ATIG Nelson Graburn Prize winner
When residents and tourists visit sites of slavery, whose stories are told? All too often the lives of slave owners are centered, obscuring the lives of enslaved people. Behind the Big House gives readers a candid, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to interpret the difficult history of slavery in the U.S. South. The book explores Jodi Skipper鈥檚 eight-year collaboration with the Behind the Big House program, a community-based model used at local historic sites to address slavery in the collective narrative of U.S. history and culture.
In laying out her experiences through an autoethnographic approach, Skipper seeks to help other activist scholars of color negotiate the nuances of place, the academic public sphere, and its ambiguous systems of reward, recognition, and evaluation.
鈥Behind the Big House has the heart of a gorgeous memoir and the bones of our most evocative scholarly texts. Jodi Skipper meets readers and monuments where we are, and chronicles superbly what it means to make, destroy, and really rebuild a region鈥檚 history. Stunning work.鈥濃擪iese Laymon, author, Heavy: An American Memoir
鈥淪kipper has illuminated for us one of the most pressing issues in American identity鈥攈ow we reckon with our own original sin of enslavement. More than that, she鈥檚 illuminating a path to redemption lit by thoughtful engagement, open eyes, and open hearts. This book is the intersection of mindfulness and hope.鈥濃擬ichael W. Twitty, James Beard Award鈥搘inning author, The Cooking Gene
鈥淧art memoir, part communal autoethnography, part history, and all activism, Behind the Big House presents historic preservation as a form of memory activism. In Skipper鈥檚 telling, a local effort to preserve the legacy of slavery wends through classrooms, national nonprofits, ill-fitting academic benchmarks, and intimate friendships. Historic preservation鈥攁nd Skipper herself鈥攅merge as models for work in the public humanities.鈥 鈥擠ave Tell, author, Remembering Emmett Till
鈥淪kipper鈥檚 book is a grassroots level journey into prioritizing the lives of enslaved people in historic preservation and historic representations in Holly Springs, Mississippi, and nationally. Behind the Big House is a hands-on research project and heritage tourism destination that has brought people together for impactful conversations about race.鈥濃擜ntoinette T. Jackson, author, Heritage, Tourism, and Race: The Other Side of Leisure
鈥淪kipper鈥檚 book highlights not only the current crisis facing higher education but also the systematic changes needed to rewrite tenure and promotion policies to value and give appropriate credit to applied, community-engaged scholarship. Behind the Big House is an important contribution to a burgeoning interdisciplinary literature that will interest scholars in archaeology, anthropology, architecture, geography, public history, and other academic disciplines.鈥濃Arris: Journal of the Southeast Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians
鈥. . . an intimate and candid look at the challenges and rewards of public history work centered on race and slavery, as well as the effect it has on individual practitioners. . . . adeptly interweaves theory and practice from the fields of public history, anthropology, Black studies, feminist theory, and women鈥檚 studies. . . . Both emerging and experienced public history practitioners will find this work valuable for furthering their ability to evaluate and challenge prevailing public misunderstandings of race and heritage through heritage tourism.鈥濃Journal of Southern History
Winner - 2022 Anthropology of Tourism Interest Group Nelson Graburn Prize
