Academic Programs and Offerings in Southern Studies
Explore the South through diverse coursework, hands-on documentary fieldwork, and collaborative research with faculty across multiple disciplines.
Studying the South
Throughout its history, the Center’s academic program has been the foundation of its work. Undergraduate students may pursue a major or minor in Southern Studies and Graduate students may earn a Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Expression and the Master of Arts program in Southern Studies—the only M.A. program of its kind in the world. Students take a combination of Southern Studies courses and those in other fields aligned with their scholarly interests, receiving a truly interdisciplinary degree.
The curriculum
Any semester Southern Studies courses might include classes on global South literature, Freedom Summer, the South in film, southern environmental history, southern religious history, memory and the civil rights movement, the civil war, southern travel writing, heritage tourism, Native American identity and citizenship in the South, the blues, the politics of civil liberties and civil rights, and many other topics. Students have the opportunity to engage in documentary fieldwork, producing films, photography, and oral histories.
Southern Studies faculty typically have a joint appointment in Southern Studies and another field, such as English, History, Sociology, or Anthropology.
Since the 1980s over 300 students have completed Southern Studies degrees, and many more University of Mississippi students have taken Southern Studies classes.
Academic Programs
Undergraduate Studies
Southern Studies majors seek to understand the American South in all of its complexity by investigating challenging topics such as the historical meaning of being a Southerner, what it means to be a Southerner in the 21st century, the relationship of the South to America’s national identity, and the role of the South in an increasingly global world. The Center offers a Bachelor of Arts and minor in Southern Studies.
Graduate Studies
The Southern Studies Master of Arts program attracts students with a range of scholarly interests and has three possible tracks: thesis, documentary, and internship. The Center also offers a Master of Fine Arts degree in Documentary Expression—a program that combines coursework in Southern Studies and interdisciplinary fields with advanced training in photography, film, and audio production.
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Accelerated Master’s Degree in Southern Studies
Undergraduate students at UM that are interested in graduate study in Southern Studies can get a head start through the Accelerated Master’s Degree Program. This program requires that students apply in the fall or spring of their junior year (once they've completed 90 credit hours). Admitted students then take graduate-level courses in their senior year, working toward both undergraduate and graduate degrees in an expedited, five-year program.
Accelerated Master's Program -
Accelerated Law Program (3+3)
In a partnership with the UM School of Law, students admitted to the Accelerated Law Program may earn baccalaureate and law degrees in 6 years instead of 7 by using first year law school courses to complete their undergraduate degree. They start law school during their senior year.
Accelerated Law (3+3)
Beyond the Classroom
SouthTalks
SouthTalks, a series of weekly events (including lectures, performances, film screenings, and panel discussions), explore the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies. This series is free and open to the public.
Documentary Showcase
At these end-of-semester events, students, faculty, and staff gather to celebrate the accomplishments of students in the Center for the Study of Southern Culture’s documentary program. Audio, photography, and film projects are brought together to reflect what's being explored in class—and to connect with each other through documentary storytelling.
#BeInBarnard
Southern Studies is all about community. Faculty, staff, undergraduates, and graduate students get together frequently for Center sponsored social events.
Music of the South
From blues to punk, the Center frequently showcases live music in and around Barnard.
Student Award Recipients
| 2023 | Olivia Whittington |
| 2022 | Annemarie Anderson, “This Garden: Oysters and Place Along Florida’s Forgotten Coast” MFA thesis directed by Professor John Rash |
| 2021 | Christian Leus, “What Remains: Telling the Story of Irene Taylor’s Murder” MA thesis directed by Dr. Andy Harper |
| 2020 | Zaire Love, “The Black Men I Know” MFA thesis, directed by Ava Lowery |
| 2019 | Susie Penman, “Juvenile Injustice: Youth, Crime, and Punishment in New Orleans,” MFA thesis film completed summer 2018 |
| 2018 | Rachel Childs, for her M.A. radio documentary, “A Body a Day: Constructing Deviance at the Mississippi State Asylum” |
| 2017 | Abby Huggins, “Before Me, After Me, Through Me: Stories of Food and Community in Eastern Kentucky” |
| 2016 | Lauren Veline, “The Rebirth of Water Valley.” |
| 2015 | Lauren Holt’s exhibit in the Gammill Gallery, “At the Habana Hilton, 1958,” Photographs from the Keating Collection” |
| 2014 | Anna Hamilton, “Bottling Hell: Myth-Making, Cultural Identity and the Datil Pepper of St. Augustine, Florida” |
The Peter Aschoff Prize honors the best papers on music of the American South, especially the blues, by an undergraduate or graduate student at the University of Mississippi. Faculty nominate papers and a committee of faculty members makes the award, which includes an honorarium.
