February 2022

Art Talks: Manuel Mathieu

Wednesday, February 2

5:00 PM – 6:00 PM

Virtual event on Zoom. Register for the event. 

Haitian native Manuel Mathieu will talk about his abstract paintings that evoke the trauma of surviving a 1980s uprising and the bloody Duvalier regimes. His own grandfather assisted in the regimes’ violent reign – which claimed the life of several of Mathieu’s family members. Admission is free. All are welcome.  Mathieu artworks are available for viewing on his website.

Sponsor: Department of Art & Art History

Latin American Student Organization (LASO) Monthly Meeting

Tuesday,  February 8

5:00 PM – 6:30 PM

Ole Miss Student Union – 323

Monthly meeting to go over past events, upcoming events, and any news relating to LASO.

Sponsor: Latin American Student Organization (LASO)

SouthTalks: “What Endures”

Thursday, February 10

5:30 PM – 6:30 PM

Gammill Gallery in Barnard Observatory

The artwork of Nadia Alexis—photographer, poet, and creative-writing-concentration PhD student at the University of Mississippi—will be shown in the Gammill Gallery in Barnard Observatory this spring. The photographs in her series What Endures focus on the enduring spirit of Black women and contribute to the conversation on how Black women exist in photography.

The photographs in this series began as an independent study course that Alexis took in the UM Department of Art and Art History, where she was inspired to make photographs informed by her personal experiences and those of other Black women survivors of trauma. The images in her exhibi­tion are of Alexis and her mother, all of which were taken outdoors in Oxford, Mississippi. The images explore themes of survival, freedom, and transcendence.

Alexis says that What Endures is a body of work that tells the story of returning to self and explores what it means to be a Black woman in the world. “As a poet and photographer of Haitian heritage navigating the American landscape,” she said, “I am a descendant of women survivors whose traumas I grapple with as I make photographs. Using my body and my mother’s body as the ‘Woman in White,’ I perform a relationship between the Black female subject and the natural landscape, asserting that the natural world is a place of freedom and communion, as well as a place of haunting and alienation.”

What Endures will exhibit in Gammill Gallery from January 10 to February 18. On February 10, during this Gamill Gallery walk and reception, Alexis will speak briefly about her exhibition and take questions.

 Sponsor: Center for the Study of Southern Culture

UM NAACP Week

Monday, February 14 – UM NAACP Tabling at 11:00 AM

Tuesday, February 15 – Police Brutality Panel at 6:00 PM

Wednesday, February 16 – Buy the Block at 6:00 PM

Thursday, February 17 – Bowling Night at 6:00 PM

Friday, February 18 – Black History Month March at 2:00 PM

For more information contact naacp.umiss@gmail.com

Sponsor: University of Mississippi National Association for the Advancement of Colored People

Food for the Soul

Wednesday, February 16

11:30 AM – 1:30 PM

Old Athletics Building Student Lounge

Food For The Soul is a Monthly Staff Social. Come meet other staff, enjoy a delicious meal and make new friends.  Learn to practice gratitude in your daily life! Lunch provided. RSVP: Susan Kelly smkelly2@olemiss.edu

Sponsor: Center for Intelligence and Security Studies

SouthTalks: “Listening to the Mississippi Pictures of O. N. Pruitt”

Wednesday, February 16

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Tupelo Room in Barnard Observatory

Originating in the Jim Crow era from Columbus, Mississippi, the photographs of O. N. Pruitt (1891–1967) offer a vehicle to consider the vexing interrelations of photography, community, culture, race, and historical memory. During this SouthTalk, Columbus, Mississippi-native and author of O. N. Pruitt’s Possum Town: Photographing Trouble and Resilience in the American South, Berkeley Hudson will share some of Pruitt’s photography and reflect on some of the images and themes captured.

