Center Professor Receives Prestigious Whiting Fellowship

SPRING/SUMMER 2017 Center Professor Receives Prestigious Whiting Fellowship

Fresh off winning this year’s “I was ecstatic, and grateful Mississippi Humanities for this opportunity,” Skipper Council’s Scholar Award, said. “I will use this fellow- University of Mississippi assis- ship period to organize and tant professor Jodi Skipper has facilitate a series of work- received another accolade, this shops entitled Beyond the Big one a national honor. House: Interpreting Slavery Skipper, assistant professor in Local Communities. These of anthropology and southern workshops seek to connect a studies, has been awarded a growing population of commu- prestigious Whiting Public nities in Mississippi interested Engagement Fellowship from in addressing slavery through the Whiting Foundation, a historic sites.” Brooklyn, New York-based Skipper was selected for the organization that has a long award in recognition of her history of support for the involvement with the Behind humanities and literature. the Big House program, a The Whiting Public slave dwelling interpretation Engagement Fellowship, in its program started by Jenifer second year, is designed to cele- Eggleston and Chelius Carter brate and support faculty who in Holly Springs. “I have been embrace public engagement as privileged enough to help with part of the scholarly vocation. Jodi Skipper their project, which interprets Seven others were selected for the lives of enslaved persons this year’s cohort. Each fellow through the homes in which receives a semester of leave to pursue a public-facing they once lived,” she said. project, as well as a $10,000 stipend toward project costs. Behind the Big House, one of the few historic site Daniel Reid, the Whiting Foundation’s executive tours developed with the explicit goal of interpreting the director, said, “The foundation believes that those who experiences of enslaved people, will serve as a model for devote their professional lives to the study and teaching Skipper’s project. She said her broader goal is to expand of the humanities are in a unique position to contribute the Behind the Big House model from Holly Springs to to public understanding. This fellowship aims to iden- other parts of the state. tify professors with a demonstrated commitment to “The program model has successfully spread to the using their scholarly expertise to reach wider audiences state of Arkansas,” Skipper said. “My community part- and fund ambitious projects designed to have direct ners in north Mississippi and I are optimistic about and significant impact on a specific public outside the academy.” continued on page 5 DIRECTOR’S COLUMN

Whatever else may be happening in 2017, I’ll problems, problem-solvers, remember these months as the summer of the Mississippi heroic figures, not-at-all heroic Encyclopedia. Charles Reagan Wilson and I have started figures, and an impressive doing some interviews about the book, book signings array of creative people. started at Oxford’s Square Books, and we’ll be doing What’s the story of the cover art? The cover comes more. For those who don’t get to encyclopedia events, from a work of glass by Mississippi artist Roger here’s a kind of interview with myself. Sturdivant. Colorful and eye-catching, with colors and First, how did The Mississippi Encyclopedia get started? shapes that do not represent any predictable categories or Seetha Srinivasan, then the director of the University divisions in the state, the cover asks people to open the Press of Mississippi, discussed the idea with Charles book not knowing what to expect. Reagan Wilson and Ann Abadie. Seetha’s successors Is it likely that anyone will have serious problems with at the press, Leila Salisbury and current director Craig the book? I hope not, because there’s so much material Gill and their colleagues, have been great supporters for people with different interests, but we’ll see. A lot of of the book, and funding came from several kind and people will ask how we could have left out their favorite helpful sources. topic, and many of those people will be right. How long did it take? In truth, that’s not my favorite Do you have favorite entries? I suppose I should like question. First discussions took place in 2001, and work all of them in equal measure, but I’m a particular fan of began in 2003. So, it took fourteen years. The fact that topics that exist outside most definitions of Mississippi, so the book came out in Mississippi’s bicentennial year is a I like the entries on premanufactured buildings, poet and fortunate coincidence, but that was not the goal. Spanish-language translator Muna Lee, and experimental What are the book’s vital statistics? 1,451 pages, 1,400 jazz artist Wadada Leo Smith. There are two entries on entries, almost 700 authors, five editors and associate kudzu (both the plant and the counter-culture news- editors (Charles Reagan Wilson, Ann Abadie, Odie paper), two Robert Smiths, two Willie Browns, and Joan Lindsey, James G. Thomas, Jr., and me). It weighs 8.8 Williams, John Alfred Williams, John Bell Williams, and pounds and costs $70. John Sharp Williams. I like the entries on people about How does one start a book this big? Using the model whom many readers readers will say, “I didn’t know that of the Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, the editors started person was from Mississippi,” the entries on environ- by asking thirty experts to serve as topic advisors. Those mental topics from sand hill cranes to hunting, fishing, experts wrote overview essays and lists of potential topics and crop dusting, and entries that explore and complicate and authors. At the Center we kept adding new topics issues of race and ethnicity. and kept looking for the best scholars to write about When so much material is available online, why do them. Governing principles included inclusiveness and we need a big book like this? I agree that online refer- diversity in content, authoritative scholarship, and an ence works are essential, but this book has at least two accessible writing style. particular strengths. One is the ease and experience of Is the book a celebration of Mississippi? No, it browsing. Readers looking up one topic will find many isn’t. It studies the state and its people, deepens and others they never imagined might be there (or might be complicates our understanding of it, and expands interesting). Second is the sense that all people, places, the range of experiences and perspectives. It studies events, and perspectives in Mississippi belong in the same volume, as they are all parts of a big complicated, inter- connected story. THE SOUTHERN REGISTER Will there be an online version? Yes, the Mississippi A Publication of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture • The University of Mississippi Humanities Council and the Center have plans for an online version sometime in 2018. That will allow people NEWSLETTER • PUBLISHED QUARTERLY PublishedOXFORD by, MISSISSIPPI, U.S.A • WINTER 2014 The Center for the Study of Southern Culture to consult the volume from anywhere, and it will allow us The University of Mississippi to make corrections, updates, and additions. Telephone: 662-915-5993 • Fax: 662-915-5814 At its best, what might a big book like this accomplish? E-mail: [email protected] • southernstudies.olemiss.edu I hope it can widen, deepen, and complicate understand- Spring/Summer 2017 ings of Mississippi, in part through its inclusive approach. I hope it represents and generates new scholarship and REGISTER STAFF that it will surprise and entertain while educating. The

Editor: James G. Thomas, Jr. Graphic Designer: Susan Bauer Lee continued on page 18

Page 2 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register Several Mississippi Encyclopedia Events Announced The Mississippi Encyclopedia, a collabo- scholar-contributors to the volume. ration that includes 1,400 entries and The first event was held in Oxford 1,451 pages, is the first encyclopedic on May 20, where contributors each treatment of the state since 1907. had an opportunity to speak about Published by the University Press of their contribution to the book at City Mississippi as a collaboration between Hall, followed by a celebration at the Press and the Center for the Study Off Square Books. Additional events of Southern Culture, it features nearly include a celebration reception at the 700 scholars who wrote entries on Library of Congress in Washington, every county and governor, numerous D.C. on June 13 at 6:00 p.m. and the musicians, writers, artists, and activists. Mississippi Book Festival’s kickoff in Several events have been announced Jackson on August 17. There will also to celebrate The Mississippi Encyclopedia, be events held at independent book- and each event will include talks by stores and cultural organizations across speakers such as Encyclopedia senior the state. editors Ted Ownby and Charles Brian Powers Reagan Wilson, subject editors, and

The schedule of bookstore events is as follows: September 7 at 5:00 p.m. June 1 at 5:30 p.m. June 21 at 5:30 p.m. Delta Blues Museum, Clarksdale Turnrow Books Company, Main Street Books, Hattiesburg Book talk, signing, and reception Greenwood Book talk, signing, and reception September 11 at 5:00 p.m. Book talk, signing, and reception July 22 at 7:00 p.m. Mississippi University for Women, June 2 at 6:00 p.m. Mary C. O’Keefe Cultural Center, Columbus Lorelai Books, Vicksburg Ocean Springs Fant Memorial Library Book talk, signing, and reception Book talk, signing, and reception Book talk, signing, and reception

June 9 at 6:00 p.m. August 17, time to be announced September 29 at 4:00 p.m. A Cappella Books, Atlanta Mississippi Book Festival, Jackson Book Mart and Café, Starkville Book talk, signing, reception Cathead Distillery Book talk, signing, and reception Encyclopedia Celebration June 10, 10:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. November 2 at 3:00 p.m. Atlanta’s Mississippi in the Park Picnic August 19, time to be announced Copiah-Lincoln Community Chastain Park, Atlanta Mississippi Book Festival, Jackson College, Natchez Encyclopedia panel discussion Carolyn Vance Smith Natchez June 13 at 6:00 p.m. Literary Research Center Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. August 23 at noon Book talk, signing, and reception Reception Reed’s GumTree Bookstore and the Tupelo Public Library, Tupelo November 8 at noon June 19 at noon Book talk, signing, and reception Mississippi Department of Archives University of Mississippi, Oxford and History, Jackson Archives and Special Collections August 31 at noon MDAH Winter Archives Building J. D. Williams Library Delta State University, Cleveland “History is Lunch” Panel discussion Capps Archives Building Book talk, signing, and reception November 8 at 3:00 p.m. June 20 at 5:30 p.m. Jackson State University, Jackson Pass Christian Books, Pass Christian Margaret Walker Center Book talk, signing, and reception Scholars discussion

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 3 MA and BA Southern Studies Students Graduate

Each year the Center gives several JR. G. THOMAS, JAMES awards for papers and documentary projects, and the announce- ment is made at the southern studies graduation celebration. Here are the winners for 2017. Kathryn James won the Gray Prize for one of the two best papers by southern studies undergraduates: “African American Kitchen Workers in a University of Mississippi Greek House,” a paper written for Catarina Passidomo’s SST 401 class. Michael George Holman Jr. won the Coterie Award for one of the two best papers by southern studies undergraduates: “‘All Things Loved and Unlovable’: Discovering Southern Identity in Black Migration Novels,” an honors thesis directed by Jay Watson. Will Palmer, English graduate student, won the Peter Aschoff Award for the best paper on southern music: “‘Sound’—A Bachelor’s and master’s southern studies grads, 2017. Left to right: back row, Josh Keyword for Southern Studies,” a Green, George McDaniel, Miller Meyers (undergraduate, English), Kathryn paper written for Katie McKee’s James (undergraduate), Michael Holman (undergraduate); front row, Lauren Veline, Drew Ford, Abby Huggins, Caity Maddox, and Christina Huff. English 776. Chris Colbeck won the Sarah Dixon Pegues Award in Southern Music for his master’s thesis documentary film,Southern Sound and Jacqui Sahagian won the Lucille In addition to these end-of-the- Space, Andy Harper, thesis director. and Motee Daniels Award for the year awards, Lauren Veline won Abby Huggins won the Ann best paper by a first-year master’s second place in the Best Journalism Abadie Prize for the best documen- student in southern studies for two Research Paper division at the tary project in southern studies: papers on contemporary blues 2017 Southeast Journalism, Best “Before Me, after Me, through Me: production. of the South contest for her paper Stories of Food and Community in Abby Huggins and Lauren Veline “Newspaper Coverage of James Eastern Kentucky” (master’s thesis), shared Lucille and Motee Daniels Meredith’s March Against Fear: A Catarina Passidomo, thesis director. Awards for the best master theses, Comparison of the New York Times, Lauren Veline won the Sue Hart “Before Me, after Me, through Me: the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and Prize for best paper in gender Stories of Food and Community the Jackson Clarion-Ledger,” and Josh studies: “Object of Your Rejection: in Eastern Kentucky” and “Object Green was one of only six people The Symbolic Annihilation and of Your Rejection: The Symbolic to receive a Graduate Student Recuperation of Queer Identities in Annihilation and Recuperation Achievement Award from the UM Country Music” (master’s thesis), of Queer Identities in Country College of Liberal Arts. Darren Grem, thesis director. Music,” respectively.

Page 4 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register Rhonda Williams to Give 2017 Gilder-Jordan Lecture

Rhonda Y. Williams of Case Western W. E. B. Du Bois Institute Fellow. Reserve University will deliver She is the coeditor of the recently the 2017 Gilder-Jordan Lecture launched book series, Justice, Power, in Southern Cultural History on and Politics, with the University of Wednesday, September 6, 2017, North Carolina Press and coeditor of on the University of Mississippi Teaching the American Civil Rights campus. The time and place will be Movement. announced on the Center’s website. Her publications include articles Williams is a professor of history, on black power politics, the war on the founder and director of the poverty, low-income black women’s postdoctoral fellowship in African grassroots organizing, and urban and American studies at Case Western housing policy. Her research inter- Reserve, and the founder and ests include the manifestations of Williams to lecture September 6 director of the Social Justice Institute. race and gender inequality on urban Starting August 2017, she will be the space and policy, social movements, John L. Siegenthaler Professor in and illicit narcotics economies in the a commissioner on the Cleveland American History in the Department post-1940s United States. Community Police Commission, of History at Vanderbilt University. Williams received her PhD in which was empaneled in September The author of Concrete Demands: history from the University of 2015. She is a Baltimore native. The Search for Black Power in the Pennsylvania in 1998 and her under- Organized through the Center for Twentieth Century (2015) and The graduate degree in journalism from the Study of Southern Culture, the Politics of Public Housing: Black the University of Maryland College African American Studies Program, Women’s Struggles against Urban Park in 1989, where she became that Center for Civil War Research, Inequality (2005), Williams has been university’s first black salutatorian in and the Department of History, the honored by History News Network its then 187-year history. Gilder-Jordan Speaker Series is made as a Top Young Historian, the Williams, also known as “Dr. possible through the generosity of Organization of American Historians Rhonda,” also has been engaged in the Gilder Foundation, Inc. The as a Distinguished Lecturer, and is local community efforts, including series honors Richard Gilder of listed in the 2009 and 2015 editions on police and criminal justice reform New York and his family, as well as of Who’s Who in Black Cleveland. as a member of the Collaborative his friends, Dan and Lou Jordan of Williams is a recipient of an for a Safe, Fair, and Just Cleveland, Virginia. Contact Becca Walton at American Association of University and the “Cleveland 8.” She has [email protected] if you have Women Postdoctoral Fellowship appeared on MSNBC and Democracy any questions about the lecture. and a former Harvard University Now! Currently, she is serving as

continued from 1 Whiting Fellowship Center director Ted Ownby Skipper joined the University of congratulated Skipper upon her Mississippi faculty in 2011. Besides its potential to take root in other honor. “Scholarship that engages teaching introductory courses communities around this state.” the public frequently takes different in anthropology and southern A public anthropologist who skills than the scholarship a lot of studies, she also teaches courses thinks through how to represent us do, and it often takes a lot of on historical archaeology, African difficult pasts in the present, Skipper time,” Ownby said. “The Behind of diaspora studies, southern heritage, specifically addresses the underrep- the Big House project has done a and tourism. She was honored on resentation of enslaved communities great deal to teach about the history February 10 in Jackson with the at historic sites across the South. Her of slavery in Mississippi, and I’m Mississippi Humanities Council’s research prioritizes collaboration delighted this fellowship will allow Scholar Award for her work. with communities seeking to address Jodi Skipper the freedom to develop these issues at local levels. new parts of that project.” Edwin Smith

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 5 Southern Storyteller: Jake Xerxes Fussell Releases New Album BRAD BUNYEA BRAD “Come listen, and I’ll tell a tale” On this, his second album, Fussell opens the song “Canyoneers” draws from such sources as Duke from Jake Xerxes Fussell’s second Ellington and Helen Cockram along album, What in the Natural World. with traditional works to fill out the This simple statement captures the nine songs here, all of which he essence of Fussell’s record because has arranged to “elide genres and that is exactly what he does across dissolve the false binaries of tradition all of the songs. He is telling us tales, and innovation, folk and modern, and they are good ones. This should old and new.” He also employs come as no surprise considering a wellspring of musical talent, Fussell has spent his life dedicated including Nathan Bowles (drums, to good storytelling. He has held banjo, piano, melodica), Nathan apprenticeships with master story- Salsburg (guitar), Nathan Golub tellers like Piedmont blues women (steel guitar), Joan Shelley (vocals), (Precious Bryant and Etta Baker) and and Casey Toll (bass). documentary artists (Les Blank and The album opens with the Art Rosenbaum). This commitment song, “Jump for Joy” (from Duke to a great story shines through on Ellington’s Sun-Tanned Revu-sical), every song on this record. which would sound at home with Fussell grew up in Columbus, its minimal arrangement alongside Georgia, and is the son of folklorist anything from Mississippi John Hurt, Fred C. Fussell. As a young boy, another master storyteller from the Jake would often travel with his folk-blues tradition. Fussell’s subtle father around the Southeast docu- fingerpicked guitar adds further menting the vernacular culture layers and musical depth to the vivid and recording imagery, or as he puts it the “tech- music from old- nicolor movie” playing out in the time musicians. It plaintive vocals. This combination of was as a teenager subtle, yet complex, instrumentation that Fussell began and deceptively illustrative lyrics and studying under vocals is one of the things that make musicians in the for the Study of listening to this album such a joy. Chattahoochee Southern Culture. One highlight of this combination is Valley and There he focused the song “Furniture Man.” In this song, spending time his study on the Fussell’s staccato guitar stabs play out “riding wild Choctaw fiddlers in a striking juxtaposition with Nathan with Alabama who he had come Golub’s beautiful pedal steel guitar. bluesman, black across while All of this provides the backdrop for rodeo rider, accompanying the story of the cruel Mr. Brown who rye whiskey distiller, and master his father during fieldwork. It was is described as “a devil without horns” dowser George Daniel.” After also while in Oxford that Fussell and who the narrator implores to spending some time in Berkeley recorded and toured with Rev. “take your time, Mr. Brown, take your with the likes of Will Scarlett John Wilkins and met fellow musi- time.” Fussell, perhaps heeding this (Jefferson Airplane, Hot Tuna, cian William Tyler, who began advice, does not rush anything on the and Brownie McGee) and finger- working with Fussell on what record and allows all of his music and style guitarist Steve Mann, Fussell would become his self-titled first stories to breathe. moved to Oxford, Mississippi, in album. Since releasing this album, Interestingly, one of the jauntiest 2005. While in Oxford, Fussell Fussell has toured with Wilco, numbers here is also one of the enrolled in the southern studies Mt. Moriah, Nathan Bowles, and darkest in terms of lyrical content. master’s program at the Center Daniel Bachman. The song, “Bells of Rhymney,”