| 2023 | Sandip Rai |
| 2022 | David Larson, “Blues Is My Business (And Business Is Good?)” MA thesis, directed by Dr. Adam Gussow |
| 2021 | David Larson, “The Role of Audience in Blues Performing and Recording” final paper for Independent Study with Dr. Adam Gussow |
| 2020 | William Nieman, “Country Fun: A Cultural History of Opryland, USA, Nashville, and the Suburban South” Honors thesis, directed by Dr. Ted Ownby |
| 2019 | Mary Stanton Knight, documentary film, “Singing Out,” fall 2019 |
| 2018 | Katherine Howell, “The False Purification of a Hybrid Tradition: A Rhetorical Examination of the Racialized Connotations of Cultural Separation in Blues Authenticity Discourses” |
| 2017 | Will Palmer, “‘Sound’ – A Keyword for Southern Studies” |
| 2016 | Mary High, “Sterling Plumpp’s ‘Mississippi Griot’ and Blues Counter Memory.” |
| 2015 | Yaeko Takada, “Ragtime Piano: Beautiful yet Sinful Music in the 1890s and early 1900s” |
| 2014 | Caroline Randall Williams, “If Jocasta Sang the Blues: Motherlovers, Manbabies, and Blues-ed Family Values” |
The Coterie Awards honor the best undergraduate papers in Southern Studies classes. Faculty teaching Southern Studies classes nominate papers for the awards, and a faculty committee selects the winners. The awards include an honorarium.
| 2023 | Will Zook |
| 2022 | Reese Anderson, “Reflections on Heritage Tourism in Mississippi” Final project for SST 556, taught by Dr. Jodi Skipper |
| 2021 | Mattie Ford, “When Women’s Work Goes Beyond ‘Women’s Work’: The Rich History of Women’s Employment in Mississippi From the Twentieth Century Onwards” Final project for SST 402, taught by Dr. Catarina Passidomo |
| 2020 | Rachel Winstead, “Basements Below the Sanctuary: A Story of the Church School” Honors thesis, directed by Professor Ralph Eubanks |
| 2019 | Garland Patterson, “Alien Child: Seeking Solace in the Southern Gothic,” a paper completed in SST 402, spring 2019 |
| 2018 | Liam Nieman, “Image is one Thing: Elvis as an Image of Mississippi” |
| 2017 | Michael George Holman, Jr. “All Things Loved and Unlovable’: Discovering Southern Identity in Black Migration Novels” |
| 2016 | Anna McCollum, “What is Today’s South?” |
| 2015 | Frank Kossen, “This Train: Railroads and the Blues” |
| 2014 | Abby Abide, “Big T-Shirts and Running Shorts: A Female Uniform and Southern Womanhood on the Ole Miss Campus” |
The Lucille and Motee Daniels Award honors the best papers by Southern Studies graduate students. Faculty nominate and submit papers to the program chair, who appoints a faculty committee to evaluate the papers. The award includes an honorarium.
| 2023 | Free Feral |
| 2022 | Greta Koshenina, “Baggage: A Story of Mothers, Daughters, and Sisters” Final project for SST 540, taught by Dr. David Wharton |
| 2021 | Matthew Streets, “Transgressing Tradition: The UNC-CH Food Workers’ Strikes of 1969” Final paper for SST 555, “Foodways and Southern Culture,” taught by Dr. Catarina Passidomo |
| 2020 | Christian Leus, “Reporting and Creating Violence: Press Coverage of a 1930s Murder” written for SST 602 with Dr. Ted Ownby |
| 2019 | Olivia Terenzio, “The South and Brazil,” Southern Studies 601, fall 2018 |
| 2018 | Frankie Barrett, “‘S-Town:’ Construction of Place in a Serial Narrative Podcast” |
| 2017 | Jacqui Sahagian, for two papers on contemporary blues production |
| 2016 | Josh Green, “Peace and the Unsealing of the Mississippi Sovereignty Commission Files” |
| 2015 | Irene Van Riper, “Towards Sustainable Community Development in the Mississippi Delta: A Review, Discussion, and Analysis of Two Public Events” |
| 2014 | Leslie Hassel,“Narrating Jackson State: Mississippi Media Coverage of the 1970s Shootings at Jackson State College” |
The Lucille and Motee Daniels Award honors the best thesis by a Southern Studies graduate student.
