Mapping Freedom Presentations Held Following Summer Research Experience
Wed, 07/24/2024 - 08:42am | By: David Tisdale
Nine undergraduate students from across the country, including two from The University of Â鶹´«Ã½, participated in a digital humanities project, Mapping Freedom.
Mapping Freedom is a three-year initiative hosted by Southern Miss supported by a National Science Foundation-Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) grant examining the pathways to freedom and citizenship taken by emancipated slaves during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. The project represents a collaborative effort between digital humanities and science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) using mapping technology that includes geographic information systems (GIS). The paid, eight-week research experience offers opportunities, particularly for those from underrepresented and underserved populations, to conduct research showing how STEM disciplines can be employed in humanities projects.
Participants include:
- Olivia Curtis of Holden, Mass., a sophomore at Mount Holyoke College double majoring in mathematics and French, presented “Respectfully yours: The Role of Widowhood in Petitions to the Mississippi Governor During and After the Civil War.â€
- Mariana Ladrilleros of Kennett Square, Penn., a junior at Millersville University majoring in anthropology and archaeology, presented “Mississippi Civil War Hospitals: Their Food Supply and the Transportation of it via Railroads.â€
- Cassandra Lanza of Marysville, Penn., a sophomore at Saint Vincent College majoring in computer science and minoring in mathematics, presented “Relocation Reshaping Relationships: Impressment in Civil War Mississippi.â€
- Ramsey McManus of Picayune, Miss., a sophomore at Southern Miss majoring in history and minoring in library science, presented “The Forced Labor Loophole: An Analysis of Convictions and Prison Sentences of Laboring Convicts in Reconstruction Era Mississippi.â€
- Brandon Smith of Tuscaloosa, Ala., a sophomore social science teacher education major at the University of Alabama, presented “What God Giveth, Man Can Taketh Away: The Cultural Conditions of Privilege and Identity.â€
- Connor Sutton of Diamondhead, Miss., a junior at Millsaps College double majoring in history and political science and minoring in Spanish, presented “‘Have those men become republicans so suddenly?’: A Study of the Republican Party in Reconstruction Mississippi.â€
- Rune Taylor of Madison, Fla., a senior at the University of North Florida double majoring in history and religious studies and minoring in Africana Studies, presented “Reconstructing Congregations: African American Churches in Mississippi in the 1870s.â€
- Emily Vo of Margate, Fla., a junior at Cornell University majoring in computer science and minoring in Asian American Studies and public history, presented “Levee Landscapes, Early Hospitals, and Uneven Geographies of Reconstruction Yazoo-Mississippi Delta.â€
- Arianna Younger of Clinton, Miss., a junior at Southern Miss majoring in sociology and minoring in anthropology and archaeology, presented “An Examination of Ku Klux Klan Activity in Mississippi from 1865-1875.â€
about Mapping Freedom.