The U.S. South and the Global South: Research from the University of Mississippi

Presentation Location

Governors II

Document Type

Event

Start Date

8-4-2022 10:30 AM

End Date

8-4-2022 12:00 PM

Description

  • Marcos Mendoza, Session Chair
  • Martha Grace Lowry Mize (University of Mississippi) Alabama Revitalization & a New Civic Hegemony in the Rural Grassroots Main Street America.
    This article will be an overview and exploration of original Masters' research based upon qualitative ethnographic methods conducted in Marion, Alabama. Located in Perry County, Marion has approximately 3,000 inhabitants, most of whom are African-American. Marion was designated as a Main Street Community (June 2017) and began a series of revitalization initiatives to increase community pride and project confidence about future growth. Using Laclau and Mouffe's post-structuralist political theory, I plan to discuss how the Main Street America program in Marion, Alabama, and the Alabama Black Belt exemplifies the building of a 'chain of equivalence' and the forging of a new civic hegemony to mitigate local crises related to depopulation, cyclical poverty, and differential access to resources. Marion's local revitalization efforts highlight the rise of a new hegemonic discourse and social imaginary spearheaded by grassroots nonprofits like Main Street Marion. The application of this research could open the door towards building collective agency in grassroots development across disciplines and communities. This article will aim to explore a new perspective on the levels and development of cultural hegemony and the intersectional role of nonprofits by contributing to the interdisciplinary literature on the Black Belt region of the U.S. South. Key words: grassroots, economic development, civic hegemony, revitalization, interdisciplinary.
  • Cheyenne Bennett (University of Mississippi). The Competing Narratives of Tellico.
    In 1979, the Tennessee Valley Authority closed the gates on the Tellico Dam and transformed the last thirty-three free flowing miles of the Little Tennessee River into the Tellico Reservoir. The dam led to the physical, spiritual, and affective displacement of numerous groups of people who all shared a collective attachment to the land and the river. These individuals witnessed the landscape transform from an agrarian landscape to an area that is now populated and managed by upper-class lakefront communities. This paper attempts to understand the post-Tellico Dam landscape by examining how the different groups of displaced peoples are choosing to re-emplace themselves in the new landscape. I employ Margaret Rodman’s multivocality approach to understanding place to examine Tellico as a multivocal dimension that is shaped by the multiple meanings and narratives that have been ascribed to the land. I argue that the new Tellico landscape is a contested place where feelings of territorialization, land entitlement, and feelings of not belonging shape how displaced individuals choose to participate in this landscape. Key words: political ecology, displacement, re-emplacement, multivocality, and territorialization.
  • Maximilian X. Conrad (University of Mississippi). Representing Rebels: The Semiotics of Confederate Heritage in Online Spaces.
    The Fraternity of American Descendants is a nonprofit organization based in the town of Santa Bárbara d’Oeste in the Brazilian state of São Paulo since 1954. The stated goal of the organization is the maintenance of the historic patrimony of immigration by Confederados, American Southerners that fled the United States after the defeat of the Confederacy in the American Civil War. The group’s website contains sections detailing their history, interpretations, services, and events, most notably an annual Festa Confederada (“Confederate Festival”). A similar, more widely known group is the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a fraternal organization with the purpose of commemorating the cause of the Confederate States through various forms of memorialization and educational outreach. The respective websites of these groups bear striking similarities in their semiotic representations of Confederate heritage. This paper will employ Bourdieu’s theory of linguistic capital to interrogate the discursive similarities between the two websites and how they are instrumental to the creation of a lexicon of Confederate heritage. This study will also advance current scholarship on the anthropology of digital spaces as well as heritage and identity. Key words: digital anthropology, language/semiotics, race, heritage, activism.
  • Marcos Mendoza (University of Mississippi). Trial and Tribulations in the Mexican Justice System.
    This paper examines Case #90/2015 that was adjudicated in a criminal court within the Mexican state of Michoacán in July 2015. This case involved three suspects that faced homicide charges and were alleged by prosecutors to have participated in a double lynching. This lynching was believed to have been an act of vigilante justice carried out by the three suspects in retribution for crimes committed by the two deceased men. The analysis focuses on the criminal justice system process experienced by the three suspects as they were detained, incarcerated, and faced trial. Since 2008, the Mexican legal system has undergone significant reforms, most notably transitioning from inquisitorial to adversarial criminal procedures. These reforms have sought to mitigate corruption, uphold defendants’ human rights, more effectively balance the powers of prosecutors and public defenders, and respond to surging violence linked to the war on drugs. The analysis highlights a series of criminal justice failures experienced by the defendants: police violations of due process, the use of coerced evidence, prisons run by organized crime, inadequate training of defense attorneys, and violation of the right to a fair trial. These failures imperil the much-touted legal reforms occurring in Mexico. Key words: law, criminal justice, adversarial courts, prisoners, Mexico.

