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Center 30th Anniversary Alumni Weekend a Success!

My impression was that the 30th anniversary celebration helped show what the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture do well. We are grateful to the Department of Journalism and the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics for hosting Ms. Tucker’s talk and for the delightful reception following.
 
Above all, the Center attracts extraordinary people—students, faculty, staff, supporters, and guests. The two guest speakers for the event, Cynthia Tucker of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Julia Reed of Vogue and other publications, described the South of the recent past and present and made some predictions about the future. Tucker emphasized progress in race relations, critiqued empty symbols that do nothing to bring people together, and warned the South against repeating its past tendencies toward hate and suspicion in dealing with the region’s new immigrants. Reed also discussed progress mixed with irony and emphasized the potential for creativity she sees especially in rebuilding efforts in New Orleans.

A toast to Charles Reagan Wilson on Friday highlighted his eight years of work as the Center’s director. Sometimes called Dr. Death, or the Diderot of Dixie, or less often the Taxonomist of Tacky and now the Kelly Gene Cook Chair in History, Charles deserves all the compliments he received over the weekend. Thanks as well to John T. Edge, Melissa Hall, Amy Evans, and Mary Beth Lasseter for the delicious Texas sausage, Tennessee whiskey, and deviled egg reception.

Much of the anniversary event consisted of panels of people discussing their experiences with the Center and its academic program. Charles Wilson, former faculty members Bob Brinkmeyer and Katie Henninger, graduate student alumna Sudye Cauthen, and undergraduate alumni Amanda Wallis and Mark Harrod discussed Southern Studies in the classroom. A panel of faculty members David Wharton and Adam Gussow, Mark Camarigg of Living Blues, alum and filmmaker Joe York, alum Mary Beth Lasseter of the Southern Foodways Alliance, and current graduate student Mary Warner of Thacker Mountain Radio discussed ways they take Southern Studies outside the classroom. Faculty member Nancy Bercaw moderated a panel in which alumni Ellie Campbell, Amy Evans, Molly McGehee, Katie Blount, and Katherine Huntoon discussed life after graduation. Later, Ted Smith of the University Foundation discussed the issue of financial support for the Center with Elaine Scott, Center Advisory Committee chair Michelle Hyver Oakes, and former chair Sarah Dabney Gillespie. Elaine Scott recalled her 30 years of attending Center events and paid tribute to Ann Abadie’s role in those events. In a final panel, colleagues John T. Edge, Odie Lindsey, and Jimmy Thomas (all Southern Studies alumni) discussed plans for the Southern Foodways Alliance, the Mississippi Encyclopedia, and The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, and faculty member Kathryn McKee gave impressive concluding remarks about what she described as the New Southern Studies.

For a member of the faculty, the most gratifying thing was when students, former students, and faculty members spoke in impressive ways about how the program transformed their lives. Several enjoyed describing their years in Southern Studies as “transformative,” so much so that some then started referring to Southern Studies program as a Transformer, the name of a popular and somewhat scary children’s toy and movie. 

Compared to most academic enterprises, Southern Studies has a good habit of at least occasionally encouraging people to enjoy themselves. There was food, scrumptious coffee and muffins graciously donated by alumna Cynthia Gerlach of the Bottletee Bakery in Oxford and a catfish dinner from Taylor Grocery, followed by cake from Bofields. On Saturday night undergraduates and graduate students ran what was billed as the Southern Studies prom. Drawing its concept from the first such event 17 years earlier, the event included, believe it or not, dancing in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory, with undergraduate alumni Dent May and David Swider as disc jockeys. For a few of us, a golf event on Sunday brought the weekend to a close.
 
Ted Ownby