‘Culture on a plate’: USC class tells a story about the South through barbecue
Southern history is as rich as a smoked brisket smothered in a thick, tangy sauce and slapped on a paper plate. Students at the University of South Carolina get to learn about both — at the same time.
On Wednesday, students got to see barbecue in action. At City Limits Barbeque in West Columbia, owner Robbie Robinson welcomed Professor Matt Simmons at USC’s Institute for Southern Studies, and his students to the smoke house. In the back of his restaurant, Robinson worked shoveling coals and cooking pork shoulder.
He explained the difference between Carolina and Texas barbecue and what makes a “good bite”
It was a finale to a semester of classroom learning about sauce traditions, Southern Reconstruction and so much more.
USC’s Institute for Southern Studies, an interdisciplinary program at the university where students learn about the South through history, literature, culture, political science and even public health. Simmons said one of his students began spreading a rumor in 2022: he was going to be teaching a class on barbecue.
“At the time, I said, ‘There’s no way,’” Simmons recalled. “I didn’t think there was enough there, and I didn’t think students would take it.” There was “no way” the faculty senate would approve a course on barbecue, he said. Spoiler alert: they did.
Simmons designed the class as a study Southern history, culture, civil rights, economic development, demographic change and politics, all through the lens of barbecue.
“It actually touches on all those things,” Simmons said. “It becomes more than it’s to food people eat, it becomes a way of relating to place.”
The course is titled “Barbecue: Southern History and Culture on a Plate.”
It was first offered in 2025 spring semester, with 100 seats that Simmons wasn’t sure he could fill. But within three days, every spot was taken, and there were students on the waitlist. This year, 150 students took the class.
Barbecue is a historical, sociological, and cultural phenomenon in the South, Simmons explained. But the class also delves into cooking techniques, food science and the business that makes barbecue what it is.
Instead of books, Simmons instructed students to travel around South Carolina to try different barbecue joints and reflect on their experience.
Simmons recalled one student from Pennsylvania who said visiting McCabe’s BBQ in Manning changed his understanding of the region.
“He realized he had been living in a bubble around campus,” Simmons said. “And that was the first time he felt like he understood what the South means.”
Instead of a traditional final exam, students made their own barbecue sauces and meat rubs, often taking elements from their own background and family history as inspiration.
“I had all these people saying, ‘I’m an Italian American kid from New Jersey. If I could translate barbecue to Italian Americans, what would that look like?’ Or, ‘I’m from Alabama, so I want to do that traditional Alabama white sauce we have, but I want to kind of mix it up,’” Simmons said. “I had some kids from the Middle East or the Mediterranean, whose ancestors had come from Egypt, Lebanon. I have students saying, ‘I didn’t know that my cultural heritage was part of barbecue. So, I want to play that up.’”
Jakob Torino, a senior studying finance and supply chain, said fellow students recommended the class. Barbecue felt familiar, he said, but he hadn’t grasped the depth of what it was.
“Food is culture,” Torino said. “If you are going to learn one thing about a people, you better start with the food.”
At the core of his teaching, Simmons said, is the hope that students walk away with an appreciation for the South’s place in the American story and curiosity and intellectual humility.
“This idea comes about that the South is this kind of provincial place,” Simmons said. “I think that’s a fundamentally provincial attitude to have because the South has always been embedded in a broader global culture.”
