SST and Sociology Professor Barbara Combs Explores Legacy of Selma

Many, including several of our Southern Studies students and alumni, traveled to Selma, Alabama earlier this month to be part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march.  We hope to share their stories and photos on the blog soon.  In the meantime,we recommend From Selma to Montgomery: The Long

New Living Blues Hits Newsstands

This issue’s cover story is on McComb, Mississippi–native Vasti Jackson. Jackson is a real blues Renaissance man—skilled at nearly every facet of the music industry.

New Article by Dr. Combs Explores Race, Space, and Voter Suppression

Assistant Professor of Sociology and Southern Studies Dr. Barbara Harris Combs has a new article in Critical Sociology exploring the construct of place and its role in race relations, specifically recent changes in voting rights laws.  Dr. Combs will teach a cross-listed African American Studies / Southern Studies course on Race, Place, and Space this

More about the new Elvis biography by Joel Williamson

In Elvis Presley: A Southern Life, Southern historian Joel Williamson, professor emeritus of the humanities at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, takes on one of the greatest cultural icons of all time.

Ted Ownby, director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, wrote the foreword for the book, which is published by Oxford University Press.

Ted Ownby on Elvis Presley as a Southern Studies Student

Center Director Ted Ownby wrote the introduction for a new book on Elvis Presley by Joel Williamson, Elvis Presley: A Southern Life. Here, his thoughts on whether Southern Studies might’ve saved Presley. Elvis Presley died in 1977. That was the same year the Center for the Study of Southern Culture hosted its first events, and

Living Blues’ October issue highlights blues tourism

Double issue provides a guide for adventurers traveling the Mississippi Blues Trail Blues tourism in Mississippi is highlighted in the special October double-issue of Living Blues magazine. Focusing on more than 180 Mississippi Blues Trail markers, the issue spotlights the people, places and themes of the blues in Mississippi with hundreds of destinations including clubs,

August Issue of Living Blues on Newstands

The August issue of Living Blues magazine is available now.  The issue features a cover story on the state of the blues harp, highlighting the still-vibrant world of blues harmonica and profiling emerging harp players like Grady Champion, Russ Green, Omar Coleman, Bud Carson, Professor Harp, Orange Jefferson, Greg Izor, and more. The new issue

Two New STUDY THE SOUTH Calls for Papers

The Center’s journal Study the South, launched in July 2014, has just issued two new calls for papers, one exploring the life and work of writer Margaret Walker, and another blues in the American South.  Each paper will coincide with a Center outreach event in the spring of 2015. Call for Papers: Margaret Walker See

Meet the SFA’s Journal Gravy

Gravy is the Southern Foodways Alliance’s quarterly journal. It portrays the diverse food cultures of the changing American South through creative nonfiction, narrative journalism, oral history, poetry, short fiction, recipes, and photography. Each issue has a loose theme related to the SFA’s work, with topics like Appalachia and women at work.  The most recent issue

Center Launches New Journal “STUDY THE SOUTH”

The Center has just launched a new journal, Study the South. Study the South is a peer-reviewed, multimedia, online journal, published and managed by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi.