Document Type
Report
Publication Date
12-2-2021
Abstract
For as long as there have been “Southerners,” there have been southern Jews. An understudied, and to some, an entirely unknown community, Jews have occupied an unsteady, undefined place in the South’s racial binary. They have frequently attained a degree of provisional whiteness, and benefited from the privileges that come with it, only to be periodically reminded that their whiteness is impermanent and contextual. My work seeks to explore both the historical and contemporary Jewish experience of race in the south through photography and oral history. The goals are twofold: to preserve the memory of Jewish communities where they no longer exist, and to understand the Jewish experience today.
Emily is an analog photographer interested in documenting Jewish life and history in the south. She is currently working on photographing Jewish sites and collecting oral histories from residents in Mississippi and Louisiana. Emily holds a BA in fine arts and history from Haverford College, and is a current student in Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi.
Relational Format
image
Recommended Citation
Williams, Emily, "We had to know who we were, we had to know who we weren’t: Jewish Race and Place in the American South" (2021). Fall 2021 Showcase. 16.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/docshowcase_2021-12/16
Accessibility Status
Searchable text
Comments
Photo (Click image to see a full-size version):
Emily Williams