Barbara Combs (Faculty Member is Retired, or has otherwise left the University)
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Anthropology
Phone Number: (662)915-7421
Email: bcombs@olemiss.edu
http://socanth.olemiss.edu/2011/10/barbara-combs/

Key Words:

Research Description: I am interested in the places and spaces people create and the interactions which happen (or do not happen) in those areas. My research focuses on the contemporary American South, but I believe the past informs the present. Nostalgia, memory, and history are compelling and factor heavily into the narratives people create about the bounded geographical areas they share. Perhaps no place is this more true than the contemporary American South. My dissertation research focused on the role of place in attachment to two historic, black gentrifying Atlanta neighborhoods. I plan to expand that research to include additional southern cities as well as to examine the influence of the past in African Americans� return migration patterns to the South.

Honors Theses:

Smithson, Mary Elizabeth (2014) Disaster, Displacement, and Voluntourism: Helping Narratives of College Student Volunteers in Post-Katrina New Orleans. (full text)

Mason, Audrey Anne (2013) "Why Does the Mafia Exist?: A Study of Italian Public Distrust and its Role in the Continued Existence of the Sicilian Mafia"