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.

2015 Paper and Documentary Project Awards Announced

Each year the Center gives several awards for papers and documentary projects, and the announcement is made at the Southern Studies Graduation celebration.  Here are the winners for 2015. The Gray and Coterie Awards FOR the Best undergraduate papers in Southern Studies classes Gray Award, Emelda Lee Miller, “Makin’ Whoopee with the Devil, A Brief

Dr. Kathryn McKee Wins UM Liberal Arts Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award

The Award-Winning Katie McKee Today, during the year end College of Liberal Arts faculty meeting, Southern Studies and English professor Dr. Kathryn McKee received the Outstanding Teacher of the Year Award. McKee, who serves as Graduate Studies Director for Southern Studies, previously received the CLA’s Cora Lee Graham Award for Outstanding Teaching of Freshmen in

SouthDocs Film Bury the Show Screening in Texas

Matthew Graves Film Bury the Show Screening in Texas This evening, Matthew Graves of the Southern Documentary Project will screen his new film Bury the Show at Seminole High School in Seminole, Texas at 7pm. Bury the Show follows the cast and crew of the Seminole, Texas high school theatre team and their quest to

Grad Student Guest Post: Sophie Hay on Answering the Career Question

As the school year comes to a close, a grad student guest post from first year Southern Studies M.A. student Sophie Hay. “But, what do you want to do after your M.A. degree?” – The heart-sinking question so many grad students dread. As liberal arts students, we are repeatedly assured by faculty that our degrees

Congratulations, Southern Studies M.A. Defenders!

Southern Studies graduate students all look forward to the day they emerge triumphant from the little blue room in Barnard Observatory after defending a thesis or internship. The blue room is now named in honor of Dr. Charles Reagan Wilson, professor emeritus of Southern Studies and history and committee member on at least as many

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

CFP for SFA’s Grad Student Conference on Food & Pop Culture

The Southern Foodways Alliance is hosting a Grad Student Conference on Food and Pop Culture September 10-11, 2015.  Two paragraph (200 hundred words or less) abstracts are due May 25.  All the details below. Pop Goes the Corn: 2015 Graduate Student Conference on Food and Pop Culture Presented by the Southern Foodways Alliance, the Center