Thirteen New Speakers Added to the Speakers Bureau: Humanities Out Loud Roster

SC Humanities is pleased to announce that thirteen new speakers will join the Speakers Bureau: Humanities Out Loud program in 2025. Offering a variety of interesting programs from “Black Folktales from Africa to South Carolina” to “College Football History in South Carolina” to “Praying, Singing and Catching Sense: Praise House Traditions in Gullah Geechee Communities,” these thirteen scholars are available to speak for public audiences at nonprofit organizations or public institutions across the state. The Speakers Bureau program is one of the longest-running and most popular programs offered by SC Humanities.

SC Humanities makes the Speakers Bureau program available to South Carolina organizations at a reasonable cost. SC Humanities provides $350 towards a speaker’s honorarium. Any other costs (travel, additional honorarium) are negotiated between the speaker and the sponsoring organization. A one-page application must be submitted at least four weeks in advance of the program date. Find out more about the Speakers Bureau!

The thirteen new speakers are:

Elizabeth Chew

Elizabeth Chew became CEO of the South Carolina Historical Society in January 2024. A historian, curator, and educator, she has worked at museums and historic sites since 1985. Prior to arriving in Charleston, she served as Executive Vice President and Chief Curator at James Madison’s Montpelier in Virginia. During her 8 1/2 years at Montpelier, Dr. Chew led teams of curators, historians, educators, interpreters, public program creators, archaeologists, and historic preservation experts in researching and interpreting James Madison and his family, his essential roles in framing the U.S. Constitution and leading the nation, and the community of enslaved people on the plantation. Prior to joining Montpelier, Dr. Chew led the curatorial and education division at Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, NC.  Earlier in her career, she served as Curator at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello in Charlottesville, VA.  During her thirteen-year tenure there, she was responsible for ongoing research and interpretation initiatives that wove together the Monticello house, its collections, the Jefferson family, and the enslaved community.  Dr. Chew also worked in curatorial positions in art museums in Washington, D.C., at The Phillips Collection, the National Gallery of Art, and the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Raised in Augusta, Georgia, Elizabeth received a BA in art history from Yale University, an MA from the University of London, and PhD from UNC- Chapel Hill.

Her topics include: Working with Descendants of the Enslaved at Presidential Plantation Sites, The World of Dolley Madison, James and Dolley Madison: The First American Power Couple, Thomas Jefferson and Monticello, Art and the American Revolution, and South Carolina History is American History.

Robert Clark

A native of Charlotte, North Carolina, Robert Clark is a photographer whose work has appeared in National Geographic books, NewsweekSmithsonian Magazine, and photographic awards annuals such as Print and Communication Arts. He specializes in editorial, advertising, architecture, and fine art photography. Over 20,000 of Robert’s photos have been published during his career. Robert has photographed eight books on South Carolina, with the latest book titled South Carolina Reflections-A Photographic Journey, published by USC Press in 2025. Robert is a member of the Professional Photographers of America.

His topics include: Mysterious Carolina Bays, Every Picture Tells a Story, Discussions on the upcoming book: South Carolina Reflections-A Photographic Journey

Myra Davis-Branic

Myra Davis-Branic is a former freelance writer for HUAMI Magazine, Black History blogger for the Modern Green Book, and author of Cornbread My Soul: The Davis Family of Eutawville, South Carolina. The book chronicles her family’s history on a South Carolina Plantation from the 18th Century to the period of The Great Migration. A chance meeting with a descendant of the person who enslaved her family led to a documentary entitled, “Legacies of Slavery and the Shared History of the South.” She works with at-risk youth at a middle school in Columbia, South Carolina. Her love for Black History and commitment to at-risk youth piloted her into creating programs to teach youth and adults about Black History, opening their eyes to information that is rarely taught or is altogether omitted from the history books.

Her topics include: Slavery in the North v. Slavery in the South and the Common Connection, Legacies of Slavery and the Shared History of the South, Cornbread My Soul: The Davis Family of Eutawville, South Carolina

Tom Elmore

Tom Elmore holds a B.A. in History and Political Science from the University of South Carolina. He is the author of five books about South Carolina in the 19th century, as well as numerous articles in regional and national publications. He lectured all across the Mid-Atlantic States and has been a book reviewer for two national magazines. Elmore is the current State Historian for the Ancient Order of Hibernians. He is also a member of the Richland County 250 Committee, the Robert Burns Society of the Midlands and the Scottish Clan Davidson. He lives in Columbia SC with his wife Krys.

