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.

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

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

Grad Student Guest Post: Sophie Hay on Answering the Career Question

As the school year comes to a close, a grad student guest post from first year Southern Studies M.A. student Sophie Hay. “But, what do you want to do after your M.A. degree?” – The heart-sinking question so many grad students dread. As liberal arts students, we are repeatedly assured by faculty that our degrees

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 601 in the Field

Southern Studies 601 is a required course for all SST MA students, and most take it during their first semester.  This fall, Dr. Katie McKee taught the course.  In addition to reading a book a week (including Grace Hale’s Making Whiteness, Randall Kenan’s Let the Dead Bury Their Dead, Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, and Zandria Robinson’s This

Meet Our First Year Graduate Students

One of the most compelling aspects of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture is its eclectic faculty, staff, and students. This fall the Center welcomed 12 new students into its Southern Studies MA program, all of whom contribute to the Center’s notable diversity.

Grad Student Guest Post: Virginia Anderson on Determining a Thesis Topic

Today, another guest post from a grad student, this time from a second year who is hard at work on her thesis.  Virginia Anderson grew up in Staunton, Virginia and holds an undergraduate degree in English and religious studies from UM and a master’s in religious studies from the University of Colorado, Boulder.  Her research