Maggi M Morehouse | Coastal Carolina University (original) (raw)

Select Publications by Maggi M Morehouse

Home is Not a Place Film, 2023

In 2021, acclaimed poet Roger Robinson and award-winning author and photographer Johny Pitts drov... more In 2021, acclaimed poet Roger Robinson and award-winning author and photographer Johny Pitts drove around the UK coast to find out what it is like to be black in Britain today if you live outside the urban metropolitan centres. During their travels they uncovered hidden stories of black people living in the unlikeliest of places, from rundown seaside resorts to rural beach locations. The result was Home Is Not A Place (2022), a stunning 'visual poem' of a book, with photographs, poetry and essays reflecting on the complexity, strength and resilience of Black Britain. Now, in an illuminating new film by Piotr Sell, we can join Roger Robinson and Johny Pitts as they undertake their 2023 book tour, travelling by car between events in a mini reenactment of their first journeys. Listen to the two artists talk about how the book came to be, what they found out about themselves-and the country they live in-in this moody audiovisual version of Home Is Not A Place. The stories captured in the film and the book echo across centuries of the black experience, transforming and illuminating the history of Britain.

The Routledge History Handbook of the American South (NY: Routledge) , Jan 2018

This edited volume looks at the major themes that have developed in the interdisciplinary field o... more This edited volume looks at the major themes that have developed in the interdisciplinary field of Southern Studies. With fifteen original essays from experts in their respective fields, the handbook addresses such diverse topics as Southern linguistics, music (secular and non-secular), gender, food, and history and memory. The chapters present focused historiographical analyses that, taken together, offer a clear sense of the evolution and contours ofSouthern Studies. This volume is valuable both as a dynamic introduction to Southern Studies and as an entry point into more recent research for those already familiar with the subfield.
First 20 pages of page-proofs with Table of Contents, Author Bios, and Intro.

Diasporas and Cultures of Mobilities, Vol 3, Dec 2016

The black American ‘Citizen Soldiers’ who participated in the ‘Good War’ also form part of the ‘G... more The black American ‘Citizen Soldiers’ who participated in the ‘Good War’ also form part of the ‘Greatest Generation,’ yet they are barely visible in the general histories of the Second World War (WWII). Most scholars agree that WWII was a watershed event that affected people all around the world yet African American soldiers are generally absent in the historiography of the era. Black military veterans were active participants in the panoply of the civil rights movement after the war, yet they are mostly missing in action in that narrative as well. Why have representations of WWII and the civil rights movement generally overlooked the multitude of black soldier’s experiences? How can we ‘save the black privates’ from obscurity? This work will highlight the agency of African American veterans who worked collectively and individually to fight racism during the war years of the 1940s, and also, were empowered to provide leadership and military skills as foot soldiers within the long civil rights movement.

Diasporas and Cultures of Mobilities, Vol 2, , Sep 2015

Although the term African Diaspora seems relatively new, a number of twentieth century scholars u... more Although the term African Diaspora seems relatively new, a number of twentieth century scholars utilized a diasporic framework to explain the commonalities among people of African descent around the world. By the twenty-first century, there are suggested rules of usage when engaging the explanatory paradigm. The field of inquiry and the tools of explanation continue to grow and African Diaspora adherents are slowly populating all of the ‘traditional’ disciplines of academe. Today there is a veritable cottage industry of African Diaspora theorists in the academy continually employing concepts and frameworks that add richness to our understanding of black life in different locales. There are even interdisciplinary African Diaspora Studies programs located in several universities. Most of what has been theorized and analyzed utilizes an Afro-Atlantic model as the norm with slavery as the point of trauma and dispersal, although this norm has been expanded to include modern-day African migrations and diasporas including black life via the Indian Ocean. The first task of any narrative analysis is to provide clarity to the concepts employed, and in diaspora scholarship, we must also define the community and individuals under investigation.

