Notes on Contributors

Kate Cochran is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the English Department at the University of Mississippi. Her scholarly interests include 20th-century American literature, Southern literature, and myth & allegory.  She has essays forthcoming in the New Hibernia Review and the Southern Literary Journal. 

Michael P. Dean is associate dean of the College of Liberal Arts and associate professor of English at the University of Mississippi. He specializes in 20th-century British and American literature, and he has published articles about T. S. Eliot, Robert Hayden, Ellen Douglas, and Larry Brown, among others.

John T. Edge, director of the Southern Foodways Alliance, writes about Southern food and travel. He is the author of A Gracious Plenty: Recipes and Recollections from the American South and Southern Belly. His articles have appeared in Wood & Wine, Gourmet, and other publications.

Joan Wylie Hall teaches in the English Department at the University of Mississippi. She is the author of Shirley Jackson: A Study of the Short Fiction and articles on Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Grace King, Frances Newman, and other authors.

Andrew C. Harper joined the Center’s staff as coordinator of the planning grant for the Deep South Humanities Center. He earned a Ph.D. in history from Northern Arizona University.

Deidra Jackson is a communications specialist for the Office of Communications at the University of Mississippi. Formerly a newspaper reporter and editor in North Carolina, she received her M.A. in journalism from the University in 1995.

Donald W. Kartiganer holds the William Howry Chair in Faulkner Studies at the University of Mississippi and is director of the Faulkner Conference. He is the author of The Fragile Thread: The Meaning of Form in Faulkner’s Novels. 

Colby H. Kullman teaches in the English Department at the University of Mississippi. He is the author and editor of numerous works on American drama. 

Elaine H. Scott is former chair of the Arkansas State Board of Education, a member of the Education Commission of the States 1987-1997, and a leader in several organizations concerned with education, teaching training, libraries, and literacy. She is an advisor to the Center and chairs a session at the annual Oxford Conference for the Book.  

Lesley Urgo is working for the Center as a development consultant. Before moving to Oxford in the summer of 2000, she directed the Providence Neighborhood Planting Program in Providence, Rhode Island. She has also served as a state coordinator for the Conservation Law Foundation, New England’s premiere environmental advocacy organization. She holds a master’s in American Civilization from Brown University.