Christmas Time and Preparations for January

Merry Christmas to all! I hope the break treats all of my Wofford friends well. So what is this blog and, more specifically, my research all about? As best I can describe my intentions, my research in the humanities will be an in depth look at the place of race relations in films made about the American South during the Civil Rights Era. I will be looking at notable films such as To Kill a Mockingbird, In the Heat of the Night, and the Defiant Ones, as well as more obscure pictures like White Trash, Black Like Me, and The Liberation of L.B. Jones. In considering my options for a project in the humanities, I knew that I wanted to look at film and the American South. I was drawn to race relations and film because I found, with guidance from Professor Jim Neighbors, that the scholarly work on films in the American South has failed to delve into the responses to portrayals of race relations within film. More specifically, film studies have largely failed to compare the critical and cultural responses to these films within white and African-American communities-- both in film criticism and in mainstream response. In addition to viewing these films and doing some background reading on race relations and the Civil Rights era, the meat of my research will look at articles, essays, and primary sources that explore the reception and responses given to these films during their release periods-- which range from 1955 to 1971.  

The Creation of the Blog

I have officially created my blog for my Interim 2011 Independent Research in the Humanities.  My project will deal with the portrayal of race relations in films made about the American South during the Civil Rights Era, as well as the critical and cultural response to these films across races and regions and other intriguing elements of race that contributed to the making of these movies.  Stay tuned for a list of films, books, and other sources as January draws near. Looking forward to sharing my progress with you.