His topics include: The Swamp Fox- A Bibliographical History of Francis Marion, South Carolina’s Irish Patriots of the American Revolution, Potters Raid, The “Lost” Treasure of the Confederacy, Fifty Shades of Blue & Gray, The Confederacy’s New Mexico Campaign of 1862, Celtic Columbia, The Burning of Columbia, February 17, 1865

Damon Fordham

Damon Lamar Fordham was born in Spartanburg, SC on December 23, 1964 to Anne Montgomery and was adopted by Pearl and Abraham Fordham of Mt. Pleasant, SC the following year. He received his Master’s Degree in history from the College of Charleston and the Citadel and his undergraduate degrees at the University of South Carolina in Columbia. He is currently an adjunct professor of World Civilizations, United States, and African-American History at The Citadel in Charleston, SC and has taught US History and African-American Studies at the College of Charleston. He was a weekly columnist for the Charleston Coastal Times from 1994 to 1998, as well as the author of The 1895 Segregation Fight in South Carolina (Charleston: History Press, 2022), Mr. Potts and Me (Charleston: Evening Post Books, 2012) Voices of Black South Carolina-Legend and Legacy (Charleston: History Press, 2009), True Stories of Black South Carolina (Charleston: History Press, 2008) and coauthor of Born to Serve-The Story of the WBEMC in South Carolina in 2006. Research and articles by Mr. Fordham appear in the books Sweetgrass Baskets and the Gullah Tradition by Joyce Coakley, South of Main by Beatrice Hill and Brenda Lee, The Greenwood Encyclopedia of African-American Folklore for the University of Missouri Press, Cecil Williams and Sonny DuBose’s Orangeburg 1968, and The Malcolm X Encyclopedia for the University of Southern Mississippi Press in 2001. He has also commented on history and storytelling at schools such as The University of Memphis in 1998, The G.L. Roberts School near Ontario, Toronto, Canada in 1999, and The University of California in Berkeley, California in 2013. Additionally, he appeared on numerous radio and television programs in the United States, Canada, Japan, and the United Kingdom. He has also appeared on the NBC LX News in 2022. He conducts a walking tour called “The Lost Stories of Black Charleston,” He has also received a citation form the South Carolina House of Representatives in 2022 for his work in education, historical research, and human rights, and the Key to the City to Spartanburg in 2001. He was also on two educational fact finding visits to Senegal, Togo. and Gambia, West Africa, where he toured the Slave Port at Goree Island and lectured to a class of students at the University of The Gambia in Banjul.

His topics include: Little Known Stories of Reconstruction, The 1895 Segregation Fight in South Carolina, Black Folktales From Africa to South Carolina, and Lost Stories of Black Charleston

Fritz Hamer

Fritz Hamer received his MA and PhD in history from USC-Columbia. He spent 25 years at the SC State Museum as Curator of History researching and developing exhibitions on a variety of topics, ranging from the American Civil War and Reconstruction, World War I and II, and sports history with emphasis on baseball and football. He has spoken to many groups about these projects and related topics. Before retiring in 2020, he spent 4 years at the SC Confederate Relic Room and Military Museum as Historian and Archivist researching an exhibition about the Vietnam War. He spoke to many groups about this subject, seeking out veterans to interview and compiling more than 65 oral histories for the collection of the CRR.

His topics include: Vietnam and South Carolina, WWI Aviation and the Carolinians who Flew, The Great War in the South Carolina Home Front, The American Revolution in South Carolina, Clemson vs. Carolina Rivalry, College Football History in South Carolina, Prisoners of War in the United States with a focus on South Carolina, The Pacific Island Campaigns from Guadalcanal to Iwo Jima, Normandy, D-Day June 6, 1944, and World War II and the South Carolina Home Front

Joe Hursey

Joe Hursey retired from the U.S. Air Force after 22 years, in 2010.  Before retirement, he completed a bachelor’s and master’s degree in U.S. History, and he is currently pursuing his PhD in History, with a focus on the post-Civil War rise of the modern textile industry in the Upstate.  After the military, he took a position as the Director of the Miami County Historical Museum.  In 2012, he accepted a position with the Archives Center at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian, as the Research Coordinator.  In this position with the Smithsonian, he specialized in research of American beer and brewing history.  He spent almost a decade researching and presented on the subject matter to visiting brewery staff, donors, brewing historians, and university faculty. He has also published numerous academic papers related to the subject. After the Smithsonian, Hursey moved to Piedmont, S.C., where he began teaching U.S. and World History with Greenville Technical Community College. He also volunteers with the Piedmont Historical Preservation Society as a historian and archivist, providing advice on collections management and museum operations.