| 2023 | Matthew Streets |
| 2022 | Danielle Buckingham, “Good Love is Black: Stories on Black Queer Living in the American South” MA thesis directed by Dr. Brian Foster |
| 2021 | Keon Burns, “Black Grocers, Black Activism, and the Spaces in Between: Black Grocery Stores during the Mississippi Freedom Struggle Movement” MA thesis directed by Dr. Shennette Garrett-Scott |
| 2020 | Olivia Terenzio, “Feijoada and Hoppin’ John: Foodways, Collective Identity, and Belonging in Brazil and the American South” MA thesis, directed by Dr. Catarina Passidomo |
| 2019 | Hooper Schultz, “The Carolina Gay Association, The Southeastern Gay Conferences, and Gay Liberations in the 1970s South,” MA thesis completed spring 2019 |
| 2018 | Jacqui Sahagian, “That Same Old Blues Crap: Selling the Blues at Fat Possum Records” Holly Robinson, “Marketing the Myth: The Racial Commodification and Reclaiming of Aunt Jemima” |
| 2017 | Abby Huggins and Lauren Veline share the award for best MA thesis |
| 2016 | Sarah Holder, “Sookie’s Place(s): New Roadways into the South of the Southern Vampire Mysteries.” |
| 2015 | Kate Hudson, “‘Fixin’ To Tell’: Cultural Preservation, Multiculturalism, and a Delicate Double Commitment in Appalshop’s ‘Insider’ Activism.” |
| 2014 | Lauren Holt, “Love Him or Hate Him”: Tyler Perry Productions and the Stereotypical Representation of African Americans” |
The Gray Award honors the best undergraduate papers in Southern Studies classes. Faculty teaching Southern Studies classes nominate papers for the awards, and a faculty committee selects the winners. The awards include an honorarium.
| 2023 | Lillith Gray |
| 2022 | Walker Bray, “Preservation and Public History in Mound Bayou, Mississippi” Honors College thesis, directed by Dr. Ted Ownby |
| 2021 | Kathryn McCullouch, “Changing Times of Oxford, Mississippi, Spring 2021” Final project for SST 598, “Photographing Place in the American South,” taught by Dr. David Wharton |
| 2020 | Claire Bonvillain, “‘Working Men in a Wild Place’: An Environmental History of Houma, Louisiana” written for ENG 458 with Dr. Jay Watson |
| 2019 | Katherine Aberle, “To ‘Converse With the Most Excellent Men’: Classical Education, Cultural Capital, and the Formation of a Ruling Class in the Antebellum South, honors thesis completed summer 2018 |
| 2018 | Caitlin Kennedy, “Vengeance, Violence, and Vigilantism: An Exploration of the 1891 Lynching of Eleven Italian-Americans in New Orleans,” honors thesis in history |
| 2017 | Kathryn James, “African American Kitchen Workers in a University of Mississippi Greek House” |
| 2016 | Joel Hayes-Davis for “Local Southern Identity as Defined through Foodways” |
| 2015 | Emelda Lee Miller, “Makin’ Whoopee with the Devil, A Brief Contextual Analysis of Bessie Smith’s ‘Devil’s Gonna Get You,’ and Lonnie Johnson’s ‘She’s Makin’ Whoopee in Hell Tonight” |
| 2014 | Neal McMillin, “Developing the Marine Energy Sector in Scotland: A View from the Islands” |
| 2023 | Feagin Hardy and Abigail Stewart |
| 2023 | Jaden McClutchen |
| 2019 | Liam Nieman and Mattie Ford |
| 2023 | Greta Koshenina |
| 2022 | Mattie Ford, “Women Without Bodies: Embodiment, Autonomy, and Empowerment in Southern Women.” Honors College thesis, directed by Dr. Andy Harper |
| 2021 | Christina Huff, “Queer Subculture in the Conservative South: A Study of Drag Performers in Mississippi” MA thesis, directed by Dr. Andy Harper |
