Storm over Dumas, Hartley County, Texas, May 2021

The Center Hosts the Greater Gulf Symposium, April 19, 2022

Back standing L to R: Michael Bailey, Brendan Gillis, Jimmy Bryan, Jeff Forret, Rachel Stephens. Front L to R: Jane Plummer, Kayci Merritte, María Hammack.

Since announcing my appointment as director of the Center for History and Culture of Southeast Texas and the Upper Gulf Coast at Lamar University, I have been preoccupied with learning my new duties and have not posted any news. While keeping me busy, I have found rewarding this work with a wide range of scholars, students, and community leaders. A highlight of the Center's year was hosting the inaugural Greater Gulf Symposium at Lamar University. We enjoyed the opportunity to spend the day with five scholars and workshop their essays that investigated different aspects of slavery, abolition, and emancipation in our region. Thanks to Symposium Fellows Michael Bailey (Boston College), María Hammack (McNeil Center for Early American Studies), Kayci Merritte (Brown University), Jane Plummer (Texas Christian University), and Rachel Stephens (University of Alabama) for sharing their research and engaging in convivial and rigorous discussions with me, assistant director Brendan Gillis, and Lamar history professor Jeff Forret. The Symposium Fellows will revise their essays based on these workshop discussions and submit them for review in an upcoming volume of The Texas Gulf Historical and Biographical Record.