Summersell Center for the Study of the South

Summersell Center Announces Short-Term Fellowship Recipients

jrothman — Wed, 02 May 2012 17:53:45 +0000

The Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South is pleased to announce the recipients of its short-term research fellowships for 2012-2013. Recipients were chosen from nearly three dozen applications submitted by scholars from the United States, Europe, and Australia, and each will receive an award of $500 to be used to pursue their research on the University of Alabama campus. Fellowship winners and their projects are listed below.

Marcia Chatelain, Assistant Professor of History, Georgetown University: “A Taste of Freedom: Dining Culture and the African-American Struggle for Civil Rights”

Matthew Hulbert, doctoral candidate in history, University of Georgia: “Civil War Memory and Guerrilla Warfare in the South, 1870-Present”

Robert Shapard, doctoral candidate in history, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill: “A Prospect of Beauty: Decline and Discourse in the Great Southern Longleaf Forests”

Joseph Thompson, graduate student in southern studies, University of Mississippi: “‘O I’m a Good Old Rebel’: Race, Memory, and Identity in Post-Civil War Popular Song”

Roundtable to Commemorate the Civil War in 1862

jrothman — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 16:34:39 +0000

On Thursday, April 12, at 5 pm, the Summersell Center will convene its second in a series of annual roundtables to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. This year’s panel will consider politics and diplomacy, with special consideration of those matters as they unfolded in 1862. Panelists include:

Howard Jones, University of Alabama
Paul Marszalek, Mississippi State University
George Rable, University of Alabama
Harold Selesky, University of Alabama
Joshua Rothman, University of Alabama, moderator

This event is free and open to the public, and will be held in the Ferguson Center Room 300 on the University of Alabama campus.

Summersell Center and University Libraries Announce Post-Doctoral Appointment

jrothman — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 14:12:00 +0000

The University of Alabama Libraries and the College of Arts and Sciences are pleased to announce the appointment of Frances “Franky” Abbott to the position of Post-Doctoral Fellow in Digital Humanities, a dual appointment in the University Libraries and the Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South, in the Department of History. Ms Abbott is completing her doctoral work at Emory University’s Graduate Institute of Liberal Arts. Her dissertation is entitled Black Migration to Atlanta: Popular Representation and Metropolitan Space, 1990-2011.

In this position, Ms Abbott will be focusing on continuing her research and expanding the outreach of the Alabama Digital Humanities Center, established in 2010 to support faculty digital research in the arts and humanities. She will bring to campus visiting experts in the digital humanities, consult with faculty on specific projects, plan and lead discussions and training workshops, engage faculty and graduate students in the use of digital technology in research and pedagogy.

We are delighted to have Ms. Abbott join us here at the university and look forward to working with her to advance the digital humanities and the study of the South at the University of Alabama. She will begin her fellowship in early June.

Upcoming Cosponsored Summersell Events, April 2012

jrothman — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 21:53:42 +0000

The Summersell Center for the Study of the South is proud to cosponsor a number of exciting events upcoming early in April 2012:

1. On April 5, James Loewen, bestselling author of Lies My Teacher Told Me, will be speaking on the subject of “Sundown Towns: Racial Exclusion in the South.” Professor Loewen’s talk is free and open to the public, and will take place at 6 pm in Smith Hall 205 on the University of Alabama campus.

2. Also on April 5, Patterson Hood, lead singer of the band Drive-By Truckers, will be participating in a public conversation with NPR music critic Ann Powers and University of Alabama American Studies professor Eric Weisbard. This event will begin at 7:30 pm and will take place in the recital hall of the Moody Music Building on the University of Alabama campus.

3. On April 10, the Emmy-nominated short film, “A Village Called Versailles” will be screening at the Bama Theater in downtown Tuscaloosa. Chronicling the efforts of a Vietnamese-American community to rebuild in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the film will show at 7 pm. It will be preceded by a reception at 6 pm and followed by a question-and-answer session with the film’s producer and director S. Leo Chiang. This event is free and open to the public.

Summersell Center and Department of American Studies to Host Panel Discussion of Alabama’s Immigration Law

jrothman — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:44:14 +0000

On March 28, in Gorgas Library Room 205 on the University of Alabama campus, the Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South and the Department of American Studies will present “Southern Hospitality? Alabama’s Immigration Law in Political and Historical Perspective,” a roundtable discussion on Alabama HB56, its implications, and its historical context. Speakers include:

Matthew Frye Jacobson, Professor of American Studies and History at Yale University
Sarah Cornell, Assistant Professor of History at the University of New Mexico
Isabel Rubio, Executive Director of the Hispanic Interest Coalition of Alabama
Sam Brooke, staff attorney at the Southern Poverty Law Center.