Page 6 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register comes from Welsh poet Idris Davis and was popularized by Pete Seeger Two Emerging Filmmakers Join and the Byrds. Its lyrical content containing lines about “sad bells” SFA for Summer Internship and posing the question, “Is there hope for the future?” stands in stark This summer the Southern Foodways Victoria De Leone contrast to the music that has a Alliance has announced a Summer lighthearted feel and swing. Here Documentary Film Internship to also Fussell appears to make a nod encourage and nurture emerging towards Jimmie Rodgers with a documentary filmmakers. For two “Woo-ooo-hoo-ooo,” which while months this summer, two interns, not a full-on yodel certainly seems to Pankaj Khadka and Victoria De have been influenced by the country Leone, will work directly under the music legend. guidance and mentorship of SFA’s The album concludes with a Pihakis Foodways Documentary haunting murder ballad, “Lowe Filmmaker, Ava Lowrey. Bonnie.” In the song, Lowe Bonnie’s In addition to hands-on learning lover, a beautiful vocal turned in through pre- and post-production by Joan Shelley, kills him out of assistance on current SFA projects, jealousy. The scene plays out in an the interns will also spend the evocative fashion with Lowe Bonnie summer completing a short sitting on his lover’s lap “kissing her Mississippi-based documentary film Pankaj Khadka so sweet” when she pulls out a “little project with producers Lowrey and pen knife so keen and sharp, she SFA director, John T. Edge. wounded him so deep.” As she begs Pankaj Khadka, a Nepali native, him not to die, he responds, “How is a freelance multimedia journalist can I live? You wounded me so currently based in New York City. deep. I think I feel my own heart’s He aspires to tell stories of subjects blood dropping on my feet.” and issues that engage and challenge The album title, What in the his thoughts and beliefs through a Natural World, is a fitting summa- combination of text stories, capti- tion for this whole album. The vating photographs, and incorpora- stories travel across all manner of tion of multimedia. the world, from the canyons and Khadka’s reporting quests have mines in “Canyoneers” and “Bells of taken him to parades and festivals Rhymney” to the vast ocean where across the swamps of southwest one encounters dragons and beasts Louisiana; to rodeos, elections and in “St. Brendan’s Isle.” fire outbreaks in the foothills of community manager for a grocery William Tyler, Fussell’s friend southern Colorado and mountain delivery startup in Brooklyn. and collaborator, once described peaks of northern Colorado; to Currently, De Leone is pursuing a him thusly: “The professor you marches, marathons, and protests southern studies master’s degree at always wished you had, the human in the cityscapes of Boston and the University of Mississippi, where jukebox, the guitar player and singer New York. His work includes she focuses her studies on the diverse who makes any band that he’s in in-depth reporting and photo stories food stories of the South. After better. He’s a southern scholar and on community leaders, regional taking part in the Center’s Summer gentleman in the tradition of Jim cultures, and traditions of different Documentary Workshop last year, Dickinson, George Mitchell, and American communities. she found her voice as an aspiring Les Blank. He’s a Dave Van Ronk Victoria De Leone grew up in documentary filmmaker. for SEC country.” Fussell more than mountainous Central Oregon. The Southern Foodways Alliance lives up to this characterization, aptly Trading the small community in the is excited to have Pankaj and demonstrating his gift on this album woods for a slightly larger one on Victoria join their ranks this summer at one of the oldest of southern tradi- an island, she studied food cultures and to see the work they produce. tions: storytelling. and immigration narratives at NYU’s You can follow their progress and Gallatin School of Individualized watch more SFA films at southern- George McDaniel Study. After completing her under- foodways.org. graduate studies, she served as a

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 7 Living Blues News

Yazoo County, Mississippi, has Over the years the word Yazoo always held a surreal mystique for has entered popular culture via a me. I remember being a kid riding Cab Calloway song (“Old Yazoo,” in the backseat along the winding 1932), a blues label (Nick Perls’s roads of the county looking out the Yazoo Records), and even a lawn window and wondering how this mower company that built the strange place with this strange name first zero turning radius mowers had formed. Yazoo County has some back in the 1960s. flat Delta land in the west, but it also Yazoo County has never had has surprisingly high hills and deep- a large blues scene like many cut valleys in the east, the remains other Delta counties, but what it of the Mississippi River bluffs from did have was unique. Bentonia long ago. Many of these bluffs have bluesman Skip James’s 1931 been completely overtaken by the recording session for Paramount vigorous, invasive kudzu vine. Left Records ranks as one of the untended, the vines have grown to high-water marks in blues cover entire hillsides—swallowing history. James, who learned from trees, buildings and telephone poles— Henry Stuckey (the same man Jimmy style of blues, he is also the owner of creating an eerie shroud of living “Duck” Holmes learned from), Mississippi’s oldest juke joint, the Blue green that seems to grow in front of created a unique sound with an open Front Cafe, and founder of one of the your very eyes. Riding through the D-minor tuning and an eerie falsetto oldest blues festivals in the country, hills is like cloud watching, where singing style that, when combined, the Bentonia Blues Festival. shapes and figures emerge from the delivered a musical sound unlike There is no separating the Blue massive organic forms. anything before or since. For music Front from Holmes; they are one The word Yazoo comes from a tribe that can make the hairs stand up on and the same. Opened in 1948 by his of Native American Tunica people the back of your neck, there isn’t parents, Carey and Mary Holmes, historically located in the area. much else as powerful as Skip James. just one year after Holmes’s birth, Allied with the Chickasaws and the In this special issue devoted to the cafe and Duck (named after the English, the tribe was virtually wiped Yazoo County blues, we explore the way he walked as a child) grew up out in 1729 during the Natchez War history of the county, the music, and together. Duck can’t remember life when the Choctaws, allied with the the musicians who made it. We then without the Blue Front and neither French, battled the Natchez and turn our spotlight on the current scene can most residents of Bentonia. It was Yazoo tribes. and the man who has committed his the center of the African American The Yazoo River and its flood plain life to keeping it alive. Jimmy “Duck” community and still is today—even dominate the area. Yazoo County was Holmes and his family are central to though it and the town are a little founded in 1823, just six years after Yazoo County blues. Not only is he sparser than they once were. Mississippi became a state. the living embodiment of the Bentonia We also cover some of the new talent from the area, feature a historical article on the father of the Center Loses Beloved Friend Bentonia style, Henry Stuckey, and include a guide for blues tourists The Center lost a friend this spring when alumna Yaeko Takada passed who want to come to the area and away. Known to southern studies friends as Eko, she came to Mississippi explore the scene. We wrap it all from Tokyo, where she had worked as a journalist. Eko Takada earned up with a photo essay from photog- BA and MA degrees in southern studies, studying and writing papers on rapher Bill Steber who has spent the blues whenever possible. A graduate essay on a theme in the history nearly twenty-five years photo- of ragtime was a co-winner of the Peter Aschoff award for the study of graphing in the county. southern music, and in 2016 she completed a unique master’s thesis on Also, make sure to vote in the the significance of guitars for early blues performers. Eko had jobs with 2 017 Living Blues Awards. Go to Center publications, worked a great deal with friends in the Blues Archive, www.livingblues.com and vote for and worked for several months for the Delta Blues Museum. Eko Takada your favorite artists! followed her passions, had a fascinating life, and we’ll miss her. Brett J. Bonner

Page 8 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register SFA Collects New Oral Histories from West Virginia

Helvetia, West Virginia, population community’s Swiss tradi- fifty-nine, is nestled in a high moun- tions, establishing the Hutte tain valley along the Buckhannon Swiss Restaurant, producing River in the central part of the state. a community cookbook The remote village was settled in 1869 Oppis Guet’s vo Helvetia, and by a group of Swiss families who first holding public celebrations immigrated to Brooklyn, New York, like Fasnacht, a pre-Lenten during the Civil War. In Brooklyn, “mountain Mardi Gras,” these families belonged to a mutual aid intended both to reinforce society of Swiss and Germans called Swiss customs for locals and the Grütliverein and together sought a bring much-needed tourist place where they could live freely and EMILY HILLIARD dollars to the town in the practice their respective art HILLIARD EMILY sparse mid-winter months. forms. One of their members The Southern Foodways had done some surveying in Alliance’s new collection of West Virginia and spoke of oral histories, “Helvetia, West the large tracts of land, beau- Virginia,” conveys the values of tiful mountains, and plentiful this fiercely creative and produc- forests of game. The group tive close-knit mountain commu- eventually found affordable nity where Swiss and Appalachian acreage for sale in the area heritage are uniquely twined and and established a village, enacted daily in a bite of sauer- calling it Helvetia, the Latin braten, a sip of homemade wine, and name for Switzerland. many generations sitting around In the near 150 years a Hutte Swiss Restaurant table. since its founding, the Swiss tradi- heritage, wanting instead to express The project is a collaboration with tions practiced by Helvetians have the pride they felt as American citi- the West Virginia Folklife Program. evolved in various iterations. During zens. Around the time of the town’s The photographs and oral history the World Wars when societal anti- centennial in the late 1960s, Helvetia interviews were recorded by West German sentiments ran high, the native Eleanor Mailloux and her Virginia state folklorist, Emily community decided it would be best friend Delores Baggerly began Hilliard. For more about the project, to downplay their Swiss-German an initiative to reinvigorate the visit www.southernfoodways.org. BECCA WALTON Documentary Workshop Planned for MA and MFA Students The Center will host its second Documentary Workshop for southern studies MA students August 14–16. This workshop, which takes place the week before classes begin, is an opportunity for students to learn more about documentary methods, and includes the production of a short film. Last year, students Rachel Childs, Rebecca Lauck Cleary, and Victoria De Leone made a film about Bill Griffith and his work as curator of Rowan Oak. Andy Harper of SouthDocs and Ava Lowrey and Sara Wood of the SFA teach the workshop. Contact Becca Walton, [email protected] with Left to right: Ava Lowrey, Rebecca Cleary, Victoria questions. De Leone, Rachel Childs, and Andy Harper shoot footage at Rowan Oak.

