April 2023

Freedom Now! The Legacy of James Meredith’s March Against Fear

Tuesday, April 4

5:30:00 PM – 7:00:00 PM

Overby Center Auditorium 147

In honor of the 60th anniversary of James Meredith’s integration at the University of Mississippi, the UM Voting Engagement Ambassadors are proud to present a panel of experts on the historic Meredith March Against Fear. On June 6, 1966, James Meredith began a one-man march from Memphis, TN to advocate for African American voter registration. His march soon cut short by an assassination attempt, Meredith’s cause was elevated by thousands of civil rights leaders, including Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Stokely Carmichael, who finished the march to Jackson, MS in his honor.

Author and UM faculty fellow W. Ralph Eubanks, professor and former Jackson, MS mayor Dr. Leslie Burl-McLemore, and Dr. Aram Goudsouzian, University of Memphis professor and author of Down to the Crossroads: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Meredith March Against Fear, will lead us through an insightful conversation on this historic march, it’s ties into broader themes of the Civil Rights movement, and legacy of voting rights in Mississippi. 

While this event is free and open to the public, we encourage folks to register before they attend. For any accommodations, please contact umvotes@olemiss.edu. 

University of Mississippi Voting Engagement Ambassadors

“Civil War Memory and the History of Homosexuality” – Andrew Donnelly

Wednesday, April 5

12:00:00 PM – 1:00:00 PM

Tupelo Room, Barnard Observatory

Two developments took place at the end of the nineteenth century: one, a national shift of sympathies retrospectively toward the lost Confederate cause and, two, the emergence of homosexuality as an identity in medicine and the law. This talk brings these two seemingly disconnected phenomena together to narrate how the emergence of homosexuality operated alongside Lost Cause ideology to foster nostalgia for a pre-homosexual and pre–Civil War past.

Andrew Donnelly is a visiting assistant professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. His work on Civil War–era culture and the history of sexuality has been published in Civil War History, American Literature, Women’s Studies, and other venues. He also works with the Freedom Project Network in Mississippi and launched their Freedom Summer Collegiate program, which brings PhD students and university faculty members to teach summer courses at the Freedom Projects in Sunflower, Rosedale, and Meridian, Mississippi.

Center for the Study of Southern Culture

IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity —> Advancing Through Scholarship) Forum 

Wednesday, April 5

4:00:00 PM – 5:00:00 PM

Barnard Observatory Tupelo Room

The College of Liberal Arts will host its final IDEAS (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity —> Advancing Through Scholarship) Forum of the Semester on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 at 4 PM CST in the Barnard Observatory Tupelo Room.  This forum will feature Behind the Big House author, Dr. Jodi Skipper, and Executive Director of the Emmett Till Interpretive Center, Patrick Weems. They will share their experiences interpreting Black pasts in Mississippi’s present.  Join our speakers as they think through: Who determines which pasts are remembered; What does it mean to publicly commemorate racially charged experiences and events; How a fractured collective memory impacts who does this work; What skillset it takes; and Why this work continues to matter?

Click this link to view the webpage for the event: https://libarts.olemiss.edu/history-heritage-and-the-politics-of-memory-work-in-mississippi/. For questions about accessibility or to request accommodations, please contact the College of Liberal Arts by calling or emailing Valeria Ross at 662.915.2784 or vross@olemiss.edu. Thank you for submitting these request(s) as soon as possible.  

College of Liberal Arts

Sarahtalk: Exploring the Impact of Pregnancy Loss During Adolescence on Maladaptive Coping

Thursday, April 6

4:00:00 PM – 5:00:00 PM

This Sarahtalk will take place via Zoom. Click here to register

Presented by D’Andre Walker, Ph.D (Legal Studies). Pregnancy loss is associated with a host of negative psychological consequences. Studies have found that those who experience fetal demise are at risk of developing anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. While studies have advanced our understanding on the psychological impact of pregnancy loss, there is a lack of research investigating the behavioral outcomes associated with this life stressor. To address this gap in literature, the current project examines the relationship between pregnancy loss and maladaptive outcomes.

The Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies

Celebrating Diversity Excellence – End of Year Celebration

Tuesday, April 11

3:00:00 PM – 4:30:00 PM

Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union Ballroom

Division of Diversity and Community Engagement

Take Back The Night

Tuesday, April 11

5:30:00 PM – 8:00:00 PM

Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union Plaza 

We encourage student, faculty, and staff to come out and walk with us to raise awareness of campus sexual violence and show support for survivors at Take Back the Night. This is our largest, most impactful annual event to raise awareness of campus sexual violence and support survivors.  We know 1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men are impacted by sexual violence. Our LGBTQIA+ students, People of Color, and other minoritized identities are disproportionately impacted.  We welcome and would appreciate anyone from the University to come to support this event. We will have an organization fair and time to connect with campus partners, we will have speakers, break the silence walk, refreshments, and then a survivor speak out at the end. 

Rallying Against Sexual Assault (RASA), The Sarah Isom Center For Women and Gender Studies, Violence Intervention and Prevention Services, University Police Department, Student Activity Fee Fund, Ole Miss Athletics 

Asian Pacific Islander Desi-American (APIDA) Heritage Month Keynote: Bamboo and Cotton: The Mississippi Chinese – Lynn Woo

Thursday, April 13

5:00:00 PM – 6:15:00 PM

Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union – Auditorium 124

Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement

Sarahtalk: What We Don’t Talk About – Film Screening and Discussion

Thursday, April 20

4:00:00 PM – 5:00:00 PM

This Sarahtalk will take place via Zoom. Click here to register

Presented by Melanie Ho, MFA (SouthernDocs). What are you supposed to do when you are no longer able to love someone you’re supposed to? what we don’t talk about unpacks gendered familial tensions in the moments leading up to a wedding.

Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies

Spring Gayla 2023

Friday, April 21

8:00:00 PM – 11:00:00 PM

Student Union Ballroom

Come join UM Pride Network for our Spring Gayla 2023! The theme is “enchanted forest.” There will be music and catered food by South Depot. It is a way for LGBT+ students to socialize and have fun. All are welcome! Free food and free admission

UM Pride Network

“Race and the College Mobility Trap” – Ryan Parsons

Wednesday, April 26

12:00:00 PM – 1:00:00 PM

Tupelo Room, Barnard Observatory

Educators are used to telling students that education, and especially higher education, is a reliable pathway to social mobility. For many students, especially young people of color from disadvantaged communities, this pathway is marked by detours, potholes, and other obstacles to “conventional” success. In this talk, Parsons revisits the idea of “the mobility trap”— situations in which people must choose between mobility options that make sense locally and mobility options that make sense nationally—through interviews with a cohort of current Black college students from Sunflower County, Mississippi. These students are enrolled in a range of institutions from local community colleges to private HBCUs to flagship institutions like the University of Mississippi. How are they doing? What does success in college mean for their social networks at home? What do these successes (and challenges) mean for higher education?

Ryan Parsons is an assistant professor of sociology and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi. In his research, Parsons explores how questions of space and race intersect to structure mobility opportunities, especially in rural and depopulated communities. His dissertation was a community study of Sunflower County in the Mississippi Delta, where he spent three years working with a cohort of young people who aspired to go to college. His teaching draws on these experiences as he helps students think critically about what it means to study a community, and in particular a community they have chosen to call home.

Center for the Study of Southern Culture

Celebration of Achievement

Sunday, April 30

3:00:00 PM – 4:00:00 PM

Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union Ballroom

Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement

Registration and more information to come..

OUTGrads’ Out in the Park

Sunday, April 30

3:00:00 PM – 8:00:00 PM

Avent Park

Join our community gathering for a fun ending to Pride Week featuring a kickball game and family-friendly potluck picnic and cookout. Awards for this year’s Outstanding Allies and Advocates will be presented. Some refreshments provided; please bring a side dish, drinks, or make a $5 donation to support the organization.

OUTGrads and Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies

Oxford Pride Week

April 30-May 6