Becoming Southern Writers: Essays in Honor of Charles Joyner, eds. O.V. Burton & E.E. Prince, University of South Carolina Press, 2016

Festschrift in praise of Charles Joyner

Civil War America: A Social & Cultural History, editors Maggi M. Morehouse & Zoe Trodd (NY: Routledge), 2012

As war raged on the battlefields of the Civil War, men and women all over the nation continued th... more As war raged on the battlefields of the Civil War, men and women all over the nation continued their daily routines. They celebrated holidays, ran households, wrote letters, read newspapers, joined unions, attended plays, and graduated from high school and college. Civil War America reveals how Americans, both Northern and Southern, lived during the Civil War—the ways they worked, expressed themselves artistically, organized their family lives, treated illness, and worshipped.
Written by specialists, the chapters in this book cover the war’s impact on the economy, the role of the federal government, labor, welfare and reform efforts, the Indian nations, universities, healthcare and medicine, news coverage, photography, and a host of other topics that flesh out the lives of ordinary Americans who just happened to be living through the biggest conflict in American history. Along with the original material presented in the book chapters, the website accompanying the book is a treasure trove of primary sources, both textual and visual, keyed for each chapter topic.

Civil War America and its companion website uncover seismic shifts in the cultural and social landscape of the United States, providing the perfect addition to any course on the Civil War.

Chapter 16: Black Soldiers (Primary Source documents to accompany chapter)

ADAN, African Diaspora Archeology Newsletter, 2009

In the first part of the twentieth century African Americans left the rural South and migrated to... more In the first part of the twentieth century African Americans left the rural South and migrated to the more urban North and West. “Pushed” out by natural disasters and the economic decline of southern industries, concurrently they were “pulled” by the lure of war industry jobs with higher wages and non-discriminatory hiring practices. Many migrants expressed that move as “going to the Promised Land.” Today’s urban decay and inner city joblessness has many African Americans feeling “rootless.” Since the 1970s African Americans have been “returning” to the South -- that “vexed” and “haunted” area that most represents home. This article investigates the phenomenon of African Diaspora southern migration by exploring the meaning of place and identity within the writings and life stories of African Americans who explicitly deal with “returning” to the modern day South of “smiling faces, and beautiful places.”

This article is accompanied by a documentary film, which is available for viewing online at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDaniMVNLwI

African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, 2011

During World War II black soldiers who served in the United States Army and in the Caribbean colo... more During World War II black soldiers who served in the United States Army and in the Caribbean colonial forces of the British military performed their duties within the constraints of a racialized governmentality. When black soldiers served in the military forces of either nation, they were regulated by policies meant to control and contain their participation. The institutional racism within both the War Department and the Colonial Office is representative of a political theory of racialized governmentality – the black body was inscribed with governance by those who exercised power. This paper outlines and defines the concepts and terms of engagement necessary to understand the mentalities and realities facing black soldiers in two colonial settings during the Second World War.

Conflicts in American History: The Postwar and Civil Rights Era, 1945-1973, 2010

Conflicts in American History series

Encyclopedia of African American History 1896-present, 2009

Short entry explaining Juneteenth celebrations and history in the Encyclopedia of African America... more Short entry explaining Juneteenth celebrations and history in the Encyclopedia of African American History 1896-present, Oxford University Press, Cary D. Wintz, editor.

Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 2007

In simple terms, diaspora can be defined as the identity community that is formed when people mov... more In simple terms, diaspora can be defined as the identity community that is formed when people move. Although the term African Diaspora seems relatively new, a number of 20th century scholars have utilized a diasporic framework to explain the commonalities among people of African descent around the world. The earliest scholars did not use the term; however, scholars post-1950 have consistently used the analytical concept when studying and describing Black communities that were dispersed from Africa and germinated in the New World. This article highlights the competing attempts at theorizing the African Diaspora from its earliest proponents to its more contemporary adherents. Finally, this article illustrates the usefulness of the multivalent concept by applying the framework to slave autobiographies.

