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 Nation and 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 Carolina and 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