FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Aug. 25, 2005

Southern Women’s Institute opens at MUW this fall

By Jill D. O’Bryant

COLUMBUS, Miss. -- The Southern Women’s Institute, which is housed in Orr Chapel on the Mississippi University for Women campus, will serve as a multi-disciplinary center for the study of southern women in both traditional and non-traditional roles.

The goals of the Institute are to serve as a gathering place for learning and research, to promote research on women in areas of leadership, health, art and business and to become a repository for southern women’s and MUW’s history.

In addition, the project will provide many programs and services to the university, community and southern region. There will be a variety of special speakers scheduled throughout the year, leadership dinners for MUW faculty and students, a community workshop series and a statewide Women’s Leadership Conference in the spring held in partnership with the Mississippi Women in Higher Education group.

Dr. Bridget Smith Pieschel, professor of English, will serve as the Institute’s resident scholar. A faculty member at MUW since 1981, she graduated from MUW in 1979 and holds a doctorate from the University of Alabama. She co-authored “Loyal Daughters, One Hundred Years at Mississippi University for Women, 1884-1984.”

“I am so pleased and excited to be a part of the new Southern Women's Institute,” Pieschel said. “Its mission is perfect for highlighting MUW's active presence and influential past. Dr. (Claudia) Limbert (MUW president) has carried our message to Washington and shown them how important it is to support research and activities which enhance women's leadership potential. Not only our campus but the nation will eventually benefit from this investment in MUW.”

Pieschel said she is excited that the Southern Women’s Institute will sponsor a competitive mini grant program for MUW faculty and students “to enhance the women’s studies curriculum and to promote faculty and student interaction and collaboration.”

During this academic year, a group of students will be trained and paid to interview “Golden Girl” alumnae “as a way to preserve their valuable oral histories.” Twenty of these histories will be published in a book-length collection at the close of the grant period.

Dr. Virginia Carr, distinguished professor of English letters at Georgia State University, is scheduled to visit the Institute in early September while in Columbus to participate in the Tennessee Williams Tribute Scholars Panel. Nationally known for her work on Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Carson McCullers and many other southern writers, she will do some research on Welty and Columbus while at the Institute.

The Institute’s first writer in residence, prize-winning North Carolina poet Ruth Moose, will be on campus for the Welty Symposium October 13-15. She will stay afterward in October to meet with faculty, students and the public.

In spring and summer 2006, two visiting scholars will provide expertise on various women’s issues, teach classes, offer seminars and give presentations.

Pieschel and Sally Wells, a 2004 alumna who serves as coordinator of programs, are currently setting up the space with furniture and equipment and ordering a collection of books, journals and films/DVDs for the resource room.

In addition to office space, the Southern Women’s Institute has a spacious office area for visiting scholars, a seminar room and a lot of storage space for resources. An open house will be held in late September in conjunction with a quilt exhibit in the Fine Arts Gallery Foyer.

The Southern Women’s Institute is funded by a $496,000 congressionally-directed grant received through the assistance of U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. The grant is administered through the U.S. Department of Education.

A member of the United States Senate since 1978, Cochran has been a proponent of quality education and a strong supporter of MUW. He also assisted MUW in receiving grants for campus emergency equipment and Plymouth Bluff Center programming.

“MUW has been supported in our efforts by the senator (Cochran) and his wonderful staff,” Limbert said. “His advice and guidance has opened doors and produced grants which simply would not have been available to us otherwise. Our Washington team, including Senators Cochran and Lott, and Representative Wicker, and our own MUW staff have proved to be very effective partners.”

Cochran was on campus in May to give the 2005 commencement address and to participate in the dedication of Thad and Rose Cochran Hall, which recently underwent a $4.7 million renovation. Originally built in 1908 to serve as a residence hall, Cochran Hall will house Student Services.