This workshop begins with a brief recounting of the process by which the New Orleans City Council undertook to rename more than forty streets, parks and places honoring former Confederates and Reconstruction-era insurrectionists, to our knowledge the largest effort at urban recommemoration in modern US history.  As co-chair of the panel of experts that advised …

 “Region, Race, and History: Racial Palimpsests in the Southern U.S.” with Angel Parham (virtual event) The racial history of the US is too often defined monolithically in terms of a Black/White color line which has consistently dominated the country. But careful attention to particular regional histories, particularly in the US South with its connections to Latin America …

“Race in The Secret Lives of Church Ladies” with Deesha Philyaw and Ethel Scurlock (virtual event) Readers and critics alike embraced Deesha Philyaw’s The Secret Lives of Church Ladies, a collection of nine short stories focused on Black women, sex, and the Black church. Yet the collection is rarely discussed as being “about race,” with emphasis …

Southern Beauty: Race, Ritual, and Memory in the Modern South  Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd and Darren Grem Southern Beauty: Race, Ritual, and Memory in the Modern South explains a curiosity: why a feminine ideal rooted in the nineteenth century continues to enjoy currency well into the twenty-first. Elizabeth Bronwyn Boyd examines how the continuation of certain …

“Slavery and Race in Holly Springs” Jodi Skipper, panel moderator This panel will be moderated by Jodi Skipper, author of the book Behind the Big House: Reconciling Slavery, Race, and Heritage in the US South, and feature cofounders of the Behind the Big House Program, Chelius Carter and Jenifer Eggleston, Members of Gracing the Table, …

“Skating South: Oral Histories and Music” Southern Studies students enrolled in SST 533 will present their work, which includes oral histories and videos that document the skateboarding community in Mississippi. The presentation will be followed by a performance from the punk band School Drugs.