Director's Column

This end of the academic year is a time to look back over the past year, and for those of us at the Center it is also a time to celebrate achievements.

   Since becoming Center director, I have come to rely increasingly on Ted Ownby, so I am especially pleased about his promotion to full professor. Ted quietly works at his own research, directs innumerable graduate theses and dissertations, advises Southern Studies undergraduates, and edits Mississippi Folklife–all in addition to teaching classes in history and Southern Studies. He is always a source of good advice and good humor, and we join in celebrating his promotion.

   We want to congratulate Katie McKee, McMullan Professor of Southern Studies and Assistant Professor of English, for earning the Corrie Lee Graham Award, given by the College of Liberal Arts for outstanding teaching of freshmen. Katie has anchored the Introduction to Southern Studies classes the last few years, and her award was in recognition of her work with that class.   Having team-taught with her, I can personally attest to the clarity, wit, and enthusiasm she brings to the students--as well as to the rest of us who have the privilege of working with her.

   Several of our students will begin Ph.D. programs this fall, and we congratulate them as well.  Sarah Petrides will be attending Brown University, Kerry Taylor will be entering the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Bert Way and Donna Buzzard will work toward their doctorates at the University of Georgia. Amy Wood and Molly McGehee continue their doctoral studies at Emory University, as do Bland Whitley and Jay Langley at the University of Florida and Darren McDaniel at Vanderbilt University. Speaking of Bland, he and Sarah Torian were married on May 5 in Collinsville, Virginia, another Southern Studies wedding for the books.

   Other Southern Studies graduates are now teaching. Marilyn Thomas Houston, one of the earliest graduates of our Southern Studies M.A. program, is now an assistant professor of Anthropology and African American Studies at the University of Florida. Beth Boyd has completed her first year of teaching at Vanderbilt University, and Tamara King taught last year at the University of Findlay, Ohio.  

   One of our alumni, Steve Cheseborough, has a new book, Blues Traveling: The Holy Sites of Delta Blues, and we recommend it to you. For details, see Joe Urgo’s review of Blues Traveling on page 15 of the newsletter.

   On graduation day, May 12,  one undergraduate--Steven Michael Logan--marched in ceremonies. Seven graduate students--Donna Buzzard, Megan Davis, Buddy Harris, Josh Haynes, Susan Lloyd McClamroch, Robin Morris, and Sarah Petrides--will have earned their degrees by the end of the summer. We have enjoyed having them as part of the academic program and cheer their accomplishments.

   Finally, we want to acknowledge and celebrate the naming of the Barnard Observatory photography gallery as the Lynn and Stewart Gammill Gallery, which the Center dedicated on April 27, as part of the University’s Celebration Weekend. This tribute expresses our gratitude for the Gammills’ abiding encouragement and support of Center work. They were among the earliest friends of the Center, and Lynn’s advice led to establishment of our Center Advisory Committee. We had a splendid day for the ceremony, with Governor William Winter as speaker, and showed student work in the gallery, with many family members of the Gammills and of our students in attendance.

We give thanks for all the achievements of friends of the Center, whether faculty, students, supporters, or others, who help make us a dynamic institution.