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 9 Birmingham Greeks Subject of Continuing SFA Work

In 2004 the Southern Foodways Alliance published a collection of oral histories featuring the Birmingham, Alabama, Greek restaurant owners that have been feeding the city since the nine- teenth century. This year, the SFA revisited that project to collect oral histories, photographs, and film of the newest generation of Greek Birminghamians. Chef Timothy Hontzas of Johnny’s Restaurant continues his own family’s tradition with his Greek-inspired take on meat and three: “They say at one point in the seventies that Chef Timothy Hontzas of Johnny’s it weren’t for Restaurant the Greeks, Birmingham would starve. Greeks had a very worked his way up. The goal was strong relation- to take a chance on one kid and to ship with farmers, send them over and see if they could because if they make a way for themselves. And he weren’t in the was able to do it, which in turn, goes produce business, back to how they were able to help they were in the bring other people over and how restaurant busi- Johnny’s was an outpost. ness. I think that’s “Meat-and-threes: To me, it’s who what lends itself we are without forgetting our roots. to the meat-and- The Greeks have all kinds of restau- three aspect as the rants now. It’s not just meat-and- Greeks influence on that. “He jumped a cattle boat in 1921 threes and hotdogs. It’s seafood, it’s “I’m Greek-southern, and I don’t and came to the United States. I’m barbecue, it’s all kinds of stuff. I love think I had a choice but to cook. I not exactly sure how many days he it here, my family, all the Greeks—as was always being dragged in and out was on that boat, but I can imagine it ornery and temperamental as they of kitchens at restaurants in Jackson: was not a friendly journey. He arrived can be—I love Birmingham.” the Mayflower, the Elite, Angelo’s. in New Orleans with seventeen My dad was always asked to come dollars in his pocket. He just walked — As told to Ava Lowrey in January back into the kitchen with him and into a kitchen one day and asked if he 2017 and featured in the SFA documen- hear the old men discuss all kinds of could start washing dishes. tary film Johnny’s Greek and Three crazy things. “They gave him a shot, and he just “The name [Johnny’s Restaurant] comes from my pappous’s restaurant in Jackson. I wanted to do it in homage of him. They said that he More oral histories and this film are now available as was way ahead of his time when he part of the updated Greeks in Birmingham oral history opened Johnny’s, but was very hard- headed and let time pass him. collection at southernfoodways.org.

Page 10 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register Center’s Director of Documentary Studies Wins Second Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Award JAMES G. THOMAS, JR. G. THOMAS, JAMES David Wharton Jason Morgan Ward (Nonfiction), David Wharton, the Center’s Catherine Pierce (Poetry), James director of documentary studies, Sclater (Music Composition, has won his second Mississippi Classical), Fish Michie and Kristian Institute of Arts and Letters (MIAL) Dambrino (Music Composition, Award for Photography. His recent Contemporary). book, The Power of Belief: Spiritual A Citation of Merit is being Landscapes from the Rural South, presented this year to Thacker was selected from a wide field of Mountain Radio, a live radio show works of photography. Wharton’s based in Oxford that features author photographs have been exhibited readings and an array of musical throughout the United States and performances. The show began in in Europe and Latin America. GTF 1997 and has hosted such musical Publishing states about and literary artists as Natasha this winning Trethewey, Caroline Kennedy, book, “David Orhan Pamuk, Willie Morris, Jimbo Wharton reveals Mathus, Charlie Musselwhite, Paul Mississippi InstituteArts of & Letters in his remark- 38th Annual Awards a tour of the Hazel Williams, and Elvis Costello. The

able new book of Celebrating Our 2017 Winners and Jimmy Sanders director-producer is Kate Teague,

owry JessicA l JessicA Jere Allen Samuel Jones Fiction photographs, the Rick Bass Sculpture Garden with host Jim Dees and house band For a Little While: New Noel Polk and Selected Stories Lifetime South is a place—a Achievement on the campus to the Yalobushwhackers. Award Thacker

land, a region, a Allen MArshAll Ann Joe be followed by Mountain Radio is broadcast by

culture, a ‘way of the Delta Meat Mississippi Public Broadcasting. MegAn BeAn/Msu MegAn Nonfiction life’—so heavily Jason Morgan Ward Market food truck The Institute is awarding a Special Hanging Bridge: Racial Violence

and America's Civil Rights Century JiMMy thoMAs JiMMy

Judy sclAter Judy Photography invested in reli- doyle rory picnic, readings, Achievement Award to painter and Music Composition David Wharton Music Composition (Classical) The Power of Belief: Spiritual (Contemporary) James Sclater Landscapes from the Rural South gious belief that the Carmine Natura Creaturae and signings by lifelong arts advocate Nan Sanders. Kristian Dambrino/Fish Michie Bluer Than This spiritual is constantly Special Achievement MIAL award She has been instrumental in the thAd lee thAd Nan Sanders Visual Arts Carlyle Wolfe made manifest in the Fall Citation of Merit winners, and a pre- founding and continued growth ordinary.” Thacker Mountain Radio banquet reception of the Hazel and Jimmy Sanders The Mississippi Saturday, June 3 honoring nomi- Sculpture Garden on the campus Kent Wyatt Hall, Delta State University

MegAn BeAn/Msu MegAn Cleveland, Mississippi Institute of Arts and Poetry nees and winners of Delta State University. Having Catherine Pierce The Tornado Is Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters • P.O. Box 2346 • Jackson, MS 39225 • 662-523-0899 • www.ms-arts-letters.org4/5/17 1:07 PM Letters has announced the World at the Grammy served on the MIAL Board of all of its award MiAl Poster 2017.indd 1 Museum. Governors for many years, Sanders winners for works first This year’s Noel Polk Lifetime has also chaired the Mississippi published, performed, or shown in Achievement Award is shared by Arts Commission. She is a founding the year 2016. The award recipients, Jere Allen and Samuel Jones. Allen, member of the Delta Arts Alliance chosen by out-of-state judges promi- a painter from Oxford, is professor and a board member of the nent in their respective fields, will be emeritus of art at the University of Mississippi Museum of Art. honored at the MIAL annual awards Mississippi, and Jones, a native of For more information about banquet to be held this year on the Inverness, has enjoyed a long and attending the awards banquet and campus of Delta State University in distinguished career as a composer, related events, visit the MIAL Cleveland, Mississippi, on Saturday, conductor, and educator. Other website at www.ms-arts-letters.org. June 3, 2017. In addition to the award winners include Carlyle Wolfe awards banquet, MIAL is offering (Visual Arts), Rick Bass (Fiction),

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 11 Southern Foodways Alliance Director Publishes New Book on Southern Food History

Interview by Becca Walton of our region and the beauty we more complicated region, and those wrought because of it and despite troubled by the South will find more Over many years, my fellow of it. And he postulated that the beauty and hope. southern studies MA alum John T. tensions between horror and beauty Literally and metaphorically, and I have talked about how food, in the South made this region an you have to get people to the table. shelter, and clothing hold the keys to incubator for creativity. Our region I think we’re at a moment of reck- learning about the lives of southern reflects those two trains running on oning in the spheres of food studies people, many of whom embody the parallel tracks, and it’s in the gap and foodways. I think collision of necessity and creativity between the tracks where the beauty that is at the root of cultural studies. lies. There are moments when those In this interview about his new book, tracks cross, and sometimes one train The Potlikker Papers: A Food History pulls out ahead of the other. I don’t of the Modern South, we discuss the think it’s up to me to reconcile those; tension between the essential and the I think it’s up to me to illustrate the complex, something he brilliantly confluence and conflicts between struggles with as a founder of the those two instincts. Especially for academic discipline of foodways, someone writing about food, which and something I’ve thought about is often valorized as this becalmed in my own research on clothing and product of a beatified South. When fashion in the South, and past work you dig deeply and honestly into in the building arts. the history of the South by way of John T. and I sat down at Square food, the injustices come fast and Books to talk about the book on May furious. Let’s say you’re enamored 19, the day before he headed off on a by the South. Or you’re troubled month-long book tour. by the South. I hope those enam- Visit johntedge.com to see if he’s ored with the South will recognize a coming to a bookstore near you. An excerpt from our interview follows. You can read the full interview at southernstudies.olemiss.edu.

Becca Walton: You write that you envision The Potlikker Papers as a sequel to Egerton’s Southern Food, which youg call a “democratic portrait of the American South and its peoples.” Through your length- ening career studying foodways, and through the writing of this book, how do you square hospitality with injustice?

