Research & Engagement

Wilmington 1898: Geographies of Rage,
Resistance, and Resilience

This 2-week residential workshop for middle and high school teachers will focus on the November 10, 1898, Wilmington coup and massacre, the only successful coup d’etat in our nation’s history. Reconstructing the historical memory of this event, in which scores of Black Wilmingtonians were murdered or exiled, has always been a contested endeavor. The white supremacist regime that replaced the duly elected biracial government characterized November 10 as a race riot and used it as a pretext to exclude Black citizens from political participation.

Institute participants will meet leading scholars, filmmakers, descendants, and authors and learn not only about the 1898 Wilmington massacre and coup, but also its centrality within the broader national discourse on democratic values. In addition, they will tour a variety of relevant locations throughout the Port City and design curricula to implement in their own classrooms.

For more information visit, www.wilmington1898geographies.org

Community Programs

We have three separate heavily-endowed programs that the department has built though our strong relations with the community.

• The Sherman Lecture Series, a University-wide talk and associated week-long programming every October, offered by an "emerging scholar" and aimed at the general public.
• The Block Endowed Professorship in Jewish History, together with the Rhine Endowment for programming, held by Dr. Jarrod Tanny.
• The Neal-McCaffray Research Fund, used to sponsor student research and travel to archives.

Public Engagement

In the 2014-2015 academic year, the history faculty offered or sponsored some 70 public talks all over Eastern North Carolina. An estimated 4-5000 attended, including 300 at one talk on Irish History, 300 at another talk on the Battle of Fort Fisher, and some 300 at the Sherman Lecture on Slavery in the Atlantic World.

We feel strongly that as public employees we have a duty to engage with citizens outside the university and will continue to do so in the future.

Training the Next Generation of Public Historians

We have a strong Public History graduate program here at UNCW, which continually places students within local and national historic sites. In 2014-15, history graduate and undergraduate students interned at six different regional historic sites and institutions last year, including Fort Fisher, the Bellamy Mansion, the Burgwin-Wright House, the Wrightsville Beach Museum, and the Battleship North Carolina.