WILSON, N.C. – The Geography Program in the Department of History and Social Sciences at Barton College and the North Carolina Museum of the Coastal Plain are pleased to co-sponsor a lecture by Dr. Derek H. Alderman at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 6, at the North Carolina Museum of the Coastal Plain. Dr. Alderman’s lecture, titled “Race, Memory, and Place-Making: The Power of the Photograph,” will take place amidst Vaughn Sills’ stirring collection of photographs of African American folk gardens currently on display at the museum.
Dr. Alderman is a professor of geography at East Carolina University (ECU) and a research fellow with ECU’s Center for Sustainable Tourism. He founded the Race, Ethnicity, and Social Equity in Tourism (RESET) initiative at the Center and recently co-authored “Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory” with Owen Dwyer. An engaged scholar and teacher, Dr. Alderman is an expert on the cultural geography of the American South, Martin Luther King street-naming, and the geography of heritage and public memory. In 2009, he was recognized with the UNC Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Place and memory create modern identities that are plainly visible in Vaughn Sills’ photographs. The “Places for the Spirit” exhibit is a collection of fine art photographs of traditional African American gardens in the South. Design elements and spiritual meanings in the gardens can be traced to the yards and gardens of American slaves and recall an even more distant African heritage.
The N.C. Museum of the Coastal Plain is located on the third floor of the Imagination Station Science Museum at 224 East Nash Street in Wilson.
For additional information, please contact Dr. Heather Ward, assistant professor of geography at Barton College, at 252.399.6444 or email: heward@barton.edu.
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Questions? Please contact Kathy Daughety, director of public relations, at 252-399-6529 or email: kdaughety@barton.edu.