His topics include: History of Moonshine and the Dark Corner, Henry Hammett and Piedmont Manufacturing, and History of American Lager in the United States

Elizabeth Laney

Elizabeth Laney is a professional historian and genealogist who has honed her skills in historical research and public speaking at historical sites and museums throughout South Carolina including the Colleton Museum, Drayton Hall Plantation, Charles Towne Landing State Historic Site and, finally, Redcliffe Plantation State Historic Site in Beech Island, SC where she spent 11 years as the Park Interpreter. She specializes in African American History and the Reconstruction Era, particularly in the State of South Carolina, as well as community and local histories, the histories of marginalized groups, state tourism history and the methods and practice of genealogy. Laney holds Bachelor Degrees in Anthropology and History as well as Master’s Degrees in History and Museum Studies. She has been published in Ancestry Magazine, the Journal of the SC Historical Association and the Journal of the GA Association of Historians. She is the curator of “Shaking the Jug: The Tuskegee Airmen at Walterboro Army Air Field” at the Colleton Museum in Walterboro, SC and is the founder of the Walterboro, SC History Notes Facebook page, a site dedicated to sharing historical research and resources related to Walterboro and Colleton County. She is a prevalent public speaker with experience speaking to groups of all ages and in a variety of settings.

Her topics include: Recovering Lost Histories: Using Genealogy & History to Restore Forgotten SC Communities, Grave Tales: Tragic Deaths from Walterboro’s Live Oak and Live Oak African American Cemeteries, Walterboro’s “A Christmas Carol” & Reconstruction in the SC Lowcountry, Her Mark: Black Women’s Voices from Union Pension Records, North Carolina’s Black Union Veterans in the South Carolina Lowcountry, Florida or Bust: Postcards from South Carolina’s Motor Highways, and The Tuskegee Airmen at Walterboro Army Air Field

Ed Madden

Ed Madden is Professor of English and former director of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of South Carolina. He is the author of six books of poetry, most recently A pooka in Arkansas, the 2022 Hilary Tham Capital Collection winner, and A story of the city, a collection of poems from his 8 years as the Columbia SC poet laureate. He served as poet laureate of Columbia, SC, 2015-2022. He received a Poet Laureate Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets in 2019. He is recipient of artist residencies at the Instituto Sacatar in Itaparica, Brazil, and the Hambidge Center for the Creative Arts in Georgia. He is also recipient of the South Carolina Governor’s Award for the Arts and the University of South Carolina’s Breakthrough Leadership in Research Award, commended for his attention to marginalized voices.

His topics include: “What Is a Poet Laureate and What Do They Do?” and “South Carolina’s Queer History: 7 Events that Shaped LGBTQ Lives and the Culture of South Carolina.”

Bren McClain

Bren McClain’s critically acclaimed debut novel, One Good Mama Bone, from Pat Conroy’s Story River Books, has been described as “Charlotte’s Web for grown-ups.” Most recently, the novel has been selected as Melissa Gilbert’s (“Little House on the Prairie”) August 2024 “Book of the Month.” It won the 2017 Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction and the 2018 Patricia Winn Award for Southern Literature. It was also named Pulpwood Queen 2017 Book of the Year, a 2017 Great Group Reads by the Women’s National Book Association, a Southeastern Independent Booksellers Association (SIBA) Okra pick, longlisted for SIBA’s Southern Book Prize and a finalist for the 2018 Crook’s Corner Prize. Bren also is a contributing essayist in Our Prince of Scribes: Writers Remember Pat Conroy. The novel also claims international in its credits with its publication in France, where it was retitled Mama Red and selected for the 2021 Prix Maya (France’s Animal Welfare Literary Award). Bren has just completed her next novel, tentatively titled THE MIRACLE OF EULA BATES, which is set in South Carolina and inspired by a woman, who, in 1951, defied the federal government and refused to give a right-of-way to run a four-lane blacktop through her farm. The story is set against the backdrop of our country’s largest use of eminent domain in a time of peace, the building of the Savannah River Plant to manufacture the materials for the hydrogen bomb to go up against the Russians in the Cold War. An early excerpt won the gold medal for the William Faulkner Novel-in-Progress prize. Bren makes her home in the Lowcountry of South Carolina.

