Inside The College of Charleston- Wes Dudgeon, interim dean of the School of Health Sciences.

01/31/23 • 8 min

The first episode features Wes Dudgeon, interim dean of the College of Charleston’s new School of Health Sciences. In this episode, Dudgeon talks about the growth of SHS and discusses some of the research being conducted at the school. The host is Mike Robertson from University Communications.

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Previous Episode

Visiting Edgar Allan Poe’s Lowcountry Haunts with Professor Scott Peeples

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Famed American author Edgar Allan Poe, who lived from 1809 to 1849, was a poet, literary critic, short story writer and creator of the modern horror tale. He experienced great tragedy in his life and was notorious for his drinking and dark temperament, which frequently got him into trouble. Poe spent time in the Charleston Lowcountry while serving in the U.S. Army (under an assumed name) he at Fort Moultrie on Sullivan’s Island from 1827 to 1828.

As Poe’s 214th birthday approaches on Jan 19, 2023, his enduring popularity in American popular culture only continues to grow. Netflix recently released The Pale Blue Eye (the title comes from Poe’s short story The Tell-Tale Heart). The historical thriller, based on a 2006 novel by Louis Bayard, is set at West Point, where Poe was a cadet before he was court-martialed in 1831. In this fictionalized film, Poe is enlisted by a detective (played by Christian Bale) to help solve a series of grisly murders.

In this podcast episode, Scott Peeples, a Poe scholar, English professor and interim chair of the Department of English, takes us on a tour of some of the Lowcountry landmarks associated with Poe.

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During his 26 years at the College of Charleston, Scott Peeples, English professor and interim chair of the English Department, has taught a wide array of courses on topics ranging from Gothicism to nineteenth-century American poetry to Bob Dylan. He has published extensively on Edgar Allan Poe and other nineteenth-century writers, most recently as author of The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City and as co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Edgar Allan Poe. Peeples served as chair of the English Department from 2012 to 2017 and is a past president of the Poe Studies Association and the Southeastern American Studies Association.

Resources for this Episode

The Man of the Crowd: Edgar Allan Poe and the City by Scott Peeples
The Afterlife of Edgar Allan Poe by Scott Peeples
Edgar Allan Poe Revisited by Scott Peeples
Edgar Allan Poe’s suburban dream essay by Scott Peeples
Why should you read Edgar Allan Poe? TED-Ed video on YouTube with more than 1.7 million views written by Scott Peeples

The Pale Blue Eye (adapted by the director, Scott Cooper, from Louis Bayard’s 2006 novel of the same name)

The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Annabel Lee by Edgar Allan Poe

Next Episode

Embarking on a Spiritual and Professional Journey of the Yoruba Religion

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Over the last 10 years Kameelah Martin, dean of the Graduate School and professor of African American Studies and English, has been researching the ancient Yoruba religion of West Africa, a religious practice that came to the Americas during the transatlantic slave trade. The practice has flourished in places with large Catholic communities like Cuba, a country that is known for having the most pristine practice outside of Nigeria.

On this episode of Speaking Of ... College of Charleston, Martin discusses her personal evolution from researcher and scholar to initiate of the Yoruba religion. The experience was a spiritual and professional journey for Martin who wanted to evolve as a scholar and learn about African spirituality in real time.

In the summer of 2022, after extensive preparation, she traveled to Cuba to participate in the initiation ceremony and undergo the 375-day process as an initiate.

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Kameelah L. Martin is dean of the Graduate School and professor of African American Studies and English at the College of Charleston. She joined the College in 2017 and assumed the role of dean of the Graduate School in 2021. Martin holds a doctorate in African American literature and folklore from Florida State University, a master’s in Afro-American studies from the University of California Los Angeles and a bachelor’s in English with an Africana studies minor from Georgia Southern University. Prior to joining the College, Martin held faculty positions at Georgia State University, the University of Houston and Savannah State University.

Martin’s research explores the lore cycle of the conjure woman, or Black priestess, as an archetype in literature and visual texts. Other areas of interest include the evolution of 20th century Black folk heroes, the fiction of Tina McElroy Ansa, Gullah Geechee heritage and culture, African American genealogical research and the writing of family histories.

Resources for this Episode

Brooks, Kinitra, Kameelah L. Martin, and LaKisha Simmons. “Conjure Feminism: Toward a Genealogy.” Hypatia 36, no. 3 (2021): 452–61.

Gleason, Judith, Elisa Mereghetti, Teresita Martinez, Miriam Cruz, Francisco Rivela, and Judith Gleason. The King Does Not Lie. New York, NY: Filmakers Library, 1993.

Martin, Kameelah. “Envisioning Black Feminist Voodoo Aesthetics: African Spirituality in American Cinema” (2016)

Martin, Kameelah. “Conjuring Moments in African American Literature: Women, Spiritwork, and Other Such Hoodoo” (2012)
“The Lemonade Reader,” an academic look at the work of pop icon Beyoncé.