UA Professor Examines Cultural Impact of Barbecue on Alabama | University of Alabama News - The University of Alabama

UA Professor Examines Cultural Impact of Barbecue on Alabama | University of Alabama News - The University of Alabama

There are places that love barbecue and do it well. Then there’s the South, where barbecue could be considered a second religion (behind only college football). A University of Alabama professor is set to explore how barbecue became a cultural phenomenon within the borders of the state.

Dr. Joshua Rothman, UA professor of history and African American Studies, received an $18,000 grant from the Southern Foodways Alliance to study barbecue in the state of Alabama as well as the state’s foodways — meaning how the regional cuisine of Alabama developed over time.

“As a professor of Southern history and director of the Summersell Center for Study of the South, I try to take in as many aspects of the South and Southern culture as possible,” Rothman said. Then comes a wry smile. “Plus, I like to eat.”

And eating is a key part of Southern culture. However, barbecue is one of those things that brings people together from all walks of life. And, from a historical perspective, it’s a relatively new point along the foodways path.

“Smoking meat has been around for a long time,” Rothman said. “It was a key way to preserve meat before refrigeration became widespread. But barbecue as we know it in the modern day is something that didn’t really become so hugely popular outside the South until much later.”