Study the South is an online journal that was founded in 2014 with the purpose of encouraging interdisciplinary academic thought and discourse on the American South and its vast culture. It was created in Oxford, Mississippi by the University of Mississippi’s Center for the Study of Southern Culture. Currently, it is edited by James G, Thomas Jr., who is the associate director for publications at the Center. He is also known for editing various works that examine southern history, such as the New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture. Along with Thomas, Study the South also has a ten member editorial board that examines all pieces before they are published. This board includes Ted Ownby, who was once the director of Mississippi’s Center for Study of Southern Culture. 

Study the South describes itself as a peer-reviewed, multimedia, online journal. It was created to encourage the discussion of different aspects of culture in the American South. The online journal features a range of topics in the south, including art, geography, history, literacy, and race studies. Since its main purpose is encouraging discussions on the south, it looks to feature more scholarly or academic works as opposed to popular ones. Anyone is allowed to submit a manuscript to be reviewed and possibly published by the journal, as long as the work had not been previously published elsewhere. Manuscripts are looked over by the editorial staff or board and are chosen to be accepted or rejected. Although it is only six years old, Study the South has been able to grow up to 1000 online readers. Most readers are scholars or students who have an interest in southern culture.

Since the journal is online, its website design is an important factor in keeping readers engaged. Study the South has a clean, simplistic design that uses black and white as its main colors. Most of the attention is given to the articles themselves because of this. Each one has the standard title, author, and publication date, but they are also given a photo to help give readers an idea of what it will be discussing. Each article is put in chronological order according to its publishing date in order to make viewing easier for readers. What makes Study the South unique is its simplicity in web design and its dedication to their original purpose. The website focuses the attention towards the articles which shows they stay true to their hopes of having more meaningful conversations about the American South. Study the South stays true to their origins by ensuring the information is what stays most important.

“Toward Freedom: A Reading of the National Memorial for Peace and Justice” written by Margaret Pless is a recent article published on the many symbols of racism. She focuses on many monuments and statues that honor the Confederates and major slave supporters. The many statues and monuments littered around the south embody white supremacy and many people refuse to see the racial issues that come with them. She emphasizes that “When Confederate monuments exalt white supremacy, they perpetuate our forgetfulness of these historical roots”, and history will repeat if the evil behind these statues are forgotten. The first half of the article focuses on the history of slavery and how many people forget about an important group during the Civil War. Not only did it include the Confederates that fought for their rights to own slaves and the Union that fought to stay unified, but also the enslaved African American that fought for their freedom. The second half of the article focuses on the National Memorial for Peace and Justice grounds situated in Montgomery, Alabama. This place features many monuments that represent the horrors of racism towards African Americans, starting with the transatlantic slave trade. For example, one section focuses on the heart of the memorial, a huge monument dedicated to victims of lynching. To summarize, this article focuses on the meaning behind monuments and the importance of showing history rather than honoring of Confederacy. 

Another recent article that was published to Study the South is called “Vanishing Acts: Civil Rights Reform and Dramatic Inversion in Douglas Turner Ward’s Day of Absence.” This article deals with the African American community and how Martin Luther King Jr.’s words inspired a dramatic play written by Douglas Turner Ward called Day of Absence. The play came out in 1965 in response to the 1964 decision regarding African American equal rights. The article states that “Ward creates a work concerned with figuring the value of Black labor through absenting the Black body” (Avilez). This is an extremely unique way to show the value of black life and labor to the white community at that time. The play “plays” off of the “exploration of civil rights concerns and provides the basis for dramatic inversions that critique social inequities.” (Avilez). This article, in conclusion, is a perfect example of how Study the South is constantly giving the spotlight to Southern related stories that may not have received the recognition they deserve. For example, as someone who has (and have been) performing and studying theatrical productions all of his life, I have never heard of or seen anything related to Days of Absence. That doesn’t change the fact that Days of Absence provides viewers with a wealth of information that is ridiculously important to the development of our world today. Study the South has allowed me (and so many others) to see important stories like this come to fruition. Study the South, in this respect, is NOT as much for the purpose of entertainment but more for the purpose of informing readers. This is why Study the South proves to be extremely important to the preservation and understanding of southern culture.