All About
the
Carolina Considered Project

Project Description and Objectives

The CarolinaConsidered website is sponsored by the Carolina Considered Project. Here you'll find a celebration of South Carolina's amazing natural and social scenery. Though here and there I've added materials gathered during visits to more distant locations.

This is a very personal view of South Carolina. Neither comprehensive nor objective. It's the South Carolina I've experienced since arriving here from Washington, D.C. in mid-1986. I'm obviously charmed by the State's environment, and am delighted to be living here. Though I do try to be truthful in the selection and presentation of materials.

Those materials include travel commentary, photos, brief recorded interviews, and even driving directions, where necessary, gathered during trips around the State with the Mobile Studio.  I've also included links here and there to useful information about South Carolina already on the Web.

Project Origins

The Carolina Considered Project developed from its predecessor, the Japan Considered Project, when I retired from university teaching at the end of 2008. While a USC faculty member, I maintained the JapanConsidered website for several years as a source of policy-relevant information about domestic politics in Japan and the U.S.-Japan relationship. It was intended for an American specialist audience: academics, government officials, and journalists. And anyone with an interest in, or responsibility for, relations with Japan. I also included a weekly audio podcast that offered commentary and analysis on current Japan-related issues.

My academic expertise doesn't extend to South Carolina. So CarolinaConsidered is intended more for the general reader, like me, than for specialists. And, it won't be anywhere near as comprehensive as was JapanConsidered. I’m just too old, and too busy in retirement, to keep up the pace.

Organization and Presentation of Materials

I've divided the website into geographic and topical sections. The geographic section includes pages on each of South Carolina's 46 counties. Those county pages, then, are grouped under South Carolina's four traditional geographic regions: Upstate, Midlands, Pee Dee, and Lowcountry. Material from more distant locations are grouped together under "Other Places." Most of them in Georgia, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee

The topical section of the CarolinaConsidered website is divided into five areas: RV Camping, Kayaking, Interesting Places, Surprising Places, and Food. All very arbitrary, based upon my own interests and experiences in South Carolina.

The magic of website hyperlinks allows me to easily cross-reference the geographic and topical pages of the site.

For some time now I've published the Mobile Studio Travels blog. So much of the commentary and many of the photos for CarolinaConsidered have been presented in blog format there. Rather than duplicate text and photos on the website, I've added hyperlinks to the original material in the blog. Both for convenience of presentation, and to reduce bandwidth on the website. Most trip reports, for example, are posted first on the MobileStudioTravels Blog, and then linked to the appropriate sections of the website.

Searching for Information on CarolinaConsidered

As explained on the Home Page, the Google search box in the upper right-hand corner of each page is the easiest way to find information on the website about a particular word, group of words, or phrase. Just enter the word or words of interest in the  box and Google will find every occurrence of it or them both on the website and  in the MobileStudioTravels blog.

Biographical Information for Robert Angel, your Web Host and South Carolina Travel Companion

Text from an old CV: "Dr. Robert C. Angel was born and raised in the mountainous Fingerlakes Region of Western New York State. He taught Japanese domestic politics and international relations in the Department of Political Science of the University of South Carolina, Columbia, between 1986 and 2008. Angel arrived in South Carolina from Washington, D.C, where he had been President and Chief Executive Officer of the Japan Economic Institute from 1978 to 1984.

"Involved one way or another in U.S.-Japan relations for more than four decades, Angel received his B.A., M.A., M.Phil, PhD, and East Asian Institute Certificate from Columbia University in New York City. He maintains a keen interest in Japan and U.S.-Japan relations, consulting from time to time for American government and private-sector organizations."

USC's Department of Political Science maintains an archive of information on retired faculty. Click here. .