Select Talks by Maggi M Morehouse

America Celebrates, 2006

Slide presentation: October 2006, Sorbonne, Paris IV. Conference: "America Celebrates"

America Celebrates , 2006

Paper presented and revised for the conference, "America Celebrates", October 2006, Sorbonne, Par... more Paper presented and revised for the conference, "America Celebrates", October 2006, Sorbonne, Paris IV. Goes along with the pdf of the visual presentation.

Presentation: “Traveling without Moving: Digital Media & the Black Europe Experience” for Afroeur... more Presentation: “Traveling without Moving: Digital Media & the Black Europe Experience” for Afroeuropeans: Black Cultures & Identities in Europe V, University of Münster, Sept. 2015.

Presentation: “Protest & Resistance Among Black Soldiers” for the Port Chicago at 70 Symposium on... more Presentation: “Protest & Resistance Among Black Soldiers” for the Port Chicago at 70 Symposium on Race During WWII, Jul 2014; National Park Service Memorial http://portchicagomemorial.org

Presentation: “Controlling the Tide: Racial Policies & the Black Soldier” for the Turning Tides: ... more Presentation: “Controlling the Tide: Racial Policies & the Black Soldier” for the Turning Tides: Caribbean Intersections in the Americas conference, UWI-St. Augustine, Trinidad, Feb. 2016.

Presentation: “African American Women Warriors in the US Armed Forces in Germany,” invited speake... more Presentation: “African American Women Warriors in the US Armed Forces in Germany,” invited speaker for the Audre Lorde’s Germany conference, Humboldt University, Berlin, Jan. 2015.

Talk presented at the AfroEuropes IV conference in London.

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Home is Not a Place Film, 2023

The Routledge History Handbook of the American South (NY: Routledge) , Jan 2018

Diasporas and Cultures of Mobilities, Vol 3, Dec 2016

Diasporas and Cultures of Mobilities, Vol 2, , Sep 2015

Becoming Southern Writers: Essays in Honor of Charles Joyner, eds. O.V. Burton & E.E. Prince, University of South Carolina Press, 2016

Festschrift in praise of Charles Joyner

Civil War America: A Social & Cultural History, editors Maggi M. Morehouse & Zoe Trodd (NY: Routledge), 2012

Civil War America and its companion website uncover seismic shifts in the cultural and social landscape of the United States, providing the perfect addition to any course on the Civil War.

Chapter 16: Black Soldiers (Primary Source documents to accompany chapter)

ADAN, African Diaspora Archeology Newsletter, 2009

This article is accompanied by a documentary film, which is available for viewing online at YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDaniMVNLwI

African and Black Diaspora: An International Journal, 2011

Conflicts in American History: The Postwar and Civil Rights Era, 1945-1973, 2010

Conflicts in American History series

Encyclopedia of African American History 1896-present, 2009

Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, 2007

America Celebrates, 2006

Slide presentation: October 2006, Sorbonne, Paris IV. Conference: "America Celebrates"

America Celebrates , 2006

Talk presented at the AfroEuropes IV conference in London.

Description and Discount for text

Five year series of conferences around the theme of Ecotones

Ecotones #7 - Reconfiguring, Repurposing the City: Urban Ecotones in the Global South Venue: Un... more Ecotones #7 - Reconfiguring, Repurposing the City: Urban Ecotones in the Global South

Venue: University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa
Dates: October 29-31, 2020
Languages: English, French
Deadline for submitting proposals: 15 January 2020
Notification of acceptance: 1 March 2020

