John Giggie – The Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South

Voices of the Enslaved Wins 2022 Summersell Deep South Book Prize

April 28, 2022

The Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South and the Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History at The University of Alabama are proud to announce the winner of the Sixth Biennial Summersell Deep South Book Prize for the best book on the history of the American South: Voices of the Enslaved: Love, Labor, and Longing in French Louisiana (UNC, 2019) by Sophie White, Professor of American Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Voices of the […]

2021 Summersell Deep South Book Prize Nominations

May 14, 2021

The Frances S. Summersell Center for the Study of the South and the Charles G. Summersell Chair of Southern History at The University of Alabama are pleased to communicate that they are receiving nominations for the 2021 Summersell Deep South Book Prize for the best book on the history of the American South. The author of the prizewinning book will be awarded a $2500 cash prize and be invited to give an address and meet with faculty and students at […]

Undergraduate Jana Venable Wins 2021 Randall Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award

March 5, 2021

Elmore County, Alabama native and senior history major Jana Venable has been awarded the 2021 Randall Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award. Venable received the award for her work, “Recovering Hidden Histories: Memorializing Lynching Victims in Elmore County, Alabama,” which she completed as part of Associate Professor and Director of the Summersell Center for the Study of the South John Giggie‘s Alabama Memory project, which seeks to recover the lives of black Alabamians lost in decades of race-driven lynching violence. Venable is […]

History of Us Featured in Recent Edition of Collegian

February 3, 2021

A History of Us An article about Dr. Giggie’s “History of Us” class, the first Black History class taught in an Alabama public high school, was featured recently in the College of Arts & Sciences magazine, Collegian. “On a January morning, 18 Central High School students sat around a circle of tables in their first period class. It’s silent, but it’s not tense—there’s an air of thoughtfulness, of students searching to find their answer to the question posed moments before. […]

Dr. John Giggie to Participate in David Mathews Center’s Civic Institute, August 21

August 18, 2020

The Mathews Center will host its annual Civic Institute on August 21st, 2020. The event will be held entirely online. The theme of this year’s event is Common Bonds: Collective Purpose and Civic Resilience in Uncertain Times. Dr. David Mathews, President and C.E.O. of the Kettering Foundation, will deliver a (pre-recorded) keynote address drawing on his experiences at the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare—where he served as Secretary during the Swine Flu outbreak of 1976. Mathews is an alum of The […]

UA Faculty & Students Present at University of Montevallo’s Civic Institute

August 23, 2019

Last week our faculty and students participated in the annual David Mathews Center for Civic Life‘s Civic Institute in Montevallo. The panel, organized by Dr. John Giggie and titled “Geographical Imaginations: The Role of Recuperative Storytelling in Southern History and Memory,” explored the transformative potential in little-known, marginalized, and difficult pasts. Panel participants included two UA History majors: Margaret Lawson, who discussed her work on “History of Us,” a course that trains Central High School students to become producers of history as they contend with […]

Summersell Center and Civil Rights History Task Force Publish Civil Rights Trail Book

May 9, 2019

Director of the Frances J. Summersell Center for the Study of the South , Dr. John Giggie, working with students from his class on Religion and Civil Rights at The University of Alabama and members of the Tuscaloosa Civil Rights History Task Force, recently published a 37-page Civil Rights History Trail guide for the city of Tuscaloosa. Based partly on student research, the pamphlet chronicles the history of key events, institutions, and individuals associated with the local history of the movement. In […]

Summersell Student Wins First Place in URSCA

April 26, 2019

History major and Summersell Center for the Study of the South student Isabella Garrison of Raleigh, North Carolina, took first place in the College of Arts & Sciences’ Summit for Undergraduate Research, Scholarship and Creative Activity (URSCA) poster competition for her presentation on “The Cartography of Southern Queerness.” URSCA allows undergraduate students the opportunity to highlight their research and creativity at UA. Garrison uncovered a deeper understanding of the emergence of the queer movement at the University of Alabama, specifically […]

Summersell Center Partners With Central High School to Teach About Lynching History

April 17, 2019

Dr. John Giggie and the Summersell Center for the Study of the South were recently recognized for their efforts to map the history of lynching victims in Alabama and develop a program for teaching about racial violence and southern history at the secondary education level. The Council on Community-Based Partnerships at The University of Alabama awarded Dr. Giggie a grant to expand the Center’s partnership with Central High School in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Specifically, the Community Engagement Graduate Fellowship covers the […]

Summersell Center Students Present at National Conference

April 9, 2019

Students enrolled in Dr. John Giggie’s Invisible Histories course recently presented research posters at the Queer History South Conference, which was held in Birmingham, Alabama, from March 27 through March 29. Invisible Histories is the first course of its kind in the history department — dedicated to learning about queer history and specifically recapturing the emergence of the queer student movement at The University of Alabama and across the state. Dr. Giggie has taken groups of students to three conferences […]