Forum Examines Issues of Race and Ethnicity

Interdisciplinary Feb. 27 event to facilitate discussion among faculty, graduate students

University of Mississippi faculty and graduate students will share their research on race and ethnicity in a Feb. 27 forum.

This event begins with breakfast at 8:30 a.m., and the first panel will begin at 9 a.m. in the Butler Auditorium of the Triplett Alumni Center. The goal of the forum is to bring UM faculty and graduate students together as a community to learn about and discuss research on race and ethnicity that’s being done at the university.

“With over a total of 25 submissions, we got an overwhelming response to the call for proposals,” said Simone Delerme, McMullan associate professor of anthropology and Southern Studies. Delerme is coordinating the event alongside Marcos Mendoza, associate professor of anthropology, and Catarina Passidomo, Southern Foodways Alliance associate professor of Southern Studies and anthropology.

“We have graduate students and faculty representing the law school; (departments of) Sociology, Southern Studies, History, Leadership and Counselor Education, English, Social Work, and Modern Languages; the Center for Community Engagement; and the School of Journalism and New Media. We were really excited to receive some proposals from very impressive folks from units that didn’t present last year.”

Southern Studies is particularly well represented in the forum (see below for full schedule).

The forum is organized by the Study of Race and Racism Exploration Group, a working group of faculty seeking to found a Center for the Study of Race and Racism on campus. Co-sponsors include the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Graduate School, Department of History, Center for the Study of Southern Culture, College of Liberal Arts, Department of Sociology and Anthropology, and Department of Social Work.

This is the second year the group has co-sponsored the forum.

“Last year we had faculty and graduate students present from Southern studies, sociology, anthropology, history, psychology and English,” Delerme said. “We had presentations about youth in Tanzania, international students in Oxford and representations of Confederate heritage in Brazil, to give you some examples.

“The audience was composed of folks who do research about race and ethnicity, as well as individuals that just wanted to learn more.”

Written by Edwin Smith, University Communications

Here is the full schedule, which includes many Southern Studies students and faculty (bolded) on each panel:

PANEL 1 (9 a.m.-9:50 a.m.) Moderator: Marcos Mendoza, Associate Professor of Anthropology

1. Yvette Butler, Assistant Professor of Law: Survival Labor
2. Maarten Zwiers, Southern Studies Visiting Scholar: Multispecies Justice in the Plantationocene: The Cold War Mississippi Delta as a Case Study
3. Mark Dozier, Sociology MA Student: Can Jackson Schools Be Revitalized by the Panthers and KCR?
4. Julia Kraus, Southern Studies MA Student: Up Here on the Mountain
5. Travis Patterson, History PhD Candidate: “Claude Neal and the Fight for Antilynching Legislation, 1934-1950”

PANEL 2 (10 a.m. – 10:50 a.m.) Moderator: Catarina Passidomo, Southern Foodways Alliance Associate Professor of Southern Studies & Anthropology

1. Amy Fisher, Associate Professor of Social Work: Exploring the relationship between interpersonal empathy, social empathy, and racial attitudes
2. Fredderick Nettles, Southern Studies MA Student: ‘Gentle’ Ben Williams: The Husband. The Grandfather. The Player
3. Madeline Burdine, Sociology MA Student: Racial Ideologies Through the Lens of White Southern Religion
4. Jai Williams, Southern Studies MA Student: This Land is My Land: The Erasure of Black Land Ownership in the South
5. Latrice Johnson, English MA Student: “My name is Latrice.”: Negotiating Racial Politics and Navigating Discrimination through Black Names and Naming

PANEL 3 (11 a.m. – 11:50 a.m.) Moderator: Simone Delerme, McMullan Associate Professor of Southern Studies & Anthropology

1. Marcus E. Cheeks, PhD Candidate in Leadership and Counselor Education: The Mississippi School Funding Formula: A Study of Adequacy
2. Koji Motomura, Visiting Scholar in Southern Studies: “I ain’t never participated in a protest”: Welty’s “A Worn Path” and Meredith’s One-person Walk
3. Michelle Hanlon, Co-Director for Air and Space Law: Whitey on the Moon
4. Ibrahim Williams, PhD Candidate in English: The illusion of a “real white American”: Race under the microscope
5. Briana Taylor, History MA Student: The American Civil War Viewed Through a Different Lens: Print Culture and the American Perception of the Mexican Reform War

LUNCH (noon – 12:30 p.m.) with film screening and Q&A with Melanie Ho, The Southern Documentary Project

PANEL 4 (12:30 pm – 1:10 p.m.) Moderator: Marcos Mendoza, Associate Professor of Anthropology

1. Madeline Burdine, Erin Oakes, Rhondalyn Peairs (Southern Studies MA student), Angela Rankin, and James M. Thomas: How Place Shapes Whites’ Racial Learning
2. Tess Lefmann, Assistant Professor of Social Work: Contraceptive Coercion and Healthcare Provider Bias in the Appalachian Region
3. Scott Blusiewicz, PhD Candidate in History: Crafting a Legacy: Politics and Memory in Ralph David Abernathy’s Autobiography
4. Maximilian Conrad, Anthropology and Southern Studies MA Student: Touristic Imaginaries and Public Space in a Confederate Brazilian Museum

PANEL 5 (1:20 p.m. – 2 p.m.) Moderator: Simone Delerme, McMullan Associate Professor of Southern Studies & Anthropology

1. Tamara Karakozova, Instructor of Russian: Ukrainian Way: Documenting Life in Ukrainian communities of New York City
2. Onur Kaya, Department of Modern Languages Fulbright Scholar: Analysis of Teaching Turkish Ethnicity and Language within the Curriculum of the University of Mississippi
3. Jalon Young, Southern Studies MA Student, Alta Mae’s Place
4. Lilly Slaughter, Southern Studies MA Student, Rootbound Farm

PANEL 6 (2:10 p.m. – 2:50 p.m.) Moderator: Catarina Passidomo, Southern Foodways Alliance Associate Professor of Southern Studies & Anthropology

1. Castel Sweet, Division of Diversity and Community Engagement: Engaging in Community to Explore Race in a Local Context
2. Annette Kluck, Dean of the Graduate School: Experience the Place: The Role of Visiting Historical Sites in Graduate School
3. Michael Fagan, Assistant Professor of Journalism: Documenting Race in Mississippi
4. EJ Edney, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion: Holding the Record: From Resistance to Remembrance