B. B. King, Honorary Professor of Southern Studies

As B. B. King is laid to rest Saturday in Indianola, we wanted to share footage from the 2004 Blues Today Symposium when the Center named King an Honorary Professor of Southern Studies. Charles Reagan Wilson, then Director of the Center, conveys the honor. Greg Johnson of the Blues Archive did a public interview with

A Fond Farewell to the Center’s Mary Hartwell

Mary Hartwell Howorth retires this week after 23 years working at the Center. She has been important to the Center’s work in countless ways, and Barnard Observatory won’t be the same without her. The many students, faculty, and staff she has befriended over the years will miss her greatly.

Mark Camarigg Edits New Book of Blues Interviews

Mark Camarigg, Managing Editor of Center publication Living Blues magazine, is co-editor with Mike Rowe and Bill Greensmith of a forthcoming book of interviews from the magazine Blues Unlimited. The book will be published in September.

SouthDocs Film on William Winter Nominated for an Emmy

The Toughest Job: William Winter’s Mississippi, a documentary film by Matthew Graves and the Southern Documentary Project (SouthDocs), has been nominated for an Emmy for best historical documentary by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS).

SouthDocs Works with MDAH on Voting Rights Act Film

The Center and our institute the Southern Documentary Project just began working with the Mississippi Department of Archives and History on a short film about the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which was signed 50 years ago on August 6, 1965.

New STUDY THE SOUTH Article on the Lynching Blues of Robert Johnson

We’ve just published a new essay on our journal Study the South. Karlos K. Hill’s essay, published May 11, explores the near lynching of Robert Johnson’s stepfather, Charles Dodds, the influence that event may have had on Johnson and his music, the horrors of spectacle lynching in the late 19th and early 20th century South, and grassroots responses to this violence.

2015 Paper and Documentary Project Awards Announced

Each year the Center gives several awards for papers and documentary projects, and the announcement is made at the Southern Studies Graduation celebration.  Here are the winners for 2015. The Gray and Coterie Awards FOR the Best undergraduate papers in Southern Studies classes Gray Award, Emelda Lee Miller, “Makin’ Whoopee with the Devil, A Brief

Dr. Kathryn McKee Wins UM Liberal Arts Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award

The Award-Winning Katie McKee Today, during the year end College of Liberal Arts faculty meeting, Southern Studies and English professor Dr. Kathryn McKee received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award. McKee, who serves as Graduate Studies Director for Southern Studies, previously received the CLA’s Cora Lee Graham Award for Outstanding Teaching of Freshmen in

SouthDocs Film Bury the Show Screening in Texas

Matthew Graves Film Bury the Show Screening in Texas This evening, Matthew Graves of the Southern Documentary Project will screen his new film Bury the Show at Seminole High School in Seminole, Texas at 7pm. Bury the Show follows the cast and crew of the Seminole, Texas high school theatre team and their quest to