After conferences at Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier 3, Université de Poitiers and Université de La Réunion (France, 2015, 2016 and 2018), at the Centre for the Study of Social Sciences of Calcutta (Kolkata, India, 2018), Manhattanville College (NY, USA, 2019) and Concordia University (Montreal, Canada, 2019), this international scientific event at UCT will be the 7th opus of this conference cycle.
An “ecotone” initially designates a transitional area between two ecosystems, for example between land and sea. The “Ecotones” programme (2015-2020) is a cycle of conferences which aims to borrow this term traditionally used in geography and ecology and to broaden the concept by applying it to other disciplines in the social sciences and the humanities. An “ecotone” can thus also be understood as a cultural space of encounters, conflicts, and renewal between several communities. This interdisciplinary conference will focus more specifically on colonial and postcolonial cities as “ecotonal” dialectics between places and nonplaces (Augé).
Cities can be imagined as estuaries made of the sedimentation of drifting populations over a long period of time. They are powerful matrices of aggregation and segregation transforming and transformed by people coming from various horizons. As permanently renewed moving sites of uniting differences (Lefebvre), cities are lived experience and constantly defined by their margins. Perhaps more than other spaces, they empower people’s identities and generate shared social references, yet in different and unequal ways. Cities of the South often include affluent populations living in distant suburbs and gated communities while subalterns may remain captive in city centres. Conversely, cities of the North tend to expel lower and middle class at their margins while estate price in their core can only be afforded by wealthier populations. In that regard, cities are “situated”, endowed with thick historical and environmental forces shaping the populations living in their confines. But cities are also hubs connected with long-distance elsewheres. They are privileged sites of disjunctive flows in the global cultural economy (Appadurai), crossroads of a strikingly new interactive system of real and imagined topographies. And while growing postcolonial cities are privileged loci for the emergence and negotiation of new identities, increasing transnational mobility and migratory movements turn even smaller urban geographies into complex “contact zones” (Pratt): sites of both fruitful entanglements and novel forms of segregation.
Whether “global” or “glocal”, cities are thus part and parcel of wider archipelagos, including archipelagos of memory and the imagination. In that regard, cities can also be “nonplaces” in which people come and go anonymously, suspended in a permanent state of transit. The front windows of “exotic” groceries, shops, and restaurants contribute to the transformation of multicultural city spaces; they open onto hybrid public locations and visually indicate the presence of diaspora businesses supported by international networks. Yet, although transitory and often anonymous, nonplaces “accept the inevitability of protracted sojourns of strangers”, on condition however that these passing or temporary people are conceded a mere physical presence and have their “idiosyncratic subjectivities” erased (Bauman); for indeed, no symbolic expression of history and identity, no significant social relations emerge from nonplaces. In today’s urban configurations, they are nevertheless not entirely devoid of meaning, in opposition to “empty spaces” (Kociatkiewicz & Kostera), the waste-products of architectural projects and the forgotten fringes of urbanist vision, which are not prohibited, but “inaccessible because of their invisibility”. Besides, in the context of global centre-periphery relationships, urban identities are increasingly shaped by phenomena of creolization, with multiple forms of cultural continuums and their inherent dynamic ambiguities (Hannerz). Beyond the old colonial and now postcolonial Western “metropoles”, South American megalopolises and Asian global cities, where one can locate forms of “alternative cosmopolitanism” (Mayaram), many African cities epitomize the urban revolution in the Global South over the last two decades. Examples comprise Cairo, Lagos, Dakar, and notably Johannesburg, the polycentric “elusive metropolis” (Nuttall & Mbembe), but also Cape Town whose complex multi-ethnic and multi-cultural configurations harbour many ecotonal mechanisms which contribute to the emergence and negotiation of original modes of (global) citizenship.
These circulations do not, however, prevent cities from falling (back) into – or reproducing and consolidating – new “identity traps” (Agier), in the sense of socially and racially based negation of certain subjectivities. With rising security concerns in many cities, this can be seen with the replacement of frontiers by walls, which are indeed the “negation of the frontier” (Agier) in that they deny the reciprocal recognition of self and other, and which contribute to new forms of precariousness (Butler) in urban settings. Therefore, in spite of – and because of – globalization and increasing mixing, people (re)create pockets of homogeneity and new forms of urban “heterotopias” (Foucault), “spaces of the other” that have “the power to juxtapose in one real place many spaces and locations which are by themselves incompatible”.
Importantly, urban imaginaries and the world’s major cities, notably port cities, are now heavily affected by the climate crisis and its consequences. In The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016), Amitav Ghosh explores how coastal cities from Mumbai and Kolkata to New York and New Orleans represent concentrations of great risk and vulnerability in a future of climactic instability, increased storm activity and sea level rise. Tracing how the establishment of major ports on the coastlines of the world was often a consequence of 18th-century imperialism and trade networks, he speculates about the “managed retreat from vulnerable locations” that many major urban centres will need to undergo in the coming century. More broadly, what will the climate crisis mean for the 21st-century city? And how might ecological and environmental change unravel the technocratic confidence and carbon-based economy that informed the urban imaginary of 20th-century, modernist city planning?
Eventually, cities not only produce culture, but culture re-produces cities. Literature, film and other forms of artistic representation possess myriad ways of conveying and negotiating a “cartographic imaginary” (Westphal) where urban identities, their challenges and predicaments, become major signifiers, locations for debating our current living-together and imagining the future. Particularly, in the wake of the larger spatial turn and other disciplinary reconfigurations (e.g. the ethical turn, the social turn), literary representations and the arts are not only informed by or reflections of our urban ecotones, but contribute to inform and shape their contours.
***
Following up on Ecotones #6 at Concordia University in October 2019 focused on “Post/Colonial Ports: Place and Nonplace”, Ecotones #7 will review, revise and revisit such notions as place and “nonplace”. Other concepts such as “espace lisse” and “espace strié” (smooth space vs striated space, Deleuze and Guattari), or “heterotopia” (Foucault) may also be useful in the context of the urban ecotone, reflecting upon the urban space as shaped by movement and events, imaginaries and affects more than by fixed bearings and measurable objects, as more intensive than extensive. We will be particularly interested in examining the multiple ways spaces are de/formed, reconfigured and repurposed, be it for economic, social, industrial and financial aims, or artistic and creative ones, homogeneously or heterogeneously.

