Invest in the Center

2007 Graduates

Tomorrow's Center for the Study of Southern Culture is being created by today's major gifts. The Center for the Study of Southern Culture has several areas of need for gifts at the $10,000 level and above.

Faculty Development
In the fall of 1997 the Center hired two new professors, joint appointments in literature and cultural anthropology, made possible by an endowment from James M. and Madeleine M. McMullan of Chicago. As NEH consultant Richard H. Brown has stated, "Faculty appointments are, in my judgment, absolutely critical if the Center is to be able to command significant research grants, contribute in any substantial way to the development of new teaching options (especially at the graduate level), or attract top-flight students to the University."

 

The pillars of the Southern Studies program are the disciplines of anthropology, art, documentary studies, folklife, history, literature, and music. The vitality of the Southern Studies program, or any academic program, depends largely upon the caliber of the faculty members who bring their intellectual passion to the classroom and inspire their students to engage in their own scholarly inquiry. These faculty members need solid support for their own research.

The Center seeks funds to expand its faculty, and to provide research and professional development support to all professors who teach Southern Studies courses.

Scholarships

To maintain the strong record of success, the Center must increase the availability of graduate student stipends. Since the establishment of its M.A. program in Southern Studies in the Fall of 1986, the Center has attracted a growing number of outstanding graduate students representing a wide range of regions and cultures in the United States and abroad. Southern Studies students have greatly enhanced the University's graduate program and its reputation, as students complete their M.A. degrees and pursue doctoral or professional degrees at major institutions throughout the country or accept employment as teachers, researchers, or administrators in a variety of cultural institutions.

Unfortunately, despite the significance of the Southern Studies graduate program, state support is not sufficient for its operation. To provide assistantships for more than a handful of its students supported by state appropriations, the Center has relied on funds provided by various projects and partnerships and through donations from Friends of the Center.

Funds are needed to provide fellowships and assistantships to Southern Studies graduate students, and to provide scholarships to Southern Studies undergraduate majors.

Conferences and Symposia

One of the Center's most important functions over the years has been its work as cultural host to scholars, musicians, artists, writers, government officials and many others who travel to Oxford to attend the variety of public programs offered by the Center. These events draw experts on the South along with many members of the general community. They come from across the country and around the world, traveling from Russia, Germany, France, Romania, Spain, Venezuela, Indonesia, China, Haiti, and Mozambique. Center conferences enrich the University of Mississippi community.

Reaching out to a broad audience is important to the Center's mission. Fostering greater appreciation and understanding of the American South and regional culture means opening the doors of the classroom to include all who which to participate. The Center's public programs help maximize the impact of scholarly endeavors to ensure the continued significance of the University's role in society.

In the summer of 2003, the Oxford Conference for the Book and the Southern Foodways Symposium benefited from a ten-year gift of $150,000 made by Ron and Becky Feder of Ocean Springs, Mississippi. The Feders' gift ensured that the Conference for the Book would remain free and open to the public, and provided seed money to the newly established Southern Foodways Alliance Endowment.

For more information on major gifts and endowments, please contact Ted Smith at (662) 915-5946 or tjsmith@olemiss.edu.

To make a gift online, visit the University of Mississippi Foundation's secure online gift form.