Digital Commons Network^™

Review-Fishing For Chickens: A Smokies Food Memoir, Blake Denton

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Instrumental Music Education In Rural North Carolina: A Descriptive Study, Melody Causby, Catheryn Shaw Foster

Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to investigate secondary instrumental music education in rural North Carolina. This descriptive study investigated the experiences, attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions that rural instrumental music educators (n = 55) held about their schools, students, and communities. Furthermore, the researchers examined how participants defined success for their programs, what challenges and rewards they experienced in their positions, and what skills they considered most important for themselves as teachers.

Results indicate that although rural music educators find the musical aspects of their positions rewarding, they believe that their nonmusical skills related to teaching, such as developing …

Honor, Excrement, Ethnography: Colonial Knowledge Between Missionary And Militaire In French Algeria, Joseph W. Peterson

Faculty Publications

In 1865, an overly aggressive missionary in the Kabyle mountains of French Algeria was tricked into sitting in human excrement, publicly humiliated by the tribe he hoped to convert. Or was he? Historians of French Algeria have recounted this story as confirmation of the scholarly consensus: that public missions to Muslims were either nonexistent or delusional and short-lived in the early decades of French Algeria. But these historians have relied on a version of the incident that was authored by an unsympathetic military administrator. This article argues that the excremental incident in Kabylie—and the competing versions of what happened there—should …

American Buddhist Protection Of Stones In Terms Of Climate Change On Mars And Earth, Daniel Capper

Faculty Publications

A number of scientific writers have proposed manipulating the ecology of Mars in order to make the planet more comfortable for future immigrants from Earth. However, the ethical acceptability of such ‘terraforming’ proposals remains unresolved. In response, in this article I explore some of these scientific proposals through the lens provided by Buddhist environmental ethics that are quantitatively expressed by practitioners in the ethnographic field of the United States. What I find is that contemporary Buddhists combine philosophical notions of interconnectedness with moral considerations not to harm others and then creatively extend this combined sensibility to the protection specifically of …

Ethical Consistency And Experience: An Attempt To Influence Researcher Attitudes Toward Questionable Research Practices Through Reading Prompts, Samuel V. Bruton, Mitch Brown, Donald F. Sacco

Faculty Publications

Over the past couple of decades, the apparent widespread occurrence of Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) in scientific research has been widely discussed in the research ethics literature as a source of concern. Various ways of reducing their use have been proposed and implemented, ranging from improved training and incentives for adopting best practices to systematic reforms. This article reports on the results of two studies that investigated the efficacy of simple, psychological interventions aimed at changing researcher attitudes toward QRPs. While the interventions did not significantly modify researchers’ reactions to QRPs, they showed differential efficacy depending on scientists’ experience, suggesting …

Strangers In The Village: James Baldwin, Teju Cole, And Glenn Ligon, Monika Gehlawat

Faculty Publications

This essay uses Edward Said’s theory of affiliation to consider the relationship between James Baldwin and contemporary artists Teju Cole and Glenn Ligon, both of whom explicitly engage with their predecessor’s writing in their own work. Specifically, Baldwin’s essay “Stranger in the Village” (1953) serves a through-line for this discussion, as it is invoked in Cole’s essay “Black Body” and Ligon’s visual series, also titled Stranger in the Village. In juxtaposing these three artists, I argue that they express the dialectical energy of affiliation by articulating ongoing concerns of race relations in America while distinguishing themselves from Baldwin in terms …

Preserving Mars Today Using Baseline Ecologies, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Current calls to protect the Martian environment with “Planetary Parks” maintain environmental merit. However, they lack a sufficiently urgent timeframe for initiating protection as well as a robust scientific method for the establishment of noteworthy Martian natural landmarks as natural reserves. In response, if we return to the seminal environmental preservation teachings of Aldo Leopold and John Muir, we encounter the importance of grounding Martian preservation efforts on the fundamental environmental science method of a base-datum of normality, or baseline ecology. This method establishes natural reserves that feature both minimal human interference as well as known origination dates, thereby providing …

Guest Editor's Intro, Mary Lou Sheffer

Southern Quarterly Documents

No abstract provided.

The Roots Of Community: A Local Librarian's Resource For Discovering, Documenting And Sharing The History Of Library Services To African Americans In Their Communities, Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

Intended for current library professionals, this toolkit provides a theoretical basis for completing public history projects about libraries and explores specific project types, selected best practices and related resources. It divides into three major sections: Part 1, “Planning,” Part 2 “Gathering” and Part 3, “Sharing.” Respectively, these sections cover the preparation, collection and communication tasks of research projects and, where appropriate, offer readers several types of potentially useful resources. Many of these resources—forms, letters, standards, examples of evidence—were used for the author’s Roots of Community project and appear as examples of resources deemed suitable for that project. In other instances, …

