.

Event Highlights

2019

Between August 2019 and February 2020, the Bully Pulpit series, sponsored by the Department of Communication and moderated by Gibbs Knotts, hosted almost every Presidential candidate: Joe Biden, Michael Bennet, Elizabeth Warren, Andrew Yang, John Delaney, Cory Booker, Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders, Amy Klobuchar, Julian Castro, Beto O’Rourke, and Pete Buttigieg

Art piece by Katrina Andry for her exhibit “Over There And Here Is Me and Me”

August 23 to December 7  the Halsey Institute exhibited New Orleans-based artist Katrina Andry and Charleston-basedartist Colin Quashie

October 25  Groundbreaking of the International African American Museum (Bernard Powers, interm CEO; C of C alum Carlos Guzman Gonzales, Development Assistant); Inauguration of Dr. Andrew Hsu as C of C President, with inaugural poem by Gary Jackson

Sept 9-11 Susanna Ashton, Clemson English professor and author of works on slave narratives and African American writers as well as an LDHI exhibit, was on campus English Department’s Visiting Scholar.

Sept 12  4-6 Pm AAST Film Screening, Traces of the Trade

Sept 25 Presentation by Eric Crawford/Brigitta Johnson (music/ethnomusicology scholars who will discuss music in relation to Race, Religion, Resistance)

October 2-6   Association for the Study of African American Life & History ASALAH Conference (Embassy Suites Hilton, N Chas)

October 3  Charleston Museum/Gullah Geechee Meal with Chef Kevin Mitchell

October 24-26 2019 Conference The Architectures of Slavery: Ruins and Reconstructions at C of C, hosted by ARTH/HPCP (Nathaniel Walker, Barry Stiefel)

Nov 12 AAST’S Consuela Francis Lecture: Alexis Wells-Oghoghomeh, speaking on religious culture, religious consciousness, and resistance among enslaved Black women in the South.  

 2020

Art piece by Butch Anthony Seale from his exhibit “Inside/Out”

January 17-Feb 29 Halsey Gallery exhibits Alabama artist Butch Anthony and quilting artist Coulter Fussell

January 30 2020 C of C Founder’s Day & celebration of College’s 250th anniversary. Events included presentation of Founder’s Day Medals (to the Hon. Lucille Whipper, J. Waties Waring (posthumous), and Spoleto USA), followed by State Historic Marker unveiling on George Street.

On January 30, 2020 The College of Charleston celebrated CofC Day with a full day of events.

February 19 Gibbes Museum program “She Persisted: Women of Letters and the American South” with Julia Eichelberger, Michele Moore, and Nikky Finney, in conjunction with exhibit “Central To Their Lives: Southern Women Artists in the Johnson Collection”

Feb 21 Southern Studies minors Tanner Crunelle, Grayson Flowers, Michael Lucero, Trevor Pearson, and Liz Whitworth present their SOST 400 Capstone research projects in Addlestone Library 220

[March 2020 College closes campus due to COVID-19; all faculty pivot to online instruction, and new approaches are developed to introduce students to archival research and experiential learning]

June 9  Southern Studies program issues its statement “Say Their Names”  in solidarity with and all those protesting against the murders George Floyd and other victims of racist violence

June 20 Bernard Powers and Robert Rosen propose a counter-monument honoring African American heroes as a response to the monument to the “Confederate Defenders of Fort Sumter”’

June 22 President Hsu convenes a Historical Review Task Force

June 24 Calhoun Monument is removed from Marion Square

July 13-17 LGBTQ Wikipedia Edit-a-Thon is organized by Special Collections

August 2020 Southern Studies minors Grayson Flowers, Tanner Crunelle, and Stella Rounsefell share their experiences in the minor, plans for the future, and current careers. 

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Loving the South Is Revolutionary: Tanner Crunelle ’20

Posted by: Julia Eichelberger | September 1, 2020 | No Comment |

Tanner Crunelle ’20

On Aug 14, 2020, we caught up with Tanner Crunelle ‘20, a few weeks before he sets off for Madrid where he will be teaching English. During his time at C of C Tanner was a powerful campus leader as well as the recipient of several awards. This College Today article discusses some of these honors and activities.  Last month we talked about what he learned from minoring in Southern Studies and why he’s determined to come back before too long. 

