Clemson University English Professor receives Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship
March 7, 2018
Clemson University associate professor of English, Rhondda Robinson Thomas has received a $50,000 Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship to share the university’s history through a museum exhibition called “Black Clemson: From Enslavement to Integration.”
This fellowship will help the exhibit travel to 10 sites across South Carolina for two years. Thomas is also partnering with local organizations to create a series of public events that further illuminate the history of Clemson, as not only a university, but also a town. “Black Clemson” is an extension of Thomas’ earlier initiative, “Call My Name: African Americans in Early Clemson University History.” This initiative has digitized over 2,000 documents related to Clemson history, including slave inventories, prison records, labor contracts, photographs, and correspondence.
Thomas is one of seven individuals to receive the 2018-19 Whiting Public Engagement Fellowship for work in the humanities disciplines of history, literature, philosophy, anthropology, and gender studies. “I am honored to be a member of the cohort of Whiting Public Engagement Fellows for the 2018-2019 academic year,” Thomas said. “This fellowship will enable me to increase the visibility and impact of my ‘Black Clemson: From Enslavement to Integration’ traveling museum exhibition project in South Carolina and the nation.”