From the Conference Organizers:
Welcome to Charleston! We are excited to be finally gathering in person. We hope that all attendees will enjoy the chance to meet new people, share ideas, explore Charleston and enjoy what we hope will be a productive time.
We would like to thank Beth Byers, who aided us every step of the way: answering many queries, offering sage counsel, and creating the registration and membership systems that made the conference possible. Thanks as well to Pete Sands and Jill Belli for their timely assistance, and to the SUS steering committee for steady encouragement and advice.
Our theme “make, unmake, remake” offers us an opportunity to think about utopian studies in a way that stresses the process of reinvention, and the process of tearing down old and outmoded structures and ways of living in order to build anew.
It is appropriate to be exploring this theme in Charleston, a city familiar with a variety of forms of making, unmaking and remaking. From the many native groups that hunted and fished and lived on the land that is now the peninsula of Charleston, to the structures of the city built by enslaved laborers, to the destruction of hurricanes and war, Charleston is a city always in the process of being made, and reckoning with its violent and unjust past is part of that process. Today concerns about catering to tourists vs. meeting the needs of inhabitants intersect with sobering concerns over rising seas and racial and economic inequality.
We hope that the days of the conference, the papers and roundtables, the discussions and conversation, the meals and wanderings about time will prove to be fruitful for all of you,
Carrie and Claire
