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 Black: Stories on Black Queer Living in the American South” highlights the journeys of Black LGBT+ folks who are natives of or currently residing in Mississippi, Alabama, South Carolina, Texas, and Kentucky. This written thesis accompanies a narrative podcast that explores the ways in which their Black, Queer, and Southern Identity informs how they see themselves, their community, and the broader country.
Bethany Fitts, a Joyner Fellow from Tupelo, is graduating with an M.A. in Southern Studies for the thesis “How it Was Made.”
Mattie Ford of Brownsville, Tennessee is a Southern Studies major in the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors College earning her B.A. Her honors thesis is “Women Without Bodies: Autonomy, Empowerment, and Embodiment in Southern Women.”
Janeth Jackson of Moss Point, Mississippi is graduating with an M.A. in Southern Studies. Her thesis is “The Resilience of Black Love.”
Catherine Jessee of Roanoke, Virginia is graduating with an M.A. in Southern Studies and her thesis is “The Wild Asleep”: A Cultural and Environmental History of Ramps.” This thesis investigates the significance of the North American plant Allium tricoccum. Collected narratives of communities and individuals who cultivate, protect, cook, consume, and sell ramps today—combined with popular cultural texts, stories, and lore—reveal an environmental history of a singular plant that complicates wider conceptions of home, community, and regional identity. Jessee recently entered the ENVS Environmental writing contest and won the award in the graduate research category.
David Larson, Peter Aschoff Fellow, of Temecula, California is graduating with an M.A. in Southern Studies for his thesis “Blues is My Business (And Business is Good?).” It is an exploration into the factors governing blues tourism in contemporary Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Lillian Slaughter of Louisville, Kentucky is graduating with an M.A. in Southern Studies. The thesis “This Is Home: Stories of H-2A Placemaking in the U.S. and Mexico” came out of a curiosity of how the lives of H-2A migrant farmworkers are shaped by the transnational lifestyle that comes with seasonal migration work.