Take On The South Institute for Southern Studies, University of South Carolina

Today on the program we delve into the fascinating world of historic preservation to discover what preservation is, how it works, and what gets to be preserved (and what doesn't). Robin Waites, executive director of Historic Columbia, joins Mark Smith to talk about historic preservation and to reflect on her two-plus decades of leadership in the field.

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.”  

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.

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. 

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. 

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.