Hudson is an associate professor emeritus of the Missouri School of Journalism. For twenty-five years he worked as a journalist, part of which at the Los Angeles Times. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Mississippi, where he majored in history and journalism. Later, he received a master’s from Columbia University and a doctorate from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was born in Columbus, Mississippi, and lives in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

Sponsor:Center for the Study of Southern Culture

 Baine Annual Lecture with Honorée Fanonne Jeffers

Wednesday, February 16

5:30 PM – 7:00 PM

Bondurant 204C 

For over twenty years, Honorée Fanonne Jeffers has been lifting her voice on issues of Black culture, racism, American history, and gender through the medium of writing. Her most recent collection, The Age of Phillis (2020) was long-listed for the National Book Award in Poetry and nominated for the 2021 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work in Poetry. She is also the author of The Gospel of Barbecue (2000); Outlandish Blues (2003); Red Clay Suite (2007); and The Glory Gets (2015). Jeffers is also a prose writer and author of the forthcoming novel The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois (2021). She is the recipient of fellowships from the American Antiquarian Society, the Bread Loaf Writers Conference, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Vermont Studio Center, the Witter Bynner Foundation through the Library of Congress, and the Tennessee Williams’ Scholarship in Fiction from the Sewanee Writers Conference. She was also the winner of the Emerging Fiction Fellowship from the Aspen Summer Words Conference and recently was honored with the 2018 Harper Lee Award for Literary Distinction, a lifetime achievement award. She is a Professor of English at the University of Oklahoma.

The Edith T. Baine Lecture Series for scholars and writers at The English Department at the University of Mississippi invites the best and brightest scholars and writers to our campus. The Baine lecturers and writers are chosen on the basis of energetic and engaged scholarship and creative work, innovative approaches, and dynamic presentation styles. The lectures showcase paradigm-shifting research and groundbreaking writing. The visiting scholars and writers are intended to expose undergraduates to the fullness of a life deeply engaged in literature while inspiring graduate students to pursue ambitious work.

Sponsor: Department of English

Black History Month Keynote: I Am UM

Wednesday, February 16

6:00 PM

Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union Ballroom

Sponsors: Ole Miss Athletics and Center for Inclusion and Cross Cultural Engagement

Leadership in Athletic Training & Healthcare

Wednesday, February 16

6:30 PM – 8:30 PM

Virtual event – Register for Zoom event

This is a 3-part speaker series event addressing diversity, equity and inclusion in Athletic Training, Healthcare and Leadership.  We will discuss key components of leadership, understanding diversity and advocating for change in your community and state. This event is made possible by the generous grant support of the National Athletics Trainers Association Ethnic Diversity Advisory Committee.

Sponsors: Athletic Training, Master of Science Program, UM Athletic Training Club

Women’s Basketball: Equality and Inclusion Night 

Thursday, February 17

8:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Sandy and John Pavilion 

The Women’s Basketball team would like to invite members of the community to join Ole Miss Athletics and the team as we raise awareness for equality and inclusion for all people. 

Sponsor: Ole Miss Athletics 

SouthTalk: “Does My Message Define My Role?’ Hip-Hop Artists’ Interpretation of Having a Role in Their Community”

Wednesday, February 23

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM

Tupelo Room in Barnard Observatory

Using data from interviews with hip-hop artists, Castel Sweet will discuss how artists’ emphasis on their music’s message influences their interpretation of having a role, or identifiable place, in their local community. Considering the significance of space and place within hip-hop music, Sweet examines how respondents’ identities as artists are shaped by their local communities and how artists’ identities influence their production of hip-hop music. Sweet explores if and how hip-hop artists maintain connections to their local communities and construct localized identities within a global market that encourages the deterritorialization of music.

Sweet is the director of the University of Mississippi’s Center for Community Engagement in the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, and assistant professor of practice in community engagement. In addition to her work as a community engagement professional, Sweet’s qualitative research explores the ways in which hip-hop artists use their art to pursue social change and community engagement.

