SouthTalks is a series of events (including lectures, performances, film screenings, and panel discussions) exploring the interdisciplinary nature of Southern Studies. This series takes place in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory unless otherwise noted, and is free and open to the public.
A full schedule of upcoming events is available on the Center's website.
2024
Southern Environmental Justice, Benjamin Chavis
Our Movement Starts Here: Panel Discussion, John Rash, Melanie Ho, Benjamin Chavis, and Dollie Burwell
The Cash Value of Racism in America—and Its Schools, Tracie McMillan
Faulkner's Enduring Queerness, Phillip Gordon
Deep Inside the Blues with Margo Cooper, Joe Ayers & Trent Ayers, Adam Gussow, Margo Cooper, Joe Ayers, and Trent Ayers
Good Night New Deal: The Waltons & the Great Depression in American Memory, Darren Grem
A Q&A about "After Sherman" with Jon-Sesrie Goff, Jon-Sesrie Goff
Ain’t I Pretty?: Sweet Daddy Grace & the Sacred Blues of the Badman, Xavier Sivels
Amplifying Anotherness: Disrupting Dominant Narratives About Appalachia, Neema Avashia
Continuing the Legacy of Freedom Summer: A Panel Moderated by W. Ralph Eubanks, W. Ralph Eubanks, LaToysha Brown, MacArthur Cotton, Margaret Kibbee, Karanja Matory, and Markyel Pittman
Unearthing Black Midwifery Stories and Traditions, Linda J. Holmes
The Tacky South, Katherine A. Burnett and Monica Carol Miller
The Creative Legacy of the Unusual Artist Ms. L. V. Hull, Yaphet Smith and Annalise Flynn
2023
Shalom Y'all: The History of Jews in Mississippi, Stuart Rockoff
Introducing the Southern Music Research Center, Burgin Matthews
Jews, Heathens, and Other Dissenters, Shari Rabin
Sanctuary frēwuhn ft. Jennifer and Tyler Swanner, Frewuhn, Jennifer Swanner, and Tyler Swanner
Whiteness in Crisis, James M. Thomas
Jonesland: A Legacy of Extraction and Survival, Jazmin Miller and Anya Groner
(Un)Known Legacies, T. Harlan Bozeman
Gallery Talk: Year of Wandering, Brooke White
Running Away From Early America, Jessica Taylor
How I Changed My Mind About How Minds Change, David McRaney
I Don’t Wanna Say the Wrong Thing!: How to Reconcile with Race in the Classroom, Frederick Gooding Jr.
Blackout: The Continuing Assault Against Black Bodies, Barbara Harris Combs
2022
Where We Matter: Dean Lucy Diggs Slowe, Howard Women, and the Co-Creation of Campus Belonging, 1922–1937, Tamara Beauboeuf-Lafontant
Region, Race, and History: Racial Palimpsests in the Southern U. S., Angel A. Parham and Catarina Passidomo
Coming Full Circle: My Journey through the University of Mississippi, to Many Points Beyond and Back-, Dorothy Quaye Chapman Reed and Greg Johnson
I Am from Here: Stories and Recipes from a Southern Chef, Vishwesh Bhatt and Sara Camp Milam
Race Land: The Ecology of Segregation, Maarten Zwiers and Simone Delerme
Roadside South, David Wharton and Melanie Ho
Voces Sureñas: Case Studies of Spanish in Northern Mississippi and Eastern North Carolina, Stephen Fafulas, Matthew J. Van Hoose, and Kathryn McKee
Listening to the Mississippi Pictures of O.N. Pruitt, Berkley Hudson and David Wharton
Does My Message Define My Role?, Castel Sweet and Braxton Thomas
Art in Barnard, Yolande van Heerden and Afton Thomas
Eudora Welty's Visionary Modernity: An Archive of Place, Annette Trefzer
Summer Avenue Oral History Project, Annemarie Anderson, Simone Delerme, and Kelly Spivey
Shall We Stay in Hell on Earth?, Alicia Jackson, Ted Ownby, and Afton Thomas
2021
The Light in the Piazza, Nancy Maria Balach, Adam Guettel, Mary Donnelly Haskell, Blake McIver Ewing, and Kathryn McKee
The Southern Cultural Renaissance of the Early Twenty-First Century, Charles Reagan Wilson and Darren Grem
Heritage and Hate: Old South Words and Symbols at Southern Universities, Stephen Monroe, LaToya Faulk, and Kathryn McKee
Okla Humma: I Maya Moma Hoki (The Honorable People: We Have Remained in This Place), Tammy Greer and Kathryn McKee
Voices from the Mississippi Hill Country: The Benton County Civil Rights Movement, Roy DeBerry and W. Ralph Eubanks
Southerly: How collaborative storytelling makes communities more resilient, healthy, and equitable, Lyndsey Gilpin and Catarina Passidomo
Still Worth Fighting For, Joshua Myers, Jam Shakwi, and W. Ralph Eubanks
I Don’t Like the Blues: Race, Place, and the Backbeat of Black Life, B. Brian Foster, Zaire Love, and Afton Thomas
Traditional Crafts of Coastal Louisiana, Maida Owens, Janie Luster, and Afton Thomas
Indigenous Cultures and Histories of the Southeast, Dwanna L. McKay, Robbie Ethridge, and Afton Thomas
Building Activism: Landscape Architecture and Stewardship of African American Communities, Everett L. Fly and Jodi Skipper
The Emmett Till Generation: Youth Activism, Radical Protest, and Social Change in Jim Crow Mississippi, Daphne Chamberlain and Kathryn McKee
Masked Man, Black: Pandemic and Protest Poems, Frank X. Walker, Derrick Harriell, and Afton Thomas
Protests in Pro Football, 1965–2020, Charles K. Ross and Darren Grem
Southern Journey: The Migrations of the American South, 1790-2020, Edward L. Ayers and Ted Ownby
Nonviolence before King, Anthony Siracusa and Afton Thomas
2020
Whose Blues? (live Q&A), Adam Gussow, Ken Kawashima, and B. Brian Foster
You Asked For the Facts: Bobby Kennedy at the University of Mississippi, Mary Blessey, W. Ralph Eubanks, and Andy Harper
Art and Community Activism: Discussing Jackson's Public Arts Program, Adrienne Dominick, Amanda Malloy, and James G. Thomas
From Latino Orlando to International Memphis (live Q&A), Simone Delerme, Annemarie Anderson, and Catarina Passidomo
The Lebanese in Mississippi: An Oral History, James G. Thomas, Jessica Wilkerson, and John Rash
Whose Blues? Black Bluesism, Blues Universalism, and the Postmodern Paradoxes of America's Global Music (pre-recorded discussion), Adam Gussow, Ken Kawashima, and B. Brian Foster
Why Dystopia Now? Exploring the Place, Value, and Necessity of Speculative and Dystopian Themes in Maurice Carlos Ruffin's We Cast a Shadow, Maurice Carlos Ruffin, Hilary Word, and Kathryn G. McKee
From Latino Orlando to International Memphis (pre-recorded discussion), Simone Delerme
Our Body Tells a Story: A Pathway to Resilience and Wholeness (live Q&A), Anne Cafer, Meagen Rosenthal, Jennifer Conner, Brookshield Laurent, and Afton Thomas
Why Dystopia Now?, Maurice Carlos Ruffin and Hilary Word
Our Body Tells a Story: A Pathway to Resilience and Wholeness (pre-recorded discussion), Anne Cafer, Meagen Rosenthal, Jennifer Conner, and Brookshield Laurent