See CFP for details.

The Charles W. Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies and the Athenaeum Press a... more The Charles W. Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies and the Athenaeum Press at Coastal Carolina University invite abstracts, poster sessions, lightning talks and panel proposals for their second International Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora Conference (IGGAD). This year's theme-Without Borders: Tracing the Cultural, Archival and Political African Diaspora-focuses on the political, technological and cultural encodings and decodings of the African Diaspora in archives, public interpretation, performance and community organizing. We encourage submissions that present new works, projects, analysis and critiques of public interpretations and performances, as well as research in areas such as Afrofuturism, gender studies, Pan-Africanism, theories of race and politics, and Gullah Geechee cultures as well as other topics within the heritage and culture of the global African diaspora. Of special importance is our conference's emphasis on the community-based participatory model, which recognizes the importance of cultural practitioners and community participation to the success of the conference. To this end, the last day of our conference is a public-facing community day that will be held in the historic City of Conway, South Carolina, near the Myrtle Beach and Georgetown areas. This day will combine workshops, performances and film screenings with project presentations and short lectures. Submitters should indicate interest in giving a public-facing presentation on their initiative or project when submitting their proposals. The Joyner Institute and Athenaeum Press are also forming a peer-reviewed research journal. Research presented at the conference may be selected for publication in the inaugural issue (to be launched in 2021). To accommodate our international participants and funding deadlines, we will have a rolling notification of decisions for acceptance. Our call will close on October 15, with a deadline for notification on November 1.

