Take On The South
By Institute for Southern Studies, University of South Carolina
Take On The SouthMay 02, 2023
S3E17--Simon Buck on "Disability Spectacle" in Southern Roots Music
Emily Allen interviews Dr. Simon Buck, a writer, historian, and musician. His first monograph, on old age and music in the US South, is under contract with the University of Illinois Press. He is employed at the University of Edinburgh (UK) on research projects concerning the intersection of British slavery, healthcare, and university education in Edinburgh. The interview focuses on Buck's article “‘Up on Cripple Creek’: Limb Loss, Difference, and Disability Spectacle in Southern Roots Music.”
S3E16--Civil Rights and the Story of the South
The story of the South is also the story of Civil Rights. On this episode of Take on the South, we explore how the Civil Rights Movement has shaped the South and how the story continues to unfold. Mark Smith is joined by Professor Bobby Donaldson, a professor in the History department and Director of the Center for Civil Rights History and Research, at the University of South Carolina, who shares some remarkable stories about Civil Rights in the American South.
Student Episode--Popular Musics of the US South
This special episode of Take on the South is a compilation of short segments from the students in the Spring 2024 course Popular Musics of the US South. Each student discusses the history of a particular pop music artist or genre with roots in the South. The students featured in this episode are Brooks Bishop, Josh Browning, Will Byars, Justin Gilbert, Jorden Jeffers, Annie Matson, Chris Nash, Cameran Peake, Logan Rodgers, and Wilson Stokes.
S3E15--Latino Music and Appalachia
Emily Allen interviews Dr. Sophia Enríquez, who is the Andrew W. Mellon assistant Professor Music, Latino/a Studies, and Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies at Duke University. They discuss her work with Latino communities in Appalachia, the US South, and Mexico.
2024 McNair Conversation in Southern Studies: Jean Toal
Dr. Mark Smith of the Institute for Southern Studies is joined by the 2024 McNair Conversation in Southern Studies Honoree, Chief Justice Jean Toal. This discussion explores the Chief Justice’s upbringing in South Carolina, her experience in southern politics, and her signal achievements in the legal field. The McNair Conversation is an annual event in which thinkers, leaders, and just plain interested people from the South are interviewed about their lives and how they understand the region. It is funded in part by a generous grant from the estate of the late Robert McNair, governor of South Carolina from 1965-1971.
S3E14--The Role of the South in Higher Education
What are the origins of higher education? Who were the key figures in its invention and subsequent entrenchment? What role did the South play in its emergence? And where is higher education today? To help answer these questions, Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Michael T. Benson, president and professor of history at Coastal Carolina University who discusses his recently published book, Daniel Coit Gilman and the Birth of the American Research University.
S3E13--The Life of Hannah Crafts
Twenty years ago, Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates, Jr. found, verified, and published what proved to be the first novel written by an African American woman in America: The Bondswoman's Narrative by Hannah Crafts. However, little to nothing was known about Crafts' own life--until now. Mark Smith is joined by Furman University's Gregg Hecimovich, author of The Life and Times of Hannah Crafts: The True Story of The Bondwoman's Narrative, to discuss her remarkable life, the story of his work to piece together Crafts' biography, and the complexity of social interactions in the Old South.
S3E12--Southern Folklore and the "Ethnogothic"
In this episode Ebony Toussaint interviews John Jennings, a Professor of Media and Cultural Studies at the University of California at Riverside. He is also the director of Abrams ComicArts imprint Megascope, which publishes graphic novels focused on hip hop, Afrofuturism, and horror. In this interview we explore Southern folklore, his Mississippi roots, and the phrase Jennings co-created, the Ethnogothic.
Southern Seances--A Conversation with Rosa Parks
In another of our miniseries of rehearsals and evaluations of AI-produced scripts of conversations with famous dead Southerners, Mark Smith is joined by Professor Stephanie Y. Mitchem to talk about Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks. They discuss the famous incident on the Birmingham bus--which AI gets mostly right--the complexities of Parks's identity and activism, and all of the details and nuances that ChatGPT misses.
S3E11--Poetry and Southern Places
Mark Smith is joined by Ed Madden, former poet laureate of Columbia, SC, to talk about the role of poetry in recording the history and exploring the places of Southern cities.
Southern Seances--A Conversation with William Faulkner
Mark Smith asked ChatGPT to produce a scripted interview with the writer William Faulkner. Matt Simmons joins him to discuss that script, the work and background of the South's most famous writer, and the limits and promises of AI.
