By Christina Steube

University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi’s Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender Studies and Center for the Study of Southern Culture are co-sponsoring a series of lectures, discussions and presentations in April examining “The Radical South — Expanding Southern History and Identity.”

The series challenges the conventional stories of the South with topics involving Southern identity, cultural movements, racial justice, economic justice, and gender and sexual equality. Speakers will be featured from UM and around the country.

“This series represents the commitment of the Isom Center staff and faculty to amplify voices and perspectives that have often been silenced in the historical record of this period in American history,” said Katrina Caldwell, vice chancellor for diversity and community engagement. “This work is extremely necessary for real progress to take place in our community.”

Topics include “They Don’t Even Know: Black Southern Abundance in the Age of Donald Trump” at 5:30 p.m. today in Overby Center Auditorium, “Recovering the Radical Oral History Tradition within Southern Freedom Movements” at noon April 17 and “Lobbying in the Heart of Dixie: LBGTQ Advocacy in the Alabama State House” at noon April 26. The latter two lectures are in the Tupelo Room of Barnard Observatory.

More than 20 events will be held throughout the month. For a full schedule, visit http://sarahisomcenter.org/the-radical-south-april-2017-schedule/.

The events were planned following the declaration last year of “Confederate History Month,” said Jaime Harker, professor of English and director of the Isom Center.

“Our heritage includes much more than the Confederacy, and we want to encourage our students and the larger Mississippi community to learn about some of that diverse and unexpected history,” Harker said. “We hope ‘The Radical South’ will broaden our sense of Southern history and identity to include the full complexity of the region — past, present and future.”

Co-sponsors for the event include the Master of Fine Arts program within the Department of English; the departments of Sociology and Anthropology, Art, and Social Work; and the William Winter Institute for Racial Reconciliation.