University of Mississippi history professor Ted Ownby has been named director of the Center for the Study of Southern Culture.

Ownby has been interim director since last fall.

Ownby has a bachelor’s degree from Vanderbilt and his masters and doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.

He is a co-editor of the forthcoming Mississippi Encyclopedia and co-editor of the volume on gender in The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture.

Ownby has been a member of the faculty at the center for 20 years.

The center emphasizes the interdisciplinary investigation and documentation of the South as a culturally, historically, geographically, and demographically complex region.

On the Net:

Center for the Study of Southern Culture, http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/south