The annual Moltke-Hansen Feature recognizes the interdisciplinary approach of the St. George Tucker Society by featuring scholars with backgrounds and approaches from outside the discipline of history. The Society believes — as embodied by Dr. David Moltke-Hansen — that the U.S. South is best understood holistically by applying multiple analytical lenses, including but not limited to literature, geography, political science, material culture, and American Studies.
Dr. David Moltke-Hansen built and directed historical and cultural collections and programs interactively with learned societies in academic settings. His professional positions included: President, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Curator then Director, Southern Historical Collection; founding Director, Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Archivist then Director, South Carolina Historical Society. Over his career, he oversaw the doubling of the holdings of these institutions he led.
His writing and editing roles included: Founding Co-Director, Cambridge Studies on the American South, Cambridge University Press; Founding Director, Simms Initiatives, South Caroliniana Library, University of South Carolina; Research Associate, Center for the Study of the American South, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Over a period of three decades, Dr. Moltke-Hansen averaged a scholarly or professional essay/article per year. He edited forums for journals on historians Charles Joyner, Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, and Eugene Genovese; and oversaw the collection and selected publication of five volumes of Fox-Genovese’s fugitive writings. Upon focusing on editing and writing full time later in his career, he co-edited series on the American South and its most notable antebellum writer for Cambridge University Press and the University of South Carolina Press respectively — together having issued 90 volumes in print.