News Release

By MARY CATHERINE HENDRIX
UNC News Services

CHAPEL HILL -- The University Center for International Studies and the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will host a conference on the globalization of the American South March 3 and 4.

"Navigating the Globalization of the American South: An Interdisciplinary Conference Exploring the Changing Face of the Southern United States" will be held at UNC’s William and Ida Friday Center for Continuing Education from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. March 3 and 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. March 4.

"This conference is exploring the dramatic changes the American South has undergone in the past 20 to 30 years due to global forces, whether it is textile jobs moving overseas, or Hispanic migrant workers and multinational pharmaceutical firms coming to the area," said Dr. Niklaus Steiner, executive director of the University Center for International Studies (UCIS).

"It makes sense for UNC to be at the forefront of studying these changes because the university has such a rich tradition of scholarship in the American South."

Funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, the conference will feature more than 60 presentations by scholars, policy-makers and practitioners. Topics will include economic transformations in North Carolina, Southern identities and Southern studies in a global context, education and health delivery, artists documenting the global South and the Hispanic impact on local communities.

Featured speakers include Dr. Peter Coclanis, associate provost for international affairs and Albert R. Newsome professor of history in UNC’s College of Arts and Sciences; and Jim Clinton, executive director of the Research Triangle Park-based Southern Growth Policies Board.

Participants will also see a special film preview of "The Guestworker: Bienvenidos a Carolina del Norte." A discussion by the filmmakers, Charles Thompson and Cynthia Hill, will follow. Thompson is the curriculum and education director at the Center for Documentary Studies and adjunct professor of cultural anthropology and religion at Duke University. Hill, of Durham, is an independent filmmaker.

Registration for the conference is $25 by Friday (Feb. 25) and $35 for late registration. For more information or to register, visit www.ucis.unc.edu/globalsouth or contact Kim Glenn at kim_glenn@unc.edu.

The UCIS was established in 1993 as a universitywide center to extend UNC’s international presence and global perspective. It is one of only 11 international centers nationwide designated by the U.S. Department of Education as a Title VI "National Resource Center" and is one of only seven "Rotary Centers for International Studies" worldwide.

The UNC Board of Governors established the Center for the Study of the American South in 1992 to foster scholarship exploring the past, present and future of the region. It has programs that emphasize Southern history, literature and culture and address ongoing social, political and economic issues.

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UCIS contact: Kim Glenn, (919) 843-2430

News Services contact: Deb Saine, (919) 962-8415 or deborah_saine@unc.edu