What drew you to Southern Studies? Why did you want to learn more about the South?

I consider myself a Southerner so it feels like a duty to learn about the place that I live . . . A lot of it has been wanting to make the South more livable and fairer. I guess I’d initially thought . . . the South is always made better by some outside force, but I came to realize that . . . change is also within the South, that it emerges from the South. . . What drew me to the minor was really a curiosity about what the South is . . coupled with this hope of wanting to make it better, and knowing that to make the South better would require a really complex view of who’s here, what’s happening, why, from a lot of different angles. A sort of — simple political answer hasn’t succeeded thus far.

True that. Any reflections on courses or projects you did while completing the minor?

I really loved learning about James Baldwin, who’s my favorite author and thinker. Reading his thoughts about the South, . . .  there’s a lot of hope in what he says, that the South is the first place that the country will be reborn. That’s one of the things that comes out of his writing, which is just beautiful and gives me so much hope. Similarly, Toni Morrison . . .is revisiting the South often in Beloved, in Home, many of her books . . . . I guess the literary-imaginative components of the South were what excited me most about the coursework. And I’ve gotten really interested in the local workings of politics. How movements happen, how change happens in a local setting.

I remember how you talked about that article our class read from Southern Cultures, “Theodore Peed’s Turtle Party,” about the guy who throws this party every year. It seems like that was kind of an emblem, for you, of what the South can be.

We never abandoned this idea of a community, of a beloved community. We couldn’t. That would be impossible in the South, to have a small town and not have a sense of community.  Now, with that community can come really nefarious things–sexism, racism, homophobia, lots of horrible things can come with that–but I guess the basic value is community. You don’t always get that with classical liberalism, which is emphasizing the individual, the individual’s conquest, and discounting the resilience, mutual interdependence, the love, the actual love that comes from community. That’s a much more available form [here] than in, say, Manhattan where you have so many people in their individual apartments and skyscrapers, everyone so separate, so sad oftentimes and lonely.

That article, thinking about just the ritual of sharing food outside. Sharing food that’s inexpensive, and everyone brings something. That is so beautiful to think about, a potluck in an outdoor space, celebrating being together.

Oh, I want to have a potluck!

Yeah! In the time of COVID, especially.

It sounds like you’re also saying that people think of the South as retrograde, something we should get away from or abolish, but maybe loving the South is a revolutionary act. Can be.

I think so, because what we’re seeing right now is that the South continues to be colonized. Industry moves in and destroys entire tracts of land, and that is not for the benefit of the people who live here. Whereas, if we understand that the South . .   is valuable, if we see it as producing something worthwhile, then it slows the process of environmental degradation, the encroachment of a late-capitalist sense of alienation, you know. Having an identity which doesn’t reject southernness can be empowering.

So with all that said, why are you going so far away? You’re about to go to Spain.

Well, this summer I’m working on the census, going around and doing interviews with people, and that gives people who make political decisions a sense of our region and how it’s changing, and that it’s probably under-counted, chronically under-counted.

              Tanner shows off the South     Carolina lighthouses adorning his shirt.

So that may give our region more of what it deserves.

Then I’ll be in Madrid, teaching English. And I’ll be able to teach some cultural lessons about the South . .   to hopefully complicate the “backwards” view of what Southerners are.

Well, we need you. I’m glad you haven’t given up on us.

I just need to get out for a bit.  A queer pilgrimage to a city, living an urban life, surrounded by a high volume of people who are in the gender and sexuality minority– I think that will produce some good things. . . . My home is Charleston and I have these really deep emotional ties to Charleston’s fate. If we don’t act soon it surely will be underwater. Having experience outside the South will give me a better sense of what the South is, so that I can point to the ways that we have to do better, and the things that we have to maintain, too.

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