When I applied to UNC-Chapel Hill, I was already doing work related to the history of the South. Due to a lack of understanding of where and who I come from as a Black woman in North Carolina, I was drawn to the difficult, yet necessary work related to uncovering victims of lynchings across the state through the late 20th century. This interest only grew as I learned of UNC’s long history with slavery and land dispossession. The process of remembering and naming these individuals who were racially persecuted became the guide to my work, and my vision of a Southern Future.
I was approached by Dr. Jordan Lovejoy (Assistant Professor in American studies) and Tony Royle Jr. (PhD Candidate in American studies) one day offering me the opportunity to co-moderate a panel for the Center for the Study of the American South with Agustin Orozco, another undergraduate Southern Futures Fellow. Admittedly, I was apprehensive at first. I thought, why me? This question was answered in due time by working with the Southern Futures team as a fellow staff member. I’ve never done something like this before, but they helped cultivate my voice and saw my potential as a scholar and as a person. I believe that even if our work doesn’t have an immediate impact, its long-term impact matters.
That lead to our central goal of the panel. Our panel was titled “Southern Futures: Emerging Voices in the South.” We wanted the panel to give emerging scholars a platform to discuss the systems and institutions they interact with in their research and how various methodologies available in the arts and humanities heighten their work in and outside of their communities. Our panelists included Zachary Faircloth, Emanuel Gomez-Gonzalez, Ari Green, and Jada Weyand. They all contribute to community-based work that advocates for marginalized voices with a goal of enacting social change in our region.
As an undergraduate student, attending an event like the 30/50 Symposium is valuable, especially due to the ticketed costs, but due to the paywall, we seldom have these opportunities. This takes away potential networking opportunities with donors, professors, or individuals who could be interested in the work we are doing, restricting the collaborative network Southern Futures emphasizes. In a bureaucratic institution such as UNC, students are seldom given space to discuss social justice issues, especially with the recent vote by the UNC Board of Governers to repeal and replace the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies (DEI). This ban has already impacted UNC’s campus, and since most of our work somehow includes diversity, equity, and inclusion, there is an ongoing need for these on campus spaces to support student voices. While we were aware of our potential audience for our panel, our questions were still guided to foster the open conversation we wanted; but is this the conversation the University would want?
No matter the barricades, roadblocks, or borders that try to limit our voices, we will continue to strive to critically engage with the South in our own ways. The other panelists and I have been doing this work before, during, and after our time in Southern Futures. We will not stop either. We are the future, and we will build a better South; a South that we want to thrive in.
American Studies major
Health & Society minor