Understanding the South, Understanding America: The American South in Regional, National and Global Perspectives

在赠款的24个月期间，将举行四次网络会议：曼彻斯特大学、佛罗里达大学、剑桥大学和哥本哈根大学各一次。每次会议将集中讨论目标中概述的与美洲南方研究有关的一个主要研究问题(见上文2)。这些会议将单独和集体地鼓励南方研究领域的理论回顾和方法创新，同时还将促进对国家和跨国背景下的美国南方历史和文化的更深入了解。在密切关注南方内部明显的多样性的同时，该网络将探索该区域与从殖民时代到当代的更广泛的国家和全球历史之间的复杂关系。最终，该网络将肯定美国南部作为一个重要的社会、政治、经济和文化交叉潮流传统上交汇和重塑的信号重要性，并完善对这些交叉点的历史、性质和意义的新调查模式。曼彻斯特会议(2008年5月)将使用关于当代南方的多学科视角，主要描绘其对现代美国的影响，进而对二战后世界的大部分地区产生影响。在这一过程中，它将促进历史学家和主要以文学和文化研究为基础的新南方研究实践者之间早就应该进行的对话。主要演讲者包括马丁·伯恩、大卫·科尔本、艾莉森·格雷厄姆、保罗·哈维、约翰·柯克、威廉·林克、里奇·理查森和莎伦·蒙蒂斯。佛罗里达会议(2009年1月)将从比较国际的角度探讨南方公民意识、民族主义和分离经验的变化。预计主要演讲者包括大卫·布朗、唐·道尔、劳拉·爱德华兹、玛莎·霍兹、威廉·林克、迈克尔·奥布莱恩和安德烈斯·雷森德斯。剑桥会议(2009年8月)将重新审查将南方历史和文化研究置于‘大西洋世界’框架内的分析优点(和危险)，并探索将该模式的时间范围扩展到现代早期的传统范围之外的可能性。预计主要演讲者包括迈克尔·比布勒、彼得·科克兰尼斯、特雷弗·伯纳德、艾莉森·游戏、理查德·金、乔恩·森斯巴赫、布莱恩·沃德和贝蒂·伍德。哥本哈根会议(2010年5月)将聚焦于从殖民时代到现在，南方及其文化在美国国内和全球范围内被想象、生产、营销和消费的方式。预计主要演讲者包括托尼·巴杰、黛博拉·科恩、拉塞尔·邓肯、安妮·德文吉、艾莉森·格雷厄姆、理查德·金、莎拉·米尔、海伦·泰勒和布莱恩·沃德。除了南方主要学者的正式发言外，每次会议还将举行一次全体会议，网络指导委员会的成员将在会上领导讨论文件提出的理论和方法问题，这些问题是网络的核心问题。将在曼彻斯特设立一个专门讨论该网络的网站兼讨论板。佛罗里达大学出版社将出版两卷(可能是三卷)编辑过的书，以使该网络的创新工作在赠款有效期后永续存在。为了促进学术界对该网络核心的实证和理论问题的持续关注，每次会议都将纳入美国和英国/欧盟研究生的一些论文(本申请不要求提供这方面的资金)。据设想，该网络将为一个永久性的南方研究网络提供基础，在曼彻斯特设有中心，并在此次竞标中有一个或多个合作伙伴。

Four Network meetings will be held during the 24-months of the grant: one each at the universities of Manchester, Florida, Cambridge and Copenhagen. Each meeting will focus on one of the major research questions relating to the study of American South outlined in the Objectives (see 2 above). Individually and collectively, the meetings will encourage theoretical retrospection and methodological innovation in the field of Southern Studies, while also promoting a deeper understanding of the history and cultures of the American South in national and transnational contexts. While paying close attention to the diversity apparent within the South, the Network will explore the region's complex relationships with broader national and global histories from the colonial era to the contemporary period. Ultimately, the Network will both affirm the signal importance of the American South as a place where vital social, political, economic, and cultural crosscurrents have traditionally intersected and been reshaped, and refine new modes of enquiry into the history, nature and significances of those intersections. The Manchester meeting (May 2008) will use multidisciplinary perspectives on the contemporary South primarily to delineate its influence on modern America and, by extension, on much of the post-World War Two world. In the process it will facilitate long overdue dialogue between historians and practitioners of the New Southern Studies based principally in literary and cultural studies. Key speakers will include Martyn Bone, David Colburn, Allison Graham, Paul Harvey, John Kirk, William Link, Riché Richardson, and Sharon Monteith. The Florida meeting (January 2009) will explore changing southern notions of citizenship, nationalism, and the experience of secession in comparative international perspective. Key speakers expected include David Brown, Don Doyle, Laura Edwards, Martha Hodes, William Link, Michael O'Brien, and Andres Resendez. The Cambridge meeting (August 2009) will re-examine the analytical virtues (and perils) of situating the study of southern history and cultures within an 'Atlantic World' framework and explore the possibilities for stretching the chronological scope of that model beyond its traditional home in the Early Modern period. Key speakers are expected to include Michael Bibler, Peter Coclanis, Trevor Burnard, Alison Games, Richard King, Jon Sensbach, Brian Ward, and Betty Wood. The Copenhagen meeting (May 2010) will focus on the ways in which the South and its cultures have been imagined, produced, marketed and consumed within the US and globally, from colonial times to the present. Key speakers are expected to include Tony Badger, Deborah Cohn, Russell Duncan, Anne Dvinge, Allison Graham, Richard King, Sarah Meer, Helen Taylor, and Brian Ward. In addition to formal presentations by leading southern scholars, each conference meeting will feature a plenary session at which members of the Network Steering Committee will lead discussions of the theoretical and methodological issues raised by the papers and central to the Network. A website-cum-discussion board dedicated to the Network will be created at Manchester. Two (possibly three) edited volumes will be published by the University Press of Florida, to perpetuate the innovative work of the Network beyond the life of the grant. In a similar move to stimulate continued scholarly concern for the kinds of empirical and theoretical issues at the core of the Network, each meeting will incorporate some papers by US and UK/EU postgraduate students (funds for this are NOT requested as part of this application). It is envisioned that the Network will provide the basis for a permanent Southern Studies Network, with hubs at Manchester and one or more of the partners in this bid.