John T. Edge: Egerton asked how you reconcile the gross injustices

Page 12 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register Ted Ownby addressed this very well listening him talk about a woman barbecue restaurants—Where do their in The Larder, wherein he wrote that who called Martin Luther King Jr. pigs come from, where do their chickens he hoped that it would be the last and his compatriots heifers. If you come from? Why would you patronize collection of essays where one has think about restaurants at their best, restaurants that use industrial pork and to argue the validity of foodways and they’re not always at their best, chicken? Aren’t those detrimental to the as a field. Those of us who think they are proxy homes for people environment and to the people who work and write about food are still grap- who gather there. When you dine in those plants, and ultimately to the pling with old prejudices, grounded at home you want to be treated like health of customer? And the answer in dismissals of women and people family. Part of being treated like is yes, they are. But that barbecue of color and the cultural processes family is being disarmed. To be restaurant or fried chicken cafe by which they have long expressed needled is to be loved. owner has an equal if not larger themselves. responsibility to their commu- I’m publishing this book at a BW: I loved how she was just nity. Part of what makes barbecue really interesting time, as smart and completely unimpressed by restaurants and fried chicken cafes challenging voices step into the the notion of celebrity. And by important is the democracy of a $6 conversation, especially people of expressing that, she claimed her barbecue sandwich or a $7 plate of color and women. I think this is a place in the movement. You heifer, fried chicken. Working-class folk in signal moment, as numerous books I’m just as important to this effort. that community demand, expect, talk to one other. What I’ve done is need, want that food at that price. synthesize primary source research, JTE: By way of Georgia Gilmore, I The models that upper-middle-class- secondary source research, and my found the arc of this book. It started farmers-market-shopping south- own reportage, in the hopes my out as a post–Civil War book, and I erners apply to consumer decisions book will serve as a portal to deeper had sketched an outline for that. But are not necessarily the same models study. My book is a transom book. I recognized that if I started the book we should apply to a barbecue Here’s the transom, now cross it. in 1955 with Georgia Gilmore and a restaurant or fried chicken cafe. hamper of fried chicken sandwiches BW: Before your book, I had never at Holt Street Baptist Church, I had BW: The book seemed to me to be before heard of Georgia Gilmore. a sixty-year arch to 2015. I didn’t southern studies at work, in a form How/where did you find her? She is want to open the book with a chef that centers activism and change such a great example of the heart of in a kitchen. I wanted to open with at its core. Our South, as you say, social activism coming from local, a seemingly unremarkable woman “rejects easy encapsulation.” What grassroots efforts, and how asking doing remarkable things. would you say about the current questions about everyday matters state of the field of southern studies, like eating can illuminate larger BW: Now, a question about food and the place of foodways therein? historical stories. and democracy. In my own past work, I’ve struggled with the ques- JTE: I think the field is in the JTE: If you want to write about the tion of how to make skillfully crafted midst of fitful maturation. Defining subject that I write about, Georgia built spaces and products acces- books are entering the conversa- Gilmore, the cook who rose to sible to all, while at the same time tion. Marcie Ferris’s book The Edible influence during the 1955–56 honoring the skill of the craftsperson. South is a great example of that. Montgomery Bus Boycott, is the How does one eat democratically? Organizations like the Appalachian ideal encapsulation of the possi- Food Summit and Foodways Texas bilities of food studies. She is the JTE: That’s one of things I talk to have joined the SFA. The territory ultimate foot soldier for democ- our son, Jess, about. Each economic has been defined, the squabbles have racy, the ultimate welcome table decision you make, each spending begun. Out of this moment, a robust keeper, the ultimate subject of a decision you make, is political. field of study will emerge. people’s history of the South. She The transfer of dollars from you to One of most exciting facets of shows this ferocity, and she shows another person is an investment in food studies and foodways is the keen social intelligence, she shows that person, the receiving entity. A complement across disciplines, indefatigable bravery, and she has democratic diner is an aware diner. and the complement across public this beautiful playfulness too, calling And that means being aware of programming and primary source her diners “heifer” and “whores.” human resource impact, and natural scholarship. In this moment, when The heifer and whore details I got resource impact. I think the two are university administrators challenge from a preacher I interviewed in of equal import. There’s a cultural their colleagues to think about Shoney’s. You want to find a compli- impact too. The cultural impact is public service as well as scholarship, cated South, talk to a preacher in a the most complicated one. I’m often foodways offers a range of possible Shoney’s, drinking lukewarm coffee, asked about fried chicken cafes or models for the future.

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 13 Southern Studies Student Wins CONTRIBUTORS Phi Beta Kappa Writing Internship Scott Barretta is an instructor KEVIN BAINS KEVIN of sociology and anthropology Kathryn James may not have made Kathryn James at the University of Mississippi, a penny on any of the articles she a writer/researcher for the writes for the Key Reporter, Phi Beta Mississippi Blues Trail, and the Kappa’s online newsletter, but the former editor of Living Blues recent University of Mississippi grad- magazine. uate is grateful to have been awarded a writing internship from the presti- Brett J. Bonner is the editor of gious academic honor society. Living Blues magazine. “I was surprised and humbled Rebecca Lauck Cleary is the to be chosen,” said James, from Center’s senior staff assistant and Mandeville, Louisiana, who triple website administrator. majored in public policy leadership, economics, and southern studies. Jenna Mason is the Southern Phi Beta Kappa’s writing intern- Foodways Alliance’s office ship program is primarily for juniors manager. She earned her BA and and seniors majoring in liberal arts MA in Spanish at the University or sciences and who attend institu- of Georgia. tions where chapters are sheltered. George McDaniel is a second Interns must make a five-month year master’s student at the commitment to the program and “Kathryn earned the honor,” Center. He received a BA in prepare a minimum of six publish- Buchanan said. “Dr. Sandra Spiroff history from Davidson College. able articles for the . encouraged her to apply for it.” Key Reporter Ted Ownby, director of the Interns write and conduct research Spiroff, associate professor of Center, holds a joint appointment from their home campuses. Besides mathematics and chapter vice in southern studies and history. being good writers, interns need to president, was made aware of James’s be able to work independently and writing talents by John Samonds, Brian Powers was the Center’s meet deadlines with a minimum associate dean of the Sally McDonnell public relations intern for the of oversight and supervision. They Barksdale Honors College. Spring semester and is a May must accept assigned topics and/or “After she expressed interest in 2017 graduate. pitch their stories to the editor for the internship, I solicited writing Edwin Smith is a communica- approval before a completed article samples from her, offered some tions specialist at the University is submitted. small critiques, and put her name of Mississippi. “I submitted my first piece on forward to the society,” Spiroff Christina Steube is a communi- March 1 and have submitted two said. “I was very impressed with cations specialist at the University more since,” James said. “My writing Kathryn’s writing ability. I was of Mississippi. profiled members of Phi Beta Kappa hopeful that she would receive the who break barriers in their member- internship since I have rarely seen a Mary Thompson is a board ship, scholarship, and/or profes- student write so well, engaging the member of the Mississippi sional lives. My first piece was on interest of the reader.” Institute of Arts and Letters. She Mary Annette Anderson, the first Each intern receives full credit lives in Clarksdale, Mississippi. African American woman to gain for his or her work. Those who Jay Watson is a professor of membership in Phi Beta Kappa.” complete the program receive a English at the University of The organization does not formal certificate from Phi Beta Mississippi and director of the guarantee that every submitted Kappa and may request a letter of Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha article will be published. But recommendation from the program. Conference. His publications even with no pay or guarantee “I saw this opportunity as an exten- include Forensic Fictions: The of publication, it is an honor for sion of the honor that is Phi Beta Lawyer Figure in Faulkner, Faulkner James to have been chosen as an Kappa,” James said. “It speaks to the and Whiteness, and Reading for the intern, said Luanne Buchanan, UM confidence my university community Body: The Recalcitrant Materiality of instructional associate professor of has in my academic ability.” Southern Fiction, 1893–1985. Spanish and secretary-treasurer of the campus Phi Beta Kappa chapter. Edwin Smith

Page 14 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register Archiving and Promoting Mississippi Southern Studies Alumni Work in Cultural Institutions across the State

Many southern studies graduates find their Laura Anne Heller the knowledge gleaned from her way into jobs that combine cultural life southern studies work are both and museums, publishing, and tourism. beneficial and necessary. An added bonus is that these alumni “There is much, of course, continue to make decisions about topics still to learn, and being a native they studied as undergraduate or graduate Mississippian certainly helps, but I students. Here are the stories of five gradu- often recall things I learned in Dr. ates, all of whom work in Mississippi Ownby’s Old South class, or I will institutions in the Jackson area. meet someone who is connected to a southern author that I learned about in Dr. Young-Minor’s or Dr. McKee’s literature classes,” said Heller, who Laura Anne Heller graduated from UM in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in English and For the past year and a half, southern studies. Laura Anne Heller has been Heller said she enjoys listening to the acquisitions3 and collections the stories shared by Mississippians coordinator for the Archives as they donate their family artifacts and Records Services Division and make their stories available. of the Mississippi Department of grandfather’s World War I letters Heller said, “MDAH benefits Archives and History (MDAH). will be arranged, described, and Mississippians by preserving these The main part of her work is facil- made accessible to the general histories for years to come. I want itating the acquisition of historic public for research and study. the public to learn from those collections from potential and We’re always looking for donations personal stories by visiting the familiar donors. A comprehensive concerning Mississippi history archives and viewing collections, historical agency, the department and Mississippians, be it Civil by browsing the website’s digital collects, preserves, and provides War–era documents, Vietnam War archives pages, or by visiting the access to the archival resources materials, personal thoughts of a many historic sites managed by of the state, administers museums Winona grandmother, the business MDAH,” she said. and historic sites, and oversees ledgers of a lumber mill, or corre- statewide programs for historic spondence of families who have preservation, government records lived in the Mississippi Delta for management, and publications. generations.” Mary Margaret Miller White “I visit with donors who have With fellow archival staff, Heller a desire to preserve history and processes and catalogs collections Mary Margaret Miller White (MA have decided that the Archives is so that the seasoned professor 2007) is the bureau manager for the best home for these old photo- and the average curious person Visit Mississippi,3 which allows graphs, letters, maps, books, broad- can have equal access to historic her to work with cultural institu- sides, business records, ledgers, information. Since her work tions, convention and visitors audio-visual recordings, and other entails acquiring and receiving bureaus, municipalities, and indi- valuable, yet overlooked, historical collections about Mississippi viduals across the state to help collections,” Heller said. “During history and Mississippians, a build tourism infrastructures in these visits I relate how the donor’s familiarity with those subjects and Mississippi, music and cultural