The Search For Microbial Martian Life And American Buddhist Ethics, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Multiple searches hunt for extraterrestrial life, yet the ethics of such searches in terms of fossil and possible extant life on Mars have not been sufficiently delineated. In response, in this essay I propose a tripartite ethic for searches for microbial Martian life that consists of default nonharm toward potential living beings, default nonharm to the habitats of potential living beings, but also responsible, restrained scientific harvesting of some microbes in limited transgression of these default nonharm modes. Although this multifaceted ethic remains secular and hence adaptable to space research settings, it arises from both a qualitative analysis of authoritative …

Haiti And The Uses Of America: Post-U.S. Occupation Promises, By Chantalle F. Verna, Matthew Casey

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Separate Places, Shared Spaces: Segregated Carnegie Libraries As Community Institutions In The Age Of Jim Crow (Presentation For The Southern History Association Annual Meeting, November 2018), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

From the conference program: "This presentation explores how segregated Carnegie libraries in the south served as places of interaction, learning, and community-making for African Americans in the days of Jim Crow. Known then as “colored Carnegie libraries,” these institutions opened in eight southern states between 1904 and 1924 and were funded by Andrew Carnegie’s library development program of the early twentieth century. Some segregated Carnegie libraries operated for as many as six decades until, by the 1970s, most had been desegregated or permanently closed.

"Based on archival methods as well as newly completed oral history interviews, this presentation begins with …

2018-07-16 Oral History With Myrtle Ross, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Myrtle Jackson Ross was born in 1929 in Austin County, Texas, where her father worked as a cotton-picker. When she was about eight years-old, Ross’s family moved to Houston, settling on Mason Street in the city’s Fourth Ward. There, her father worked at a hospital and her mother worked as a homemaker. Ross graduated from the Gregory School on Victor Street before attending Booker T. Washington High School on West Dallas Street.

Ross was in high school when she began visiting Houston’s Colored Carnegie Library, which was situated directly behind Booker T. Washington High School. For Ross, the library served …

Review: Milton And The Politics Of Speech, Helen Lynch, Jameela A. Lares

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

2018-06-02 Oral History With Willie Hartwell, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Willie Hartwell was born in 1942 Glenn, Texas and grew up in Houston, where she lived on Andrews Street in the city’s Fourth Ward. There, she graduated from the Gregory School before attending Booker T. Washington High School. Later moving to the Third Ward with her mother, Hartwell attended Miller Junior and Yates (now Jack Yates) Senior high schools.

Hartwell was about seven years-old when she and her younger brother happened upon the segregated Carnegie Branch library one afternoon on Frederick Street. Neither had visited a public library before. Located about seven city blocks from her home, the Carnegie Branch …

A Cornerstone Of Community: Houston's Colored Library, 1913 To 1961 (Presentation For Donor Appreciation Day, African American Library At The Gregory School, Houston Public Library, June 2018), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

Presentation about the former "Colored Library" of Houston. Made June 2018 at the Houston Public Library's African American Library at the Gregory School.

Cornerstones Of Community: Segregated Public Libraries And Carnegie Philanthropy (Presentation For The African American Library At The Gregory School Speaker Series, Houston Public Library, April 2018), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

Presentation made for a speaker series at the African American Library at the Gregory School, Houston Public Library, April 2018.

Review Of John Whalen-Bridge, Tibet On Fire: Buddhism, Protest, And The Rhetoric Of Self-Immolation, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

Review of John Whalen-Bridge, Tibet on Fire: Buddhism, Protest, and the Rhetoric of Self-Immolation, in Journal of Contemporary Religion

The Invention Of English Criticism, Nicolle M. Jordan

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Making Voices Heard: Collecting And Sharing Oral Histories From Users Of Segregated Libraries In The South (Presentation For The Oral History Association Annual Meeting, October 2017), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

From the conference program: "This presentation reviews the progress and objectives of a federally-funded, 3-year oral history project that explores how segregated Carnegie libraries were used as places of community-making, interaction, and learning for African Americans before integration in the 1960s. Known then as “Carnegie colored libraries,” these public libraries opened in eight southern states between 1900 and 1925 and were an extension of the well-known library development program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Some operated for as many as six decades until, by the 1970s, most had closed or were integrated into the library systems of …

A Separate Space: Remembering Meridian’S Segregated Carnegie Library, 1913-74, Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

This article explores the largely undocumented history of Meridian, Mississippi’s 13^th Street library, a segregated branch library constructed in 1912-13 with funds from Carnegie’s famous library program. Although the library no longer stands, it remains an important connection between libraries in Mississippi and the history of race relations. Using archival sources as well as oral history interviews with some of the library’s former users, the article considers the library’s importance as an early symbol of civic autonomy for Meridian’s African Americans and how it became a valued educational support center and community space. The article closes with a call …

Buildings And Books: Segregated Libraries As Places For Community-Making, Interaction And Learning In The Age Of Jim Crow (Presentation For The Society For The History Of Authorship, Reading, And Publishing Annual Conference, June 2017), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