Her topics include: The Beauty and Magic of Fiction – It Can Fix Things and Stories of Sacrifice from the Displaced People of the Savannah River Plant

Margaret Seidler

Margaret Seidler, a Charleston native, is a retired Organization Development consultant and national conference speaker whose work focused on creating higher performance in organizations and communities. Her areas of expertise included managing complex challenges, emotional intelligence, team building, conflict resolution and interpersonal communications. Her leadership book, Power Surge: Energizing your Leadership Strengths, was published by the HRD Press of Amherst, MA, 2008. A case study of her work in strengthening citizen/police relationships in response to the Mother Emanuel AME Church tragedy was included in The Oxford Handbook of Organizational Paradox, Oxford University Press, 2017. Her broader work with the city of Charleston was included in Both/AND Thinking: Embracing Creative Tensions to Solve Your Toughest Problems, Harvard Business Review Press, Boston, MA, 2022. Margaret is one of 47 contributors in UKWELI: Search for Healing Truth, South Carolina Writers and Poets explore American Racism, Evening Post Books, 2022. In March 2024, “Payne-ful” Business, Charleston’s Journey to Truth, Evening Post Books, was released. It is a story about Margaret’s shocking discovery of three generations of slave traders in her Charleston family and the pathways she and others are taking to bridge the racial divide.

Her topic is: Payne-ful Business: Charleston’s Journey to Truth; a personal story of reconciling hard truths

John Sherrer

A Columbia native, author, and historian, John Sherrer has worked at Historic Columbia since 1996. As Director of Preservation, John heads the organization’s historic preservation advocacy efforts involving research and programming, management of a 15-property easement portfolio, and historic tax credit fee-for-service projects. John holds degrees from Clemson (BA, MA: English) and the University of South Carolina (MA: Public History) and management certificates from McKissick Museum and the Southeastern Museum Conference’s Jekyll Island Management Institute. John has served on the boards of the Columbia Development Corporation, the Columbia Design League, and the South Carolina Federation of Museums. A Leadership Columbia Class of 2014 alumna, John was a 2023 Ambassador for ExperienceColumbiaSC.

His topics include: Guns, Treads & Steel: The Evolution of American Armor from World War II to the Present, Learning Your Three “R”s: Readin’, ‘Riting, & Racism: The Role of Equalization Schools in South Carolina’s Quest for Segregated Education, From Colonial to Mid-Mod: American Residential Architecture 1765-1965, and “The Fabric We Live In”: Historic Preservation’s Economic, Social, and Physical Benefits to Communities

Victoria Smalls

Victoria A. Smalls, a Gullah Geechee native of St. Helena Island, SC, is the President/ CEO/Consultant  Smalls Cultural Resources, where she champions Gullah Geechee communities across the United States and their global ties to Africa’s Diaspora. With more than two decades of experience, she has served as a state Commissioner on the SC African American Heritage Commission, federal Commissioner on the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission, and Executive Director of the Gullah Geechee National Heritage Area. Her leadership has been crucial in preserving the cultural practices, heritage sites, and natural resources of Gullah Geechee communities across the Southeast. Smalls has also contributed her expertise in history, art and culture to the Penn Center, International African American Museum, and the National Park Service. Her dedication to community advocacy has earned her numerous accolades, including the Black History USA Community Advocate Award, recognition as one of the 12 Black Leaders to Know in South Carolina, and the 2024 Governor’s Award in Humanities. She has been named a Leo Twiggs Arts Diversity Leadership Scholar, a Riley Fellow, and one of the 50 Most Influential Leaders in Charleston. In 2022, she was awarded The President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her outstanding volunteer service.

Her topics include: Da Wada Brought Us & Kept Us: Gullah Geechee Art Collection of Victoria A. Smalls, Finding My Gullah Geechee Roots: A Journey of Discovery & Identity, Praying, Singing and Catching Sense: Praise House Traditions in Gullah Geechee Communities, The Gullah Geechee People and Their Culture, Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Civil Rights Movement at Penn Center, The History of Penn School—Penn Community Services (1862-1960s), The Honorable Hastings Gantt and Robert Smalls: Servant Leaders of South Carolina, and The Reconstruction Era (1861-1900): Focusing on South Carolina

To learn more our new speakers and see their full topic descriptions, visit the Speakers Bureau roster. There are also 46 additional speakers to peruse and request. For more information about the Speakers Bureau: Humanities Out Loud program, please contact T.J. Wallace at tjwallace@schumanities.org or 803-771-2477.