Digital Commons Network^™

Joy Beyond Circumstance: Crafting A Picture Book That Challenges Western Perceptions Of Joy, Sarah L. Stockett

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the creation of a children’s picture book as a method of challenging Western perceptions of happiness, particularly the assumption that material abundance determines joy. Drawing from two service-based experiences with Zoe Ministries in Kitale, Kenya, the project centers on The Glad Rag, a picture book in which a single piece of fabric travels through many hands and becomes many useful items. Through this narrative, the book invites young readers to consider resourcefulness, gratitude, and joy that transcends circumstance.

The project uses a mixed-methods research approach. Primary data were gathered through participant observation and informal conversations on …

“Con Ăn Cơm Chưa?” (“Have You Eaten Yet?”): Foodways, Identity, And Generational Place-Making For Vietnamese Women In Memphis, Alana Freimanis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examines the role of food within community tactics for mobilization and negotiation. In order to do so, this study employs a mixed-methods approach of semi-structured interviews, participant observations, and archival analysis, to answer questions around how participants subvert historically racialized narratives around Vietnamese immigrant’s labor, family, and identity. Specifically, how do Vietnamese American women in Memphis use food labor to negotiate racialized immigrant identities and mobilize cultural and community power within the constraints of gendered expectations, class position, and racial stereotypes? Furthermore, this research focuses on Vietnamese women’s positionality, centering women chefs and community leaders as the …

Um, Greystar Partner To Build New Student Housing, Marisa C. Atkinson

University of Mississippi News

OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi is expanding and modernizing its on-campus housing options through a new partnership with Greystar, a national leader in student housing development.

Economic Development In Cartersville, Ms: A Case Study Of A Non-Profit Organization's Community Development Projects, Mckenzie B. Perkins

Honors Theses

The Mississippi Delta Region has long faced significant economic, educational, and health challenges and a steady population decline since the 1940s. In response, community development projects have emerged as powerful tools to promote health, well-being, and social mobility. This thesis investigates the impact of community development initiatives in Cartersville, MS, focusing on the dental clinic, educational programs, and the economic development center established by a non-profit organization. Through the lens of community development theories, the research explores how community leadership, particularly partnerships between EverHope Ministries and Cartersville leaders, is pivotal in addressing health disparities in historically marginalized populations. By engaging …

College Of Liberal Arts Annual Awards Ceremony, 2025, Lee Cohen, University Of Mississippi. College Of Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Awards

The College of Liberal Arts presented awards to its faculty, staff, students, and alumni in the Gertrude C. Ford Center Student Union Ballroom.

Graduate School Newsletter Winter 2024-2025, Sandra Spiroff, Martha Caroline Helms

Newsletters of the Graduate School

No abstract provided.

Resilience Imagined In The Mississippi Delta: Exploring Housing, Education, And Community Adaptation In Mississippi’S Internal Colonies, Semonti Jannat

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the impact of housing insecurity on educational attainment and community resilience in Cartersville, Mississippi, a historically marginalized community in the Mississippi Delta. Utilizing a qualitative research design, the study draws from in-depth interviews with eleven primary caregivers, revealing the multifaceted ways in which inadequate housing conditions affect children’s learning environments, mental health, and academic performance. The findings indicate that housing instability, manifested through overcrowding, poor infrastructure, and high financial burdens, significantly disrupts students’ educational experiences, contributing to absenteeism, limited academic focus, and stress-induced underperformance.

While the study highlights the persistent socioeconomic challenges linked to the enduring legacies …

The View From Ventress - 2023-2024 Academic Year, University Of Mississippi, College Of Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Newsletters

News from the College of Liberal Arts

College Of Liberal Arts Annual Awards Ceremony, 2024, Lee Cohen, University Of Mississippi. College Of Liberal Arts

Liberal Arts Awards

The College of Liberal Arts presented awards to its faculty, staff, students, and alumni in the Gertrude C. Ford Center Student Union Ballroom.

Southern Register. 2024.2 (Spring/Summer 2024), University Of Mississippi. Center For The Study Of Southern Culture

Southern Register

No abstract provided.