Ecotones 4 - Partitions and Borders, Kolkata Dates: 12-15 December, 2018 Language: English D... more Ecotones 4 - Partitions and Borders, Kolkata

Dates: 12-15 December, 2018
Language: English
Deadline to send a proposal: March 15, 2018
Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2018

In this conference we will explore how a region functions through history as a transitional space between two ecologies. Do these ecotone spaces echo the distinct notes of its two borders, or do these spaces create a unique melody of their own and constitute a third space? How do these ecotone spaces reflect the dynamic flow of people into and out of its precincts? Do they have essential attributes that impact the people who call the ecotone their home? The studies on the culture and the geography of these areas will also enquire into the vulnerability of the ecosystems and of the populations in these areas, the former experiencing a persistent burden from the latter who source their livelihoods from their habitat, while the latter have to bear the brunt of myriad forms of assault.

We invite contributors to upload their proposals (a 250-word abstract, title, author’s name, a 150-word bio, and contact) to the conference website: Ecotones 4 Kolkata

An " ecotone " initially designates a transitional area between two ecosystems, for example betwe... more An " ecotone " initially designates a transitional area between two ecosystems, for example between land and sea. The " Ecotones " program (2015-2020) is a cycle of conferences which aims to borrow this term traditionally used in geography and ecology and to broaden the concept by applying it to other disciplines in social sciences and humanities. An " ecotone " can thus also be understood as a cultural space of encounters, conflicts, and renewal between several communities (Florence Krall). The objective of the " Ecotones 3 " conference is to further study these ecotones from an interdisciplinary approach, with a particular focus on the Indian Ocean as a space of mobility and a " contact zone " (Mary Louise Pratt). The exploration of geocultural ecotones, perceived not as mere lines of demarcation and fracture, but also as in-between spaces where tensions are at work, highlights the porosity and instability of geographical, political, and socio-cultural boundaries in a changing world. The interstice then becomes a " third space " (Bhabha, Soya) that promotes cultural mixing and diversity, the emergence of new " composite " entities/identities (Glissant), hybrid alterities resulting from encounters and conflicts, but that also generates oppositions, clashes and other frictions. In the midst of these historical and cultural interplays in the Indian Ocean region, the notion of vulnerability (individual and collective exposure, as well as social and political vulnerability) must also be foregrounded. This fragility can be perceived as a source of potential risks; it can also lead to greater resilience, which requires awareness of this very fragility. The urgency of protecting endangered ecosystems must not make us forget that populations, that are also at risk, are closely linked to these ecosystems. The concept of " slow violence " (Rob Nixon) can certainly be useful in this context. New approaches are also needed to explore current, ultracontemporary issues and to understand how the Indian Ocean region can offer insights into the evolution of the world in which we live at the beginning of the 21 st century, with its processes of " deterritorialization " (Appadurai) and " minor transnationalism " (Lionnet and Shih).

This event is the follow-up of a conference cycle on the notion of ecotones. Initially used in ph... more This event is the follow-up of a conference cycle on the notion of ecotones. Initially used in physical geography, an “ecotone” is a transitional area between two or more distinct ecological communities. The aim is to revisit this ecological metaphor and see how it sheds light on the transformations inherent in the social sciences such as in migration, diaspora, and settlement studies, while also investigating the hybrid cultures created in the ecotones discovered in literary studies, and explorations into the transitional spaces brought on by ecological changes.

Ecotones can be analysed through their effects on who and what occupies them, through their relations with the spaces beyond them, through the transformative processes they induce. This second conference seeks to investigate further this avenue of research by focusing on migrant subjectivities and how it intersects with ecotonic contexts.

The organizing committee welcomes papers addressing social, cultural and artistic dynamics in relation with migration and transformative ecotones. We encourage the submission of papers exploring’ subjectivities and their expression through different narrative forms (art pieces, novels, administrative narratives, or stories collected by ethnographic research). Our intent is to open a cross-feeding multidisciplinary dialogue. We welcome examinations of literature, comparisons of artistic expression, investigations of anthropological discoveries, as well as analysis within the political sciences, history and geography.