This event is free and open to the public, and is cosponsored by the College of Arts & Sciences, the College of Arts & Sciences Diversity Committee, New College, and the Departments of Criminal Justice, Gender and Race Studies, History, and Modern Languages. For more information, contact Summersell Center Director Joshua Rothman at jrothman@bama.ua.edu or 205.348.3818.

Summersell Center Cosponsors “Tuscaloosa Get Up” Concert, March 23

jrothman — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 18:34:56 +0000

The Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South is proud to cosponsor the “Tuscaloosa Get Up” concert featuring Lee III and the Glory Fires, The Dexateens, and The Alabama Shakes on Friday, March 23, at 8 pm at the Bama Theater in downtown Tuscaloosa. In conjunction with Habitat for Humanity, all proceeds from the show will go toward rebuilding a home for a family displaced by the tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa last April 27. For more information, click here.

Summersell Center Hosts Pulitzer-Prize Winner Douglas Blackmon

jrothman — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 15:51:58 +0000

On February 23 at 6 pm in Gorgas Library 205, historian and journalist Douglas Blackmon will be giving a lecture and presentation based on his book, Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II. The book, which won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction in 2009, was also made into a documentary film currently airing on PBS. This event is presented in coordination with New College, and is cosponsored by the Dean’s Office and the College of Arts and Sciences, the Blount Undergraduate Initiative, and the Departments of American Studies, Criminal Justice, Gender and Race Studies, History, and Journalism. Refreshments will be served and books will be available for purchase and signing. For more about Mr. Blackmon’s work and the film based upon it, please visit http://www.slaverybyanothername.com/.

Author Waights Taylor Jr. to speak on “Our Southern Home”

jrothman — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 18:15:50 +0000

Please join the Summersell Center and the Department of Gender and Race Studies at the University of Alabama as we welcome Waights Taylor Jr. Mr. Taylor is a Birmingham native and a University of Alabama graduate. His new book, “Our Southern Home: Scottsboro to Montgomery to Birmingham–The Transformation of the South in the Twentieth Century,” weaves together the story of his family with those of Rosa Parks, Clarence Norris, and the wrenching transformations that defined the South in the twentieth century. Mr. Taylor will be reading from and signing copies of his book on February 21 at 4:30 in Lloyd Hall Room 324 on the University of Alabama campus

Summersell Center Announces 2012 Short-Term Fellowship Program

jrothman — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 20:36:40 +0000

To support the study of southern history and promote the use of the collections housed at the University of Alabama, the Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South will offer four fellowships in the amount of $500 each for researchers whose projects entail work to be conducted in southern history or southern studies at the W.S. Hoole Special Collections Library (http://www.lib.ua.edu/libraries/hoole/), the A.S. Williams III Americana Collection (http://www.lib.ua.edu/williamscollection), or in other University of Alabama collections.

Applicants should send two copies of

A current CV
One letter of recommendation (which may be sent under separate cover)
A description of the research project, no longer than two double-spaced pages, which includes a description of the particular resources to be used during the term of the fellowship

The deadline for applications to be received by the Summersell Center is March 16, 2012. Decisions regarding awards will be made by May 1, 2012, and research may be conducted anytime between June 1, 2012 and May 31, 2013. Both academic and non-academic researchers at any stage of their careers are encouraged to apply. Because fellowships are designed primarily to help defray travel and lodging expenses, however, eligibility is restricted to researchers living outside the Tuscaloosa area.

Send all application materials to:
Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South
Department of History
University of Alabama
Box 870212, 202 ten Hoor Hall
Tuscaloosa, AL 35487

Any questions about the fellowships may be directed to Joshua Rothman, Director of the Summersell Center, at jrothman@bama.ua.edu or 205.348.3818.

Michael Fitzgerald to Lecture on Reconstruction in Alabama

jrothman — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 19:44:14 +0000

The Summersell Center welcomes Professor Michael Fitzgerald of St. Olaf College, who will be previewing some of his forthcoming work on Reconstruction in the state of Alabama. Professor Fitzgerald is the author of several books on Reconstruction and Alabama, including The Union League and Social Change in the Deep South During Reconstruction (1989) and Urban Emancipation: Popular Politics in Reconstruction Mobile 1860-1890 (2002). His lecture will take place on January 19 at 4:30 pm in Gorgas Library Room 205. Refreshments will be served.