Blair-Rockefeller Legacy Series

University of Arkansas Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society logoDiane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society – Winthrop Rockefeller Institute Conferences

Click here for information about the 3rd annual conference to be held April 7-9, 2010.

Winthrop Rockefeller Institute’s emphasis on the relationship between education and economics, race relations, the environment, and the implications of scientific and technological change complement the mission of The Diane D. Blair Center for Southern Politics and Society.

 Working together, the Rockefeller Institute and the Blair Center will not only be able to combine the unique strengths associated with the faculty and staff in each organization, but also will combine resources allowing each to accomplish significantly more than acting alone.
 
In the spring of 2009, the first Blair-Rockefeller Legacy Series Conference (formerly the Blair Legacy Series) turned the critical spotlight on eminent political scientist V.O. Key, Jr., on the 60th anniversary of his seminal work, Southern Politics in State and Nation. A group of interdisciplinary scholars gathered at Winthrop Rockefeller Institute to debate what elements of Key’s work remain valid and to discuss aspects the eminent social scientist might have overlooked in his 1940s research. 
 
Led by keynote speaker, Byron E. Shafer of the University of Wisconsin, the group of scholars included: Harold Stanley, Susan MacManus, Margaret Reid, Keith Gaddie, Kari Frederickson, Charles Reagan Wilson, Pearl K. Ford, and Dan T. Carter. A collected volume of their contributions is being edited by Todd G. Shields and assistant professor, Angie Maxwell, and is due to be published in the fall of 2010 by the University of Arkansas Press.
 

3rd Annual Blair-Rockefeller Legacy Series Conference
"C. Vann Woodward for a New Century: Politics and Identity in the Modern South"
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
April 7-9, 2010 (Public Keynote Address: April 8, 2010 from 4-6 p.m.)

C. Vann Woodward - Image from American Historical Association (www.historians.org)Building upon the strength of the first venture in this partnership, the Blair Center and the Rockefeller Institute will host the 3rd Blair Legacy Series Conference on native-Arkansan C. Vann Woodward on the campus of the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. On the 50-year anniversary of its publication, Woodward’s The Burden of Southern History will be the focus of this retrospective.
 
Invited scholars are asked to reconsider the key essays that comprise Woodward’s landmark collection, to discuss the ongoing relevance of his ideas, or to reinterpret one of his theses in an analysis of the contemporary South. Woodward tackles questions of equality, white southern identity, the political legacy of Reconstruction, the heritage of populism, the place of the South within the nation, among others.
 
While much of the conference is open to invited guests only, a public keynote address and panel discussion will take place April 8 from 4:00 to 6:00 p.m. in Giffels Auditorium in the Old Main building on the University of Arkansas campus. The keynote speaker will be James C. Cobb, B. Phinizy Spalding Distinguished Professor of History at the University of Georgia. Click here to download a flyer about the public program (PDF).
 
Other participating scholars include the following:
 
Elsa Barkley-Brown
Associate Professor of History and Women’s Studies
Faculty, Afro-American Studies and American Studies
University of Maryland
 
Charles Bullock, III
Richard B. Russell Professor of Political Science
University of Georgia
Department of Political Science
 
Jane Dailey
Associate Professor of History
University of Chicago
Department of History
 
Leigh Anne Duck
Associate Professor of English
University of Memphis
Department of English
 
Bob McMath
Dean, Honors College
Professor of History
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
 
Wayne Parent
Russell B. Long Professor of Political Science
Louisiana State University
Department of Political Science
 
Hanes Walton, Jr.
Professor, Center for Afroamerican and African Studies
Research Professor, Center for Political Studies
University of Michigan
 
Patrick Williams
Associate Professor of History
University of Arkansas, Fayetteville