Conversations for Communities and their Futures
In the months before the COVID-19 crisis, the Center for the Study of the American South at UNC, UNC’s Southern Futures initiative, and the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke hosted a series of public conversations concerning emerging issues and future paths to resiliency in southern communities.
Looking back on those conversations about healthcare inequalities, public health, and climate change, we can draw parallels between those challenges and the impacts of the current Coronavirus crisis. In this excerpt from one of eleven Southern Summit panels during Fall 2019, Keohane Distinguished Visiting Professor Dr. Sherry Magill highlights the lack of a national plan to combat climate change, not unlike the absence of a national consensus on handling the spread of COVID-19. Whether fighting climate change or disease, where do we turn for visionary leadership? Scholars point to communities, cultural memories, lessons in resilience, and the role of academia in building the future.