THE LOWCOUNTRY DIGITAL HISTORY INITIATIVE (LDHI)

The Lowcountry Digital History Initiative (LDHI) is an innovative digital public history project hosted by the Lowcountry Digital Library (LCDL) at the College of Charleston. Through a major grant award for start-up funding from the Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, LDHI serves as a digital consultation service, scholarly editorial resource, and online platform to enable partner institutions, local scholars, and public history professionals to translate multi-institutional archival materials, historic landscape features and structures, and high-quality scholarship-based interpretation into digital public history exhibition projects that can be permanently presented and stored online through College of Charleston resources.

THE LOWCOUNTRY DIGITAL LIBRARY (LCDL)

The Lowcountry Digital Library, funded by the Donnelly Foundation and housed by the College of Charleston, digitizes and makes accessible unique local archival resources. To provide a well-rounded digital collection, the library works with numerous partner institutions in a collaborative manner to ensure the overall quality of the digital library. Moreover, it provides professional training and support for archive, library, and museum professionals throughout the region.

The Lowcountry Digital Library documents the history and culture of the region while it supports current research initiatives and cultivates creative content and digital information in appropriate formats across disciplines in support of scholarly inquiry.

THE AVERY RESEARCH CENTER FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE

The Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture was established to collect, preserve, and make public the unique historical and cultural heritage of African Americans in Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry. Avery’s archival collections, museum exhibitions, and public programming reflect these diverse populations as well as the wider African Diaspora.

THE PROGRAM IN THE CAROLINA LOWCOUNTRY AND ATLANTIC WORLD (CLAW)

In 1994, the College of Charleston established the Program in the Carolina Lowcountry and the Atlantic World (CLAW) to promote scholarship on the Carolina Lowcountry, the Atlantic World, and the connections between the two, to strengthen the College’s instructional program and to promote public understanding of the region and its place in a broader international context. Over the last decade CLAW has organized and hosted more than a dozen academic conferences, its publication series with the University of South Carolina Press has issued multiple volumes, and each semester it arranges a series of public lectures, faculty seminars, and co-sponsored symposia with local cultural heritage organizations (such as the Avery Research Center, the South Carolina Historical Society, The Waring Historical Library, and the History Department at the Citadel). It has also served as curator for a number of physical exhibitions and has engaged in robust educational outreach - most notably the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade project in partnership with UNESCO.

HUMANITIES COUNCIL SC

The Humanities Council SC seeks to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians by increasing public understanding of and support for the humanities, telling the human story by awarding grants for high-quality public programs, generating special humanities initiatives, and by bringing humanities perspectives to bear on contemporary issues.

GAYLORD AND DOROTHY DONNELLEY FOUNDATION (GDDF)

The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation partners with programs in Chicago and in the South Carolina Lowcountry that support land conservation and artistic vitality. GDDF seeks to honor the values and legacy of the founders of this organization, Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley, by focusing on a healthy natural environment and artistic expression.

THE INTERNATIONAL AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSEUM (IAAM)

The International African American Museum is a new museum of African American history and identity soon to open in Charleston, South Carolina. IAAM will communicate the largely overlooked history of African Americans in the Lowcountry, South Carolina, and explain how this population impacted the nation. IAAM aims to re-center South Carolina’s place in global history, illuminating its pivotal role in the development of the international slave trade and the Civil War. The museum will connect visitors to their ancestors, demonstrating how enslaved Africans and free blacks shaped economic, political, and cultural development in the nation and beyond. Film, documents, and digital archives further aid visitors in placing the story of African arrival in historical context. As a partner for other research organizations, IAAM will serve as hub for regional heritage, sending visitors out across Charleston and South Carolina to access additional African American sites and experiences.

COLLEGE OF CHARLESTON-CITADEL GRADUATE COLLEGE MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY

The Graduate School of the College of Charleston and The Citadel offer a joint master of arts in history providing each student with advanced specialized work in one of three areas: United States history, European history and Asian/African/Latin American history. The program offers qualified holders of the baccalaureate degree the opportunity to pursue historical studies in the midst of some of America's richest historical treasures. The management of the program is vested in a joint program committee composed of representatives of the two history departments, including the director and the associate director.