Angel Oak Tree on Johns Island, SC
Graduate, Undergraduate

Applications Are Now Open for On Location 2023: Performing the Past: Black History and Collective Memory in Charleston and the Sea Islands

This traveling summer course will take place in multiple locations in St. Louis and several places in South Carolina from May 16th to June 4th, 2023. Application deadline is Monday, March 13th.

AMCS L98 479
AFAS L90 479
3 Credits 

The content and methods of this course sit at the intersection of the instructors Paige McGinley and Geoff Ward's shared interests in Black history in the Americas and practices and sites of collective memory and commemoration (including museums, monuments, live performance, heritage preservation, and "living history"). Charleston and the Low Country region of South Carolina (which includes the Sea Islands) is an ideal destination for an On Location course committed to exploring these topics.

This region is extraordinarily historically and culturally vibrant. Every aspect of Charleston and South Carolina's past and present--as well as its contemporary tourist economies--is informed by racial violence and resistance. How can such traumas be represented? What is at stake in making these pasts visible, and what how do different modes of commemorating the past--museum exhibition, performances, cooking, crafting, and more--invite witnesses and observers to reckon with the past while prompting the reparative work necessary for a more equitable and racially just future?

Graduate students and advanced undergraduates are welcome. Selected candidates will receive a comprehensive financial package that covers most costs associated with the course, including travel and tuition. Students must apply to be considered for this course. Click here to access the On Location 2023 application.