Jane Adams receives national recognition

An SIUC anthropologist who studies the experience of being white and poor is receiving national recognition from an expert on ethnicities and culture.

Gregory Rodriguez, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation and a columnist for the Los Angeles Times, traveled with anthropology professor Jane H. Adams as she conducted field work in the Mississippi Delta.

Rodriguez documented the trip in a recent L.A. Times article entitled, "Definitions of whiteness amid the Delta blues. In the Mississippi Delta, race isn't as easy as black and white."

"I am deeply gratified to see that our research is recognized as 'cutting edge' by Gregory Rodriguez," said Adams. "We have received notes from all over the United States about the column and I have been invited to a special panel of the American Anthropology Association dealing with the question of 'whiteness.'"

Adams has dedicated her life to examining changes in rural life in Southern Illinois and the deep South. She focuses on the encounter between people who live in rural regions and expanding, industrializing states and societies.

"Prior to my graduate school experience I participated in the civil rights movement in Mississippi. I have long tried to understand the dynamics of race and especially what it means to be 'white' in a majority African-American environment like the Delta," Adams said.

The scholar hopes her work helps to fight poverty. "It is critically important to understand the social dynamics of these regions if we ever hope to successfully attack poverty and hopelessness in the countryside. Our work has revealed very interesting possibilities in that direction," she said.

Adams received her bachelor's degree from SIUC and master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Illinois.

-- Sun Min