MACON – Dr. Scott Romine, professor of English at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, will deliver three lectures on the theme “The Zombie Memes of Dixie” for Mercer University’s 63rd annual Lamar Lecture Series, the most prominent lecture series on Southern history and culture in the U.S.
The lectures, presented by Mercer’s Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies, will be held Oct. 12-13 with limited seating and social distancing guidelines. They will also be made available through a public livestream at kingcenter.mercer.edu.
Dr. Romine’s lectures explore how “the South” has developed in popular culture. The meme concept allows creators and viewers to assert certain qualities to the region without identifying the historic realities attached to those assertions. The lectures examine the competing notions of the region that attempt to capture the essence of a South.
His opening lecture, “The South Under Construction,’” will take place Oct. 12 at 10:20 a.m., followed by “Reconstructing the South” Oct. 12 at 6 p.m. The series will conclude with “The South is a Bad Idea” Oct. 13 at 6 p.m.
“We are lucky to have Dr. Romine give the Lamar Lectures this year,” said Dr. Doug Thompson, associate professor of history and director of the Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies. “His ability to provide a critical lens about the region and what it means to study the American South adds to the body of work the Lamar Lectures have created over the past six decades. Dr. Romine’s addition to the series will be a valuable step in how popular notions of the South provide a tension concerning who and what gets included in the region.”
Dr. Romine specializes in American literature and is currently working on a project exploring the literature of Reconstruction.
He earned his Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Georgia, followed by his Master of Arts in English and Ph.D. in 20th-century British and American literature with a minor in Southern literature, both from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Dr. Romine has served on the faculty of the University of North Carolina at Greensboro since 1996 and chaired the English Department since 2014.
His books include The Narrative Forms of Southern Community (Louisiana State University Press, 1999), The Real South: Southern Narrative in the Age of Cultural Reproduction (Louisiana State University Press, 2008), which won the C. Hugh Holman Award from the Society for the Study of Southern Literature, and Keywords for Southern Studies (University of Georgia Press, 2016).
He currently serves as editor of the Southern Literary Studies series from Louisiana State University Press. Additionally, he has authored many essays and reviews and presented at numerous conferences and invited lecture series.
The Lamar Lecture series, made possible through a bequest from the late Eugenia Dorothy Blount Lamar, began in 1957. The series promotes the permanent preservation of Southern culture, history and literature. Speakers have included nationally and internationally known scholars, such as Michael O’Brien, Theda Perdue, Peter H. Wood, James C. Cobb, Trudier Harris and Minrose Gwin. The University of Georgia Press publishes the lectures each year.
About the Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies
The Spencer B. King Jr. Center for Southern Studies fosters critical discussions about the many meanings of the South. As the only center for southern studies in the United States dedicated to the education and enrichment of undergraduate students, the Center’s primary purpose is to examine the region’s complex history and culture through courses, conversations and events that are open, honest and accessible. In addition to private gifts from donors, the Center is supported by a National Endowment for the Humanities Challenge Grant.
