Date of Award
1-1-2018
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
M.A. in Southern Studies
Department
Southern Studies
First Advisor
Andy Harper
Second Advisor
Jaime L. Harker
Third Advisor
Kathryn McKee
Relational Format
dissertation/thesis
Abstract
Though the first graves of assumed-former asylum patients were discovered at the University of Mississippi Medical Center over 25 years ago, it wasn’t until 2017 that the estimated body count—which had been rising in reports for several years—rose above 7,000. Along with national attention, the growing burial site has prompted large-scale efforts by a consortium of scientists and scholars to determine how best to utilize and memorialize the remains, and yet to date, a complete cultural study that explores the sociopolitical context which these people represent has yet to be published. Consisting primarily of archival material and interviews, my research seeks to connect these bodies to the history of the Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum, with the hope of—in a practical sense— creating a crucial repository of what is known of these people’s stories. In a scholarly sense, this work attempts to use a documentary lens to reveal intersections of race and lunacy in order to understand how southern institutions influenced notions of deviance and reinforced Jim Crow.
Recommended Citation
Childs, Rachel Christine, "A Body a Day: Constructing Deviance at the Mississippi State Asylum" (2018). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1233.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/etd/1233