From the conference program: "This presentation reviews the preliminary findings of a federally funded, 3-year historical study that explores how segregated Carnegie libraries were used as places of community-making, interaction, and learning for African Americans in the age of Jim Crow. Known then as "Carnegie Negro libraries," these public libraries opened in eight southern states between 1900 and 1925 and were an extension of the well-known library development program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

"Drawing on archival sources, including newly completed oral history interviews with surviving library users, this presentation explores how these libraries helped foster a …

Oral History With Karen Edwards-Hunter, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Karen Edwards-Hunter was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1950 and has lived most of her life there. Her father was a mail carrier and her mother, who was originally a homemaker, was later a Teacher’s Assistant at Perry Elementary School. Edwards-Hunter grew up on 15^th Street in the city’s Russell neighborhood and attended Perry Elementary School and Harvey C. Russell Junior High School when both were still segregated. She later attended Louisville Male High School before earning a B.A. in English at Eastern Kentucky University and the University of Louisville. She completed further studies at Bard College in New …

New Online Archive On Racially Segregated Libraries, Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

Matthew Griffis (matthew.griffis@usm.edu), Ph.D., an Assistant Professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of Southern Mississippi, has conducted extensive research as the lead investigator on racial segregation in public libraries in the South. His research has been digitized is now available online. The archive, made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services is entitled “The Roots of Community: Segregated Carnegie Libraries as Spaces for Learning and Community-Making in Pre-Civil Rights America, 1900-65.” Griffis’s primary area of research is the library as place, including library buildings as social architecture, public libraries as …

Capturing Their Stories: Collecting Oral Histories From Users Of Segregated Libraries In The South (Presentation For The Southern History Of Education Society Annual Meeting, March 2017), Matthew R. Griffis

Publications and Other Resources

From the conference program: "This presentation reviews the progress of a federally-funded, 3-year historical study that explores how segregated Carnegie libraries were used as places of community-making, interaction, and learning for African Americans in the days of Jim Crow. Known then as “Carnegie colored libraries,” these public libraries opened in eight southern states between 1900 and 1925 and were an extension of the well-known library development program funded by the Carnegie Corporation of New York. Some operated for as many as six decades until, by the 1970s, most had closed or were integrated into the library systems of their larger …

Oral History With Houston A. Baker, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Born in March of 1943, Houston Alfred Baker Jr. grew up in segregated Louisville. His mother was a schoolteacher; his father served as chief administrator of the city’s African-American hospital, the Red Cross Hospital, and had earned a master’s degree in hospital administration from Northwestern University on a Rockefeller fellowship. When Baker was a child, his family lived on Virginia Avenue, where Baker attended Virginia Avenue Elementary School. After his family moved to Broadway Street, Baker attended Western Elementary, later Western Junior High School, and then Male High School before leaving for Howard University in 1961. The family attended Grace …

Norms Of Valence And Arousal For 14,031 Spanish Words, Hans Stadthagen-Gonzalez, Constance Imbault, Miguel A. Pérez Sánchez, Marc Brysbaert

Faculty Publications

Most current models of research on emotion recognize valence (how pleasant a stimulus is) and arousal (the level of activation or intensity that a stimulus elicits) as important components in the classification of affective experiences (Barrett, 1998; Kuppens, Tuerlinckx, Russell, & Barrett, 2012). Here we present a set of norms for valence and arousal for a very large set of Spanish words, including items from a variety of frequencies, semantic categories, and parts of speech, including a subset of conjugated verbs. In this regard, we found that there were significant but very small differences between the ratings for conjugations of …

Oral History With Maxine Turner, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Maxine Turner was born in 1940 in Holt, Alabama, and moved to Meridian, Mississippi when she was three years-old. After living in the George Reese Courts, Turner’s family moved to 34^th Avenue and 13^th Street in the northwest part of town. They attended St. Paul Methodist Episcopal Church, just across the street from the 13^th Street library.

Turner began using the library when she was in third grade, mostly for personal reading and to support her schooling. She attended several of Meridian’s segregated schools, including St. Joseph Catholic School, Meridian Baptist Seminary, Wechsler Junior High School and …

Entering The Stream To Enlightenment, Daniel S. Capper

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Oral History With Jerome Wilson, Matthew R. Griffis

Oral History Archive

Dr. Jerome Wilson was born in Meridian, Mississippi in 1942. He attended St. Joseph’s Catholic School in Meridian from kindergarten to secondary school, whereupon he attended Dillard University in New Orleans to earn a BA in Chemistry and Mathematics.

Wilson later earned an MA in Immunology and Biochemistry from Cornell and, in 1983, earned his PhD in Epidemiology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He spent much of his career as a researcher and a research administrator in the pharmaceutical industry, later transitioning to academe when he helped set up the department of epidemiology at Howard University. …