Food Studies Commons^™

Southern Rambles: Seeking A Place, Finding A Self, John Hayes

Study the South

"So, we set out from Atlanta in August 1997 on the older US Highway 19, heading south. We were seeking a South and we didn’t have a consciousness of being southern, but in a very elemental way, our consciousness had been deeply shaped by forces we were unaware of."

Interpersonal Activism: How Local Black Residents Shaped The University Of Mississippi And Oxford In The Mid-Twentieth Century, Anna F. Kaplan

Study the South

"It is difficult to measure the direct impact—and sometimes even the existence—of daily personal interactions on individuals’ thoughts about race and desegregation. Rather than attempting to parse between change stemming from interpersonal relationships versus change as a result of federal intervention, I examine interracial and intraracial interactions across the town/gown divide in Oxford as spheres of influence. Black challenges to White supremacy at UM brought systemic racism into question even though those systems of oppression remained in place."

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 …

An Architectural Riddle: Billy Tripp's Minefield, Frédéric Allamel

Study the South

"The Mindfield, the sculptural environment created by self-taught builder Billy Tripp, is an alternative to architecture, or at least a countermodel that brings a novel perspective to the discipline. Challenging present architectural principles, such as functionality, cost-effectiveness, building techniques, and materials, the Mindfield opens the way to new possibilities. An ever-evolving edifice not designed to be inhabitable, and whose raison d’être emerged late in the building process, the Mindfield positions itself at the antipodes of mainstream architecture, thus enriching the architectural discourse with its innovative experiments. In building the Mindfield, Tripp inaugurates a holistic art where architecture, sculpture, and literature …

Dr. Harvey W. Wiley's Fight For Food Safety In The Late 19th Century And Early 20th Century, Katherine E. Dixon

The Exposition

In the late 19th Century, a researcher by the name of Dr. Harvey Washington Wiley. He had discovered that food manufacturers were adulterating and misbranding many of their food products. Dr. Wiley had realized that these chemicals being added to these food products were dangerous for human consumption and were not being put on the labels. Dr. Wiley realized this was a huge problem for Americans and dedicated his career to fight for regulations against this. He started an experimental group called the Poison Squad which helped to bring media attention to this issue.

Health Landscapes In The South: Rurality, Racism, And A Path Forward, Anne Cafer, Meagen Rosenthal, Brookshield Laurent, Jennifer Conner, Raeda Anderson

Study the South

This conversation about health disparities in the South, with questions composed by the authors, incorporates the medical expertise of Brookshield Laurent and Jennifer Conner from the New York Institute of Technology’s Delta Population Health Institute at Arkansas State University, with the social science expertise of Raeda Anderson from the Shepherd Center in Atlanta, Georgia, and Meagan Rosenthal and Anne Cafer from the University of Mississippi.

The Promise Of Happy Cows: How American Milk Brands Persuade Consumers Regarding Farm Animal Welfare Conditions And How Consumers Respond To Incidents Of Being Misled, Chelsea Newson

Student Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to examine how American dairy companies employ language and imagery in brand communications (marketing, advertising, and public relations) to persuade consumers regarding farm animal welfare (FAW) conditions on supplier farms, and to examine how consumers respond in instances in which conditions on supplier farms are shown to be counter to what is depicted in brand communications. In other words, it examines how the dairy industry communicates its FAW-related values and promises to consumers and investigates consumer tolerance for being misled regarding FAW conditions. This project is thus intended as an exploration of the intersection …

Through The Words Of Those Who Have Experienced It: Reading The Whitney Plantation Along Neoslave Narratives, Sarah Payne

Study the South

Recent representations of slavery, however well intentioned, have provoked discussions about who should represent black pain and oppression and what purpose such representations serve. Also evoking such questions are contemporary plantation tours, most of which are white-centered, “moonlight and magnolia” recreations. There have been efforts to represent slavery more accurately at plantations such as Oak Alley, and most notably, the Whitney Plantation, which opened in 2014 in Wallace, Louisiana.

This essay asks how our understanding of the Whitney Plantation, as a representation of slavery, a public history project, and an example of dark tourism, might be affected by reading the …

Sister Act: Margaret Walker And Eudora Welty, Carolyn J. Brown

Study the South

At the end of their lives, in the 1980s and ’90s, both Margaret Walker and Eudora Welty were recognized several times by their hometown and state for their long careers and bodies of work. The paths they traveled to reach this intersection of common recognition were quite different, however. Almost exact contemporaries -— Welty lived from 1909-2001 and Walker from 1915-1998 -— they share similar timelines and histories, both having lived through the Depression, World War II, and the civil rights movement. But as one was white and one was black, their stories are very different, as are their paths …