Welcome to our New Grad Students!

This is the first week of classes for our new students in the Southern Studies Master’s degree program. We’ll have a more detailed story soon with bios for each student, but for now, here’s a photo taken by Jimmy Thomas on the steps of Barnard Observatory last Friday at orientation.

Theda Perdue to Present 2015 Gilder-Jordan Lecture on Sept. 9

Gilder Jordan Program

On Wednesday, September 9 at 7pm in the University’s Nutt Auditorium, Theda Perdue of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will present the 2015 Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern History. Earlier in the day, Dr. Perdue will meet with graduate students in history and Southern Studies. Perdue’s talk is entitled “Indians and Christianity in

Southern Studies MA Program Draws Students from Abroad

This article, by James G. Thomas, Jr., appears in the Spring 2015 issue of the Southern Register. Southern Studies Draws Students from Abroad The Center for the Study of Southern Culture is not unfamiliar to guests and visitors from beyond US borders. Whether they be scholars, students, or enthusiasts of Southern culture in general, the

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

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

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

SST and Sociology Professor Barbara Combs Explores Legacy of Selma

Many, including several of our Southern Studies students and alumni, traveled to Selma, Alabama earlier this month to be part of the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery march.  We hope to share their stories and photos on the blog soon.  In the meantime,we recommend From Selma to Montgomery: The Long