The members of the 2017 MA cohort have never met a stranger—including each other. Our fast bond stems from shared appreciation of Southern music, happy hour, and good food. We’re excited to spend the new two years collaborating with each other, especially considering the wide range of backgrounds we bring to the table. Here, we introduce ourselves and our favorite songs, in the hope that you will join us for a karaoke night out.
We’re starting an occasional series of interviews of visiting speakers at the Center by Southern Studies grad students who are working with Dr. Andy Harper and the Southern Documentary Project. These interviews will explore a scholar’s inspiration to pursue a particular line of research and their experiences teaching courses on the American South in different contexts.
Those who have attended the Center’s weekly Brown Bag Lecture Series and other events in Barnard Observatory over the years will now be greeted by a new receptionist—one who may, in fact, be recognizable. In early September, Margaret Gaffney joined the Center staff as its new staff assistant.
Much of the story of Hurricane Katrina lived on the Internet as the city reconnected during its diaspora. When Cynthia Joyce went looking for one vital account for a course she was teaching, she found the site down and the piece forgotten. This inspired her search for the works that became Please Forward: How Blogging Reconnected New …
The Center Remembers Longtime Supporter Becky Feder We were very sad to learn of the passing of Becky Feder last week after a short fight with cancer. Becky, with her husband Ron, have for many years supported various Center programs through their foundation, the R&B Feder Foundation for the Beaux Arts. The Feders have been …
The Mississippi Arts Commission today launched a new digital version of the journal Mississippi Folklife, a publication with a long history at the Center. Congratulations to the MAC, and especially Jennifer Joy Jameson, the Folk and Traditional Arts Director, managing editor. We’re particularly excited about the involvement of Amanda Malloy, a current SST graduate student who serves as Visual Arts Editor. Amy C. Evans, former SFA oral historian, is the Custom Editor. Mississippi Folklife will also include a “Mississippi Stories” series of films produced by Rex Jones of the Southern Documentary Project.
Last year I introduced my cohort to the Southern Studies community in an article written for the Southern Register. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, we had no idea what a tempestuous journey we were in for. Acclimatizing to the sleep deprivation and never-ending workload endemic to graduate school was an experience we won’t easily forget, but, engaging classes, supportive faculty and an ever-compelling South to study made the challenge entirely worthwhile. I caught up with my cohort, now seasoned graduate students, to hear about their individual Southern Studies experiences and to find out how their interests have changed since entering the program last fall.
Faculty Job Posting: Assistant Professor of Sociology or Anthropology and Southern Studies The Department of Sociology and Anthropology (socanth.olemiss.edu) and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture (southernstudies.olemiss.edu) at the University of Mississippi invite applications for a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in Sociology or Anthropology with a joint appointment in Southern Studies starting Fall …
In 1963, the magazine Blues Unlimited was instrumental to the British blues revival by giving voice to famous, forgotten, undiscovered, or underappreciated blues musicians from the US. The magazine set the standard for documenting blues history through the use of long-form interviews, and in many ways it paved the way for magazines such as Living Blues.
Ashley Smith, a PhD candidate in the Department of Media Studies at Stockholm University presents a Brown Bag Lecture at noon Wednesday, Oct. 21. Smith will screen part of “Raisin’ Cotton,” filmed in 1941 by Emma Knowlton Lytle on her family’s plantation in Perthshire, as well as other home movies from Lytle’s collection.