The Deep North

The Deep North

In the 1970s, many colleges and universities started creating “Southern Studies” programs aimed at understanding Southern cultural distinctiveness. The point was clear. The South represented something unique in American life. Graduate students in the humanities, fine arts, and social sciences began studying this thing known as the “South.” It became a specimen, a curiosity, a “peculiar” other in American life, and Northern scholars flooded Southern schools and their “Southern Studies” programs to help Southerners better understand themselves and the so-called “Deep South.”

But what if this narrative flipped America on its head? What if the real “peculiar” section in American history wasn’t the South, but the North? What if Southerners were the quintessential “American” for most of American history, and the real section that needed special attention was the “Deep North”?

A cursory review of the collective past points in this direction. New Englanders first threatened to secede in 1794 because they seemed out of place in the new general government. They threatened again several times before the 1850s. Abolitionism and other reform movements were met with hostility around the United States and were run out of town in most places, but because the North won the War, these reformers are treated as the “normal” Americans in the story. Northern political leaders are heroes in a struggle to “save” American principles from “oligarchic” Southerners.

This historical distortion has greatly affected American society and needs to be addressed.

Join us for lively discussions and lectures on “The Deep North,” and its impact on American society and education.

The Conference fee covers breakfast, lunch, and supper on October 9 with snacks and refreshments during the day.

Agenda and Speakers forthcoming.

Preliminary Schedule:

October 8: Check in–Local Conviviality.

October 9: 8:00-9:00: Breakfast; 9:00-12:00: Lectures/Events; 12:00-1:00: Lunch; 1:00-5:00: Lectures/Events; 6:00-7:00: Supper; 7:30-8:30: Lecture; 8:30-Conviviality

October 10: Check out