USM Dale Center Anonymous Gift Provides Graduate Assistantship

The Dale Center for the Study of War and Society at The University of Southern Mississippi recently received an anonymous $100,000 gift to establish The Dale Center Fellowship for Graduate Students. This five-year program will support up to five 12-month graduate assistantships.

“We are immensely grateful to the donor, who has asked to remain anonymous,” said Dr. Kyle F. Zelner, chair of the History Department and co-director of the Dale Center. “This gift will allow the faculty of the Dale Center to continue teaching and conducting important research on the history of warfare, while our graduate student will have the resources to plan and implement our many community outreach projects we so proudly offer in the region.”

Each year, the Dale Center offers a number of programs that are open to students, the campus community and the public. These events include the Richard McCarthy Annual Lecture Series, the War & Society Roundtable at the Hattiesburg Public Library and the Lt. Col. John H. Dale Sr. Distinguished Lecture Series in International Security and Global Policy.

In the past, department faculty have worked to bring these events to fruition throughout the summer months. Thanks to the dedicated work of the first graduate student of the program, Tracy Barnett, the faculty have been able to travel internationally for research and to teach in study-abroad programs, in addition to writing books and other publications.

“Our community events take an enormous amount of work to plan and orchestrate,” said Zelner. “Having Tracy to assist us has already made a huge difference for the Dale Center.”

Beyond planning for regular events, the graduate assistants will also be responsible for a myriad of other tasks throughout the year, including managing the Center's digital presence and creating marketing materials.

Zelner sees the fellowship as a “first-rate training course on public and scholarly event planning,” as well as an exceptional opportunity for the student to gain marketable skills, all while networking with professors and experts in his or her field of study. The Center's events bring renowned historians from all over the country, and the graduate assistant will have one-on-one access to this group of esteemed scholars.

Established in 1999, the Center was created to be the leading national institution in the study of war and society. The Dale Center's goals remain to attract the top, most productive faculty in the field, while recruiting the most promising graduate students to the best program in the nation. The Center's staff also continue to serve their community by providing outreach and educational programming about the study of warfare in all of its facets.

For more information about The Dale Center for the Study of War and Society at Southern Miss, visit www.usm.edu/war-society.