Arts-Based Research (ABR) is a qualitative inquiry tradition that employs the arts as a means to generate, analyze and/or present research. With its roots in anthropology and sociology, ABR is a collection of research methodologies that center participants’ experiences and social conditions through a variety of artistic practices to generate, name, and capture their understandings of the world. What is more, ABR can represent research findings generated through more traditional means. Limited examples of ABR include ethnodrama, photo voice, narrative and poetic inquiry, painting as embodied inquiry, choreographic writing, and many other forms.

Members:

• (PI) Peter Duffy (Theatre And Dance)
• Ed Madden (English)
• Dirk Den Ouden (Communication Sciences And Disorders)
• Olga Ivashkevich (School Of Visual Art Design)
• Allison Anders (Education Leadership & Policies)
• Sarah Edmunds (Psychology)
• Kimberly Tena (Psychology)
• Kathleen Robbins (School Of Visual Art Design)
• Erik Flatmo

The Carceral Studies Research Group investigates the social, cultural, and political implications of incarceration. By including criminologists, sociologists, political scientists, as well as legal scholars and practitioners, we identify mutual areas of interest that could deepen our understanding of mass incarceration in South Carolina. We seek to promote a more nuanced understanding of the social, cultural, and political implications of incarceration, and to produce research that will inform policy decisions related to the criminal legal system. By interacting with students and engaging with the community, our events will help to raise awareness of the issues related to incarceration and foster a more informed public debate on important issues facing the state.

Members:

• (PI) Madalyn Wasilczuk (Law)
• Pieter Baker  (Assistant Professor, Arnold School of Public Health)
• Meeta Banerjee (Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology) 
• Claire Bryant (Assistant Professor, School of Music) 
• Bobby Donaldson (Associate Professor, Department of History)
• Deena Isom (Department of African American Studies) 
• Maclane Hull (Graduate student, Department of History) 
• Monique Lyle (Executive Director, Institute for Public Service, Policy, and Research) 
• Christina Plakas (Graduate student, Department of Criminology)

The Comics Studies at USC Working Group is an interdisciplinary collaboration that works to support the USC community in the study and teaching of comics and to aid in the development and use of USC’s significant comics-related resources. “Comics” encompasses a uniquely expressive medium and vital art form, a multifaceted array of interlocking industries, a wellspring of intellectual property central to global media strategies, and a means for representing and understanding culture. USC Libraries Special Collections currently houses both the Gary Lee Watson Comic Book Collection, consisting of over 143,000 unique comic books, and the Derek P. Royal Graphic Novel Collection. USC faculty regularly teach classes on the study and making of comics, have been nominated for and have won the prestigious Eisner award for comics scholarship, and have fostered students who have gone on to careers in the comics industries. The USC and broader Columbia community includes comics creators whose work has earned them a dedicated fandom, the industry’s highest honors, and the attention of Hollywood. The Comics Studies at USC Working Group seeks to build from these resources to establish USC as a hub for comics studies and comics culture throughout the state and region.  

Members:

• (PI) Qiana Whitted (English and African American Studies, Eisner Award Winner) 
• (PI) Michael Weisenburg (Rare Books)  
• (PI) Mark Minett (Film & Media Studies and English)  
• Brian Barr (Graduate Student in Information Science) 
• Dawn Campbell (Women’s and Gender Studies) 
• Amy Chalmers (Graduate Student in Studio Arts) 
• Northrop Davis (Media Arts)  
• Arshiya Kausar (Graduate Student in English)
• Andy Kunka (USC Sumter—English, Eisner Award Nominee)  
• Patrick Lawrence (USC Lancaster) 
• Damien Picariello (USC Sumter—Political Science) 
• David Shay (Rare Books)  
• Timothy Simmons (Thomas Cooper Library) 
• Jenna Spiering (Information Science) 
• Ebony Toussaint (Southern Studies) 
• Marius Valdes (Studio Art—Design and Illustration)   
• Susan Vanderborg (English)   