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 15 Mary Margaret Miller White According to White, out-of- Michelle Jones state visitors spent $4.8 billion in Mississippi in 2016, and her role at Visit Mississippi helps to showcase the good that is happening on the local level, and hopefully in turn attract more visitors to the state. “This job has afforded me the great opportunity to travel across the state and get to know the determined people who make magic happen every day in Mississippi. I’ve been in public service for nearly a decade, and through that time I’ve seen Main Streets grow and flourish, artists become municipal leaders, and entire towns embrace creativity, culture, and history as the calling-card for community development,” said White, who began working at the Mississippi Arts tourism in particular. She started Commission in 2008. “I’m continu- Historic Preservation Act of 1966 working for the Mississippi ally impressed and amazed by and encourages preservation at the Development Authority/Visit the people of Mississippi who are federal, state, and local levels.” Mississippi in August 2013. working to make their hometowns, Her degree makes her a well- “We do this through familiar initia- and the state as a whole, a great rounded advocate for preserva- tives like the Mississippi Blues Trail, place to live, work and share with tion, and her background helps her the Country Music Trail, and the the world.” understand the myriad pieces that Freedom Trail, as well as through make Mississippi’s cultural land- tourism promotions and programs scape important. “The cultural, associated with literary heritage, culi- social, political contexts contribute nary attractions, the Civil War, and Michelle Jones to the importance these small and civil rights,” White said. “Currently, large landmarks hold for us in I’m serving as the point person for Michelle Jones is the local preser- our communities,” she said. “My MDA’s Mississippi Bicentennial vation assistance coordinator in background in southern studies also programming in 2017. I also host the historic preservation3 division helps me understand how tourism, Next Stop Mississippi, a weekly hour- for the Mississippi Department of Main Street, transportation, and the long program on Mississippi Public Archives and History, which means arts are all components that make Broadcasting Radio.” she works with sixty-two commu- preservation work in Mississippi.” White said the Center taught her nities throughout the state to assist Jones said that she didn’t realize about the importance of integrity and them with local preservation plan- she could get paid to look at historic authenticity in storytelling. “Much of ning. After graduating with her MA buildings. “My parents doubted I’d what we do here at Visit Mississippi in southern studies in 1994, she began get a decent job with a liberal arts involves branding and marketing, working for MDAH and was origi- degree. I’m really fortunate that my so it is important to me to try and nally hired to write National Register undergraduate and graduate degrees uphold the Center’s standards of a nominations because of her interdis- from the Center for the Study of full, honest depiction of Mississippi’s ciplinary background. However, the Southern Culture gave me a firm past and present,” she said. “Our department also needed a person to educational background to work in team works to move beyond ‘moon- work in the field with local govern- my dream job my entire career.” light and magnolias’ as the singular ments, so her position shifted. Through her work with MDAH, way to attract visitors to the state. “Currently, I work with city and Jones said she not only met her The Mississippi Freedom Trail, which county governments to formu- husband at a preservation conference, tells the story of the civil rights move- late policy that allows them to but has made good friends over the ment in Mississippi, helps us tran- promote, protect, and preserve past twenty-three years working with scend conventional tourism niches their cultural resources,” Jones said. people at the local level to preserve and into candid, cognitive experi- “The Certified Local Government the important historic resources in ences for the traveler.” Program is a part of the National their communities.

Page 16 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register “Although my program has social media posts, and answers South, to take an objective look at certain regulations, it is a volun- reference requests. why people tour the South, and to tary program, not a mandated one The Mississippi Library foster her interests in literature and for local governments,” said Jones. Commission serves their patrons, as history while simultaneously encour- “I’ve seen homes, commercial well as helping out other libraries. aging her to explore education and buildings, schools, and courthouses “We hold workshops and send out marketing in the public sector. restored to previous grandeur for consultants to help teach state librar- “The best part of my job is the their original use, but there have ians various tools of the trade to interconnectedness of MDAH, been so many other buildings that best help their patrons,” Gill said. which for me means that I have have been rehabilitated to house “These can range from workshops the opportunity to be involved in museums, offices, restaurants, and about genealogy to helping librar- everything from website manage- a variety of other functions, giving ians navigate the government’s ment to exhibit programming to all these historic buildings another E-rate program. Of course, we’re training Mississippi’s teachers,” lifetime of function. These build- still a library ourselves (we have a Knox said. “One of my favorite ings teach us about ourselves and ton of state periodicals), and we help aspects of my work is developing stimulate the local economy and patrons throughout the state with our programs and materials for the tax base.” Talking Books program, our large- public. I love connecting the public print books program, and answering with the resources that our depart- information requests from people.” ment has to offer.” Gill is most interested in engaging Knox is on the team that Katie Gill with the public via reference requests develops websites for the Museum and social media. “I do regular social of Mississippi History and the A 2016 southern studies MA media ‘throwback Thursday’-type Mississippi Civil Rights Museum, graduate, Katie Gill is the digital posts, usually containing material and she is creating an exhibit catalog documents coordinator3 at the from old library newsletters. It’s for a temporary display of forty Mississippi Library Commission really amazing to see a post about a quilts from the state collection. This (MLC), which means she keeps librarian from the 1970s or something June, MDAH hosts the third annual their digital collection up to date. like that and have people chime in Summer Teachers School, a program MLC is the repository for audited with, ‘Oh, I know that person.’” where educators from across the financial reports for Mississippi state spend a week learning how to counties, state agencies, and school research at the state archives and use districts. Part of her job involves that research in their classrooms. digitizing those audited financial Nell Linton Knox reports to proper archival stan- Rebecca Lauck Cleary dards and uploading them to the Since starting work a year and a public database. She also cata- half ago as the historic resources logues new periodicals, writes specialist in the3 programs and communication division of the Nell Linton Knox Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the core of Nell Linton Knox’s work has been creating and expanding their many educational programs while also making the public aware of those opportunities through marketing strategies. While a southern studies student in 2011, Knox worked a semester- long internship with the Public Information office at MDAH, which proved to be an invaluable experience. She said it was exciting to find a career opportunity that combines her interests and skill set. Knox said the southern studies program prepared her for her posi- Katie Gill tion by enabling her to explore the history of tourism in the American

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 17 New Volume in Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Series Published

William Faulkner remains a histo- modern childhood, and the literary rian’s writer. A distinguished roster of histories of antislavery writing and historians have referenced Faulkner in pulp fiction to illuminate Faulkner’s their published work. They are drawn work. Others in the collection to him as a fellow historian, a shaper explore the meaning of Faulkner’s of narrative reflections on the meaning fiction for such professional histo- of the past; as a historiographer, a rians as C. Vann Woodward and theorist, and dramatist of the fraught Albert Bushnell Hart. In these ways enterprise of doing history; and as a and more, Faulkner and History offers historical figure himself, especially fresh insights into one of the most following his midcentury emergence persistent and long-recognized as a public intellectual after winning elements of the Mississippian’s the Nobel Prize for Literature. artistic vision. Coedited by Jay Watson and James Jay Watson is Howry Professor G. Thomas, Jr., Faulkner and History of Faulkner Studies and professor brings together historians and literary of English at the University of scholars to explore the many facets of Mississippi. He is the editor of Faulkner’s relationship to history: the Conversations with Larry Brown, historical contexts of his novels and Faulkner and Whiteness, and coed- stories; his explorations of the histo- itor of Faulkner’s Geographies and riographic imagination; his engage- Fifty Years after Faulkner. James G. ment with historical figures from both Contributors to this volume draw Thomas, Jr. is the Center’s asso- the regional and national past; his on the history of development in ciate director for publications. He influence on professional historians; the Mississippi Valley, the construc- is editor of Conversations with Barry his pursuit of alternate modes of tion of Confederate memory, the Hannah, coeditor of Faulkner and the temporal awareness; and the histo- history and curriculum of Harvard Black Literatures of the Americas, and ries of print culture that shaped the University, twentieth-century an editor for the twenty-four-volume production, reception, and criticism debates over police brutality and New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. of Faulkner’s work. temperance reform, the history of

continued from 2 Director’s Column other idealistic goal goes back to Study of Southern Culture? First, work. And finally, while authors the origins of encyclopedia making. the Center showed its ability to from all over the state, the country, In the eighteenth century, French identify, organize, and edit schol- and, in fact, the world contrib- organizers of their Encyclopedie hoped arly work in the Encyclopedia of uted to The Mississippi Encyclopedia, to spread knowledge beyond the Southern Culture and The New southern studies students, alumni, control of elites, especially those in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. faculty, and staff did research, the church and government, and put Second, the southern studies contributed photographs, read and it into the hands of ordinary folks. emphases on cultural expression proofread, suggested and wrote a I don’t know that the goals of The and creativity, on seeing musicians good number of entries, and made Mississippi Encyclopedia are quite that and activists as being at least as the process more of an adventure grand, but maybe the book helps interesting as scholars and political than most fourteen-year book proj- people take their own routes to figures, and on a wide and broad ects tend to be. understanding Mississippi. approach to what and how to study Finally, why the Center for the seem well suited for encyclopedia Ted Ownby

