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.
While a Master of Arts degree can be the pinnacle of schoolwork for some students, others continue their foray through academia. Here are a few of the Southern Studies alums who, having decided to pursue a PhD in various fields, are working on or have nearly completed their dissertations. The MA program is known for producing graduates with diverse interests, and these topics reflect that diversity.
Last Friday, August 28, was the 60th Anniversary of the murder of Emmett Till in Money, Mississippi. On Saturday, the Emmett Till Interpretive Center in Sumner hosted several commemoration events, including tours of the newly renovated Sumner County Courthouse, where Till’s murderers were acquitted. Faculty members Ted Ownby, Jessie Wilkerson, Jodi Skipper, Katie McKee, and David Wharton attended the commemoration with several grad students. Below
Jake Xerxes Fussell’s self-titled solo debut album showcases his folk and blues roots. The Southern Studies alum (MA 2013) says that the album came together fairly easily, with most of the basic tracking done one afternoon at Bruce Watson’s studio in Water Valley, Mississippi, with tracking and mixing at Mark Nevers’s studio in Nashville.
In 1955, the Sumner County Courthouse was the site of the acquittal of Roy Bryant and J.W. Milam, who both soon after confessed to the murder of 14 year old Emmett Till. The courthouse, which has been under renovation, will open to the public on March 21 with a special ceremony and show by Thacker …
Concert by Caroline Herring to Honor Dr. charles Reagan Wilson Singer-songwriter Caroline Herring returns to Barnard Observatory for a special concert as part of the Porter Fortune Jr. History Symposium. The Symposium honors the recent retirement of Charles Reagan Wilson with a series of talks and panel discussions on the topic of Southern Religion and …
This article originally appeared in the Fall 2014 Southern Register. Check out the Register online here. Southern Studies Graduate Tapped to Lead MDAH A Southern Studies MA graduate, Katherine Blount, has been named the seventh director of the Mississippi Department of Archives and History. The Board of Trustees made the decision at a special meeting …