| 2020 | Hilary Word, “Post-Soul Speculation: An Exploration of Afro-Southern Speculative Fiction” SST MA thesis, co-directed by Professor Kiese Laymon and Dr. Kathryn McKee |
| 2019 | Je’Monda Roy, “Getting to the Root,” MFA thesis film completed spring 2019 |
| 2018 | Victoria De Leone, for her thesis film, “Small Batch” Hooper Schultz, “Family Matters: Amendment 1 and the Fight Over Marriage in North Carolina” |
| 2017 | Lauren Veline, “Object of Your Rejection: The Symbolic Annihilation and Recuperation of Queer Identities in Country Music” |
| 2016 | Alicia Pilar Bacon’s undergraduate honors thesis in History, “This Clinic Stays Open: A Comprehensive History of Reproductive Rights in Mississippi, 1966-2015” |
| 2023 | Greta Koshenina |
| 2022 | Casey Giles, “’Take Me To the River’ by Al Green’” Final paper for HST 498, taught by Dr. Darren Grem |
| 2021 | Tyler Keith, “North Mississippi Hill Country Blues: How the Last Genre of the Blues Came to Be, Through Family Tradition and Documentation, In a Place Called the ‘Hill Country’” MFA thesis, directed by Dr. Andy Harper |
| 2020 | Addie Paige Pratt, “In honor of Ida B. Wells and her legacy: ‘Colorblind’” (original musical composition and paper) written for SST 101H with Dr. Jodi Skipper |
| 2019 | Samuel Willcoxon, “Highway 61: Good Roads, Great Migrations, and Delta Blues” Honors thesis completed spring 2019 |
| 2018 | Keerthi Chandrashakar, “Seeing the Blues: Pride and Safety in Dress” |
| 2017 | Chris Colbeck, “Southern Sound and Space” |
| 2023 | Ellie Campbell |
| 2022 | Christina Huff, “The Hollidays in Mississippi” MFA thesis directed by Dr. Andy Harper |
| 2021 | Andrea Morales, “Roll Down Like Water: Photography, Social Movements, and Surveillance in Memphis, Tennessee” MFA thesis directed by Professor Ralph Eubanks |
| 2023 | Jai Williams |
Eudora Welty Awards for High School Students
Each spring the Center for the Study of Southern Culture gives the Eudora Welty Award for Creative Writing to two Mississippi high school students for short stories or poetry written during the previous year. First place carries an award of $500, and second place an award of $250. Each entry should be accompanied by the entry form and postmarked by May 16, 2025.
Students must be Mississippi residents and the entries should be completed by their high schools. Short stories should not exceed 3,000 words and poetry should not exceed 100 lines.
Submissions can be made either by using the online form, by email, or by mail.
Online
Use the form below to make your submission.
By Email
Download a submission form and email the completed form to Rebecca Lauck Cleary: rebeccac@go.olemiss.edu.
By Mail
Download a submission form, fill it out, and send it to:
EUDORA WELTY AWARDS FOR CREATIVE WRITING
Center for the Study of Southern CultureUniversity of Mississippi
P.O. Box 1848
University, MS 38677
2024
- 1st place: Eden Bodie from Oxford High School in Oxford
- 2nd Place: Tingrui Mary Xie from Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg
2023
- 1st place: Eliot Nix from Mississippi School of the Arts in Brookhaven in for the short story “Icing on Top.
- 2nd Place: Joshua Clark from the Mississippi School of the Arts in Brookhaven for the short story “Jeremiah."
- Honorable Mentions: Erin Erter for the poem “Overgrowth.”
