Description: Reconciling Legacies extends the efforts of the University of Georgia to engage in conversations about the ways in which the histories of universities and slavery are intertwined. The collection brings together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to offer a considered study of the University of Georgia during the nineteenth century, the manifestations of slavery within it, and the resulting social and racial legacies evident in its material landscape and its relations with the Athens community. It considers the journey of reconstituting personal, familial, communal, cultural, and institutional histories, while filling gaps in the histories of contributors to the growth of the university who have largely gone unacknowledged. Reconciling Legacies examines the changing roles public higher education has had to adopt as the nation navigates new understandings of enslavement and racial holdovers from the perspective of community members, historians, geographers, and leaders in the fields of bioarchaeology, social work, and African American literature.
Brief description: VALERIE BABB is Andrew Mellon Professor of Humanities at Emory University. Her published works include The Book of James: The Power, Politics, and Passion of Lebron; A History of the African American Novel; Whiteness Visible: The Meaning of Whiteness in American Literature and Culture; and Ernest Gaines. She is coauthor of the book Black Georgetown Remembered: A History of Its Black Community from the Founding of "The Town of George" in 1751 to the Present Day and creative producer of the similarly titled video. She lives in Atlanta.