2021 Research Symposium

Shelby Driskill, MFA, is an independent scholar and currently Research Coordinator at the University of Richmond. Her recent work has included the location of a burial ground linked to enslavement on the university’s present campus and research that details the institution’s exploitation of enslaved laborers at its two 19th-century locations.

Brian Gandy has been active in local historical organizations for 39 years and currently serves on numerous boards and foundations. His affiliation with the Darlington County Historical Commission and Museum began in 1986 as a volunteer. Today, he serves as its director, having expanded the collection and is in the process of adding a $4 million museum addition.

David Markus is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Clemson University. A historical archaeologist by training, Dr. Markus received his doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Florida in 2019 after attending the University of Arkansas and the University of Florida for his Master’s and Bachelor’s degrees respectively.

Shelby Davis Henderson, a native of Oconee County, serves the City of Seneca as Executive Director of Arts, History, and Culture. She is responsible for two museums, an archive, a gallery space, and a number of historic properties in the city of Seneca. She is also the Founding Director of the Bertha Lee Strickland Cultural Museum in Seneca and is serving her second 3-year term as District 3 Commissioner of the SC African American Heritage Commission.

Alexia Jones Helsley, Senior Instructor in History and university archivist at University of SC-Aiken, graduated magna cum laude from Furman University and holds MA from the UofSC. Recent publications include The Lost History of Aiken County and chapters in Recovering the Piedmont Past, II and Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy. Hensley is the recipient of the Governor’s Archives Award, chairs the SC Old Exchange Commission, and is Vice-President of the SC Historical Association.

Antoinette Jackson Ph.D. is Professor and Chair of the department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa and Director of the USF Heritage Research Lab. Her most recent book, Heritage, Tourism, and Race—the Other Side of Leisure was published by Routledge in 2020.

Jeffrey A. Keith, Ph.D., was set to become a sixth-generation tombstone salesman, but discovered a different way to engage the past. He earned a doctorate in history, and now teaches courses on Appalachian studies and globalization at Warren Wilson College. He serves on the South Asheville Cemetery Association board of directors.

David Moore, Ph.D. spent 18 years with the North Carolina Office of State Archaeology before joining the faculty at Warren Wilson College in 2000. He is a founding member of the South Asheville Cemetery Association and has enjoyed more than 20 years of service to the cemetery.

Brian Stack is the Community Engagement Assistant for Clemson University's Woodland Cemetery Historic Preservation Project where he helps raise community awareness and engagement with the cemetery and the African American Burial Ground. He received a PhD in history from Washington State University in May 2021.

Steve Armour is the University Archivist at the University of Georgia’s (UGA) Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript Library. He provides archival research support for the History of Slavery at UGA project and participates in the national On These Grounds: Slavery and the University description project as a vocabulary test partner.

Mary Beth Corrigan, Ph.D., C.A., has helped the Booth Family Center for Special Collections assess its holdings related to slavery, plan for the digitization of the Archives of Maryland Province of the Society of Jesus, and supported faculty and student research projects on slavery.

Brenda Gunn is currently the Associate University Librarian for Special Collections and Preservation at the University of Virginia Library and has been a leader in professional organizations at the local, regional, and national levels for many years. Brenda is a certified archivist and a distinguished fellow of the Society of American Archivists.

Lynn Rainville has a Ph.D. in Anthropological Archaeology. She studies Virginia’s historic cemeteries, enslaved communities, and poor farms. This research is supported by multiple grants and published in dozens of articles and five books. She is the Director of Institutional History and the Museums at Washington and Lee University.

Kate Schwennsen, FAIA, Professor, is the former Director of the School of Architecture, Clemson University. She has held various leadership positions, with a focus on bridging architectural education and practice, women’s leadership in architecture, issues of equity, diversity and inclusion in architecture, and advancing models of architectural education and practice.

Scott Nesbit, Ph.D. teaches History, Digital Humanities, and Historic Preservation at the University of Georgia in Athens. He earned his doctorate in History from UVa. in 2013. Before arriving in Athens, he developed projects related to race and the history of the American South at the University of Richmond's Digital Scholarship Lab.