Despite its historic and contemporary importance, lumbering, manufacturing, and conserving South Carolina’s forests had been grossly under researched until this year, when members of this group began meeting to share findings and generate content for a new anthology that will, we believe, not only shift the narrative about the industrial history of the state but also launch important efforts in environmental humanities and other fields. The timing is auspicious as we approach the confluence of several notable anniversaries: the 2024 centennial of the death of the Chicago lumberman whose will established the Francis Beidler Charitable Trust that, in the 1970s, facilitated the creation of both Congaree National Monument/Park and SC Audubon’s Francis Beidler Forest, each of which will soon mark their 50th anniversaries and the 2027 centennial of the founding of South Carolina’s Forestry Commission, an important state agency that presaged South Carolina Parks.  

Click here for more information about the group and the history of lumber in South Carolina.

Members:

• (PI) Jessica Elfenbein (Professor of History, USC Columbia)
• Kent Germany (Professor of History, USC Columbia)
• Tom Lekan (Professor of History, USC Columbia)
• Al Hester (South Carolina Parks)
• Rob Hart (UNC Wilmington)
• T. Robert Hart (Instructor of History, University of North Carolina, Wilmington)
• Stevie Malenowski (MA candidate and Graduate Assistant, Public History, USC Columbia)
• Jordan Davis (PhD student, Anthropology and Archeology, University of Texas, Austin)
• Erin “Maggie” Kemp (MA candidate, Geography, USC Columbia)
• Gracie Bellah (Undergraduate Assistant)
• Lana Burgess (Director, McKissick Museum)
• Laura Erskine (CAS Writer)
• Ehren Foley (USC Press Acquisitions Editor)
• Kelly Goldber (Anthropology)
• Katie Hoskins (Digital Collections, University Libraries)
• Brandon King (Web Manager, University Libraries)
• Andrea L’Hommedieu (Director, Department of Oral History, University Libraries)
• Lauren Reasoner (Undergraduate Assistant/Exhibit Designer)
• Lynn Robertson (Guest Curator)
• Nathan Saunders (Director, South Caroliniana Library)

There are over 1.1 million Muslims in the American South overall, and there are several aspects of Islam that are unique to South Carolina. There are over four mosques in Columbia, SC alone, there is even an all-Muslim town in South Carolina, Holy Islamville, and during the  revolutionary war, some Muslims fought on the American side, including Yusuf ben Ali, a member of the Turks of South Carolina. The highly educated Senegalese Omar ibn Said, whose autobiography is the only known Arabic language autobiography written by an enslaved person in the US, first arrived in South Carolina. The very first Ismaili jamatkhana (place of worship) in the United States was established in Spartanburg, South Carolina in the 1970s by East African Indian Muslim refugees.  Scholars and students in this working group will research important figures and institutions, and build oral histories documenting religious organizations, cultural institutions, and commercial centers.

Members:

• (PI) Sarah Waheed (Assistant Professor of History)
• Jessica Barnes (Associate Professor of Geography)
• Carl Dahlman (Professor, Director of Walker Institute of International and Area Studies)
• Noah Gardiner (Assistant Professor of Religious Studies)
• Maleeha Fatima (PhD student at USC)

SouthernGauge is a screening series in Columbia South Carolina that showcases experimental, independent and new cinema to the greater Columbia area. Started by Laura Major, a film preservationist originally from South Carolina and library manager at the Moving Image Research Collection, and Carleen Maur, an experimental filmmaker and associate professor of Media Arts at the University of South Carolina. SouthernGauge celebrates the underground and experimental with an emphasis on community collaboration, with 16mm and digital screening, occurring in Fall and Spring/Summer at various locations in Columbia. Our previous year includes successful events that have brought crowds of 50+ people to our screenings across the city.

Members:

• (PI) Carleen Maur (Associate professor of Media Arts, School Of Visual Art Design)
• (PI) Laura Major (Library manager at the Moving Image Research Collection)
• Chaz Evans (Assistant professor of Media Arts, School Of Visual Art Design)
• EB Landesberg (Instructor of Media Arts, School Of Visual Art Design)
• George Fetner (Director of Donor Experience)
• Kimberly O’Quinn (Staff at the Moving Image Research Collection)