The University of Edinburgh Southern History Workshop warmly invites paper submissions for Coming through the Fire: Memory, Identity, and Change and Continuity in the American South, a one-day in-person workshop to be held at the University of Edinburgh on 6 June 2025. We invite the submission of pre-circulated papers on all aspects of the history of the American South. PGRs and ECRs are particularly encouraged to apply.

Coming through the Fire builds on a recent wave of “new” histories of the American South, bringing together scholars who challenge traditional narratives, foreground underrepresented voices, and employ innovative methodologies to explore the South’s many histories.

Since the declaration of the “New Southern Studies” in 2001, our approaches to the South have become more expansive, inclusive, and interdisciplinary. Recently, scholars including Cecilia Márquez, Daniel H. Usner, and Alejandra Dubcovsky have foregrounded the roles of Latinx and Indigenous historical actors in Southern history, while Tore C. Olsson has written of an “outpouring” of Southern research with “comparative, diplomatic, transnational, and global perspectives.” Yet, given these “micro-Souths” and widespread challenges to claims of Southern exceptionalism, can we—and should we—still talk about a singular South?

For all these changes in our scholarship, the recent U.S. election nonetheless highlighted how ideas about Southern identity remain stubbornly persistent. As W. Fitzhugh Brundage argued in 2023’s A New History of the South, “the American South has been the focus of some of the liveliest and most influential American history writing. Despite this outpouring, though, our understanding of the region’s history still bears the deep imprint of long-inherited interpretations.”

We welcome papers that reflect on change and continuity in the history of the American South, flexibly defined. Potential topics may include:

• The Colonial South, Enslavement, and the South during the American Revolution
• The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Rise of Jim Crow
• The World Wars, the Civil Rights Movement, and the New South
• Asian, Black, Indigenous, and Latinx Histories of the South
• Memory, Museums, and Monuments
• Southern Politics and the Politics of Southern Exceptionalism
• Migration, Trade, and Transnational Southern Identities
• Religion and Identity in the South
• The South in Films, Literature, and Music
• Labour and Working-Class Histories in the South
• Gender and Sexuality in Southern Society
• Environment, Climate, and Resilience in the South

To apply, please email edinburghsouthernworkshop@gmail.com by 28 February 2025, providing the following:

• An Abstract of up to 300 Words
• A Personal Biography of up to 100 Words

Successful applicants will be informed by 7 March 2025 and will be invited to submit a piece of pre-circulated work of approximately 3,000-5,000 words by 9 May 2025