Working History

Derek Krissoff, Director of the West Virginia University Press, discusses academic publishing and university presses, the open access movement, and current trends in history publishing.

Professor Ellen Griffith Spears of the University of Alabama, author of "Baptized in PCBs: Race, Pollution, and Justice in an All-American Town," discusses the decades long struggle for environmental and civil rights justice in Anniston, Alabama, and broader lessons to be learned from this fight to address one community's exposure to toxic chemicals.

Professors Melissa Walker of Converse College and Giselle Roberts of Australia’s La Trobe University, editors of the Women’s Diaries and Letters of the South series, discuss the field of documentary editing and how the personal writings of southern women reveal the broader history of life in the U.S. South during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

Professor Chad Pearson of Collin College, author of "Reform or Repression," traces the roots of modern anti-unionism in the U.S. to the early 20th century open shop movement and a push by business interests nationwide to break unions and stall the momentum of organized labor.

Scott Nelson, Legum Professor of History at the College of William & Mary and SLSA’s immediate past president, presents the lecture, “The White Whale: Why Moby Dick Is a Story about the Fate of Southern Labor in the Age of Slavery.” The lecture and Q&A session were recorded at the SLSA luncheon at the 2015 Southern Historical Association meeting in Little Rock, Arkansas.

Professor Michael Honey of the University of Washington, Tacoma, discusses the documentary that he directed and co-produced, "Love and Solidarity: The Story of Rev. James Lawson," and Lawson's work of building solidarity and movements for social justice from the Civil Rights Era to today.

Professor Michelle Haberland of Georgia Southern University, author of "Striking Beauties: Women Apparel Workers in the U.S. South," discusses the dynamics of gender, class, race and globalization in the southern apparel industry from the 1930s to today.

Professor Kenneth Fones-Wolf of West Virginia University discusses his book, co-authored with Elizabeth Fones-Wolf, "Struggle for the Soul of the Postwar South," the role of religion in the CIO's Operation Dixie, and provides perspective on the participation of faith communities in the modern labor movement.

Professor Jacob Remes of SUNY Empire State College discusses his book, "Disaster Citizenship," and challenges prevailing assumptions about how ordinary people, governments, and institutions act in the wake of natural disasters.

Professor Talitha LeFlouria, a fellow at the Carter G. Woodson Institute at the University of Virginia, discusses her book, "Chained in Silence," and the lives, labors, and legacies of incarcerated black women and the convict lease system in the early 20th century South.