About CLAW

The Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World (CLAW) promotes scholarship and enlightening engagement with the intertwined histories and cultures of the Lowcountry and the Atlantic World.

Since its foundation in 1994, CLAW has served as a hub for transformative scholarship, exploring the legacy of diverse cultures, societies, and ethnicities. We position Charleston and the surrounding Lowcountry within a broader international context, shedding light on the ongoing exchanges and profound influences that have shaped the region and the wider Atlantic World.

Explore & Engage

Through a dynamic platform of academic conferences, publications, public lectures, community events, and digital exhibitions, CLAW fosters meaningful dialogue and knowledge exchange. 
  • Conferences

    CLAW regularly hosts or co-sponsors conferences and symposia. Topics may range from discussing port cities to transforming public history to transatlantic diasporas. The topics are all connected to the overarching subject of the Carolina Lowcountry and Atlantic World. 

    View Upcoming CLAW Conference
  • Publications

    Collaborating with the University of South Carolina Press, CLAW continues to publish a series of exceptional works centering on the circulation of people, goods, and ideas throughout the Atlantic World.

    The research views the land and people who bordered the Atlantic as forming an integrated system, with the ocean between them serving as a means of movement and connection — sometimes forced —rather than distance and division.

    CLAW/Univ. S.C. Press Publications
  • Wells Fargo Lecture Series

    Many of these lectures involve collaboration with other entities at the College of Charleston, including:

    • the Avery Research Center for African American History and Culture.
    • the Friends of the Library.
    • African Studies.
    • African American Studies.
    • Latin American and Caribbean Studies.

    Thanks to the generous support of Wells Fargo, CLAW has been able to host these lectures since the series' inception in 1997. 

    View the Wells Fargo Lecture Series
  • Indigenous Voices Lecture Series

    CLAW is working with a variety of campus and community partners and SC Indigenous nations to organize a year of programming designed to highlight the history and complexities of Indigeneity and Afro-Indigeneity in America, but especially in the Lowcountry. 

    Click for details