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.
Faculty, staff, and a alumnus of the Center will participate in the [Re]Defining Liberal Arts Education in the 21st Century Conference on the Liberal Arts next week at Jackson State University. The Conference, to be held October 6 – 8, will include a keynote address by Dr. William D. Adams, Chair of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Brown Bag Lecture Series Analyzes Songs Sept. 28 The Brown Bag Lunch and Lecture Series continues Wednesday, Sept. 28 with three faculty members who offer 10-minute analyses of individual songs of their choice. The format is an experiment to see what scholars can accomplish in a short time. Presenters, who will announce their songs as …
On three Wednesdays this fall, the Center is partnering with Shelter on Van Buren to screen films made by Center institutes the Southern Documentary Project and the Southern Foodways Alliance. The first screening is this Wednesday, September 14 at 6pm, and will include a screening of Longleaf by Rex Jones and Otha, made from archival footage by Ava Lowrey from the Southern Foodways Alliance.
Edward L. Ayers of the University of Richmond was our 2016 Gilder-Jordan Lecturer on Wednesday, September 7. The Gilder-Jordan lecturer spends the day with faculty and students from the Center and History Department before delivering the evening lecture.