Mapping Freedom Scholars to Make Presentations at July 26 Research Symposium on Hattiesburg Campus

Fri, 07/21/2023 - 11:00am | By: David Tisdale

Students participating in a digital humanities research project examining the pathways to freedom and citizenship taken by emancipated slaves in the Civil War and Reconstruction eras will present their research on The University of Southern Mississippi (USM) Hattiesburg campus.

Mapping Freedom, a National Science Foundation: Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) will hold its inaugural end-of-program research symposium Wednesday, July 26 in the Liberal Arts Building (LAB), room 108 (Gonzales Auditorium) at 1 p.m. Admission is free, and a reception in the LAB atrium will follow.

This three-year, NSF-REU site grant initiative Is a collaboration between the digital humanities, science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) using mapping technology, including geographic information system (GIS) to analyze the movement of newly freed slaves in their pursuit of a new life post-bondage. It offers opportunities to undergraduates, particularly those from underrepresented and underserved populations in Mississippi, to conduct research showing how STEM disciplines can be effectively employed in humanities projects.

The eight-week research experience, facilitated by the USM Center for Digital Humanities in the College of Arts and Sciences’ School of Humanities, hosts 10 undergraduate humanities students from across the country and repeats for the summers of 2024 and 2025.

“This is our first year and Mapping Freedom is the first digital humanities project to receive NSF-REU funding, so there's not much prior experience or advice to follow,” said Maeve Losen (USM ’22), manager for the USM Center for Digital Humanities “We've had to forge that path and I couldn't ask for a better group of people to do that with. 

“Our inaugural cohort of researchers has been amazing--they're thoughtful, kind, fun, intellectually challenging, and resilient. They're all working on individual projects, and each day I'm learning something new from them. It's very much been an educational experience on both sides of the project and I'm excited to see what these young individuals bring to the field of digital humanities in the future.”

Mapping Freedom student scholar presenters, their hometowns and their topics include the following:

*Sydney Slack, Annapolis, Maryland – Ladies’ Military Aid Societies in Mississippi

*Holly Frey, Lucedale, Mississippi – Mississippi State Lunatic Asylum through the Civil War and Reconstruction

*Quinten Williams, Hazlehurst, Mississippi – Attitudes about Secession in Mississippi Before and During the Civil War Era

*Alaina Crowell, East Lyme, Connecticut – Religion, Emancipation and Violence in Mississippi

*Kelan Amme, Kendall Park, New Jersey - Visualizing the Myth and Folklore of the United States Colored Troops; the Opinions, Perceptions, and Systems of Belief during the United States Civil War

*Jaylin Jones, Clarksdale, Mississippi – Confederate Impressment of Slave Labor during the Civil War

*Collin Marfia, Brentwood, California – The Deserters of the Confederate Army

*Ayla Canuteson, Vienna, West Virginia – Confederate Military Service Exemption Requests in Mississippi

*Simeon Gates, Byram, Mississippi – Native Americans during and after the Civil War

*Dipper Nobles, Hurley, Mississippi – Salt and Slave Labor in the South during the Civil War

Learn more at Mapping Freedom and the USM Center for Digital Humanities.