S3E10--Preserving Southern Music
In this episode Emily Allen interviews Burgin Mathews, who is a writer, a radio host, and the founding director of the nonprofit Southern Music Research Center. He also published the book Magic City: How the Birmingham Jazz Tradition Shaped the Sound of America in 2023 with the University of North Carolina Press.
S3E9--British Takes on the South
Two Englishmen, our own Mark Smith and Dr. Clive Webb, Professor of Modern American History at the University of Sussex, sit down to discuss their very British perspectives on writing the history of the American South. What are the differences in American and British approaches to the topic? What challenges face the British academy and how Britons study the South? The two also discuss Dr. Webb's work, including Fight Against Fear: Southern Jews and Black Civil Rights and Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era.
S3E8--Marching Bands in the Black South
Emily Allen chats with Marvin McNeill about African American military bands, college marching bands, and brass bands in the South and beyond. McNeill, a Ph.D. candidate in Ethnomusicology at Wesleyan University, is Assistant Professor of Music and African American Studies at the Oxford College of Emory University. In this conversation, he centers on the brass band Funky Dawgz, the TBC Brass Band, and the Morgan State University marching band.
S3E5--The Life of Francis Cardozo
Mark Smith is joined by Neil Kinghan, author of A Brief Moment in the Sun: Francis Cardozo and Reconstruction in South Carolina to discuss the life and legacy of one of the more fascinating forgotten figures in American history, the Reconstruction-era South Carolina politician and reformer Francis Cardozo.
S3E7--Shakespeare the Civil War
Mark Smith is joined by Sarah Gardner of Mercer University to talk about the role the English playwright William Shakespeare played in the military, political, and interpersonal life of the American Civil War.
S3E6--Music and Meaning in SEC Fight Songs
As conference champtionship season warms up, our new host Emily Allen speaks with musicologist Carrie Allen Tipton about her book From Dixie to Rocky Top: Music and Meaning in Southeastern Conference Football. They discuss the role fight songs and football have had in shaping Southern identity, school spirit, and the various political meanings of Southern higher ed.
S3E5--Sharecropping and Southern Literature
Mark Smith sits down with Mercer University professor David A. Davis, author of the new book Driven to the Field: Sharecropping and Southern Literature, to discuss the development of sharecropping, a labor that shaped so much of the rural South, both black and white, for the 100 years after the Civil War, and its representation in Southern literature.
2023 Neuffer Lecture: An Interview with Ron Rash
The speaker for the Institute for Southern Studies' 2023 Neuffer Lecturer in Southern Literature is Ron Rash, a bestselling author of some eight novels, seven books of short stories, and three books of poetry. Before the lecture, he joined Matt Simmons in the podcast studio to discuss his life and work.
Southern Seances--A Conversation with LBJ
In another of our series of AI-generated conversations with famous dead Southerners, Mark Smith is joined by USC history professor Kent Germany to discuss the odd understanding ChatGPT has of our 36th president, Lyndon Baines Johnson
S3E4--Kugels and Collards
Mark Smith is joined by Rachel Gordin Barnett and Lyssa Kligman Harvey, authors of the new book Kugels and Collards: Stories of Food, Family, and Tradition in Jewish South Carolina to discuss the role of food in situating Jews into the rich story of the South across the generations.
S3E3--Southern Stories from Family Weekend
September 22-24th was Family Weekend at the University of South Carolina, and we in Southern Studies held an open house for students, parents, and family members to come in and tell their Southern stories. This episode features highlights from that open house, with reactions to the South from two Iranians, a New Englander parsing what "just Southern enough" means, and a native Carolinian sharing how she fell in love with home after having trouble finding something to eat in Germany.
Southern Seances--A Conversation with Elvis
In honor of Halloween and in an effort to explore the implications of AI, Take on the South is having a special series of "Southern Seances" in October. Each Monday, we will have ChatGPT write a script for an interview between our host, Mark Smith, and a famous dead Southerner. Mark and a guest will dissect what AI got right about the figure, where it made mistakes, and what the experience can tell us about the utility and limitations of AI.
First up: Elvis! Mark is joined by Grant Wong, PhD student in the University of South Carolina's History department.
Special music is "Let the Mystery Unfold" by Geoff Harvey.
