Ted Ownby knew early on that history was a part of his identity. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt University and a master’s and Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University, Ownby joined the UM faculty as a history professor in 1988. No one, including himself, imagined or predicted he would be directing the Center for the Study of Southern Culture 27 years later.
In 2008, as a man who initially only wanted to be a professor teaching and writing history and “wouldn’t dream of heading the department,” Ownby served as interim director and member of the search committee for a new director. When the search didn’t work out, Ownby had realized how exciting the position could be.
“I worried that the director job was too much about paperwork and money — things I didn’t get into academia to deal with — and it is that sometimes,” Ownby said. “But it’s also about partnerships and working with all sorts of interesting people— both faculty, staff and students and people outside the center.”
Focused around teaching, scholarship and research, the Center for the Study of Southern Culture (CSSC) formed in the 1970s as the first center to study the lively culture that is prevalent around the South.
Before his time at UM, Ownby said the University was at a low point, which resulted in establishers looking directly at issues such as race, religion, literature, music, art, economics and the South in general. Also at that time, Jimmy Carter, a Southerner, had been elected into the presidency, resulting in a profound fascination with the Southern accent, religion and family life.
In the past, the unique aspect of the center was not necessarily what participants studied, but the opportunity to receive a bachelor’s and master’s in the field and the attempt to relate wide-ranging subject matter. Ownby believes the department became beneficial to the University by providing classes on the South. CSSC is an institution that seeks to address topics in a broad way.
“It’s our job, always, to say everybody matters, every question matters and new academic movements matter. Every political, social and cultural movement are all what we can study,” Ownby said. “That’s all a way of saying we can fight any attempt at stereotypes that the South is only one thing, one group-that the South is all about tradition or all about pride, or no, it’s all about problems or poverty. Let’s study all those things.”
Amidst scattered papers and pens, Ted Ownby, professor of history and southern studies, grants an interview from his office in Barnard Observatory. (Photo by: Lizzie Mcintosh)
At present, under direction of Ownby, CSSC continues to pursue ways to communicate beyond academia with the use of encyclopedias and magazines encourages documentary-making, photography, film and audio that has a grounding in history, sociology and anthropology, to name a few. Other than mere encouragement, Ownby mentioned how the center offers new classes on topics such as foodways and tourism and how they relate to Southern culture.
In fact, Ownby presented a new class this past semester. Frustrated over the large and small acts of violence over the summer, he addressed the wrongs of violence in his class. Ownby then went on to discuss how CSSC has to continually adapt to implement new methods of educating.
“We’re trying really hard to make scholarship and documentary work available in creative ways,” Ownby said. “We have a new journal called ‘Study of the South’ that is entirely online that uses not just words, but video, audio and photography that is a part of every story. What’s important to say is CSSC has been around long enough that it tries to keep up with scholarship as it changes and keep up with the South as the region changes.”
In addition to the movements the center is making, another intriguing component of CSSC is the graduate program. According to Ownby, UM’s program was, for a long time, the only place to get a M.A. in Southern Studies.
Using one of his own catchphrases to describe the program, he said, “Students are willing to go through life with a degree that they have to explain. A lot of those students are rule-breaking characters to begin with. We never know what they are going to do with their degrees. Year after year, there are fascinating individuals coming in wanting to not simply draw conclusions about the South, but study Southern people.”
As mentioned, Ownby is not only the CSSC Director, but also a professor. As director, he takes part in everything the department does, from helping to schedule classes to representing the CSSC to the College of Liberal Arts and handling a relationship between the center and the world.
With this role, he has to talk positively about the center’s strengths and address things it needs to fix and improve as well. In contrast with his role as a professor, Ownby holds a responsibility of always being around others and trying to think of new ideas, at times bigger or better, that no one ever imagines. People willing to experiment on a large platform surround him as head of the department; for instance, there are upcoming projects that will include clothing and its connection to Southern history.
Reminiscing about his own history, Ownby, as a graduate student, assumed that he would wind up in a small school teaching the US history survey countless times. He instead ended up surrounded by faculty, students and topics of southern history that give him a far more interesting life. Ownby said he is a part of a staff where “what we study and what we teach about is far more interesting than our lives.”
Over his tenure as director and innumerable encounters with students, he modestly hopes the Southern studies program itself causes life-changing experiences.
“I hope the program does, whether I did or not,” Ownby said. “The goal is making sure that students get classes that they are interested in, rather it’s from me or someone else.”