Page 18 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register READING THE SOUTH Book Reviews and Notes by Faculty, Staff, Students, and Friends of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture

Consuming Identity: The Role of Food beyond causality, where communication scholars look at how a message causes someone to act in some specific in Redefining the South way, to understanding how discourse ‘makes something By Ashli Quesinberry Stokes and Wendy possible or creates conditions of possibility.’” That the authors explicitly use their case study to defend Atkins-Sayre. Jackson: University Press of these more expansive rhetorical approaches results in Mississippi, 2016. 231 pages, $39.49 cloth. moments of dense theoretical scaffolding; however, they flesh out their argument with concrete Long before the recent southern food examples from various restaurants in the revival, southerners reveled in the tradi- ten southern states they traveled to to tions and nostalgia of their region’s food- gather research as participant observers. ways: grandmothers measuring in pinches They note the unpretentious decor of and handfuls, neighbors shelling peas on Weaver D’s in Athens, Georgia, and the porches, communities gathering for fish iconic country music that plays in the fries and pig pickings and crawfish boils. background at Sean Brock’s Husk in As food writers deservedly gain credibility Charleston, South Carolina. They describe as serious journalists and food studies as the aroma of barbecue that wafts down serious scholarship, the idea of a “welcome airport terminals in Memphis, Charlotte, table”—where diverse individuals bridge and Birmingham. They consider the divides as they gather over a meal—has visual impact of entering Doe’s Eat gained both traction and ardent detrac- Place in Greenville, Mississippi, directly tors in modern discourses on southern through the kitchen. That a dining experi- foodways. ence, whether at home or in public, can John T. Edge, director of the Southern stimulate so many senses simultaneously Foodways Alliance, recounts that, in his enhances its potential to elicit identifica- experience, direct discussions of controversial issues tion with the region, and consequently, with its diverse facing the South alienate audiences, yet “at tables piled array of inhabitants. high with country ham, buttermilk biscuits, and redeye Perhaps the most compelling analysis Stokes and Atkins- gravy, I’ve marveled as all have leaned in close to eat, to Sayre offer is their consideration of southern hospitality as talk, to listen.” If food in general, and southern food in it relates to a southern obsession with order. Arguably, this particular, does indeed wield this power to unite indi- obsession buttressed the institution of slavery, Jim Crow viduals who espouse opposing worldviews, Consuming politics, oppressive gender norms, and an array of economic Identity: The Role of Food in Redefining the South seeks to injustices. Yet, citing Kenneth Burke, the authors assert that explain why. this same craving for order may also drive hospitality: “We Analyzing the region’s cuisine from a rhetorical are drawn to look for ways to use symbols to join together,” perspective, Ashli Quesinberry Stokes and Wendy Atkins- to diminish discomfort between divided individuals. Sayre argue that southern food “invite[s] individuals to Southern food, despite its regional variety, often provides identify with others and to embrace particular identities” the symbols needed to identify with people we otherwise that supersede their differences, perhaps even long would not. Stokes and Atkins-Sayre observed this phenom- enough that meaningful dialogue may occur. enon repeatedly, though not exclusively, as they visited Two important rhetorical approaches underpin their restaurants and gatherings around the region. analysis. While rhetorical criticism has traditionally Consuming Identity is unquestionably optimistic in its examined textual artifacts as symbols with persuasive view of southern food’s potential to inject new, more potential, Stokes and Atkins-Sayre embrace a broader inclusive narratives into the stories that constitute definition, with which they also analyze tools and objects southern identity on the individual and collective level. associated with southern cooking, as well as the smells, However, Stokes and Atkins-Sayre are quick to qualify sounds, and visual and tactile elements that constitute an this potential at every turn. While our symbol-laden eating experience at a given place and time in the South. cuisine may create opportunities for engagement and Secondly, the authors leverage their study as a case for reconciliation, this is by no means a foregone conclusion. constitutive rhetorical theory, a tradition that “moves In effect, then, the book may be read as a call-to-action

The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 19 for those who orchestrate moments in which people organizational template of the minstrel show was rela- gather together over food. From white tablecloth restau- tively slow. The blues’ emergent aesthetic of “truth,” rants to no-frills barbecue joints, curators of eating they argue, reflected a “righteous compact between the experiences have ample tools to animate guests to performer and the black community audience, an entente embrace a common southern identity that unifies rather that personified that triumph of the real over the false.” than divides. At a moment when southern food is in the To demonstrate this transition, the authors carefully national spotlight, the symbolic welcome table could help examine the institutional changes associated with the growth redefine the region as inclusive and truly hospitable. of black vaudeville, as well as the career development of key entertainers. Minstrelsy provided the first avenue in profes- Jenna Mason sional entertainment for many African Americans in the wake of the Civil War, and around the turn of the century, as the authors demonstrate in the first chapter, many minstrel show veterans found work in variety shows held in saloon theaters and park pavilions across the South. The Original Blues: The Emergence of The proliferation of such venues provided a “proper the Blues in African American Vaudeville platform for the concrete formulation and emergence of the blues,” and in the second chapter the authors trace By Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff. Jackson: the career on this circuit of Butler “String Beans” May, University Press of Mississippi, 2017. 480 the biggest star of the blues during the 1910s, whose pages, $85.00 cloth. repertoire of blues and ribald humor shocked the vaudeville establishment. Popular narratives about the founding String Beans is largely unknown to blues and growth of the blues usually hinge on aficionados—Blind Lemon Jefferson, who moments of discovery, most notably W. C. first achieved fame in 1926 is usually Handy’s famous encounter with a lone thought of as the first male star—largely guitar player at the Tutwiler, Mississippi, because he never recorded before train station who was playing the “weirdest his death in 1917, and, more broadly, music I ever heard.” Likewise, the rise because blues historiography has been of the blues recording industry is often so heavily anchored in discography. (In framed as a result of happenstance—the addition to Abbott and Seroff’s other 1920 recordings by Mamie Smith took works, the recent books Staging the place after the white performer Sophie Blues: From Tent Shows to Tourism [Duke Tucker couldn’t appear in the studio, and University Press, 2014] by Paige A. the subsequent hit “Crazy Blues” took the McGinley and Long Lost Blues: Popular music business by surprise. Blues in America, 1850–1920 [University of The Original Blues doesn’t deliver an “aha!” moment Illinois Press, 2010] by Peter C. Muir are notable excep- of discovery, but instead examines “the appearance and tions to the discographic focus.) Chapter 3 examines popularization of the blues on the black professional other popular male blues singers during the teens, and stage.” It does, however, provide a general date: 1909 their popularity is vividly demonstrated by the fact that was the first year that both a song was published that Baby Seals, who died in 1916, rented the five hundred– referenced blues as a style and that the African American seat Bijou Theater in Greenwood, Mississippi, in late 1910 entertainment press began using the term. for a five-month or longer engagement. The book completes Abbott and Seroff’s trilogy of Chapter 4 addresses the rise of the “blues queen” in books on African American entertainment, preceded by southern vaudeville, and here the authors address the Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, emergence and spread of the regal appellation and the 1889–1895 (2009) and Ragged but Right: Black Traveling social significance of its replacement of the term “coon Shows, “Coon Songs,” and the Dark Pathway to Blues and shooter,” a term still applied by the African American Jazz (2012), and like these, the vast amount of content press to Ma Rainey in 1909. They also move away from here is derived from contemporary accounts in African the popular notion of branding Rainey and Bessie Smith American newspapers. There’s relatively little theorizing as instigators of the new form, placing them instead in the here, though the authors’ relative terse statements about broader context of a field where many female performers the cultural, political, and social significance of the emer- were gradually working blues into their repertoires over gence of the blues are amply backed by evidence. the course of the 1910s. The authors suggest that black vaudeville “served as a The rise of the “blues queens” was closely tied to the filtering agent through which the residue of ‘Ethiopian establishment in 1921 of the Theater Owners Booking minstrelsy’ was eventually expunged,” although the Association (TOBA), a circuit of African American– process of displacing popular “coon songs” or the oriented theaters. Abbott and Seroff’s contributions here

