The Southern Historical Association announced the winner of its 2013 C. Vann Woodward Dissertation Prize this past weekend at its annual meeting in St. Louis, and Dr. Charles Hughes, the Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Rhodes’ Memphis Center, was chosen as a finalist/runner-up. The prize recognizes the best dissertation on Southern history completed and defended in 2013.
Hughes complete his doctoral research, “Country Soul: Race and the Recording Industry in the United States South 1960-1980,” at the University of Wisconsin. The research focuses on how southern musicians transformed American culture and politics in the second half of the 20th century.
Looking specifically at the relationship between country and soul music, Hughes offers a new interpretation of this pivotal moment. He currently is revising this work for publication as a book, which is under contract with the University of North Carolina Press.
At Rhodes, Hughes teaches courses in the Department of History and designs programs and events through the Memphis Center. He will teach “Elvis and America” and “The United States in the Twentieth Century” this coming semester.