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New Southern Studies
Navigating Souths: Transdisciplinary Explorations of a U.S. Region
The work of considering, imagining, and theorizing the U.S. South in regional, national, and global contexts is an intellectual project that has been going on for some time. Scholars in history, literature, and other disciplines have developed an ad-vanced understanding of the historical, social, and cultural forces that have helped to shape the U.S. South. However, most of the debates on these subjects have taken place within specific academic disciplines, with few attempts to cross-engage.
Navigating Souths broadens these exchanges by facilitating transdisciplinary conversations about southern studies scholarship. The fourteen original essays in Navigating Souths articulate questions about the significances of the South as a theoretical and literal "home" base for social science and humanities researchers. They also examine challenges faced by researchers who identify as southern studies scholars, as well as by those who live and work in the regional South, and show how researchers have responded to these challenges. In doing so, this book project seeks to reframe the field of southern studies as it is currently being practiced by social science and humanities scholars and thus reshape historical and cultural conceptualizations of the region.
Contributors: Alix Chapman, Rico D. Chapman, Michele Grigsby Coffey, Kirsten A. Dellinger, Leigh Anne Duck, Gwendolyn Ferreti, Kathryn Green, Robert Greene II, John Hayes, Jeffrey T. Jackson, Anne Lewis, Katie McKee, Kathryn Radishofski, Emily Satterwhite, Jodi Skipper, Jon Smith, Melanie Benson Taylor, Annette Trefzer, Daniel Cross Turner, Charles Reagan Wilson
Navigating Souths broadens these exchanges by facilitating transdisciplinary conversations about southern studies scholarship. The fourteen original essays in Navigating Souths articulate questions about the significances of the South as a theoretical and literal "home" base for social science and humanities researchers. They also examine challenges faced by researchers who identify as southern studies scholars, as well as by those who live and work in the regional South, and show how researchers have responded to these challenges. In doing so, this book project seeks to reframe the field of southern studies as it is currently being practiced by social science and humanities scholars and thus reshape historical and cultural conceptualizations of the region.
Contributors: Alix Chapman, Rico D. Chapman, Michele Grigsby Coffey, Kirsten A. Dellinger, Leigh Anne Duck, Gwendolyn Ferreti, Kathryn Green, Robert Greene II, John Hayes, Jeffrey T. Jackson, Anne Lewis, Katie McKee, Kathryn Radishofski, Emily Satterwhite, Jodi Skipper, Jon Smith, Melanie Benson Taylor, Annette Trefzer, Daniel Cross Turner, Charles Reagan Wilson
328 pages, Hardcover
Published August 1, 2017
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July 24, 2026
Michele Grigsby Coffey and Jodi Skipper’s edited volume, Navigating Souths: Transdisciplinary Explorations of a U.S. Region, is an intellectual triumph that breaks down long-standing academic silos. Spanning 328 pages, this collection brings together fourteen original essays from leading voices across the humanities and social sciences to rethink how we study, theorize, and live within the U.S. South.
What makes this volume indispensable is its dual focus: it tackles the regional South as a literal and theoretical home base while critically examining the institutional and methodological challenges faced by southern studies scholars today. By placing literary critics, historians, sociologists, and cultural theorists in direct conversation, the contributors offer fresh, global, and intersectional perspectives that reshape our understanding of the region. It is a vital, pathbreaking read for scholars, students, and anyone invested in the evolving discourse of American regional studies.
What makes this volume indispensable is its dual focus: it tackles the regional South as a literal and theoretical home base while critically examining the institutional and methodological challenges faced by southern studies scholars today. By placing literary critics, historians, sociologists, and cultural theorists in direct conversation, the contributors offer fresh, global, and intersectional perspectives that reshape our understanding of the region. It is a vital, pathbreaking read for scholars, students, and anyone invested in the evolving discourse of American regional studies.
Displaying 1 of 1 review