OXFORD, Miss. – With bachelor’s degrees in history and theatre arts
already under his belt, University of Mississippi alumnus Kenneth Lane
Jones is on his way to Great Britain as a 2009-10 Fulbright Scholar.
Jones, a native of Water Valley who graduated from UM in 2007, will
pursue a graduate certificate program in museum studies at Leicester
University. The Fulbright Scholarship will support his research on the
little-known history of Britain’s Channel Islands, which German forces
occupied during World War II.
“I only recently learned that British soil had been occupied at all,”
Jones said. “Those islands were occupied longer than Poland and France,
but most people don’t know about it. So I’ll be looking at how that
experience was memorialized and remembered.”
Jones has an unusual academic pedigree. Besides majors in history and
theatre arts, he earned minors in gender studies and English.
“It was always difficult for me to set my sights on just one (academic
discipline),” he said. “I’m interested in a lot of things. How do you
choose one over the other?”
Mary Carruth, director of the Sarah Isom Center for Women and Gender
Studies, said Jones’ background makes him “a truly interdisciplinary
scholar.”
“Ken is very adept at articulating and making connections between
different disciplines,” Carruth said. “He has an appetite for learning
and traveling, for immersing himself in other languages and cultures.
He will represent the U.S. and UM very well.”
Debra Young, associate dean of the Sally McDonnell Barksdale Honors
College who helped Jones coordinate his Fulbright application, agrees.
“Having worked with Ken on his application, I’m delighted to say that
his activities in theatre and history certainly supported his
candidacy,” Young said. “Fulbright was able to see someone who was both
serious about his work and enthusiastic about opportunities to engage
with the public in various ways.”
Jones took several classes under Sheila Skemp and Susan Grayzel, both
history professors who teach gender studies through the Isom Center.
With guidance from Carruth, Young, Skemp and Grayzel, Jones also holds
the distinction of being the first male to earn a minor in gender
studies.
“It’s an enormous testament to the attention, teaching and mentorship that the Isom Center provides,” Carruth said.
Jones leaves Sept. 19 for England. He will keep his family and friends
informed and entertained about his experiences through travelogues to
be published in the Oxford Eagle.
The Fulbright Program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State and
was established in 1946 under legislation introduced by the late
senator J. William Fulbright of Arkansas. It operates in more than 150
countries across the globe and supports building mutual understanding
between the people of the United States and the rest of the world. The
scholarships fund one year of study or teaching for each of the
scholars. Scholars are selected on the basis of academic or
professional achievement as well as on demonstrated leadership
potential in their fields.