History Center Spring 2026
January 21: Spigner House, 5:30-7:30
Faculty Spotlight: Discussion with Tom Brown and Carol Harrison, and their book Zouave Theaters: Transnational Military Fashion and Performance, moderated by Charlie Brown (MA, USC, 1999). Reception and book sale/signing.
January 30: Gambrell 245B, 10:00-11:15 am
Work in Progress with Grant Wong, Ph.D. candidate, to discuss “Punk Is Coming”: Punk Magazine and the Beginnings of Punk Culture on New York’s Lower East Side, 1974–1979,” a draft of one of his dissertation chapters.
February 5: Thomas Cooper Library, Room 204, 5:30 pm
Myles Zhang (University of Michigan), “Envisioning Senaca Village.” Using a 3-D interactive model, this project depicts what this significant nineteenth-century village might have looked like in the spring of 1855, about two years before it was destroyed by the City of New York to build Central Park.
February 17: Kendall Room, South Caroliniana Library. 5:00-6:30 pm
Rosa Parks' America: A Conversation with Professors Bobby Donaldson and Patricia Sullivan. Commemorating the 70th Anniversary Year of the Montgomery Bus Boycott
Feb 24: Nickelodeon Theater, 1607 Main St, Columbia, SC 29201, 6 pm
Screening of “Boycott” at the Nickelodeon, marking the 70th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott. Director Clark Johnson will introduce the film and participate in a Q&A discussion afterwards.
March 17-18: A series of events around inspired by a special exhibit at the Morgan Library celebrating the work of Belle Costa Greene, a librarian who managed and developed J.P. Morgan’s library. Greene was the daughter of Richard Greener, first African American professor at the University of South Carolina, who organized the holdings of what is now the South Caroliniana library after the Civil War.
March 17, Kendall Room, South Caroliniana Library.
A panel discussion including Philip Palmer, Curator and Department
Head of the Morgan Library and Museum, Daria Rose Foner, Old Master’s painting specialist at Sotheby’s, Peter Weis, Archivist, Northfield Mount Hermon School, and USC’s Christian Anderson – will discuss their research methods and remarkable findings about the Green/Greeners, a father and daughter, who, though long separated, pursued careers in librarianship and collecting despite astounding odds and whose stories are deeply tied to our place. Melissa Stuckey will facilitate.
March 18, Gambrell 428: Roundtable focused on Public History/Applied History career pathways for our current and former Public History students. Our guests will share their personal experiences in building notable public history careers, often following unconventional paths in disciplined including, and adjacent to History (Art History, English, Education, Information Science) Frank discussion about challenges and opportunities in the present moment will be encouraged. R
Sponsors: History Center, Public History, School of Education, Institute for Southern Studies, School of Information Science
March 30-April 1: Sid Bedingfield, Associate Professor, Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Minnesota, will be on campus for several days during which time he will deliver a public talk, participate in a roundtable, and meet with several classes.
March 31, Kendall Room, South Caroliniana Library: Public talk on “Journalism and Jim Crow North: The Legitimation of Racial Discrimination during the Great Migration, 1900-1950.”
April 1, Location TBD: roundtable discussion of Dr. Bedingfield’s research, including his previously published book, Newspaper Wars, Civil Rights and White Resistance in South Carolina, 1935-1965
Co-sponsored with Sthe chool of Journalism and Mass Communications
April: (date TBD), Andrew Cerise, Ph.D. candidate, Work in Progress, "Shame Without Guilt: National Prestige, International Violence, and the Postwar South," draft of dissertation chapter.
April: (date TBD) John Gennari (U of Vermont) will discuss his new book, The Jazz Barn: Music Inn, the Berkshires, and the Place of Jazz and in American Life, cosponsored with the Humanities Collaborative.
The Humanities Collaborative will sponsor a book discussion group for faculty and graduate students in advance of John Gennari’s visit.