Dr. Vince Benigni has been a well-renowned professor in the College of Charleston Communications Department for the past 22 years, but his experience in public relations and sports communication extends far beyond. At the College, he has found a niche in sports journalism, and teaches Intro to Strategic Communication, Sport and Society, and Media in the Digital Age. In 1983, Dr. Benigni received a journalism degree from Indiana University of Pennsylvania and a subsequent English degree from Slippery Rock University of Pennsylvania. He received his Ph.D. in journalism and mass communication from the University of Georgia in 1999, where he began developing a presence in southern identity.

Dr. Benigni is originally from Western Pennsylvania, but has spent the last 30 years in the South studying southern college football, the role of social media in southern sports, and the SEC fandom. His work in southern studies concerns the culture and the influence that has come from southern sports, particularly football: “That SEC slogan ‘It means more’ rings true,” he says. “I think there’s some truth to that, that people in the South go a little crazy and have made the fandom as big as the sports.” He describes the football tailgating rituals to be almost a religious aspect– “You hear stories that people never get married on a college football Saturday.” Dr. Benigni is currently examining what he called the “trifecta of crises” in 2020 and their impact on southern sports– the impacts of the coronavirus and racial movements from a financial standpoint have had staggering impacts on 2020 collegiate sports. Many universities, particularly southern ones, have taken huge pocketbook hits from the lack of a fan base in the stands. Television revenues, merchandising, and tailgating spots have declined, all of which help to funnel hundreds of millions of dollars into schools like Clemson and Alabama.

Dr. Benigni’s professional connection to Southern Studies has also fueled his personal one; immersing himself in the SEC fandom has only increased his stance as a huge sports fanatic, and he’s taken a greater liking to college football since moving to the South. He’s become fascinated with how at many of these southern schools, identity is based on football– the fan base and culture has shaped southern football programs to be more than the sport itself.

In addition to the impact of the coronavirus on college sports, Dr. Benigni is studying the racial imbalances in certain sports: “We haven’t seen a big explosion of black athletes in Southern country club sports like golf, or even baseball– you would think a lot might be inclined to pursue these, but there’s a real access problem for some in the South,” Dr. Benigni said. Educational and monetary gaps have prevented many struggling southern areas from promoting “country club sports.” These collegiate programs have never been as aggressive in recruiting black athletes, leaving them to reevaluate how they handle their admissions processes in today’s political climate. Lately, he’s been analyzing how many smaller southern schools– Davidson, Appalachian State, Coastal Carolina– have been directing funds towards their athletic programs to then bolster their national profile, and in turn, the admissions process. Winning sports programs, Benigni says, have been instrumental in improving universities’ academic profiles as well.

Dr. Sandy Slater is one of the College of Charleston’s premier history professors, who specializes in the study and research of race, gender, and sexuality, all in the context of the Colonial Era Atlantic.
Dr. Slater was born in Turkey Creek, Pike County, Kentucky. Ever since she was young, Dr.Slater has loved history, so much so that on her childhood desk, she had a photograph of Abraham Lincoln. Growing up in Kentucky, her family taught her what it means to work hard. Her father had a large role in teaching her this lesson. As a coal miner, he worked long hours to provide what his family needed. Dr. Slater, instilled with her families’ hard-working spirit, enrolled in Lincoln Memorial Univerisity. In her time at Lincoln, she double majored in American Studies and History, while simultaneously minoring in music and English. After receiving her undergraduate degree in 2003, Dr. Slater set her sights on a Masters and Ph.D. from Kentucky University. At Kentucky University, she studied History as well as Women and Gender Studies.
Immediately out of Graduate School in 2009, Dr. Slater started teaching at the College of Charleston. She began teaching her first courses, History of Colonial Americans History and American Sexualities. Now in 2020, a tenured professor Dr. Slater is the Director of the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World Program, a History Department Senator, and a History Department Internship Adviser. Dr. Slater also holds positions as Chair of the Committee on Graduate Education and resides on the Board of Directors for Consortium of the Revolutionary Era. Dr. Slater has added multiple new classes into her repertoire since starting here at the College. These classes taught by Dr. Slater include the History of the American Revolution, Queer America, and American Women. Soon she hopes to add the History of Appalachia to her growing list of classes provided to our campus community.
Dr. Slater is one of the Professors here at the College that supports our Southern Studies Program through her position in the CofC History Department.

Dr. James Ward is a Senior Instructor at the College of Charleston’s Art and Architectural History Department, specializing in landscape architecture. He attended various schools around the country, but eventually found a unique appeal to the University of Georgia, where he obtained three degrees. He pursued a B.A. in English during his undergraduate studies. Coincidentally, he would pass the School of Environmental Design while walking to class. His curiosity was piqued by what he observed of the studio and camaraderie in the classroom, so he took an extra class in the department. It was a step out of his comfort zone, but he discovered a real interest in the field and returned to UGA twice more to earn a B.L.A and an M.L.A in Landscape Architecture.