Community Engagement/Involvement In School Life: Connecting The Missing Pieces Between School And Community, Shanika Hardy-Hickmon

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Long Creek Elementary School is a small, rural school with approximately 292 students in Sallis, Mississippi. Long Creek Elementary School has historically struggled with stronger parent involvement in their children’s school life. To address this concern, the administration, faculty, and staff at Long Creek Elementary School targeted barriers to parental involvement/engagement to increase community engagement/involvement in school life and connect the missing pieces between school and community. This has led to discussions of the creation of a parent center to provide parents with daily support and needed resources to contribute to their child/children’s academic success.

The purpose of this study …

Mercy Buckets: Country Music, Southern Fiction, And The Limits Of Rewriting The South, Andy Oler

Study the South

"During World War II, GIs began saying “mercy buckets” as an intentional, joking mispronunciation of the French “merci beaucoup.”1 In the 2011 song “Mercy Buckets,” the southern rock and alt-country band Drive-By Truckers rewrite the phrase’s origin by treating it as an idiom of the American South. As might be expected, however, DBT do not reinforce stereotypical notions of the ignorant southern redneck. Instead, songwriter and lead singer Patterson Hood takes the phrase seriously, explaining just what it would mean if bringing someone “buckets of mercy” were a recognized part of southern culture. . . . In this article, I …

Um Team Researches Strengths Among Youth In African Countries, Erin Garrett

University of Mississippi News

OXFORD, Miss. – An expert on positive youth development, University of Mississippi psychology professor Laura Johnson is partnering with the Jane Goodall Institute, or JGI, to affect change among young people across countries in Africa.

Finding Aid For The Bishop Duncan Montgomery Gray, Jr. Collection (Mum00766)

Archives & Special Collections: Finding Aids (alphabetical)

Collection consists of correspondence, newspaper clippings, and other materials relating to the life and career of Gray, a clergyman and civil rights advocate.

Using Resilient Pedagogy To Rethink Consultant Training In The Writing Center Post Pandemic, Jessica Love Herron

Honors Theses

Since becoming a writing consultant three years ago, I have been interested in how writing centers can improve their training practices. Specifically, I have always been interested in the invaluable nature of consultant-to-consultant relationships in comparison with standard consultant training manuals. Though my idea of consultant-to-consultant relationships and training was specific to the in-person writing center, the need to rethink this consultant interaction was reinforced by the recent pandemic when most writing centers transitioned to completely online operations. In March of 2021, I hosted a panel presentation and gathered data from writing consultants about the ways that their centers were …

A Look Towards The Future Of Eldercare: Lessons Learned From Social Care Models In Japan, Caroline M. Steil

Honors Theses

The rapidly accelerating trend of population aging is redefining the state of eldercare globally, as every country is currently or will soon face a gap in the excess demand for care versus the scarce supply of caregivers, both formal and informal. Specifically, there is a decrease in the number of elders seeking care through a family member as well as less caregivers in institutions to provide care for elders. Japan is at the vanguard of this caregiving gap, and thus provides key lessons, particularly from two innovative models of eldercare: Ibasho, a grass-roots, non-profit organization, and Japan's Long-Term Care Insurance …

Healthy Food Accessibility In Rural Mississippi And Potential For A Corner Store Intervention, Anna Conner

Honors Theses

Some areas of the United States have poorer food environments than others. The Mississippi Delta has limited access to nutritious food, often relying on corner stores for sustenance. The impact of a poor diet can increase chronic disease prevalence, creating additional barriers to health and nutrition for Mississippians. The purpose of this study was to document and explore the rural food environment and discuss urban intervention studies in light of the current state of stores in the Delta. An adapted version of the Baltimore Healthy Kids survey and store impact questionnaire was used to record owner perceptions and food availability. …

Going Green: A Comparative Analysis Of Green Urbanism In Paris And Shanghai, Jeanne Torp

