Center for the Study of Southern Culture Events
Engaging diverse audiences through dynamic public programs that connect academic research to Southern culture and history.
Sharing Southern Scholarship
The Center’s outreach projects bridge the gap between scholarly research and broad audiences interested in the American and global South. Events explore topics ranging from hip hop to the southern environment and are produced for audiences large and small. Annual events include the Oxford Conference for the Book. The Center frequently presents lectures by both UM professors and those from other institutions. Many events occur in partnership with other UM departments and institutes, such as those of history, African American Studies, English, sociology and anthropology, the Overby Center for Southern Journalism and Politics, and the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies. A partnership begun in 2010 with the Department of History and the African American Studies Program has led to the Gilder-Jordan Lecture Series in Southern Cultural History.
Upcoming Events
About Center Events
SouthTalks
SouthTalks is a series of events (including lectures, performances, film screenings, and panel discussions) exploring the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies. This series takes place in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory unless otherwise noted, and is free and open to the public.
Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern Cultural History
Organized through the Center for the Study of Southern Culture, the African American Studies Program, the Center for Civil War Research, and the Department of History, the Gilder-Jordan Speaker Series is made possible through the generosity of the Gilder Foundation, Inc. The series honors the late Richard Gilder of New York and his family, as well as University of Mississippi alumni Dan and Lou Jordan of Virginia.
Oxford Conference for the Book
Founded by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and Square Books, the Oxford Conference for the Book brings together fiction and nonfiction writers, journalists, artists, poets, publishers, teachers, students, and literacy advocates for three days of conversation in the literary town of Oxford, Mississippi. This is the longest-running event put on by the Center and is always free and open to the public, and takes place in the spring.
Future of the South Initiative
Launched in 2004 with support from the Phil Hardin Foundation, the Center’s Future of the South initiative explores the intersection of the humanities, public policy, and economic development in the region. Evolving from early symposia on Southern identity and crises like Hurricane Katrina, the initiative now designates three to four annual projects that link curriculum, faculty research, and community engagement. Past topics include migration, LGBTQ history in Mississippi, and climate change. Rooted in a vision of regional transformation, the initiative aims to shape conversations about the South’s future locally, nationally, and globally through innovative, humanities-driven programming.
Photo right: exhibit of ‘Hostile Terrain 94’ at the University of Mississippi. Each hand-written toe tag represents one of the 3,400 migrants who have died trying to cross the Sonoran Desert from the mid-1990s to 2020.
Affiliated Events
The Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference
The Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, held annually each July, was founded with the help of the Center and is now led by the UM Department of English and the Office of Outreach.
Upcoming SouthTalks
Gilder-Jordan Lecture in Southern Cultural History
2024
Lecturer: Thavolia Glymph, Duke University School of Law
Oct. 8, 2024 | Nutt Auditorium
"Making ‘Actual Freedom’: The Civil War and Enslaved People’s Legal Consciousness"
2023
Kidada Williams, Wayne State University, Detroit
Sept. 19, 2023 | Nutt Auditorium
“The Devil Was Turned Loose: African Americans in the War against Reconstruction”
2022
Daina Ramey Berry, University of California, Santa Barbara
Sept. 13, 2022 | Nutt Auditorium
“Teaching the Truth: Race and Slavery in the Modern Classroom"
2021
Deborah Gray White, RUTGERS University
Sept. 14, 2021 | Virtual
“The Price of the Ticket: Paying for Diversity and Inclusion”
2020
Carol Anderson, Emory University
Oct. 13, 2020 | Virtual
“One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy”
2019
Martha Jones, Johns Hopkins University
Sept. 17, 2019 | Nutt Auditorium
“Birthright Citizens: Winners and Losers in the History of American Belonging”
Watch an interview with Jones and Anne Twitty, University of Mississippi associate professor of history.
2018
James Oakes, City University of New York
Sept. 12, 2018 | Nutt Auditorium
“The Triumph of Abolitionism”
2017
Rhonda Y. Williams, Vanderbilt University
Sept. 16, 2017 | Nutt Auditorium
"Concrete Demands: The Search for Black Power, Then and Now"
2016
Edward L. Ayers, University of Richmond
Sept. 7, 2016
"When History Doesn't Move in a Straight Line: The Civil War Then and Now"
Watch an interview of Professor Ayers by Center Director and Professor of History and Southern Studies Dr. Ted Ownby. Watch Ayer's lecture here.
2015
Theda Perdue, University of North Carolina
Sept. 9, 2015 | Nutt Auditorium
“Indians and Christianity in the New South.”
Watch an interview of Dr. Perdue by UM Assistant Professor of History Dr. Mikaela Adams. Watch Perdue’s lecture “Indians and Christianity in the New South.”
2014
Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, University of North Carolina
Sept. 24, 2014
“How We Tell About the Civil Rights Movement and Why It Matters Today”
Watch an interview of Dr. Hall by UM Assistant Professor of History and Southern Studies Dr. Jessie Wilkerson.
2013
Walter Johnson, Harvard University
Sept. 18, 2013 | Nutt Auditorium
“The ‘Negro Fever,’ the South, and the Ignominious Effort to Re-Open the Atlantic Slave Trade”
Watch an interview of Dr. Johnson by UM Assistant Professor of History Dr. Deirdre Cooper Owens.
2012
Grace Elizabeth Hale, University of Virginia
Oct. 10, 2012 | Nutt Auditorium
“So the Whole World Can See: Documentary Photography and Film in the Civil Rights Era”
Watch an interview of Professor Hale by UM Professor of History and Southern Studies Dr. Ted Ownby here.
2011
David Blight, Yale University
Nov. 16, 2011 | Nutt Auditorium
“American Oracle: The Civil War in the Civil Rights Era and Our Own Time”
Watch the 2011 lecture in full or watch an interview of Dr. Blight by UM Professor of History Dr. John Neff.
2011
Barbara J. Fields, Columbia University
Mar. 8, 2011 | Overby Center
“Racecraft and Southern History”