Graduate school comes to us all in different ways: you might read a book that piques your interest, you might have a passion for a particular cuisine, you might have a career goal that requires a higher degree. Or you could be like me, and apply to graduate school because you’re just not sure what’s coming next. Two years ago I was finishing up a student teaching internship that just wasn’t fitting and I found myself wondering what on earth would come next, often out loud and often to my dog.
Check out a slideshow of highlights from the SFA’s oral history programming so far in 2016, shown recently at the Fall Symposium. Led by Oral Historian Sara Wood, the SFA tells the stories of the farmers, fisherman, cooks, and entrepreneurs who feed the South, opening discussions of history and identity, and engaging with race, class, gender, and sexuality.
In different ways, these alumni are immersed in publishing, whether it is as an agent, an editor, an author, or working with a literary magazine.
This fall Kathryn McKee teaches the Southern Studies 598 Special Topics class. Women and the South, which meets Mondays at 1:00– 3:30 p.m., investigates the intersection of constructed ideas about place with constructed ideas about gender and race.
The October/November 2016 issue of Living Blues features the griot of the blues Taj Mahal on the cover. At age 74 Taj Mahal is one of the biggest stars in the blues today. His musical and cultural knowledge is vast and his desire to share this lifetime of knowledge is his enduring legacy.
Brian Foster knows his way around the University of Mississippi. In fact, he won the Center’s Peter Aschoff Award for the best paper on Southern music in 2011 with his BA Honors thesis, “Crank Dat Soulja Boy: Understanding Black Male Hip-Hop Aspirations in Rural Mississippi.” This fall, the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology welcome him back as a new assistant professor of sociology and Southern Studies. Foster returns to the university from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he earned his MA and began his PhD work. Prior to entering UNC-Chapel Hill Foster earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Mississippi.
On Thursday, October 14 at 12:15pm in Barnard Observatory, SST alum and former SFA Oral Historian Amy C. Evans will discuss her work as a teaching artist with Literacy through Photography, a nonprofit that places artists in classrooms around the Houston Independent School District. Her work is currently on display in the Center’s Gammill Gallery, which is open to the public Monday – Friday, 9am to 5pm.
Rex Jones of the Southern Documentary Project documented the 1,010 mile 2014 trek of Mark Hainds along the U.S. – Mexico border, from El Paso to Boca Chica beach on the Gulf of Mexico. You can read an interview with Hainds here. Hainds and Jones encountered border-crossers, drug smugglers, cowboys, the Border Patrol, and a range of opinions on immigration and law enforcement.
The Southern Documentary Project is hiring a full-time Producer/Director. Please tell all of your filmmaking friends.
Find the full posting here: https://jobs.olemiss.edu/postings/10756
This year’s incoming class of graduate students includes two international students and others from all areas of the United States. They have a wide variety of backgrounds and ideas, but all share a common interest in the South.