In celebration of Women's History Month, the Committee on Services and Resources for Women (CSRW) at The University of Southern Mississippi is sponsoring and co-sponsoring events and activities on the Hattiesburg campus that commemorate the role of women in history, culture and society.
As designated by the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA), the yearly theme for Women's History Month is "Providing Healing, Promoting Hope.”
The NWHA announcement states that, it is “both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history, in our community.”
Candice Salyers, chair of CSRW and professor of dance, said, “USM's programming honors the contributions of women artists, healers, historians, activists and entrepreneurs to the health and wellbeing of society. This month offers us an opportunity to come together across disciplines to acknowledge and reflect upon issues of importance in the lives of women.”
Kick-Off Events
Women's History Month events will happen throughout March. The program kicked off on March 3 at the Liberal Arts Building with a panel discussion titled, “Women Healers Through the Ages: Medieval Midwives to Mississippi Nurses.”
The panel included Courtney Luckhardt, associate professor of medieval history; Deanne Stephens, professor of history and Jamie Stanfield, health librarian. The event was co-sponsored by the History Women’s Caucus and the Center for the Study of the Gulf South.
On March 4, Aisha Johnson, assistant professor and program director of archives and records management at North Carolina Central University, gave a virtual lecture titled, "Relentless Advocacy as Purpose." USM hosted an in-person viewing of the presentation at the Cook Library.
Johnson is the author of "The African American Struggle for Library Equality: The Untold Story of the Julius Rosenwald Fund Library Program," which unveils the almost forgotten philanthropic efforts of Julius Rosenwald, former president of Sears, Roebuck, Co. and an elite business man.
On March 8 in the Gonzales Auditorium, Gabrielle Walker gave her 2021-22 Baird Fellowship Lecture titled, “When We Were Freshmen: Judson College and the Rise of the New Baptist Woman.”
Walker, who is studying post-reconstruction southern women, is working on a dissertation titled, “If These Walls Could Speak: Judson College and the New Baptist Woman, 1890-1930." It explores the ways in which progressive era ideology made a lasting impact on Southern Baptist white women attending a Southern Baptist college. Walker said the women’s collegiate experiences led to their questioning traditional Southern Baptist thought patterns and expansively interpreting religion to fit a modern, scientific worldview.
Upcoming Events
Women's History Month programming events will continue as follows:
• March 11 (9:00 a.m. at the Historic Eureka School Museum): Annual Meeting of the Mississippi Historical Society, which is open to the public at no charge thanks to a grant from the Mississippi Humanities Council.
• March 21 (12—1 p.m. in the Center for Faculty Development, International Building, Room 319): Peggy Jean Connor Grant presentations: featuring the research of Nicole Caulfield, Ava Ferguson and Hsiaopei Lee.
• March 29 (1—2 p.m. in the Liberal Arts Building, Room 204): Historian and author Carol Lipscomb presents, "The Lady Makes Boots: Enid Justin and the Nocona Boot Company.”
• March 30 (12:30—1:00 p.m. on the Theatre and Dance Building outdoor stage): Women’s History Month Dance Concert.
Visit https://bit.ly/3tL4LBk to see this year’s scheduled events.