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Apr 8th, 10:30 AM Apr 8th, 12:00 PM

The U.S. South and the Global South: Research from the University of Mississippi

Governors II

  • Marcos Mendoza, Session Chair
  • Martha Grace Lowry Mize (University of Mississippi) Alabama Revitalization & a New Civic Hegemony in the Rural Grassroots Main Street America.
    This article will be an overview and exploration of original Masters' research based upon qualitative ethnographic methods conducted in Marion, Alabama. Located in Perry County, Marion has approximately 3,000 inhabitants, most of whom are African-American. Marion was designated as a Main Street Community (June 2017) and began a series of revitalization initiatives to increase community pride and project confidence about future growth. Using Laclau and Mouffe's post-structuralist political theory, I plan to discuss how the Main Street America program in Marion, Alabama, and the Alabama Black Belt exemplifies the building of a 'chain of equivalence' and the forging of a new civic hegemony to mitigate local crises related to depopulation, cyclical poverty, and differential access to resources. Marion's local revitalization efforts highlight the rise of a new hegemonic discourse and social imaginary spearheaded by grassroots nonprofits like Main Street Marion. The application of this research could open the door towards building collective agency in grassroots development across disciplines and communities. This article will aim to explore a new perspective on the levels and development of cultural hegemony and the intersectional role of nonprofits by contributing to the interdisciplinary literature on the Black Belt region of the U.S. South. Key words: grassroots, economic development, civic hegemony, revitalization, interdisciplinary.
  • Cheyenne Bennett (University of Mississippi). The Competing Narratives of Tellico.
    In 1979, the Tennessee Valley Authority closed the gates on the Tellico Dam and transformed the last thirty-three free flowing miles of the Little Tennessee River into the Tellico Reservoir. The dam led to the physical, spiritual, and affective displacement of numerous groups of people who all shared a collective attachment to the land and the river. These individuals witnessed the landscape transform from an agrarian landscape to an area that is now populated and managed by upper-class lakefront communities. This paper attempts to understand the post-Tellico Dam landscape by examining how the different groups of displaced peoples are choosing to re-emplace themselves in the new landscape. I employ Margaret Rodman’s multivocality approach to understanding place to examine Tellico as a multivocal dimension that is shaped by the multiple meanings and narratives that have been ascribed to the land. I argue that the new Tellico landscape is a contested place where feelings of territorialization, land entitlement, and feelings of not belonging shape how displaced individuals choose to participate in this landscape. Key words: political ecology, displacement, re-emplacement, multivocality, and territorialization.
  • Maximilian X. Conrad (University of Mississippi). Representing Rebels: The Semiotics of Confederate Heritage in Online Spaces.
    The Fraternity of American Descendants is a nonprofit organization based in the town of Santa Bárbara d’Oeste in the Brazilian state of São Paulo since 1954. The stated goal of the organization is the maintenance of the historic patrimony of immigration by Confederados, American Southerners that fled the United States after the defeat of the Confederacy in the American Civil War. The group’s website contains sections detailing their history, interpretations, services, and events, most notably an annual Festa Confederada (“Confederate Festival”). A similar, more widely known group is the Sons of Confederate Veterans, a fraternal organization with the purpose of commemorating the cause of the Confederate States through various forms of memorialization and educational outreach. The respective websites of these groups bear striking similarities in their semiotic representations of Confederate heritage. This paper will employ Bourdieu’s theory of linguistic capital to interrogate the discursive similarities between the two websites and how they are instrumental to the creation of a lexicon of Confederate heritage. This study will also advance current scholarship on the anthropology of digital spaces as well as heritage and identity. Key words: digital anthropology, language/semiotics, race, heritage, activism.
  • Marcos Mendoza (University of Mississippi). Trial and Tribulations in the Mexican Justice System.
    This paper examines Case #90/2015 that was adjudicated in a criminal court within the Mexican state of Michoacán in July 2015. This case involved three suspects that faced homicide charges and were alleged by prosecutors to have participated in a double lynching. This lynching was believed to have been an act of vigilante justice carried out by the three suspects in retribution for crimes committed by the two deceased men. The analysis focuses on the criminal justice system process experienced by the three suspects as they were detained, incarcerated, and faced trial. Since 2008, the Mexican legal system has undergone significant reforms, most notably transitioning from inquisitorial to adversarial criminal procedures. These reforms have sought to mitigate corruption, uphold defendants’ human rights, more effectively balance the powers of prosecutors and public defenders, and respond to surging violence linked to the war on drugs. The analysis highlights a series of criminal justice failures experienced by the defendants: police violations of due process, the use of coerced evidence, prisons run by organized crime, inadequate training of defense attorneys, and violation of the right to a fair trial. These failures imperil the much-touted legal reforms occurring in Mexico. Key words: law, criminal justice, adversarial courts, prisoners, Mexico.