Bebe Falkner

Why did you choose to attend UM?

I am a firm believer in having an identity closely tied to where you call home. You are, of course, a reflection of the people around you. When deciding where the end of my adolescence and the beginning of adulthood would take place, I knew I needed a community to help foster me into a strong individual. After spending time in Oxford, I quickly felt that the University of Mississippi housed the various communities that would play a role in my story. Unlike the other schools that I toured and attended summer programs at, it was clear from the beginning that UM and Oxford were united. The more time I spend here in Mississippi, the previous sentiment rings truer. Weekly, I attend events on campus that have guest speakers, drawing in individuals from outside the University. Just as when I attend events in town, I see my professors and peers. I have found a home for myself in Oxford, but to be honest, it’s not hard to find a place when you are surrounded by community. For me, community looks like knowing the name of my bus driver and helping out with the Field Station honeybee hives. It also looks like chatting with the farmers at the farmers market and the two brothers who run the local Thai restaurant. Community seeps into the corners of your soul when you fully embrace other people. 

What would you tell a high school student about your major? What is most important for them to know if they are interested in pursuing that field of study?

I love talking to people. It genuinely fuels my every action. At the grocery store, I speak to the lady behind me in line. At the coffee shop, I lean over to converse with the table beside mine. At the bus stop, I inquire about the jacket someone is wearing. Each of these interactions I carry with me, and in my moments alone, I reflect on them. This is what Southern Studies and Interdisciplinary Studies are: People and Ideas. 
A lot of people question what someone does with a degree in Southern Studies, which is a valid question with a pretty easy answer. You question and you listen. My habit of talking to strangers has formed the story of the South that I can capture for future generations. Unlike other regions of the country, the South has a history that has primarily been told orally. Southerners relayed stories to one another through their vocations – the margins of cookbooks, the treads of quilts, the cords of blues. I love the South. I love its people. I love having conversations about what that exactly means and who that all encapsulates. Dedicating myself as a scholar of the South, I am just paying tribute to the place I call home. 
Alongside Southern Studies, I am also an Interdisciplinary major. The flexibility that I am awarded via IDS allows me to explore the corners of various campus departments and programs. My three primary focuses with IDS are public health, environmental science, and 3-3 law. With every lecture and class I attend, the worlds of my study become more interconnected. For students who like to engage with the environment they are in, IDS and Southern Studies are both ideal places to learn.

Why is your department a special place?

I spend a lot of time in Barnard, which is home to the Center for Southern Studies. Never once do I go in without being greeted with a smile and conversing with a familiar face. Within a few months of my being on campus, the faculty in the Center called me by name and pushed my academics beyond the conventional classroom. Most Wednesdays, you’ll find a guest speaker telling their story to a room full of undergraduates and Oxford community members. Authors find their way to our familiar halls and share stories they have not captured on paper yet. Art is hung by nails as old as the University, and a lingering student is nearly always eager to learn. The Center cares about Oxford, Mississippi, and the greater South – which includes all of the individuals that walk through their doors. 

What class or professor has had the most impact on you?

If you had told me that Dr. Sivels, or Professor X, would become a friend within a few months of taking his class. I wouldn't believe you. If you enter the University under the Center of Southern Studies, you will likely be taking Professor X’s course and you’ll likely understand my reservations about our friendship. He questioned everything I understood before entering college. A lot of the beliefs I held close to my heart as truths were put to the test. Never did I feel belittled or dumb in his class, but rather I felt that there was world far beyond that in which I had lived. It’s not uncommon for me to pop in unannounced now to Dr. Sivels office. We chat about recent news and share documentaries, studies, and literature that we are enjoying respectively. Professor X questioned me to the point of forcing me to understand myself.  

What do you hope to do after graduation? What are your career goals/plans?

Following graduation, I intend to attend UM Law and work in environmental and agricultural law. I am the daughter, granddaughter, niece, and grandniece of Southern farmers. Using my studies of the South and in public health, environmental science, and law, I deeply desire to lift the voices of those in Southern agriculture through various forms of media and the legal system. Food is the center of the community, which is a cornerstone of the South. We should listen to farmers, support them, and stand by their side. Outside of practicing law, I want to work in the culinary media sector – cookbooks, tv, magazines. Farm-to-table wasn’t a novice culinary term for me growing up, instead, it was normal to eat from the family garden and the community market. Through my work, I hope to show a life that is centered around a love for the land and the people on it – a love I have for the American South. 

What is one thing you wish you knew as an incoming freshman that you'd tell your past self (about the general college experience)?

Caring is cool. Genuinely. Listen to your professors and follow up after class. Show up to events for your department and others. Compliment the person beside you on the bus and ask for their name. I quickly found a place for myself in the Oxford community – working at OXCO Farmers Markets on Tuesdays, going bird watching with the Biology department (I am neither a science nor STEM major), and meeting artists and musicians through showing up to their events. It is so important to meet people beyond the screen of social media, particularly those that you wouldn’t run into naturally. Learn to read the bulletin boards on campus and introduce yourself to someone new each day. A cold email can sometimes turn into the warmest friendship. It will change your life and shape your years following UM. Oftentimes, students of all levels are concerned with being rejected. A professor shooting their questions down or someone saying the seat beside them is taken. But sometimes that scariest thing that can be said is yes instead of no, because it means that you have a green light to new experiences, which is both terrifying and wonderful… Welcome to the college experience, where the coolest thing you can do is care.