The Division of Humanities, Department of English/Creative Writing & Theatre Emphasis presents the innovative theatrical spring production of #Wakeup! #WAKEUP opens our eyes to the deep causes of African American issues in society; the issues that is typically uncomfortable to speak about. Not just about racism but conversations that should benefit all sides of the […]

Anne Webster is a retired archivist at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History.

Many Mississippians today have had scant exposure to genuine philosophical inquiry and debate and know little about philosophy's long, distinguished history. Even those who may have taken a philosophy course in college likely studies only selected topics and have a limited sense of the wide range of issues philosophers discuss. As a result, many people […]

Please join The Freedom50 Research Group as they present critical perspectives of the Clyde Kennard case in relation to racial progress at the University of Southern Mississippi by means of a three-part lecture series in the spring of 2017. This lecture series is designed to examine the (in)visible signs of cultural change that have occurred […]

The Winning the Race Conference was developed with three overarching goals: engage in conversations with campus and community constituencies that will build an appreciation for diversity differences and a spirit of community through shared ideas; promote a broad discourse on race relations by building conversations to bring together diverse communities in the Delta through sharing […]

Diane Williams is a neo-griot, along the lines of the story­tellers from times gone by when oral historians were crucial to maintaining black folks’ history because book publishers didn’t believe the history worth chronicling. Williams is also a quilter, an artistry befitting for a woman known for paying homage to the past. Williams uses silk […]

Holly Springs native Katherine Sherwood Bonner McDowell (1849-1883) left her Mississippi Home in 1873 to pursue a literary career in the Northeast. She became "Sherwood Bonner," a writer whose witty stories shed light on the dynamics of region, race, and gender in both the reconstruction South and post-Civil War America. Bonner enjoyed brief notoriety during […]

The 2017 Oxford Conference for the Book will be held on March 29-31, 2017. The annual event celebrates books, reading, and writing while also examining the practical concerns on which the literary arts and the humanities depend, including the process of finding publication, writing methods, and the state of publishing. The conference convenes fiction and […]

On December 10, 1817, Mississippi became the nation's twentieth state. Starting in 2016 a new traveling exhibit featuring Mississippi's first constitution and the first U.S. flag to include a star for the new state will tour the state to celebrate the approaching bicentennial. The project will partner with nine local institutions across the state to […]

Please join The Freedom50 Research Group as they present critical perspectives of the Clyde Kennard case in relation to racial progress at the University of Southern Mississippi by means of a three-part lecture series in the spring of 2017. This lecture series is designed to examine the (in)visible signs of cultural change that have occurred […]

Award-winning journalist Alysia Burton Steele’s Delta Jewels: In Search of My Grandmother’s Wisdom is a visual and lyrical tribute to African American church mothers from the Mississippi Delta. This groundbreaking collection of oral histories and photographs tells nationally and internationally significant stories rooted in the Mississippi Delta, a distinctive region called “The Cradle of American […]