Ted Ownby on the Resonance of the Charles Wilson Grad Student Support Fund Dear Friends, I encourage you to make a donation to the Charles Reagan Wilson Graduate Student Support Fund. The fund will support research projects for University of Mississippi students studying the American South. Charles Wilson taught History Department graduate students who …
The Center and History Department Launch An Ignite Campaign for the Charles Reagan Wilson Fund In honor of Dr. Wilson’s retirement in May 2014 and long career supporting and guiding students, we created the Charles Reagan Wilson Graduate Student Support Fund, which will provide financial support for graduate students engaged in research in southern history. …
If you’ve recently received an offer to join the Southern Studies M.A. program at the University of Mississippi, huge congratulations are in order! Well done on your success! I’d like to take this opportunity to offer you a big warm welcome on behalf of everyone at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture.
In 1973 the Memphis State Tigers reached the finals of the NCAA basketball tournament. Though they lost to UCLA, they inspired a civic myth. With each victory, the city’s enthusiasm ballooned, with paeans to stars Larry Finch, Ronnie Robinson, and Larry Kenon, as well as coach Gene Bartow. Politicians upheld the team as a vehicle of interracial unity, supposedly healing the scars from Martin Luther King’s assassination in 1968. This myth has elements of truth, as basketball provided common ground across lines of race and class. Yet it hides as much as it reveals. Success in basketball smoothed over Memphians’ anxieties about the university, the city, and the future of race relations. The story of this season thus illuminates how sports can not only foster racial progress, but also obscure racial divisions.
These Southern Studies alumni are in very different professions, with one common thread: presenting southern culture to the public, whether it is through historic preservation, working in the visual arts, showcasing the correspondence of our third president, or helping artists and arts institutions with funding.
Music of the South Symposium:Defining and Presenting Tradition in Southern Music – Wednesday, April 6, 2016 This spring’s Music of the South Symposium will investigate the creation and performance of the South’s various traditional music forms. The one-day symposium, “Defining and Presenting Traditional Music,” sponsored by the Center, Living Blues magazine, and the Blues Archive, …
This school year, grad student Chris Colbeck, working with the Southern Documentary Project, has done a series of interviews with speakers following their Brown Bag talks. Interviews have included questions about research inspiration and methods, the role of the academy in understanding public policy, and teaching James Agee and Walker Evans.
A new display at Rowan Oak features William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize speech. Southern Studies graduate students Amanda Malloy and Katie Gill designed and installed the display. English graduate student Sarah Altenoff provided technical assistance on the project.
The following post is written by Dr. Adam Gussow, Associate Professor of English and Southern Studies, in response to the Blues Foundation’s recent list of “Classics of Blues Literature.”
Clothing and Fashion in Southern History February 22 – 23, 2016 The Center will host a symposium on Clothing and Fashion in Southern History on February 22 – 23. The symposium will convene scholars from the fields of history and cultural studies who will contribute essays to a forthcoming book on the subject. The scholars …