The Southern Studies Program
Southern Studies is the interdisciplinary study of the American South. It brings together authorities from the humanities, social sciences, and sciences to explore the importance of region as a context of human experience. Through a variety of disciplines, including anthropology, art, history, literature, music, politics, religion, and sociology, Southern Studies seeks to investigate the challenges and contributions of our region, in order to situate the South in the fabric of American life. The Southern Studies Program at the Center for the Study of Southern Culture offers an undergraduate major and minor as well as a graduate program where students work in a two-year program that leads to a Master of Arts degree. As we face the challenges of globalization, Southern Studies is an important tool in understanding how particular places and spaces will provide ever-changing contexts for our future life.
Students are attracted by the Center's pioneering curriculum, composed of more than 60 courses taught by faculty from 10 departments in the College of Liberal Arts. A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities in 1979 helped launch the curriculum, which combines innovative interdisciplinary instruction with traditional approaches to the study of the South. A Ford Foundation grant funded a three-year (1986-1989) project to strengthen Southern Studies at the University and at nearby Historically Black Colleges and Universities and historically women's colleges by bringing distinguished visiting faculty and faculty fellows to campus.
Southern Studies students learn skills of reading and interpretation, analytical writing, research, and oral presentation. They work with a small core of fellow students and faculty devoted to personal oversight of their work. Both the undergraduate and graduate programs make use of lectures, class discussions, examinations, research projects, and field trips. Courses take advantage of the South's creative work in literature, music, art, and film in exploring the interdisciplinary meanings of the region.Ê
Southern Studies alumni have gone on to work for institutions such as the Mississippi Department of Archives and History; Teach for American; CNN; Southern Living magazine; the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Southern Poverty Law Center; the National Black Arts Festival in Atlanta; the Valentine Museum in Richmond; Jazz Fest in New Orleans; the Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University; the Illinois Humanities Council; and the National Endowment for the Arts. Others have entered law school, business school, and graduate programs in the humanities at such institutions as the University of Texas, Emory University, the University of Georgia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the College of William and Mary, and Brown University.
The Southern Studies Program is an interdisciplinary curriculum offered through the College of Liberal Arts and administered by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. The curriculum incorporates numerous regional studies courses offered at the University for many years and includes core courses developed through a three-year grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Undergraduate students may major, minor, or take elective courses in the program. Introductory courses in the program are team taught, enabling students to see how the South's history, literature, music, art, politics, religion, and other themes are interrelated.Ê
One of the many advantages of our program is its affiliation with the Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Both the Center and the Southern Studies Program are housed in Barnard Observatory, an antebellum building listed in the National Register of Historic Places. Students have the opportunity of taking part in many of the Center's activities. A weekly Brown Bag lecture series features a variety of speakers, and students sometimes present their own research there. Literary, historical, and musical conferences are regular parts of the yearly calendar, with students able to meet visiting scholars, writers, musicians, and others who are among the most famous and distinguished of the South's cultural leaders. Students wanting to work with publications can do so with Living Blues magazine or as an intern with the Center's newsletter, Southern Register.
The Documentary Studies Program in Southern Studies enables students to learn skills of photography and oral history, as well as creating opportunities for those interested in film making. Student photography is regularly featured in the Center's Gammill Gallery. Through Documentary Studies, students can get out of the classroom and into communities to learn unique perspectives on the South.Ê
Southern Studies students also have the opportunity to take part in related activities at the University of Mississippi. We work on projects with the African American Studies Program and the Sarah Isom Center for Women's Studies. The William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation began at the Center, and its director, Susan Glisson, is a Southern Studies alumna. The Winter Institute welcomes Southern Studies students as interns in its grassroots, community work.Ê
Another benefit of our program is its location in the town of Oxford, situated in north Mississippi, about 80 miles from Memphis. Oxford is adjacent to the Mississippi Delta that produced the blues and to the northeast Mississippi hills region, a distinctive Appalachian foothills cultural landscape. Oxford possesses all the qualities of a small Southern town, but with the cosmopolitan flavor of a college town. USA Today recognized Oxford as one of the top six college towns in the United States, calling it the "New South Arts Mecca." It contains numerous cafes, bars, and restaurants, many of which exhibit work by local artists and feature music by country, blues, and rock 'n' roll bands. The University Museum, as well as several art galleries in town, have rich collections of Southern folk art.Ê
Oxford is rich in literary interest. As well as being the home of Nobel laureate William Faulkner, and the actual representation of his fictional town of Jefferson, it has been home to such current Southern writers as Barry Hannah, John Grisham, Tom Franklin, and the late Larry Brown. Located on the picturesque town square is Square Books, a comfortable, well-stocked bookstore that wins high praise across the country. The bookstore has expansive sections on Southern history and Southern writers and carries everything in print by or about Faulkner, as well as rare and signed copies of his books. Frequent book signings are a regular feature at Square Books. The University also houses the Faulkner archives, containing manuscripts, signed editions, and other Faulkner memorabilia. A new Faulkner wing of the University Museum will be devoted to presenting Faulkner's legacy, before viewers go to Faulkner's home, Rowan Oak. The Center for the Study of Southern Culture and Square Books collaborate on the annual Oxford Conference for the Book and worked together to develop Thacker Mountain Radio, a live radio show that each week features Southern writers and musicians.