In our southern studies curriculum, we focus on new definitions of southern cultures that are historically responsible, ethically diverse, and forward-looking for all current and future southern residents. Those definitionsof music, art, food, literature, politics, identities, histories and culturesare studied, created, debated, and applied from our location here at UNC, home of world-class southern, oral history, and digital archives, journals, faculty, students, and intellectual spaces into which all are invited. The South's vibrant diversity anchors our graduate curriculum. We examine its cultural expressionsmusic, food, art, literature, material culture, politics, religion, and moreand how such ideas circulate in local, global, and transnational communities and networks. We look directly at the tragic, powerful roles of racial oppression that shaped the South's history and culture. We engage the challenges and opportunities in the intersections of racial diversity, class and gender difference, and sexuality accompanying the region's dynamic future. Graduate students can study and create by engaging our world-class archives and with premiere writers and thinkers. We encourage the needs of research projects to inform the shape of each student's writing, scholarship, and intellectual engagement.