Center for the Study of the American South

Center for the Study of the American South
Name	Center for the Study of the American South
Established	1992
Location	Chapel Hill, North Carolina
Affiliation	University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Contents

Center for the Study of the American South is an academic center based at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill that focuses on interdisciplinary study of the Southern United States, its cultures, histories, and contemporary developments. The center situates research in relation to institutions such as Duke University, North Carolina State University, Emory University, Vanderbilt University, and national archives like the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution. It engages scholars associated with programs including American Studies, History of the United States, African American Studies, Southern Literature, and Musicology.

History

The center was founded in 1992 during a period of regional scholarly growth that included the expansion of programs at University of Virginia, College of William & Mary, and Johns Hopkins University. Early leadership drew on faculty connected to projects about the Civil Rights Movement, the New Deal, and the historiography advanced by figures linked to Howard Zinn and C. Vann Woodward. Its formation paralleled initiatives at cultural institutions such as the Baldwin Museum and collaborative networks including the Organization of American Historians and the Southern Historical Association. Over the decades the center hosted conferences featuring speakers from Smith College, Princeton University, Harvard University, Yale University, Columbia University, and partnered with archives like the Southern Oral History Program.

The center's mission emphasizes interdisciplinary scholarship on the American South, foregrounding topics tied to African American history, Native American history, Latino American studies, and regional arts. Program areas include studies of Southern literature linked to authors such as William Faulkner, Flannery O'Connor, Toni Morrison, and Alice Walker; explorations of music traditions associated with Blues, Bluegrass, Gospel music, and artists like Bessie Smith, Ralph Stanley, Mahalia Jackson, and Ray Charles; and inquiries into political change involving figures and events such as Strom Thurmond, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Southern Strategy. The center supports work on urbanization in Charlotte, North Carolina, labor histories connected to Textile industry in the United States, environmental debates around the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and cultural production tied to festivals like Mardi Gras and institutions like the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.

Faculty and fellows affiliated with the center have produced monographs and articles appearing in venues including the Journal of Southern History, American Quarterly, Southern Cultures', and presses such as University of North Carolina Press, Duke University Press, Oxford University Press, and Cambridge University Press. Research topics span analyses of Reconstruction under leaders like Ulysses S. Grant, biographies of figures such as Frederick Douglass and Benjamin Tillman, and studies of legal change including cases from the United States Supreme Court like Brown v. Board of Education. The center curates working paper series and edited volumes that address migration flows linked to Great Migration (African American) and transregional connections with the Caribbean and West Africa.

The center administers graduate and postdoctoral fellowships and offers visiting scholar appointments that attract researchers from institutions such as Princeton Theological Seminary, Duke Divinity School, Rutgers University, and University of Kentucky. It sponsors undergraduate seminars cross-listed with departments including English Language and Literature, Political Science, Sociology, Geography, and Anthropology. Teaching initiatives have supported curriculum development on topics connected to Jim Crow laws, the work of poets like Langston Hughes and John Crowe Ransom, and archival instruction using collections from the Southern Historical Collection and the Wilson Library at Chapel Hill.

The center organizes public lecture series, film screenings, and symposia drawing audiences from Chapel Hill, Raleigh, Durham, and the broader Research Triangle region. Past events featured scholars and artists including Cornel West, Henry Louis Gates Jr., Wynton Marsalis, Eudora Welty, and documentary screenings about the Freedom Riders and the Orangeburg Massacre. It produces podcasts, collaborates on documentary projects with PBS, and hosts workshops for K–12 teachers aligned with standards from the National Council for the Social Studies and exhibits in partnership with the North Carolina Museum of History and the Mint Museum.

The center maintains formal partnerships with universities such as Auburn University, University of Mississippi, University of Georgia, and Louisiana State University, and with cultural organizations including the Southern Foodways Alliance, the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. Collaborative grants have involved funders like the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Ford Foundation, and joint research projects with civic partners in Raleigh and Charlotte address heritage tourism, preservation efforts tied to sites like Monticello, and digital archives modeled on initiatives such as the Digital Public Library of America.