The South of Our Imagination
A Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Karen Cox has risen to prominence as one of the most authoritative commentators on the American South today. In particular, Cox’s incisive treatments of the history of Confederate monuments–the subject of her most recent book, No Common Ground (2021)–has made her a widely sought expert in national and international discussions of this contentious issue. Well beyond this topic, however, Cox’s award-winning scholarship has explored the broader role of “the South” in the American popular imagination, through books such as Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture (2003) and Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture (2013). To shed more light on a region and the places that continue to define our nation today, the Clough Center enthusiastically welcomes Prof. Karen Cox as a Distinguished Lecturer for the 2023-24 academic year. Serving as her respondent is Nir Eiskovits, Professor of Philosophy and Founding Director of the Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston, who has engaged extensively with questions of wartime ethics and transitional justice. Prof. Cox’s lecture is entitled “The South of Our Imagination.” Please join us for this stimulating conclusion to our fall program, on a topic that remains central to our public conversation.
This event is part of the Clough Center's year-long exploration of “Attachment to Place in a World of Nations”
Speakers
Karen L. Cox
Karen L. Cox is a Professor of History at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, an award-winning historian, and a Distinguished Lecturer for the Organization of American Historians. She is the author of four books and the editor or co-editor of two volumes on southern history. Her books include Dixie’s Daughters: The United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Preservation of Confederate Culture; Dreaming of Dixie: How the South Was Created in American Popular Culture; Goat Castle: A True Story of Murder, Race, and the Gothic South; and most recently, No Common Ground: Confederate Monuments and the Ongoing Fight for Racial Justice. As a publicly engaged scholar, Dr. Cox has written op-eds for the New York Times, the Washington Post, CNN, TIME magazine, Publishers Weekly, Smithsonian Magazine, and the Huffington Post. She has also appeared in Henry Louis Gates’s PBS documentary Reconstruction: America after the Civil War, Lucy Worsley’s American History’s Biggest Fibs for the BBC, and the Emmy-nominated documentary The Neutral Ground.
Nir Eisikovits
Nir Eisikovits is Professor of Philosophy and Founding Director of the Applied Ethics Center at UMass Boston. Before coming to UMass he was associate professor of legal and political philosophy at Suffolk University, where he co-founded and directed the Graduate Program in Ethics and Public Policy. Professor Eisikovits' research focuses on the moral and political dilemmas arising after war, the culture of war and the ethics of technology. His books include A Theory of Truces (Palgrave MacMillan), Sympathizing with the Enemy: Reconciliation, Transitional Justice, Negotiation (Brill), Theorizing Transitional Justice (Routledge), and the forthcoming Glory, Humiliation and the Drive to War (Cambridge). In addition to his scholarly work, Eiskovits has advised NGOs focused on conflict resolution and comments frequently on political conflict and the ethics of technology for American newspapers and magazines. His op-eds and essays have appeared in the Boston Globe, the Miami Herald, Slate, and The National Interest, among others.
Campus Map and Parking
Parking is available at the nearby Beacon Street and Commonwealth Avenue Garages.
Boston College is also accessible via public transportation (MBTA B Line - Boston College).
Boston College strongly encourages conference participants to receive the COVID-19 vaccination before attending events on campus.
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