ABOUT THIS PROJECT

“As an art historian, I am interested in the visual and spatial messaging that guided – and continues to guide – the aesthetics of Furman’s present-day campus. The investigation of how objects and images are used to communicate is central to art historical practice.

“In considering the construction of the present campus, the relocation and reconstruction of university relics seemed important to understanding how Furman wished to represent itself. The visual history of our campus helps us to understand how the university wished to present itself to students, alumni, and the community.”

“As a student researcher, I helped collect historical data for Greenville County, focusing on demographic and economic indicators. This was in an effort to contextualize Furman’s move outwards from downtown Greenville with the economic climate at the time.

“I am a native of Greenville and a Furman alum. My connection to this city and this school run deeply, and I am an avid believer in understanding the legacy and foundation of one’s community. It is critically important for the identity of a community to periodically investigate and reflect on its history in order to make educated decisions about what is in its best interest moving forward.”

“As an art historian, I am interested in exploring how our visual and material environments connect us to identities, values, and ideologies of the past. Much of my scholarship examines how images and monuments construct cultural memory.

“I am invested in furthering anti-racist and DEIA practices on our campus. As a digital justice project, Placing Furman has enabled me to grapple with the University’s historical legacy of White superiority. This kind of work is important because it recognizes and demonstrates how our past shapes our present and future as a community. Power and influence is embodied everywhere in our material landscape and it is crucial that we interrogate how our built environment and the visual symbols that populate it perpetuate incomplete narratives and prejudice.”

“I worked on Placing Furman as a research fellow helping Dr. Whitlinger with the collective memory aspect of the project. I combed through the University archives, hunted down plaques across Greenville, and co-conducted interviews with Furman staff and Greenville natives to uncover the narrative of Furman’s campus move to it’s current location.

“I first joined the team to explore qualitative sociological research and expand my experience to include on my resume. While I accomplished those things, I was fortunate to walk away with more than I could have hoped for. This work is important because it highlights the interconnectedness of our daily lives with the visions of those who came before us. This research fosters curiosity, respect, and a deeper connection to our community and its history, encouraging us to be stewards of memory and advocates for preserving our shared heritage.”

“As an economist, I study inequities across groups and their causes. This project highlights one of those causes in the US many years ago: racially restrictive covenants. Through family investments such as education and intergenerational inheritances of land and homes, that inequity persists today.

“I wanted to help Furman acknowledge the motivations and consequences of moving the campus by applying the careful analysis economist use to separate coincidence from cause. I also wanted to work with a recent graduate, who studied urban economics, is currently enrolled in law school preparing for a career in urban planning, and is a Greenville native. I wanted to help Furman acknowledge the motivations and consequences of moving the campus by applying the careful analysis economist use to separate coincidence from cause. I also wanted to work with a recent graduate, who studied urban economics, is currently enrolled in law school preparing for a career in urban planning, and is a Greenville native.”

“I decided to become part of this project because it offers an opportunity to explore the intersection of economics, race, and history.

“As an economist, I have always been interested in how locational choices shape the social landscape of post-WWII America. This project allowed me to apply economic analyses to historical events and understand how these decisions influenced the broader patterns of inequality and segregation in Greenville.

“This work is important because it reveals how past decisions continue to influence our society, particularly in terms of race and inequality. It also highlights the role that institutional choices play in shaping these outcomes. By examining these historical events, we not only gain a clearer understanding of the past, but also develop strategies to address such issues in the present.”

“I am the co-chair of the organizing committee that recruited faculty to write essays and sought feedback from the advisory committee.

“When I discovered a racially restrictive covenant authored by a former chair of Furman’s board of trustees, I knew I had to share the information with the world. I helped start this project to do so in the most thoughtful and scholarly way I knew how.

“While most people understand the role that banks played in ‘redlining’ Black neighborhoods in the 1940s and 50s, few people see how real estate developers did much the same through the use of racially restrictive covenants.”

“As University Archivist and a scholar of American literature and culture, working on issues of race, population displacement, and memory is at the center of much of what I do.

“Also, my writing often centers on working with printer’s and publisher’s records, so analyzing the business records of a slightly different industry in The Furman Company was a natural extension of my interests and background.

“Historical interpretation is always changing, and we often are able to bring new documents to the fore that both allow us to ask new questions and also to make new conclusions about the topics we study and teach. This project has done both and is a significant new contribution to the ongoing project that is Furman’s and Greenville’s history. “

“My research investigates artistic hierarchies and the social implementation of their often-unarticulated ideologies. I question why hierarchies were constructed, how they were conferred, to whom they were marketed, and—most importantly—the moments of rupture in which they cease to function as intended.

“My training centers on the art of the United States, African American art, and contemporary self-taught, folk, and vernacular art.

“Methodologically, I broadly classify myself as a social art historian, although my scholarship regularly draws from disciplines such as cultural anthropology, phenomenology, critical and material culture theory, digital art history, environmental studies, food studies, reception theory, critical race theory, and gender studies.”

“I study Greenville and South Carolina history, also African-American history. I helped Furman with its Seeking Abraham Project and the Joseph Vaughn Fifty-Year Commemoration of Desegregation at Furman in 2015.

“This project had many facets connected to my personal and professional interests and in this instance, shows that Furman is willing to take a hard look at its history in the best tradition of open inquiry, and in the spirit that an unblinking view of the past is best assurance of a steady future.

“My portion examined two South Carolina Supreme Court cases that that were brought preemptively by lawyers for Furman University…Those rulings helped finance the move to the new campus.”

“I am the co-chair of the Placing Furman Project. I decided to contribute to this project because of my interest in not only Furman’s history but also the university’s engagement with the surrounding communities. I was particularly interested in the ways in which the African American communities have been affected by Furman’s real estate practices.

“My research essay examined Graceland Cemetery, an all-white burial ground created by the racially restrictive covenants, supported by the real estate company under the leadership of a former Furman University trustee chairman.

“This digital humanities project is important because it makes space for the surrounding communities to be in conversation with our past, present, and future. This living archive will hold both research on the university’s real estate practices and the experiences of people (via oral histories and digital materials) impacted by the racially restrictive covenants.

“Lastly, current and former members of the Greenville communities will have access to this archive, which is critical for this community-engaged work.”

“In addition to serving on the Placing Furman Steering Committee, I co-wrote an essay (with Jillian Hall ’25) on collective memory of the campus move.

“Having been involved in the Seeking Abraham project, I was curious (and excited) see how that work would be extended through Placing Furman. By learning more about Furman and its campus, I have come to feel more connected to a broader history.

“This work is important because it highlights the interconnectedness of our daily lives with the visions of those who came before us. This research fosters curiosity, respect, and a deeper connection to our community and its history, encouraging us to be stewards of memory and advocates for preserving our shared heritage.”

“I believe this work is important because it provides context for understanding systems of  discrimination and exclusion.”

“History is important and to avoid repeating it we must know it. This work forces us as a society to be accountable for the mistreatment of groups based on institutionalized oppression. By naming it we are able to dismantle it and strive for justice.”

“As a member of the African American Community and an Alumni, I feel this kind of research needs to be presented to the community so we an be accountable and responsible for past events to prevent future failings. [There is a] desire for truth to come forth.”

“I was honored to be asked by Ken Kolb to join this effort last year. Understanding our origins is critical to mapping our future. This work is important, relevant, and helps to build a complete story of Furman, Greenville, and the Upstate in general.”