NASHVILLE, Tenn. ñ The presumption that the American South is irretrievably "Bush Country" will be challenged when several of the writers from the Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent book of essays appear at Vanderbilt University for a panel discussion.
Writers John Egerton, Gene Nichol, Laughlin McDonald, Paul Gaston and Susan Ford Wiltshire will discuss politics and the South at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 5, in the Renaissance Room of Vanderbilt University Law School. A reception will follow in the lobby outside the meeting room.
The event is free and open to the public. It is sponsored by the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center/) and the Center for the Study of Religion and Culture (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/csrc/) and is part of the CSRC’s Faculty Publications in Religion and Culture Series.
"We are certainly pleased to mark the recent publication of this important volume with a panel discussion led by several of the contributing authors," said Mona Frederick, executive director of the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities. "The issues raised by these prominent scholars are particularly timely in a presidential election year."
"Where We Stand: Voices of Southern Dissent," published by NewSouth Books, features a dozen essays by Southern historians, civil rights activists, legal professors and others in the tradition of dissent as patriotism.
In the introduction of the book, editor Anthony Dunbar declares "that the current policies of our national administration sacrifice the interests of the poor and the people who work for a living to the interests of a privileged elite, that the power of money and the military must be tethered, that the natural environment must be sheltered, and that racial justice matters."
The book features a forward by former President Jimmy Carter.
Participants in the panel discussion will include:
* John Egerton, who has written extensively about education, race, history, food and other manifestations of Southern culture and is the author of The Americanization of Dixie: The Southernization of America.
* Paul Gaston, professor emeritus of Southern and Civil Rights history at the University of Virginia and author of The New South Creed.
* Laughlin McDonald, director of the Voting Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union and author of A Voting Rights Odyssey: Black Enfranchisement in Georgia.
* Gene Nichol, dean of the School of Law and the Burton Craige Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina and a regular op-ed columnist for the Raleigh News & Observer.
* Susan Ford Wiltshire, chair of the Department of Classical Studies at Vanderbilt University and author of Greece, Rome, and the Bill of Rights.
Media contact: Jim Patterson, (615) 322-NEWS
Jim.patterson@vanderbilt.edu