Get to Know Feagin Hardy
Why did you choose to attend UM?
When I was coming out of high school, there were no undergraduate programs in either of my majors in my home-state of South Carolina, and I knew that UM would make it the most affordable to go out-of-state. I visited Oxford twice over the course of my application process and fell absolutely in love with both the campus and the surrounding community!!
When and how did you choose your major(s)/minor(s)?
I am amongst a very small number (I think) of college students who haven't gone through an all-out change in major: I started as a Linguistics major as a freshman (with plans to minor in both English and Southern Studies) and moved Southern Studies up to a major in the fall of my sophomore year after taking a handful of just absolutely incredible classes.
What would you tell a high school student about your major?
Especially for students from the South, I think it's really important to come into your Southern Studies classes with an openness and willingness to be challenged—whether you're being taught something you've never heard about before or it's just a particular perspective or aspect of a thing that you're unfamiliar with, there is always something new (and sometimes hard!) to learn when looking closely at the South and its history.
Why is your department a special place?
The interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies combines with the relative smallness of the department to make it both pretty far-flung and super close-knit in a way that is such a fun and special thing to be a part of as a student!
Can you tell me about a professor or a class you’ve taken that has had the most impact on you?
Taking SST109: Rights and Southern Activism with Dr. Eubanks absolutely rocked my world in the fall of my junior year. It was by far the best and also one of the hardest classes (not necessarily academically) I've ever taken at UM, and learning about the generations of WORK that have gone into making the South what it is today (for good and for ill), along with discussing the nature of power and knowledge (and the relationship between the two), from someone as knowledgeable as Dr. Eubanks was just so, so cool.
What do you hope to do after you graduate?
I am planning on going to seminary and pursuing ordained Ministry of Word and Sacrament in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
What is one thing you wish you knew as an incoming freshman that you’d tell your past self?
I think the most important thing to remember (especially if you're a high-achieving student in high school) is that you are NOT in competition with your classmates. Your peers are not your competition; they can be your greatest allies and sources of inspiration if you're all willing to be in community with each other.
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