Maxwell Named Director of Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society

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Angie Maxwell

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. – Angie Maxwell, the Blair Professor of Southern Studies and an assistant professor of political science, has been named director of the Diane D. Blair Center of Southern Politics and Society, effective April 1.

As director of the Center, Maxwell will organize the Blair Legacy Conference on Southern Politics and Society, manage the Blair Center-Clinton School Poll and oversee the new minor in Southern studies that begins this fall.  

"Diane Blair was an expert in Southern politics, an activist and a role model who helped forge a path for women in academia," Maxwell said. "I am proud that we are able to continue her legacy of scholarship and civic engagement through the Blair Center, and I am grateful to Jim and Nancy Blair for their continued, unwavering support of the center."

The Blair Center was established by an act of U. S. Congress in 2001, making it one of the rare research centers in the country to be established by congressional appropriation.  It was named in honor of Diane Divers Blair who taught in the Department of Political Science in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences for 30 years. The Blair Center reflects her academic model and strives to approach the study of the American South from a variety of angles, attempting to reveal the undercurrents of politics, history and culture that have shaped the region over time.

Maxwell is the author of the critically acclaimed book ­­­The Indicted South: Public Criticism, Southern Inferiority, and the Politics of Whiteness (University of North Carolina Press, 2014) and is currently working on a new book with Oxford University Press, tentatively titled The Long Southern Strategy.

She is the editor of the new edition of Ralph McGill's A Church, A School (University of South Carolina Press, 2012). She is co-editor of Unlocking V.O. Key, Jr.: Southern Politics for the Twenty-First Century (University of Arkansas press, 2011) and The Ongoing Burden of Southern History: Politics and Identity in the Twenty-First Century South (Louisiana State University Press, 2012).  Her research has also appeared in the academic journals Southern Cultures, Social Science Quarterly, Race and Social Problems, and the Journal of Black Studies, among others. Maxwell serves as co-chair of the Politics and Policy Caucus of the American Studies Association, has been a featured author at the Arkansas Literary Festival and has made multiple appearances on MSNBC programs.

A Harry S Truman Scholar, Maxwell received a Bachelor of Arts in international relations from the University of Arkansas and a doctorate in American studies from the University of Texas.

Maxwell replaces Todd G. Shields, dean of Fulbright College, who has served as the center's director since 2003.