The mission of the University of South Carolina’s History Center is to

• nurture scholarship
• promote scholarly communication in the Department and other historically-inclined scholars
• engage with local communities
• further the development goals of the College and University
• raise the Department visibility and enhance its reputation in the historical profession

2012-2013 History Center Theme:  Emancipation—Liberation

This year-long series of lectures, seminar, pre-circulated papers and workshops explores the stories, themes, and legacies of emancipation, not just in the United States, but across the Americas and the world.  In the sesquicentennial year surrounding the Emancipation Proclamation in the United States, events at the History Center will approach emancipation and liberation from comparative, complementary, and contrasting perspectives from different places and time periods. In probing the meaning of emancipation and liberation to different groups of people and complicating the story of liberators and liberated, the History Center’s 2012-13 programming underscores the very idea of freedom and the possibilities and pitfalls surrounding its pursuit. To explore the question of emancipation and liberation from multiple vantages and historical circumstances our programming will involve: a focus on the US Civil War and the question of Emancipation; an examination of the protagonists and antagonists in the US Civil Rights Movement; how women in South Carolina have struggled for recognition and inclusion; how the recent Occupy Movement calls out for new definitions of what emancipation and liberation mean; how slavery and freedom were defined in Africa during the era of the trans-Atlantic slave trade;   the different routes of emancipation in Latin America and the Caribbean in the 19th century;  and how emancipation and liberation have long featured as central themes in various religious beliefs.

The History Center, with generous support from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Office of the Vice President for Research, offers a variety of variety of programming, including public lectures, seminars, colloquia, a works-in-progress series, and sessions on pedagogy.