As a consultant landscape architect, Dr. Ward has worked on numerous projects in the South. Here in the Charleston area, he has had significant roles in the development of Kiawah Island, the aquarium, the airport, and even the College of Charleston campus. He also worked on the Charleston Visitor Center, a project he really enjoyed thanks to its community planning, public participation, and urban design aspects. However, Dr. Ward’s expertise has helped more than just the South, and more than just the United States. For two years, he was the Sole Landscape Architect for the Government of Bermuda. This was a notable experience because it allowed him to be a pioneer – “to figure things out for [himself] and not live in the wake of somebody else’s expectations”. If you were to visit the capital city of Hamilton, you would drive in on the roadway he designed and see the hilly terrain, natural parks, and historic buildings outside your window. These are still standing because of Dr. Ward’s dedication to preservation and development in a way that is true to the natural landscape.

Despite studying and working in the South for a number of years, it’s hard for Dr. Ward to define himself as a Southerner. His father was from Massachusetts, his mother was from Alabama, and he was born in Texas. Because both of his parents were in the Navy, the family moved around quite a bit. Regular relocation makes it hard for anyone to identify with a certain region, but his connection to the South has been compromised for other reasons as well. His mother was from a part of Alabama that struggled in the context of race relations, so he valued his kinship with his Northern family more so than his Southern one. Still, he has spent a lot of time in the region and found it to be a good place to work. He has special sentiments for Georgia.

Currently, Dr. Ward teaches at the College of Charleston. His courses focus on Historic Preservation and Community Planning. Every experience he’s had as a landscape architect has influenced the content that he teaches in class. The projects he’s worked on and the people he’s met have all transferred to his courses in some way or another. He likes for students to get out into the local community because, like Southern studies, landscape architecture is so deeply rooted in place. In fact, “it is a landscape, and a landscape and its people cannot be separated”. What he seeks to pass on to his students is an “appreciation of the founding – to understand where we’ve gone and the changes we’ve brought”.

Professor Mary Trent did her undergraduate education at the University of Chicago and then moved on to earn her Masters and Ph.D. at the University of California Irvine. She is a part of the Art and Architecture history at the College of Charleston and her area of specialization consists of American and African Art and History of Photography. As a part of her job, she works on African American photography, specifically set in the south in the 19th and 20th centuries. She also focuses on American art history, such as pieces that show the racial conflict that occurred during the Civil War. In her personal life, she mentions that “she didn’t grow up southern, but gained the culture through visiting a lot” due to her parents. Although she didn’t grow up in the south, her parents did and she hopes that her kids will get to grow up in the south too. She explains that she has seen some changes to the south and is curious about how it’ll change for the better. In our interview, I asked her what her overall impression of the south was and she replied “I had a stereotype of the south. I believed that it was a backward place and horribly racist. I didn’t think anything innovative was happening there.” She thought the south heavily ignored black culture and that many marginalized cultures were not studied. After coming down to the south, Trent noticed that it wasn’t all that she thought. She also realized that there were many racial issues occurring in the north too. Currently, she got permission to take care of a photo album by Ellen Craft that is now held in the Avery Research Center. She recently took an FYE class to go see the album and tell its story. Ellen Craft was enslaved in Georgia but escaped by pretending to be a slave owner with her own husband being her ‘slave’. This album is passed down through the women of the Craft family and ended up in Charleston. Trent’s emphasis on this album is that it shows what it’s like to have been a part of an African American family at that time.

Professor Matthew Cressler was born in Connecticut and raised in Auburn, Alabama. He earned a Ph.D. in Religious Studies from Northwestern University in Chicago, his M.T.S. in Religions of the Americas from Harvard Divinity School in Boston, and a B.A. in History and Theology from St. Bonaventure University in New York. Currently, he is a professor in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of Charleston and specializes in African American Religious History and Catholic History in the United States. As a teacher who teaches about African American religion as well as race, religion, and politics in the United States at a school located in the South, Professor Cressler tries to teach his classes in ways that connect those subjects to Charleston specifically. He incorporates the history of religion and enslavement as well as the origins of African American religion in South Carolina into his courses in order to root the subjects he teaches in the local community. Although Professor Cressler has a professional connection to the South, he also has a personal connection rooting back to his childhood. Aside from growing up in Alabama, Cressler was raised by an Italian American Mother from New York and a southern father, making him, as he says, “a northern southerner or a southern northerner I guess”. He still feels as if he has a deep personal connection to the South but has an outsider perspective as well because of his mother and the fact that he has spent most of his adult life in the North. Currently, Professor Cressler’s research is centered on white Catholic racism which focuses on how historically white Catholics fought against efforts to integrate schools and public accommodations, ultimately supporting racism in America over the 20th century.     

We’re going to use this blog primarily to post a few short essays for the rest of the class to read. This blog supplements our OAKS page, but it doesn’t duplicate it.  OAKS is the command module for the course — it’s where you’ll get assignments, link to voicethreads, turn in most of your work, see your grades, etc. For more information about Southern Studies at CofC: http://southernstudies-minor.cofc.edu/