Page 20 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register are in framing the emergence of the TOBA (known among UNIVERSITY PRESS OF MISSISSIPPI performers as “tough on black asses”) in terms of prior attempts at establishing circuits and associated turf wars. The final chapter addresses the “commercialization of the blues” between 1920 and 1926, the peak era of Hazel Brannon Smith the “blues queens” recordings. African American entre- The Female Crusading preneurs became entrenched on Tin Pan Alley and, as Scalawag a popular Ziegfeld Follies song from 1922 observed, By Jeffery B. Howell “It’s Getting Dark on Old Broadway.” These develop- How one woman and her ments, the authors argue, were largely tied to the cross- newspaper defied the white status over appeal of blues and jazz in the 1920s, though point quo and won a Pulitzer Prize out that the underlying institutional racism of the music industry remained relatively unchanged. The conclusion to this remarkable and groundbreaking book consists of a few pages at the end of this chapter that address the rise of “country blues” guitarists to the forefront of the blues recording industry in the mid-’20s. A Literary History These (almost exclusively) men, even stars such as of Mississippi Jefferson and Charley Patton, worked almost completely Edited by Lorie Watkins outside the African American entertainment business The first comprehensive addressed here, and when they did appear it was usually history of literature from under the category of “novelty.” a state with perhaps the While The Original Blues doesn’t attempt to address nation’s richest literary lode complementary stylistic or institutional developments associated with vaudeville blues’ rural counterpart, Abbott and Seroff do note the considerable presence in that field of “songs, metaphors, and melodies” derived from the stage, and conclude the book by simply noting, “Country blues Living in Mississippi came of age in the shadow of popular vaudeville blues.” The Life and Times of Evans Harrington Scott Barretta By Robert W. Hamblin The biography of a scholar, an author, an advocate for racial advancement, and a liberal who BOOKS IN BRIEF stayed in Mississippi Maintaining Segregation: Children and Racial Instruction in the South, 1920–1955 By LeeAnn G. Reynolds (LSU Press) The Artist’s Sketch In Maintaining Segregation, LeeAnn A Biography of Painter Kate Freeman Clark G. Reynolds explores how black By Carolyn J. Brown and white children in the early The unexpected story of a twentieth-century South learned painter who flourished then about segregation in their homes, withdrew and a small town’s schools, and churches. As public discovery of a treasure lynchings and other displays of racial violence declined in the 1920s, a culture of silence developed around segregation, serving to forestall, absorb, AVAILABLE AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSELLER and deflect individual challenges to the racial hier- archy. Reynolds argues that the cumulative effect of the racial instruction southern children received, prior to highly publicized news such as the Brown v. Board of Education decision and the Montgomery bus boycott, www.upress.state.ms.us perpetuated segregation by discouraging discussion or 800-737-7788 critical examination.

SouthernRegisterSpring2017.indd 1 5/10/17 12:40 PM The Southern Register Spring/Summer 2017 Page 21 Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha 2017 “Faulkner and Money” July 23–27, 2017

William Faulkner enthusi- assistance from Faulkner that asts will gather in Oxford for allowed her father, Earnest “Faulkner and Money: The FAULKNER McEwen Jr., to attend college. Economies of Yoknapatawpha,” Brothers Ike and Cham Trotter July 23–27, 2017, at the AND MONEY of, respectively, Greenville University of Mississippi. In THE ECONOMIES OF and Belzoni, Mississippi, will addition to this year’s keynote YOKNAPATAWPHA AND BEYOND discuss Faulkner’s relationship presentations, January’s call for with their great-grandparents, papers has yielded twenty-four Will and Sallie Bryant of additional panel speakers. GLENNRAY Varner's TUTOR, Will , oil on canvas, 16 x 24 inches, 1994, Collection of M. Thomas Inge, Ashland, Virginia Grocery Coffeeville, Mississippi, from Presenting for the first time whom Faulkner arranged in at the annual Faulkner and 1930 to purchase the Bailey Yoknapatawpha Conference place in Oxford, which he will be Daniel Anderson subsequently rechristened (Dominican University, River Rowan Oak. The presen- Forest, Illinois), Matthew tation by the Trotters will Bolton (Seven Hills School, include excerpts from their Cincinnati), James Deutsch collection of eighty never- (Center for Folklife and The University of Mississippi before-published letters from Cultural Heritage, Smithsonian Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha Conference Faulkner to the Bryants. Oxford, Mississippi, July 23–27, 2017 Institution), Sarah Harsh The University of Mississippi announces the Forty-Fourth Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference. On Wednesday, July 26, the The conference is sponsored by the Department of English and the Center for the Study of Southern Culture and coordinated by the Office of Outreach and Continuing Education.

(Emory University), Zoran For more information: Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference, Office of Outreach and Continuing Education, Department of Archives and Post Office Box 879, The University of Mississippi. University, MS 38677-0879. Telephone: 662-915-7283. Kuzmanovich (Davidson Fax: 662-915-5138. Internet: www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner Special Collections of the J. D. Bronze busts of William Faulkner and Chickasaw chief Piomingo by William Beckwith; Photos by Robert Jordan / University Communications

College), Caroline Miles F&Y17Poster.indd 1 2/6/17 11:52 PM Williams library will present (University of Texas, Rio a lunchtime talk by Kathleen Grande Valley), and Han Qiqun (Nanjing Forestry Woodruff Wickham, associate professor at the Meek University, China). School of Journalism and New Media at the University Returning to the conference this summer are Ted of Mississippi. Professor Wickham will speak about the Atkinson (Mississippi State University), John Michael experiences of Newsday reporter Michael Dorman, who Corrigan (National Chengchi University, Taiwan), David turned both to the writings of William Faulkner and to A. Davis (Mercer University), John Duvall (Purdue the novelist’s brother John Faulkner for insight into the University), Sarah E. Gardner (Mercer University), local response to the integration of the university in 1962. Ryan Heryford (California State University, East Bay), The October 1 story Dorman filed from Oxford for the Robert Jackson (University of Tulsa), Mary A. Knighton magazine bore the headline, “Oxford, 1962, Faulkner (Aoyama Gakuin University, Japan), Peter Lurie Novel Comes True,” evidence of how powerfully the (University of Richmond), John T. Matthews (Boston Nobel laureate had shaped Dorman’s imagination of the University), Stephen Railton (University of Virginia), South and the community of Oxford. D. Matthew Ramsey (Salve Regina University, Newport, For registration and other conference information, Rhode Island), Christopher Rieger (Southeast Missouri visit the Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha website at State University), Terrell Tebbetts (Lyon College), www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/faulkner or contact Michael Wainwright (Royal Holloway, University of Jay Watson, director, at [email protected]. Discount London), Lorie Watkins (William Carey University), and rates for the conference are available for groups of five or Michael Zeitlin (University of British Columbia). more students. Inexpensive dormitory housing is avail- A special evening session on Sunday, July 23, will able for interested registrants. Contact Justin Murphree at feature presentations about two area families with [email protected] for details. personal financial ties to William Faulkner. Gloria Burgess, professor of transformational leadership at Jay Watson the University of Seattle, will speak about the financial

Page 22 Spring/Summer 2017 The Southern Register CALLS FOR PAPERS Study the South A Center for the Study of Southern Culture Publication Study the South, a peer-reviewed, multimedia, open- studies, race studies, ethnicity, folklife, and art to submit access journal published by the Center for the Study article abstracts or complete manuscripts. Final manu- of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi, scripts and projects should attempt to build upon and announces a general call for papers. expand the understanding of the American South in Study the South exists to encourage interdisciplinary order to be considered for publication. academic thought and discourse on the culture of the To submit an original paper for consideration, please American South. Editors welcome submissions by e-mail James G. Thomas, Jr. at [email protected]. faculty members, advanced graduate students, and Submissions must be previously unpublished. professional scholars doing work in the fields of history, Study the South is available via the Center’s website at anthropology, sociology, music, literature, documen- www.studythesouth.org. tary studies, gender studies, religion, geography, media Faulkner & Yoknapatawpha 2018 “Faulkner and Slavery” • July 22–26, 2018 During his apprenticeship and early years as a published • the political economy of slavery in Faulkner writer, William Faulkner evinced little serious interest in • Faulkner’s fiction in/against the history of slavery as the issue of slavery or in the lives of the enslaved—their traced by leading scholars of the subject experiences, words, deeds, interiority, personal relation- • comparative histories or geographies of slavery in ships, or historical legacies. This is perhaps surprising, Faulkner given the fact of slaveholding, and the likelihood of • Faulkner’s relationship to slave narrative or other sexual liaisons between enslavers and the enslaved, in genres from the literary history of New World slavery Faulkner’s family history. After 1930, however, the year • comparative analyses of slavery/the enslaved in he moved his family into an antebellum mansion built Faulkner and other writers or artists by a slaveholding Mississippi planter, Faulkner turned • cultural legacies of slavery in Faulkner’s fictions of repeatedly to the subject of slavery over the next two postslavery decades or so of his writing career. The forty-fifth annual • the racial politics of white-authored representations of Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha conference will take up African American enslavement as its guiding concern the question, “What did slavery mean in the life, ancestry, environment, imagination, and The program committee especially encourages full career of William Faulkner?” Facets of this question worth panel proposals for seventy-five-minute conference exploring may include but are no means limited to: sessions. Such proposals should include a one-page overview of the session topic or theme, followed by two-page • histories of slavery in/and the Falkner and/or Butler abstracts for each of the panel papers to be included. We families of Mississippi also welcome individually submitted one- to two-page • Mississippi slavery and the history of the Robert abstracts for fifteen- to twenty-minute panel papers. Panel Sheegog home in Oxford (later Rowan Oak) papers consist of approximately 2,500 words and will • other histories of slavery in Oxford, Lafayette be considered by the conference program committee County, and north Mississippi, or at the University of for possible expansion and inclusion in the conference Mississippi, as contexts for Faulkner’s writings or as volume published by the University Press of Mississippi. depicted in his work Session proposals and panel paper abstracts must • the figure of the enslaved in Faulkner’s writings be submitted by January 31, 2018, preferably through • the “world the slaves made” in Faulkner’s work e-mail attachment. All manuscripts, proposals, abstracts, • Faulkner’s accounts of the master-slave relationship and inquiries should be addressed to Jay Watson, • the figure of the enslaver in Faulkner Department of English, University of Mississippi, PO • institutions of slavery: representations or historical Box 1848, University, MS 38677-1848. E-mail: jwatson@ legacies of the Atlantic slave trade, the Middle olemiss.edu. Decisions for all submissions will be made Passage, the slave market, the slave plantation, plaçage, by March 15, 2018. Additional information can be found slave discipline/punishment at www.outreach.olemiss.edu/events/Faulkner.

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