The Devil’s Music: Adam Gussow Publishes New Book on the Devil in the Blues

This interview by Scott Barretta originally appeared in the Fall 2017 Southern Register.

Adam Gussow is an associate professor of English and southern studies at the University of Mississippi whose latest book is Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil in the Blues Tradition (University Press of North Carolina), a survey that occupied seven years of research. Gussow has also grappled extensively with the devil in his parallel career as a professional blues musician—for over thirty years he’s recorded and toured internationally with Sterling “Mr. Satan” Magee, a relationship he addressed in his memoir Mr. Satan’s Apprentice.

Do Good Fund to Exhibit Photographs in Gammill Gallery This Fall

Photographs from the Do Good Fund’s photo collection will be exhibited at various venues in Mississippi during the fall of 2017. Those venues include the Gammill Gallery (Southern People, Southern Places) from late September through mid-December, the UM Art Department’s Gallery 130 (NOW: Contemporary Southern Photography) during October, as well as at the University of Southern Mississippi’s Gallery of Art and Design (Portraits of Southerners) October 12–December 12. There are smaller exhibits scheduled in several Water Valley venues and possibly one in Sumner.

Center for the Study of Southern Culture: A Short History of the First Forty Years

Center for the Study of Southern Culture: A Short History of the First Forty Years This short history by Anna F. Kaplan can also be found, along with entries on Frederick A. P. Barnard, William Faulkner, William Ferris, Living Blues, and the University of Mississippi, in The Mississippi Encyclopedia, recently published by the University Press

Center Welcomes Incoming Graduate Classes

This fall, southern studies launches its new master of fine arts in documentary expression program. The goal of this new program is to teach students who already possess considerable skill and experience in documentary techniques and interdisciplinary scholarship to produce documentary films, photography, or audio projects of high quality. The background for this idea is that the southern studies MA program has graduated numerous students who, as they complete the program, say they wish they had the time and attention to apply their newly learned skills to a polished project.