S3E2--The Glories of Bourbon
Mark Smith is joined by Matt Simmons and G.C. Ramey, president of the Gamecock Bourbon Society, for a conversation on bourbon: the regulations that govern it, the history behind it, the stories it tells, how it is produced, the relationship between marketing and storytelling, and the glories of Old Granddad 114.
A South Carolinian Remembers 9/11
Mark Smith interviews Wendy Homeyer, a native of Greenville, SC, alumna of the University of South Carolina, and former George W. Bush administration staffer about her experience of the fateful day of September 11, 2001 from within the White House.
S3E1--Southern Business, Southern Hospitality
Mark Smith sits down with James Williams, CEO of Columbia, SC-based Food People Restaurant Group, to discuss the challenges and opportunities of doing business in the South. Along the way, they discuss why struggles with access to capital continue to lead so many Southern entrepreneurs leaving the region and why so many eventually return home. Finally, how does Southern hospitality shape how business is done in the South, and what does the future for entrepreneurship in the region look like?
[SUMMER REPEAT] The Origins of Southern College Football
In the last of our summer repeats, we get y'all ready for football season! Mark Smith is joined by Andy Doyle, Associate Professor of history at Winthrop University to discuss the origins of college football in the South. How did this thoroughly industrialized, northeastern game associated with New England gentry and the Ivy League--which was originally rejected by Southerners as a "Yankee game"--come to dominate the region? It's a fascinating story full of colorful characters that you'll want to share with all of your football-loving friends and family.
[SUMMER REPEAT] Carolina Crossroads
How do roads help to shape and define the South? In this episode, we talk particularly about "Malfunction Junction," South Carolina's most notorious highway interchange, the stretch of highway where I-20 and I-26 come together west of Columbia. What's the history of Malfunction Junction and what does that history tell us about the development of South Carolina over the last several generations? More importantly, what is its future as it transforms into "Carolina Crossroads" over the rest of this decade? Mark Smith is joined by Brian Klauk, project manager of the Carolina Crossroad projects, and Pete Poore, the communications director of the South Carolina Department of Transportation, to discuss.
https://www.scdotcarolinacrossroads.com/
[SUMMER REPEAT] Southern Rock
To say "Southern Rock" is a "Southern" musical genre is a truism--but what, exactly, is it? How does the groovy, swaggering Southern Rock of the 1970s connect to the emergence of jangly College Rock in the 1980s and 90s? How does this music tell the story of Southern identity, and how has that music evolved over the last 50 years as Southern identity itself has evolved? And finally, how has the rise of Spotify and other streaming platforms changed the possibilities for creating and engaging the "Southern" in rock music?
Joining Matt Simmons in this lively discussion are Todd Hagstette of the University of South Carolina-Aiken, Jeff Rogers of Gordon State College, and music journalist and critic Robert Dean Lurie, author of the acclaimed Begin the Begin: R.E.M.'s Early Years.
[SUMMER REPEAT] Unlearing the South
An Englishman, a New Englander, and a Southerner walk into a podcast studio and have...a simply incredible conversation about the South, what ideas we bring to the region, and what we have to unlearn about it to make sense of it and ourselves within it.
Matt Simmons is joined by Mark Smith and Andrew Berns, professor of history at the University of South Carolina, for an electric conversation. We could have gone on for three times as long!
[SUMMER REPEAT] Wrasslin' and the Contemporary South
[This is the first of a series of repeats of some of our best episodes during the summer. We will be back with all new episodes with the new academic year!]
Professional Wrestling has a rich history in the South, a history that arguably reaches its apogee in the last 25 years of the 20th century. During that time, many of the major wrestling 'territories' of the region came together to form Atlanta-based World Championship Wrestling; throughout the 1980s and 90s, WCW functioned as the #2 wrestling promotion worldwide. Further, with the post-Jim Crow landscape of the South leading to integration of both performers and audiences and WCW's introduction of Mexican-style lucha libre wrestling into the American context, Southern wrasslin' emerged in the 1980s and 90s as a way to tell the story of a changing South to the nation and the world. How was this story told?
We are joined by Andre Key and Robert Greene, II of Claflin University and Miles Smith, IV of Hillsdale College to discuss the topic.
S2E21--Tattooing in South Carolina
Mark Smith sits down with Stephanie Melora, owner of Southern Cypress
Tattoos in Columbia, SC, to discuss the culture of tattooing in the
South and the regulatory environment around tattooing in South Carolina.