Sponsor: Center for the Study of Southern Culture

The State of Maternal & Infant Health in Mississippi: Working Towards Improvement & Equity featuring Dr. Charlene Collier

Thursday, February 24

4:00 PM

Gertrude C. Ford Ole Miss Student Union Ballroom

Kevser Ermin Memorial Lecture, The State of Maternal & Infant Health in Mississippi: Working Towards Improvement & Equity featuring Dr. Charlene Collier. Dr. Charlene Collier is an Associate Professor of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the UMMC and holds a joint position at MSDH where she serves as the Perinatal Health Advisor. She serves on the Executive Committee of the National Network of Perinatal Quality Collaboratives, is a member of the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Committee on Obstetric Practice, a Board member of the National Institute of Children’s Health Quality, and was newly appointed to the US Health Resources and Services Administration Secretary’s Advisory Committee on Infant and Maternal Mortality. She is a native of New Jersey and a graduate of Brown Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health. This event is free and open to the public

Sponsor: Health Exercise Science & Recreation Management

Black History Month Concert

Thursday, February 24

7:30 PM – 9:00 PM

Gertrude C. Ford Center

Performers include Kendrick Williams, a powerful baritone, from South Carolina; UM Gospel Choir, Ole Miss African Drum and Dance Ensemble, and UM Steel Band

Sponsor: Department of Music and the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement 

LatinX Law Student Association & Hispanic National Bar Association Employment and Career Q & A

Friday, February 25

12:30 PM – 2:30 PM

Ole Miss Law School Building in Weems Auditorium (Career Panel) – The Atrium (Reception) 

Attend Virtually – Zoom Link

The Hispanic National Bar Association is excited to visit The University of Mississippi School of Law to speak to students about career opportunities in the legal field, internship tips and tricks, and more! Amongst the panelists are two alumni of the Law School. This career panel goal is to be a safe space, a fireside chat where students feel comfortable asking the questions that they have going into internship interviews or employment opportunities post-grad. We welcome faculty members to attend to listen and engage in the Latinx legal education and work experience from these diverse panelists. We have a diverse set of panelists in terms of age and legal expertise.

Attire: Business Casual – RSVP to the event

Sponsors: LatinX Law Student Association, Hispanic National Bar Association; Latin American Student Organization; ACLU MS, OutLaw

Black Student Union 9th Annual Black History Month Gala

Friday, February 25

6:30 PM – 10:00 PM

The Inn at Ole Miss

During the academic year for 2013-2014, The BSU Administration saw the need to implement a formal recognition for African American students who had dedicated their time and passion for creating a more diverse and inclusive atmosphere on campus. The administration recognized the lack of acknowledgment for black students involved in making a change on campus. In February 2014, the Black History Month Gala became a reality. Since then, the Gala has served to celebrate the progress of the African American community at the University of Mississippi by recognizing African American achievement on campus. We are proud to continue this legacy with the 9th Annual Black History Month Gala on Friday, February 25, 2022, at 6:30 p.m.

Tickets will be available to all students, whether undergraduate or graduate and faculty and staff. These tickets will be available on the first day of class, January 18, at noon on the ForUM. 

Sponsor: Black Student Union (BSU)

IDEAS Forum – Recruitment, Retention & Success:  The Importance of Equity-Minded Initiatives

Monday, February 28

4:00 PM – 5:30 PM

Virtual event – Registration link

The College of Liberal Arts IDEAS Forum features work that highlights how inclusion, diversity and equity are advancing through scholarship.  The February IDEAS Forum will take place on Monday, February 28, 2022 at 4 pm CST.  The title of this month’s IDEAS Forum is Recruitment, Retention & Success: The Importance of Equity-Minded Initiatives.  Dr. Donald Cole, an emeritus upper administrator and faculty member in Mathematics recently charged the campus, at the ceremony dedicating the renaming of the Martindale-Cole building, to follow what he called the “Cole-Martindale Principle” which “embraces inclusion, values diversity and demands equity”. In pursuit of further discussing this principle, special guests Dr. Donald Cole, Dr. Carla Cotwright-Williams, and Dr. Richard Doss will provide a window onto the history of some of the most impactful equity-focused initiatives for African American students in STEM and beyond at the University of Mississippi. The goal of this conversation is to support increased understanding and awareness of the importance of McNair, IMAGE, AGEM, and similar initiatives, to inspire equity-minded change by members of our College of Liberal Arts community and all and to better support student success inside and outside the classroom keeping in mind the importance of building a sense of mattering and inclusion for students of color at the University of Mississippi. 

Sponsor: College of Liberal Arts