Fifty in Five November Update
Dear Friends,
Our Fifty in Five Challenge is already off to a great start! Dr. Druscilla French has made the generous commitment to match all gifts we receive through March 2019, up to $50,000, and in less than one month, we have already raised a remarkable $8,746! Thank you to those of you who have already made your gift. We are excited to continue this campaign, and over the next five months we will be keeping you updated on our progress and share stories on how private support from friends like you directly impacts the Center and our community.
This month we offer a snapshot of the Center’s vibrant work as a nexus of scholarship about the South. Private support is currently providing funds for:
Sharing Scholarship:
Our award-winning quarterly journal Southern Cultures paints the most up-to-date picture of our diverse and changing South. Readers hail from 153 countries. This month, look for our “Music and Protest” issue, exploring how protest music leads to greater understanding of our shared humanity. In 2019, Southern Cultures will celebrate its 25th Anniversary! Your support for their work puts Southern Cultures in more classrooms and helps them reach more readers, decision-makers, and researchers.
Supporting Research:
This year alone, we are supporting over 30 projects, including a literary scholar’s book on gender and plantation violence in fiction and film, and a data-driven history dissertation on black prisoners in the Civil War. With CSAS fellowships, graduate students have researched oil and gas rights in Texas, hurricane recovery in eastern North Carolina, World War II in Hampton Roads, VA, banjos and bluegrass in the Czech Republic, and much more.
Mentoring and Training Scholars:
For nearly forty-five years, the Southern Oral History Program has trained graduate students who go on to make extraordinary impacts not only on the field of oral history but in digital humanities, public history, and now geography and public health. SOHP’s alums have found permanent positions at a wide range of institutions, including the University of California system, the National Park Service, State University of New York.
I hope you will consider joining the Fifty in Five Challenge today and support us as we help the nation and the world reconsider the South, as only UNC-Chapel Hill can.
Sincerely,
Malinda Maynor Lowery, PhD
Associate Professor of History
Director, Center for the Study of the American South