Join WGS in partnership with the Avery Research Center for a virtual discussion Engaging with Definitions of Southern Matriarchy with the Authors of Through Mama’s Eyes. Preregister for this Zoom event here.
From the publisher:
Through Mama’s Eyes: Unique Perspectives in Southern Matriarchy looks at the concept of Southern matriarchy and how it has influenced American society. In 2016, the Ernest J. Gaines Center hosted a public program that explored the way women use physical space in literature. That program created many discussions of how the term matriarch is understood and applied, especially in the southern regions of the United States. Southern matriarchy is something that has been idolized and parodied in popular formats, such as movies and film, and the purpose of this book is to explore all of the faceted interpretations of southern matriarchy and its impact on our society. This book contains 17 interdisciplinary essays that each look at the way standard tropes of southern matriarchy are interpreted and challenged through literature, history, and the sciences. Like the program that inspired the book, each essay can be used as an invitation to engage in deeper conversations and research about southern matriarchy and its perceptions as a whole. This book is a compilation of curiosity and intrigue surrounding a societal structure that has influenced so many aspects of so many cultures across America—the Southern Matriarch.
About the editors:
Cheylon Woods is the Head and Archivist of the Ernest J. Gaines Center, which is located at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Mrs. Woods has actively worked to assist in the preservation of rural African American communities and the stories of the Matriarchs who worked tirelessly to hold those communities together.
Kiwana T. McClung is a Baton Rouge, Louisiana native, an Associate Professor in the School of Architecture & Design at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette and faculty advisor to the UL chapter of NOMAS, the student organization for National Organization for Minority Architects (NOMA). Kiwana’s research concerns the socio-spatial intricacies of our increasingly globalized and multicultural societies and how they affect the built environment, architectural education, and the profession.