CFP: “Transatlantic Diasporas” at the 2022 Annual Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society

The 46th annual meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society (FCHS) will take place in Charleston, SC on May 12-14, 2022 in conjunction with the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program (CLAW) and the Huguenot Society of South Carolina. Conference events will take place on the campus of the College of Charleston and conference associated activities will occur in historic downtown Charleston.  

This year’s theme will be “Transatlantic Diasporas,” which invites participants to reflect on the diasporic networks that defined the French colonial world. These might include religious diasporas and networks such as the Huguenots; political dissident groups like the émigrés who fled the French Revolution; or planters who fled the Haitian Revolution; or diasporas of Africans or indigenous people who scattered around the French colonial world and interacted in various ways with colonial and imperial power structures. We are especially eager to receive proposals connected to Africa, the French Caribbean, and connections of these places to other colonies in the Americas. The Society encourages students, scholars, and educators from all disciplines to submit proposals. Papers may be delivered in English or French.

Individual paper proposals should include a 100-200 word summary with the title of the paper, name, institutional affiliation, e-mail address, and phone number, and a brief curriculum vitae, all integrated into a single file, preferably in MS-Word.

Proposals for complete panels or round tables will contain the same information for each participant, as well as contact information and a short C.V. for the moderator if one is suggested. The program committee can help find moderators, if necessary. Individuals wishing to moderate a session should send a statement of interest, contact information, and a brief c.v. as well.  

Please indicate in your proposal whether audiovisual equipment is required. Given the higher than normal anticipations of travel restrictions and potential of traditional in-person presentations, please indicate if you/your panel would be willing to adapt your presentation to a strictly digital format using Microsoft Teams or Zoom.

Individual or panel proposals will be accepted between September 30 and November 15, 2021. Please send proposals to frenchcolonial2022@gmail.com

Graduate students who wish to be considered for the Shorrock Travel Award should indicate so on their proposal, and should include an estimated budget of travel expenses and other anticipated sources of funding with their application.  

Given the specific partnerships between the three institutions, conference fees include one free annual membership to any of the three participating institutions and receipt of access and privileges associated with those specific affiliations.  During registration, you will be able to selection a membership of your choice.  Lifetime members of each organization will be required to submit the conference fee to cover organization and execution of the conference.

Additional information about the Society’s scholarly activities, fellowships, and past conferences is available at www.frenchcolonial.org.

INSTITUTE FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN RESEARCH (IAAR) VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM

Dear friends,

Please join the IAAR this Friday and Saturday (November 13-14, 2020) as they commemorate 350 years of the Carolina-Barbados connection. The IAAR website has been updated with the titles of the presentations: https://www.sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/centers_and_institutes/iaar/.

Please see the registration links below for the symposium.

Click Here to Register for Day 1 (Friday, November 13, 2020)

Click Here to Register for Day 2 (Saturday, November 14, 2020)

Interdisciplinary Journal Call for Proposals

Understanding and Dismantling Privilege Journal Special Issue on the theme All Black Lives Matter

“In response to the murder of Breonna Taylor and others, ongoing systemic anti-Black racism and the outpouring of support to disrupt these current inequities, Understanding and Dismantling Privilege seeks to publish a special issue illustrating that not only do Black Lives Matter, but All Black Lives Matter. Students (youth and adult), activists, scholars, educators, and practitioners are invited to submit scholarship, personal reflections, creative pieces, and action-oriented curricular ideas that speak to lived experiences and critically constructed perceptions of All Black Lives. This special issue intends to address the diversity of those who identify as Black and honor additional lived experiences and social identities.”

Works must be submitted by November 1, 2020. For further details please visit: Call for submissions: ALL BLACK LIVES MATTER.

CLAW Partner Virtual Event

Building Justice From the Source

The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor NHA invites you to attend a live, virtual event on Thursday, October 29, at 4PM EST. This virtual event will bring together a group of emerging, traditional artists from across the nation: Jake Blount, Sara Makeba Daise, Marquise Knox and Latanya D. Tigner. They are all deeply rooted in traditional culture and drawing on that powerful wellspring to offer important, contemporary social critiques of race, racial injustice and notions of self-identity. Their work encourages us to shape new narratives around contemporary, cultural identities rooted in traditional ways of knowing, living and making art — yet keenly responsive to our current moment. 

To register for this virtual event please visit: bit.ly/fromthesource

Building Justice From the Source

HINES PRIZE 2021 CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

The Hines Prize is awarded to the best first book manuscript relating to any aspect of the Carolina Lowcountry and/or the Atlantic World. The prize carries a cash award of $1,000 and preferential consideration by the University of South Carolina Press for the CLAW Program’s book series. If you have a manuscript on a topic pertaining to the Carolina Lowcountry and/or Atlantic World, please send a copy to CLAW Director Sandra Slater slaters@cofc.edu before May 15, 2021. If you have graduate students with potential manuscripts that could contend for the Prize, please make sure that they know of this biennial opportunity.

New CLAW Series Publication

Cover for Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery

Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery

Race, Status, and Identity in the Urban Americas

John Garrison Marks

Prior to the abolition of slavery, thousands of African-descended people in the Americas lived in freedom. Their efforts to navigate daily life and negotiate the boundaries of racial difference challenged the foundations of white authority. Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery examines how these individuals built lives in freedom for themselves and their families in two of the Atlantic World’s most important urban centers: Cartagena, along the Caribbean coast of modern-day Colombia, and Charleston, in the lowcountry of North America’s Atlantic coast.

Built upon research conducted on three continents, this book takes a comparative approach to understanding the contours of black freedom in the Americas. It examines how various paths to freedom, responses to the Haitian Revolution, opportunities to engage in skilled labor, involvement with social institutions, and the role of the church all helped shape the lived experience of free people of color in the Atlantic World.

USC Press review quote for Black Freedom in the Age of Slavery.

CLAW Partner: The Spirit of South Carolina

Photo of the Spirit of SC

Inspired by the idea of Port Cities conference, CLAW faculty partnered with sailors from the Spirit of South Carolina to produce a short film about the culture of sailing. You can watch the film online at: Spirit of South Carolina: A Short Story of Life at Sea.

Image from Spirit of South Carolina: A Short Story of Life at Sea - YouTube
109-Year-Old Veteran and His Secrets to Life Will Make You Smile | Short Film Showcase - Duration: 12:39.
Spirit of South Carolina: A Short Story of Life at Sea – YouTube
109-Year-Old Veteran and His Secrets to Life Will Make You Smile | Short Film Showcase – Duration: 12:39.

Earlier in the Spring semester, as a part of the LCWA World Affairs Signature Series Sea Life, Dr. Carl Wise and Dr. Blake Scott coordinated an oral history booth and educational talk aboard the Spirit of South Carolina.

In July of 2016 the Spirit of South Carolina was also featured in a Fox 24 Charleston segment titled Lowcountry Living: Spirit of South Carolina.