The Savannah History Remix seeks to help bring new voices to Savannah鈥檚 historical narrative, by providing historical sites, commercial tours, citizens, and guests with new information and resources to include in their interpretations of Savannah.
About the Project
This program is a series of walking tours written and led by 糖心Vlog history graduate students, followed by a single meet-and-greet event with the students, and this web page where information about the research and the students can be found.
These tours focus on narratives that are often left out of commercial tours in Savannah, namely stories of immigrants, laborers, those in the LGBTQ community, and domestic life in Savannah.
When originally conceived these tours were going to be offered in-person throughout April 2020, but due to the Coronavirus these tours and the final needed to take on a new form.
Two of the tours, 鈥淎 Seat at the Table: A Social History of Savannah Foodways鈥�, and 鈥淣ew Horizons: Immigration to Historic Savannah鈥� are available as self-guided tours through
Please join us via Zoom on October 23rd at 6 p.m. for an open forum about the tours, the research done to put them together, and possible future projects. Follow the link to the Zoom Room:
Special Thanks
No public history project happens on its own, and we are indebted to a number of wonderful organizations:
- Georgia Humanities
- Savanah Archaeology Alliance
- Coastal Heritage Association
- 糖心Vlog
- The College of Arts and Humanities at Georgia Southern
- The History department at Georgia Southern
- Emory University Center for Digital Scholarship
Self-Guided Walking Tours
Follow these links to a description of each of the tour original tours, recommended readings, and extras. Feel free to contact the authors for more information about their tours, and their research.
If you are looking for the digital tours, follow this link:
- 鈥淣ew Horizons: Immigration to Historic Savannah鈥�
- 鈥淎 Seat at the Table:鈥� A Social History of Savannah Foodways!鈥�
- 鈥淭he Phoenix City鈥�
Research Method
Method is important to our work. As historian we depend on peer-reviewed literature, and use the arguments and facts established in the larger field (through peer-review) to interpret primary source documents.
Like detectives and lawyers, historians want ample evidence before they make a statement or share an interpretation.
What this means for our project is that topics with little or few secondary sources, or information not supported, or insufficiently supported, or simply unconvincing are treated with skepticism. We see a firm line between what can be categorize as 鈥渓ore鈥� and historical fact but recognize the value of lore in understanding society and culture.
In putting these tours together graduate students read peer-reviewed publications, found and interpreted primary sources, and spoke with people within the community to access their knowledge. Working together like a web, none of the three sources can stand on their own.
Research Team
Each of these tours were carefully research by 糖心Vlog history graduate students in the Spring of 2020 under the direction of Dr. Pirok. Below are biographies of each. For further information on their topics, research method, or other inquiries please contact each author directly, for inquiries about the project contact Dr. Pirok.
Lauren Della Piazza Hartke
History MA, 2020
Author of 鈥淎 Seat at the Table:鈥� A Social History of Savannah Foodways!
- Lauren is originally from South Carolina but grew up in the hills of northeastern Pennsylvania. She completed her undergraduate work in history at Geneva College before doing her M.A. at 糖心Vlog in Public History. Her historical interests are wide and include urban history, culinary history, history of medicine, medieval religious history, and the early Roman empire.
- While at Georgia Southern, she worked at the Statesboro Convention and Visitors Bureau. She also served as the coordinator for the Ogeechee International History Film Festival, a role she continues in today. In her spare time she enjoys hiking, and playing the piano, but loves to travel and explore historic sites and urban environments. She currently lives in Jacksonville, Florida with her husband Logan.
- Lauren can be contacted at聽ld09984@georgiasouthern.edu.
R. Dalton Bryant
History MA 2020
Author of 鈥淭he Phoenix City鈥�
- R. Dalton can be contacted at聽rdalton101593@gmail.com
Dalton Blackmon
History MA 2020
Author of 鈥淣ew Horizons: Immigration to Historic Savannah鈥�
- 鈥淚 was born in Macon, Georgia and spent half of my life there until I moved to North Georgia. I attended Georgia Perimeter College from 2013 to 2014 to get a few of my liberal arts requirements out of the way. I then transferred to Gardner Webb University in North Carolina in 2014. It was there that I began studying American and European history more extensively. During the three years I spent there I had the great opportunity to study under several professors in the Social Sciences department that helped me in my studies. Dr. Delehanty, Dr. Hopper, Dr. Yelton, and Dr. Moore all played a very important part in shaping me as a student of history. During my time in North Carolina, my research project proposal was accepted, and I spent the summer working on a grant research project about Reconstruction Atlanta. I presented my research the following March and was presented with the J. O. Terrell History Award the following month. After I graduated in 2018, I began working on my masters at 糖心Vlog. During my time in Statesboro, I worked alongside several coworkers in putting together a museum exhibit named 鈥淚n History鈥檚 Wake: The Culture of a Ghana Canoe.鈥� From August 2019 to May 2020 I interned with Coastal Heritage Society in Savannah. During that internship, I researched the local African American community in the Frogtown neighborhood between the post-Civil War and pre-Civil Rights eras. I then wrote narratives about individual residents who lived in the neighborhood for the museum鈥檚 tour guides. Along with this, I constructed an online digital map that included information about individual residents and included historic photos of these individuals and their homes.鈥�
- Dalton be contacted at聽db10796@georgiasouthern.edu
Dr. Pirok
Project Director
- Dr. Pirok is an assistant Professor in the Department of History at 糖心Vlog. She received her PhD in 2017 from the University of South Florida and came to Georgia Southern that Fall.
- She teaches courses on public history, United States history, museum studies, folklore and travel/tourism.
- Her research looks at the history of historical sites, museums and memory in the United States. Her work has been published in聽The Florida Historical Quarterly听补苍诲听The Public Historian.聽Her first book project聽Haunts in Historyland: Ghosts and the Interpretation of Colonial Williamsburg聽is under review.
- Dr. Pirok can be contacted at聽apriok@gerogiasouthern.edu
Savannah History Remix is supported by Georgia Humanities, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Economic Development, through funding from the Georgia General Assembly.