Mississippi University for Women

Center for Women's Research and Public Policy

Research

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      Martha Smith, '37 kept a detailed diary.                       1908 students applied themselves to studying.

See our Resources Page for library materials & web links.

The Historical Impact of Mississippi University for Women

  • The CWRPP provides access to a described and indexed archive collection, including previously unavailable artifacts and historical documents dating from the 1850s through 1984, MUW’s centennial year.
  • Undergraduates use primary original sources, such as II & C student journals, student literary publications, and World War II era women’s diaries for Honors theses and independent study projects.
  • One senior Honors student in Women’s Studies used extant alumnae questionnaires from the Classes of 1900-1923, student newspaper and yearbook information, and a 1913-16 student diary for her thesis on the impact of the women’s suffrage movement on college women in Mississippi.
  • Sophomore Honors residential students used archive materials to research and write scripts for nine Historic Building Monologues presented at MUW’s 125th Anniversary Homecoming Celebration in 2009.
  • Student interns preserved, described, and cataloged two recently acquired photograph collections, one of mid-19th Century studio portrait images from New England, and one of 1950s and 1960s era publicity photographs from MSCW’s public relations office.
  • A doctoral graduate at Georgia State University used CWRPP archive documents to complete a dissertation on early II & C history, focusing on the II & C and MSCW English faculty’s widespread influence on graduates who became successful writers, including Blanche Colton Williams, Frances Jones Gaither, and Eudora Welty.
  • A University of Alabama graduate student conducting research on dating and courtship practices of Southern college women: 1910-1920, used as significant sources II & C student friendship books, yearbooks, and campus humor magazines available in the CWRPP.
  • Using extant copies of the campus literary magazines from 1927-2008 (available in the CWRPP), two MUW faculty members produced a literary magazine “retrospective” for the 2009 Eudora Welty Writers’ Symposium.
  • The Golden Girls Oral History Project. Conducted by MUW student interns using oral history best practices, these interviews of women who graduated at least fifty years ago from "The W," cover Mississippi history from the early 1920s to the present. The resource library currently contains 62 digitally recorded interviews of alumnae, about half of which have also been transcribed. In November of 2008, University Press of Mississippi published Golden Days, a collection containing 20 of these oral histories.  
 
           
CLICK HERE to see more of Class of 1894 Adelaide Beatrice Hampton Furr's Furniture Carving Coursework.



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     Recent Research Project in Women's Studies                The Callaway-Orr Literary Society asserted "Labor is Genius."


Current Research on the Status of Women 
  • In cooperation with the Columbus Air Force Base, senior student interns created appropriate questionnaires, contacted interested women in active duty at Columbus Air Force Base, procured initial permissions and personal information and then interviewed fourteen women ranging from high-ranking officers to new enlistees. The digitized recordings are now a part of the Resource Library.
  • The Center Resource Library offers the campus and the community easy access to technology, plus a wide variety of onsite print materials and films. The print reports on CWRPP sponsored research are also an important part of the library. Some recent additions include:
  1. A Study on the Connection Between Maternal Age and Infant Breastfeeding 
  2. A Study of Lasting Psychological Effects of Hurricane Katrina on Displaced Women 
  3. A Retention Study of Non-traditional Age College Women at MUW
  4. A Study of MUW’s Initiatives to Address Sexual Harassment