2022
- 1st place: Trinity Scalia, Jackson Prep High School in Jackson, Short Story “Thomas"
- 2nd Place: Allie Sanford, New Hope High School in Columbus, Poem “Love is a Dog Named Senorita"
- Honorable Mentions: Summer Mason Lee of Oak Grove High School in Hattiesburg for the short story “Memorabilia”; Lesly Sauceda of Byhalia High School for the short story “My Fear Grows for You,” and Pigah Vasighi of St. Andrews Episcopal School in Jackson for the poem “Red, Yellow, Blue”
2021
- 1st place: Ryley Fallon, Mississippi School for Math and Science in Columbus, Short Story “Five Miles ’til Kentucky"
- 2nd Place: Abby Strain, Mississippi School for Math and Science in Columbus, Poem “Home(less)"
2020
No awards given in 2020 due to COVID-19.
2019
- 1st Place: Helen Peng, Mississippi School for Math and Science in Columbus
- 2nd Place: Chloe Russell, Mississippi School for the Arts in Brookhaven
2018
- 1st place: Aidan Dunkelberg, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
- 2nd place: Charlotte Thompson, Magee High School
- Honorable mention, fiction: Victoria Gong, Vicksburg
2017
- 1st place: Lilly Hunt, Northpoint Christian School, Southaven
- 2nd place: Emma McNeel, St. Andrews Episcopal School, Jackson
- Honorable mention, fiction: Caroline Wiygul
2016
- 1st place: Annalee Purdie, Jackson Academy, Madison
- 2nd place: Kallye Smith, Simpson Academy, Magee
2015
- 1st place: Corey Davis, Clinton Christian Academy, Clinton
- 2nd place: Carly Sneed, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
- Honorable mention, fiction: Callie Summerlin, St. Andrew’s School, Jackson
2014
- 1st place: Jessica Garner, St. Andrew’s School, Jackson
- 2nd place: Rachel Jones, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
2013
- 1st place: Lee Schmidt, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Jackson
- 2nd place: Samantha Gibson, Petal High School
- Honorable mention, fiction: Pace Ward, DeSoto Central High School, Southaven
- Honorable mention, poetry: Keyoshia Scott, South Delta High School, Rolling Fork
2012
- 1st place: Emma Liston, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Ridgeland
- 2nd place: Emma Thompson, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
2011
- 1st place: Kate Thompson, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
- 2nd place: Anna Adorno, Mississippi School for the Arts, Brookhaven
2010
- 1st place: Alexandra Franklin, Jackson Preparatory School, Jackson
- 2nd place: Zack Grossenbacher, Madison Central High School, Madison
2009
- 1st place: Tiffany Croft, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
- 2nd place: Elizabeth Seratt, Mississippi School for Math and Science
2008
- 1st place: Stella Nickerson, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
- 2nd place: Stacy Parker, Cathedral High School, Natchez
2007
- 1st place: Lauren Klaskala, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
- 2nd place: Jonathan Hughes, Madison Central High School, Madison
2006
- 1st place: Roxann Jackson, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Jackson
- 2nd place: Christi Positan, Clinton High School, Clinton
2005
- 1st place: Julie Armstrong, St. Andrew’s Episcopal School, Jackson
- 2nd place: Andrew Thomas, Jackson Preparatory School, Jackson
2004
- 1st place: Nyssa Perryman, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
- 2nd place: Joseph Noel, Lee Academy, Clarksdale
2003
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2002
- 1st place: Kilby Allen, Mississippi School for Math and Science, Columbus
- 2nd place: Leann Peterson, Jackson Preparatory School, Jackson
2001
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2000
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1999
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1998
- 1st place: Matt Hedges, Corinth High School, Corinth
- 2nd place: Robert Moore, Hattiesburg High School, Hattiesburg
1997
- 1st place: Olivia Foshee, Oxford High School, Oxford
- 2nd place: Charles Johnson, West Point High School, West Point
1996
- 1st place: Will Renick, Marshall Academy, Holly Springs
- 2nd place: Jessica Mitchell, Cleveland High School, Cleveland
1995
- 1st place: Natalie Tropp, Oxford High School, Oxford
- 2nd place: Casey Crosthwait, Jackson Academy, Jackson
1994
- 1st place: Matthew Gill, Hattiesburg High School, Hattiesburg
- 2nd place: Paige Porter, Jackson Academy, Jackson