Find Stephanie on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/s_melora_tattoos/
https://www.instagram.com/southerncypress_tattoo
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
S2E20--Latin America, Caribbean, and the South as a Global Phenomenon
Mark Smith is joined by Matt Childs, professor of history at the University of South Carolina, to discuss the longstanding connections between the South, Latin America, and the Caribbean. They discuss shared cultural practices, economic realities, and histories and the idea that, in some ways, the South has always been akin to the more southerly parts of the Americas than the US North. Childs argues that, in order to understand the South as more than simply "the place that is not the North," we need to place the region into hemispheric and global contexts, looking for places of interconnection that transcend national borders.
[VIDEO] Student Spotlight: Southern Living Recipes and Evolving Southern Identity
Mark Smith talks to Southern Studies alumna Emily Ames (University of South Carolina class of '23) about her senior thesis: an examination of nearly 50 years of recipes in Southern Living magazine. How do these recipes, and their evolution over time, speak to how the South's ideas of itself and the region's place in America?
Student Spotlight: Southern Living Recipes and Evolving Southern Identity
Mark Smith talks to Southern Studies alumna Emily Ames (University of South Carolina class of '23) about her senior thesis: an examination of nearly 50 years of recipes in Southern Living magazine. How do these recipes, and their evolution over time, speak to how the South's ideas of itself and the region's place in America?
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel
S2E19--Contemporary Southern Poetry and the Multitudes of Souths
Jennifer Gunter spoke with the poet, Christian J. Collier. He is a Black, Southern writer, arts organizer, and teaching artist who resides in Chattanooga, Tennessee. His works have appeared in several journals and poetry reviews. A 2015 Loft Spoken Word Immersion Fellow, he is also the winner of the 2020 ProForma Contest and the 2019-2020 Seven Hills Review Poetry Contest. His most recent work The Gleaming of the Blade, was named the 2021 Frost Place Competition Editors’ Selection.
They discussed the parameters of spoken word and the power of language. Collier also talked about ways he uses race as a way at getting at a number of other issues such as intimacy and vulnerability. His take on the South is that we exist in a multitude of Souths, some not necessarily evident to all residents.
Kids on the South--An interview with Rose Smith
What does a South Carolina-born child understand about the South and Southern identity? Mark Smith is joined by his eight year old daughter, Rose, for an intriguing (and adorable) short interview that reveals much about how ideas such as "South" are put into larger social, pop cultural, and familial contexts as children begin the process of understanding their place in the world.
S2E18--Horse Racing in the South
We're back with another conversation!
Just in time for the Kentucky Derby, Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Gabi Kuenzli of the USC history department for a discussion of the role of horse racing in the South. What's the historical background of the sport in the region? How does horse racing point to the ways in which the South has long been a global phenomenon, particularly in its connections with Latin America?
Video version of this conversation:
https://youtu.be/CFMYmk1u_Gk
Subscribe to our YouTube Channel!
Southern Almanac: B is for Bourbon
Our eclectic, alphabetic tour of the South continues with a look at the South's iconic spirit: bourbon. Matt Simmons discusses the origins and name of the drink, the relationships between the South and the West, bourbon as place-in-a-glass, the differences between Tennessee and Kentucky whiskeys, how Jack Daniel got his start, a whiskey-related museum curated by teetotalers, Walker Percy's mint julep recipe, and more.
Mentioned in this episode:
The Kentucky Encyclopedia, edited by John E. Kleber, et al., University Press of Kentucky, 1992.
The Lost Story of Nearest Green, the Slave Who Taught Jack Daniel How to Make Whiskey
Granville Whiskey Decanter Museum
Walker Percy's essay "Bourbon" is most easily found in the posthumous essay collection Signposts in a Strange Land
Keep In Touch:
FB/Twitter/IG: @uofscsouth
email: digitalussouth@gmail.com
Thanks to:
Episode Image: "A Glass of Bourbon Whiskey" by ctj71081, CC BY-SA 2.0
Music by Alex_Kizenkov
Music by
Southern Almanac: A is for Azaleas
In the first of a new series we're trying out, Matt Simmons introduces "The Southern Almanac." We begin with azaleas, and take a tour around the South, checking in with how this beloved bush connects mountains and the coast, golf and gardening, New England Southophiles and Lowcountry abolitionists, and round it off with a poem by Sidney Lanier.