Honors Theses

As climate change becomes more pressing with each day and as we scramble to slow down the challenges it poses, adapting the means of operation within our cities will become an invaluable tool for reducing humanity’s carbon footprint. This paper seeks to study the ways in which green infrastructure in global cities can be used to do just that—adapting to and mitigating the effects of challenges resulting from climate change. In order to provide a broad overview of the effectiveness of such green infrastructure systems across the globe, this research will focus on two cities that vary greatly in their …

Theory And Practice: Selecting And Implementing Effective Framing To Present Climate Science To A Lay Audience, Lauren Wilson

Honors Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the advantages and effectiveness of using storytelling in the form of narrative journalism to communicate the topic of climate science to a lay audience. The thesis combines personal experience with secondary research in order to support the claim that framing the issue in such a manner effectively communicates the severity and impact of climate change.

Through my research I discovered that storytelling is not only a social tool for humans, but a means to safely and efficiently pass on vital information to those unfamiliar with certain knowledge. The use of narrative has …

Southern Register. 2021.2 (Spring/Summer 2021), University Of Mississippi. Center For The Study Of Southern Culture

Southern Register

No abstract provided.

This Garden: Oysters And Place Along Florida's Forgotten Coast, Annemarie Anderson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

THIS GARDEN is an audiovisual installation that tells the story of oyster farmers and place in Spring Creek, Florida. I use the oral history interviews and documentary photography I made there to explore aquaculturists’ deep relationship with the surrounding environment. To these farmers, the bay is a garden. They work within those often-unpredictable waters to cultivate new life. This accompanying thesis builds a chronological narrative of oyster aquaculture industry along Florida’s Forgotten Coast. It connects Florida’s burgeoning aquaculture industry to the long history of human involvement along the Gulf Coast in commercial fishing and wild harvest oyster operations. Lastly, I …

Vol. 2, No. 1 (Autumn 1997): Full Issue, Journal Editors

Journal X

No abstract provided.

The Whipping Boy Of Love: Atonement And Aggression In Alcott's Fiction, Elizabeth Barnes

Journal X

No abstract provided.

Community Development, Quality Of Life, And Community Well-Being: Three Fields Ripe With Opportunities For Future Research And Practice, Craig A. Talmage

Community Development Practice

This perspective piece aims to spur conversations between quality of life, community well-being, and community development scholars and practitioners. The article showcases overlaps in concepts found across journals devoted to those three fields of inquiry. The major themes from those overlaps are discussed, so future directions for interdisciplinary research can be identified. The article finishes with specific attention to exploring how collaborations between the fields of quality of life (QoL), community well-being (CWB), and community development (CD) can better inform community development practice, so that community well-being and quality life can be positively shifted through evidence-based practice.

Experienced Administrator Is New Um Director Of Community Engagement, Edwin B. Smith

University of Mississippi News

Anthony Siracusa is first to hold position aimed at improving interaction and collaboration

Official University Messages - University Coronavirus Update – March 4, 2020, University Of Mississippi

COVID-19 Website Archives

Official University Messages and Communications for Wednesday, March 04, 2020

Building Efficacy In Early-Career Teachers: An Applied Research Study On The Role Of Professional Development On Teacher Efficacy, Duncan Gray

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teacher efficacy is closely connected to student achievement and teacher retention. The applied research explored how rethinking certain aspects of professional development would impact the efficacy of the teachers in an upper elementary building. The research program included two distinct components. School administrators redesigned after school professional development sessions in order to allow teachers to facilitate their own learning and lead sessions on areas of interest. The second component was a structural model that alloearly-career educators to visit other classrooms. Both of the components shosome promise for increasing teachers’ sense of efficacy, but the response from the after-school sessions was …

Student Wins Girl Scouts' Highest National Honor, Edwin B. Smith

University of Mississippi News

Lauren Vanlandingham recognized with Gold Award for helping cancer patients with mental health concerns

Um Earns Global Rating For Sustainability Achievement, Edwin B. Smith

University of Mississippi News

Ole Miss is Mississippi's first university to receive STARS rating

Um, Oxford Green Week Begins April 20, Lindsey Abernathy

University of Mississippi News

11th annual celebration includes Felder Rushing gardening workshop, Wonder Walk