Lott Leadership Exchange for Graduate Students

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Each year the Trent Lott Leadership Institute, in association with the Study Abroad Office at the University of Mississippi, sponsors the Lott Leadership Exchange Program for University of Mississippi graduate students.  This program provides scholarships for selected students to learn about and in another part of the world.  The group also includes students from partner institutions abroad who come to the United States to learn about and in the South and Washington, DC.  Learning together at home and abroad provides amazing experiences for students from all partner institutions.

The 2008 exchange program for graduate students links UM students with University of Ulster and Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University students to study in Mississippi, Northern Ireland and South Africa.  The group is challenged with studying race, religion and reconciliation using events in the three countries as case studies.

The program was open to graduate students currently enrolled in coursework at the University of Mississippi or who will be enrolled in graduate-level coursework during the Fall 2008 semester.  The selection committee looked for a cross-section of majors who showed strong academic standing and wrote a strong essay.  Six students from each partner institution have been selected to participate in the program. Representing the University of Mississippi will be:

Rebecca Batey: Bentonville, AR, Southern Studies
Tara Luchkiw: Oxford, MS, Clinical Psychology
Samuel Ray: Jackson, MS, Creative Writing
Sara Powers: Oxford, MS, Law
Gregory Day: Oxford, MS, International Relations
Derrick Donald: Lake, MS, Medicinal Chemistry
Ruth Maron: Study Abroad Advisor

Students began the program on their home campuses in January with assigned readings and occasional group meetings.  The three groups communicate through teleconferences and Internet conversations.
This summer all 18 students and three faculty members will travel to South Africa, Northern Ireland and various sites in Mississippi and the United States.  The travel will last 4 weeks, beginning in mid-July, and will give students an opportunity to further explore the topic of reconciliation together.

“I am a second-year Southern Studies graduate student, and my particular interest is in public history in the South.  This program offers me a once-in-a-lifetime chance to go to two countries whose histories are similar to that of the American South and experience firsthand how they deal withissues of religion, race, and reconciliation in the pubic arena,” said Rebecca Batey of Bentonville, AR.

In the fall, University of Mississippi participants will enroll in a graduate seminar taught by Dr. Charles R. Wilson, director of the Center for Study Culture and professor of history at Ole Miss, that deals with comparative approaches to the problem of reconciliation in the American South, Northern Ireland and South Africa.  Dr. Wilson will supervise student research projects drawn from the experience of the summer exchange.  Students from partnering universities will work with faculty on their home campuses to also complete research projects.

“The exchange on race, religion, and reconciliation will provide a unique opportunity to compare experiences of peoples who have undergone dramatic changes in their social life and are trying to build new societies that go beyond previous divisions. It provides a great opportunity for University of Mississippi students to go to the dramatic sites of social change and to see American life in comparison to life in other societies. The project will be an intense examination of important issues facing the state, the American South, and the nation,” said Wilson.

In January 2009, students will engage in a teleconference involving all exchange program participants.  Students from each university will present their research, with the possibility of tying their research together in a joint publication.  For more information on the Lott Leadership Exchange Program for Graduate Students at the University of Mississippi, contact Ruth F. Maron at rfmaron@olemiss.edu or 662-915-1508 or visit the Study Abroad website.

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