Skipper and Wharton Publish Research on Lafayette Mardi Gras Celebrations

Dr. Jodi Skipper and Dr. David Wharton have been documenting and studying black Mardi Gras celebrations in Lafayette, Louisiana for several years. Their research was just published in the Summer 2015 issue of The Southern Quarterly, a publication of the University of Southern Mississippi.

New STUDY THE SOUTH Article by Jaime Cantrell

Center journal Study the South has a new article by Jaime Cantrell, “Put a Taste of the South in Your Mouth: Carnal Appetites and Intersextionality.”

Jaime Cantrell’s essay reveals the tactile resonances, social dimensions, and affective possibilities of thinking sex through southern food in fiction and poetry from Dorothy Allison, doris davenport, and Minnie Bruce Pratt.

August/September Living Blues Out Now

The August issue of Living Blues is available now and features our cover story on Eddy “The Chief” Clearwater. Clearwater turned 80 earlier this year and we decided it was a good time to catch up with one of Chicago Blues’ elder statesman.

The new issue also includes a look back at the life and career of the King of the Blues, B.B. King. First, we examine King’s career and influence as covered via the pages of LB. Writer David Whiteis’ tribute gives an overview of King’s life and influence and we wrap things up with a decade-by-decade guide to B.B. King’s albums.

Subuding Satan Turns 25

This week, my book Subduing Satan: Recreation, Religion, and Manhood in the Rural South, 1865-1920, turns 25 years old. I remember the date because the book showed up in my mailbox the weekend I turned 30. As birthdays go, the 25th year of a work of history really doesn’t call for or deserve much attention. But it intrigues me to think about it, so I hope anyone reading this will forgive me if writing about my aging book seems a combination of self-congratulation, penitence, and nostalgia. Heaven knows southern history already has plenty of all three.

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.

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.

SFA’s GRAVY Wins James Beard Award for Year’s Best Publication

We are so proud of the Southern Foodways Alliance, which Friday evening won a James Beard Award for publication of the year for Gravy. Gravy is a quarterly magazine with an affiliated bi-weekly podcast. Sara Camp Arnold Milam is Gravy‘s managing editor, and John T. Edge is the editor-in-chief.  Tina Antolini produces and hosts Gravy

SFA Films and Website Explore Restaurant Desegregation

The Southern Foodways Alliance is hard at work talking about food and pop culture, their theme for 2015, but we wanted to make sure everyone saw their documentary work on the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which was part of their 2014 exploration of inclusion and exclusion in southern foodways. One part of this study

Two New Study the South Articles on Writer Margaret Walker

The Center’s journal Study the South has two new articles on writer Margaret Walker published in conjunction with the Oxford Conference for the Book. The conference, held March 25 – 27, honored the life and work of Walker. “Sister Act: Margaret Walker and Eudora Welty” is by Walker biographer Carolyn J. Brown. The essay examines

Director’s Column: Studying Peace and the South

Ted Ownby, Center Director

In the Fall of 2015, there will be a Southern Studies special topics course on Peace and Southern Culture taught by Dr. Ted Ownby.  Learn more about it here. The following post is taken from Dr. Ownby’s Director’s Column from the Winter 2015 Southern Register, where he discusses the origins of his idea for the