The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story with Dr. Tiya Miles

The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story  Dr. Tiya Miles will speak on Monday, February 6, 2012

The American Studies Programs at Kennesaw State University are pleased to announce the visit of the MacArthur Felllow, Dr. Tiya Miles, as the Spring 2012 MAST Program guest speaker.

Dr. Miles will speak about her book, The House on Diamond Hill: A Cherokee Plantation Story, and her work at the Chief Vann House in North Georgia. 

Dr. Miles studies intersections between Native-American and Afro-American History. Her first book, The Ties that Bind: The Story of an Afro-Cherokee Family in Slavery and Freedom was the winner of the Organization of American Historians' Frederick Jackson Turner Prize and the American Studies Association's Lora Romero Prize in 2006. 

Dr. Miles said, "Rather than viewing the Vann House as a symbol of Georgia's proud history, or, as the Georgia Historical Commission deemed it, 'the show place of the Cherokee Nation,' I see it as a sieve for contemporary place-based identity formation and as a site of historical struggle for human dignity and survival." (3)

Dr. Miles will be chronicling the intersection of lives between the White, Cherokee, and African-American inhabitants of the Chief Vann House, one of the richest plantations owned by a Cherokee in the early 19th Century. 

"Working together--as students of history; lovers of old, magnificent buildings; southerners, northerners, westerners, foreigners, Cherokees, blacks and whites--we can unwrap this grand old home's glittering facade, open wide its multi-storied windows and doors, and allow the memories and meanings of all who dwelled there to flow through our understanding like a cleansing breeze. In the resonant words of Southern writer Alice Walker, "the way forward is with a broken heart.'" (197)

Dr. Miles received her A.B. in Afro-American Studies from Harvard University, an MA in Women's Studies from Emory University and her Ph.D. in American Studies from the University of Minnesota.  

Please join with us as we welcome Dr. Miles to campus.

Monday, February 6, 2012

6:30 - 8:30 p.m.  

Social Science Auditorium 1021  Kennesaw State Campus  1000 Chastain Road, Kennesaw

There will be a reception after this talk that will include refreshments and a book signing. The KSU Bookstore will be on hand with both copies of Dr. Miles' books.

*parking available in the visitor's parking lot B.

RSVP attendance to 678-797-2504 or Cherie Miller cmille72@kennesaw.edu Groups are always welcome.

This event is sponsored by:  

• The MA in American Studies
• The Undergraduate Minor in American Studies
• The Department of Interdisciplinary Studies
• The African, African Diaspora Studies Program