Coastal professor to give inside look at Southern jazz
The free concert, scheduled as a part of the university’s “Cultural Controversies” series, will be held in Coastal’s Waccamaw Higher Education Center at 160 Willbrook Blvd., west of U.S. 17 next to the Hampton Inn in Litchfield.
Joyner will use the piano to illustrate his discussion, which will focus on jazz’s Southern roots and its evolution into modern and postmodern phases. He will explain how jazz differs in some significant ways from the norms of the Western musical tradition.
Joyner is a Burroughs Distinguished Professor of Southern History and Culture at Coastal Carolina University. He is the former president of the Southern Historical Society and current director of Coastal’s Waccamaw Center for Cultural and Historical Studies. Prior to assuming his present position, he taught at the University of California at Berkeley, the University of Mississippi and the University of Alabama. He was an associate of the DuBois Center at Harvard University in 1989-90 and was visiting professor at the University of Sydney (Australia) in 1993.
An alumnus of Presbyterian College, he holds two earned doctorates, a Ph.D. in history from the University of South Carolina and a Ph.D. in folklore and folklife from the University of Pennsylvania. He also held a postdoctoral fellowship in comparative slave societies at Harvard University.
“Cultural Controversies” is the fourth annual lecture series sponsored by the Board of Visitors of Coastal’s Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts. These community dialogue programs are designed to involve area citizens and Coastal faculty members in discussions about significant issues.
For more information call (843) 349-4032.