Mentioned in the episode:
Elizabeth Lawrence's A Southern Garden
Constance Fenimore Woolson's Rodman the Keeper
The New Georgia Encyclopedia on the Masters Tournament
Sidney Lanier's "The Bee"
Get in touch with us:
IG, Twitter, and Facebook--@uofscsouth
Email: digitalussouth@gmail.com
Music by
S2E17--A Conversation with Lou Kennedy
Dr. Mark Smith of the Institute for Southern Studies is joined by the 2023 McNair Conversation in Southern Studies Honoree, Lou Kennedy. Ms. Kennedy is an alumna of the University of South Carolina and the CEO of Nephron Pharmaceuticals. This discussion touches on economic development, the doors a Southern accent opens, and the challenges faced by women in business.
The McNair Conversation is an annual event in which thinkers, leaders, and just plain interested people from the South are interviewed about their lives and how they understand the region. It is funded in part by a generous grant from the estate of the late Robert McNair, governor of South Carolina from 1965-1971.
S2E16--Latinos and Southern Agriculture
Mark Smith is joined by Dr. Amy Snipes of Penn State to discuss the state of Latino farm labor in the South. What policies--both formal and informal--created the current reality of the South's agricultural sector being dominated by Latino labor? How does this echo previous eras of agricultural labor in the South? What current challenges are faced by Latino farm laborers? How do Southern cultural norms create a space in which Latinos feel comfortable doing seasonal farm labor in the South?
S2E15--Jesse Jackson: Southerner
Professor Kent Germany of USC's History department steps in as a guest host to interview David Masciotra, author of I Am Somebody: Why Jesse Jackson Matters, about the life of the civil rights leader and Democratic party stalwart, and how Jackson's Southerness informed his work.
S2E14--Black Art in the South
S2E13--Travel and Segregation
Mark Smith is joined by UPenn history professor Mia Bay, author of the recent book Traveling Black, to discuss the history of travel segregation. The conversation discusses familiar challenges in the Jim Crow South, but also points to the development of travel segregation in the Northern United States.
Check out our YouTube channel for video recordings of interviews! New videos are posted on the Monday after the audio podcast.
S2E12--The Battle of Hayes Pond
In January 1958, the Ku Klux Klan decided to hold a rally outside of the small town of Maxton, North Carolina. The goal was to intimidate local Native American groups and inscribe their place within the Jim Crow hierarchy--but when large numbers of armed Indians showed up, the plan backfired spectacularly.
Matt Simmons is joined by Judge James Lockemy, the recently-retired chief judge of the South Carolina Court of Appeals, to discuss the background, events, and aftermath of what is now remembered as the Battle of Hayes Pond, as well as the place of Native Americans, and particularly the Lumbee Indians of North Carolina, in the story of the South.
S2E11--The Origins of Southern College Football
We're in the midst of bowl season, and we figure some of y'all are itching for even more football content--we're here for you! On today's episode, Mark Smith is joined by Andy Doyle, Associate Professor of history at Winthrop University to discuss the origins of college football in the South. How did this thoroughly industrialized, northeastern game associated with New England gentry and the Ivy League--which was originally rejected by Southerners as a "Yankee game"--come to dominate the region? It's a fascinating story full of colorful characters that you'll want to share with all of your football-loving friends and family.
This will be our last episode of 2022. We'll see y'all in the new year!
S2E10--Civil Asset Forfeiture in South Carolina
Mark Smith is joined by Ted Mauro, Chair of the South Carolina Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights, to discuss the history and consequences of civil asset forfeiture in South Carolina.
S2E9--A Conversation with Jason Mott
Two sons of Columbus County, North Carolina walk into a podcast studio...
We were honored to have Jason Mott, the National Book Award winning author of Hell of a Book, join us in this episode. Matt Simmons interviews Mott about their mutual home county, place, the stories we can tell and not tell, myth, and the very nature of home itself, all through the lens of this fantastic novel. Join us for this great conversation!
S2E8--The South on Screen
From D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation through this past summer's smash hit, Where the Crawdads Sing, the South has always been a key locale of Hollywood's vision of America. How does the region feature in America's cinematic imagination? How does Hollywood use the South, and how has the South on screen evolved over time? Matt Simmons is joined by a panel of guests today to discuss. You'll leave with a list of movies to watch!