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'Sexual Economy of American Slavery' is topic of law professor's talk Feb. 25

CHAPEL HILL -- "The Sexual Economy of American Slavery" will be the topic of a free public talk Feb. 25 by Adrienne Dale Davis, a law professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Davis will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Toy Lounge, on the fourth floor of UNC's Dey Hall. The building is near Wilson Library, off South Road. Refreshments will be served.

The talk is part of the "Centering the South" series sponsored by UNC's Center for the Study of the American South. Previous speakers have included scholars Dr. Trudier Harris-Lopez, a UNC English professor and expert on African-American literature, and Charles Reagan Wilson, who directs the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi in Oxford.

"These scholars have lent their expertise to thoughtful discussions about a wide range of topics indicative of a quickly evolving South that also remains rooted in tradition," said Dr. Harry Watson, a history professor and director of the UNC center.

Remaining series speakers and topics this spring will be:

• Roger Kennedy, former director of the National Park Service and of the National Museum of American History, "From Eisenhower through Clinton: Fifty Years on the Edge of History," 12:30 p.m. March 6 in 569 Hamilton Hall, a brown-bag lunch talk.
  
  
• Dr. Glenn Hinson, UNC anthropology professor and director of the folklore curriculum, "Fire in My Bones: Experiencing Transcendence in African-American Gospel," with gospel singing by The Branchettes, a Johnston County duo, 7:30 p.m. April 2 in 08 Gardner Hall.
  
  
• James C. Cobb, a professor of history at the University of Georgia and a frequent contributor to "Southern Cultures," the center's award-winning quarterly, speaking at 7:30 p.m. April 10 in Toy Lounge, Dey Hall.

At UNC, Davis teaches property, contracts and advanced legal theory courses. Previously she was a professor and co-director of the Gender, Work & Family Project in the law school at American University and taught law at the University of San Francisco.

Davis is on the editorial board of the Law & History Review and formerly was editor of the Journal of Legal Education and chair of the Law & Humanities Section of the American Association of Law Schools.

Davis' research examines the interplay of property and contract doctrine with race, gender and sexuality in the 19th century. She was among professors winning a Ford Foundation grant to pursue studies that resulted in "Sister Circle: Black Women and Work" (Rutgers University Press, 2002), for which Davis was a contributing writer. She won a Rockefeller Foundation grant for her current research.

Since 1992, the Center for the Study of the American South has investigated southern traditions and identity and explored how the South affects the evolution of culture and society around the globe. For more information about the speaker series and the center, call 962-5665 or visit www.unc.edu/depts/csas/.

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Photo url: http://www.unc.edu/news/pics/faculty/davis_adrienne.jpg

Center for the Study of the American South contact: Harry Watson, (919) 962-5665, hwatson@email.unc.edu

News Services contact: L.J. Toler, (919) 962-8589, laura_toler@unc.edu