A Literary Mind: Jacob Fennell flourishes as a scholar in earning Southern Studies master’s degree This story is part of the 2024 Journey to Commencement series, which celebrates the pinnacle of the academic year by highlighting University of Mississippi students and their outstanding academic and personal journeys from college student to college graduate. Jacob Fennell …
Category: Graduates
Journey to Commencement: Sandip Rai
Sandip Rai’s creative journey brings stories to life on the screen. When Sandip Rai made a list of possible graduate schools, his factors included location, program courses, community and eligibility. After a Zoom meeting with staff at the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture, Rai felt the support and hospitality win …
Congrats May Graduates
We are so proud of of our May graduates! Congratulations on all of your hard work. Daisy Bruce of Troy, Alabama is graduating with a double major in Southern Studies and Political Science with Cum Laude honors. Danielle Buckingham of Louisville, Mississippi is graduating with an M.A. in Southern Studies. Her thesis “Good Love is …
Journey to Commencement: Braxton Thomas
Journey to Commencement: Mattie Ford
Twice as Nice: Martha Grace Mize is first person to earn dual master’s degrees in Southern Studies and anthropology
If earning a graduate degree seems like a daunting task, imagine obtaining two at once. Martha Grace Mize accomplished this, and will be the first person to earn dual master’s degrees in Southern Studies and anthropology from the University of Mississippi. “I think the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and the Department of …
Keon Burns researches Black Grocers and the Mississippi Freedom Struggle
When the archives closed due to COVID-19, Keon Burns had to change his original idea for his thesis and focus on something closer to home. So he chose a paper he wrote for Catarina Passidomo’s SST 555: Foodways course about his great-grandparents’ grocery store in Bolton, Mississippi. That paper morphed into “Black Grocers, Black Activism, …
Andrea Morales captures images of race and history with “Roll Down Like Water”
Andrea Morales used her photographic lens to focus on Memphis, Tennessee as a place of resistance. While working on her M.F.A. in Documentary Expression, she captured images regarding representation, race, history, and memory titled “Roll Down Like Water.” She successfully defended this thesis project April 19, with her committee W. Ralph Eubanks, visiting professor of …
Christian Leus brings true crime to life with thesis project
While doing historical research on her hometown of Altheimer, Arkansas, Southern Studies graduate student Christian Leus stumbled across an article about a 19-year-old girl named Irene Taylor. The girl was murdered in 1939, with her body dumped into the bayou that runs through town. “It turns out, she was a distant cousin of mine!” Leus …
Christina Huff documents “Queer Subculture in the Conservative South”
An assignment for a documentary class ended up expanding into a thesis for Christina Huff. In 2019, Huff enrolled in John Rash’s class and had to document a small community. She decided to attend a drag show in Tupelo, Mississippi and reach out to the group of performers. “I had gauged the interest of two …