MDAH Announces 2025 Eudora Welty Research Fellow
MDAH Announces 2025 Eudora Welty Research Fellow
Kyle Alvey, Purdue University doctoral student, will center research on Welty’s short story about Medgar Evers’ Assassination
Kyle Alvey, a doctoral student at Purdue University, has been named the 2025 Eudora Welty Research Fellow. Alvey will use archival holdings in the Eudora Welty Collection housed at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to research the life and work of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author to research the life and work of the Pulitzer Prize-winning author.
“Like many American writers, the legacy of Eudora Welty is complex and requires an understanding of contextual layering, looking at aspects of race, gender, class, identity, Southern qualities, and more,” said Alvey. “It is my hope with this fellowship to produce a series of essays fit for publication that is focused on Eudora Welty's short story, ‘Where is the Voice Coming From?,’ that tells the story of the assassination of Civil Rights activist Medgar Evers from the perspective of the assassin. My focus is the role this story had in her life as a Southern writer and a social activist, as well as in the overall trajectory of the 20th century Civil Rights Movement.”
Alvey will use the $5,000 fellowship award to cover his travel, housing, and other expenses incurred while conducting his primary Welty research at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson.
David Pilcher, director of the MDAH Archives and Record Services Division, acknowledged the Eudora Welty Foundation’s support of the fellowship program.
“I am certain Kyle will gain valuable insights this summer, making excellent use of digitized Welty Collection materials and extensive paper archives to conduct his research,” Pilcher said, citing that the foundation makes those materials accessible through MDAH.
Alvey received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Kentucky. He is completing a Master of Arts in History at Marshall University in May 2025. He is starting his PhD in English with a focus in American Literature of the 20th and 21st centuries in the fall and states the archival research experience will be an excellent precursor to his advanced studies.
The Eudora Welty Collection is the world’s finest collection of materials related to Welty and one of the most varied literary collections in the United States. The collection includes manuscripts, letters, photographs, drawings, essays, and film and video footage that spans Welty’s entire life.
Beginning in 1957, over the course of more than 40 years, Welty donated materials to the department, primarily literary manuscripts and photographs. At her death, her remaining papers were bequeathed to MDAH and included unpublished manuscripts and 14,000 items of correspondence with family, friends, scholars, young writers, and noted writers.
The Eudora Welty Collection can be accessed at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building at 200 North Street in Jackson. The Eudora Welty Digital Archives also features selections of correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, and other media related to Welty.
For more information on the archival collections or the Eudora Welty Research Fellowship, contact Elisabeth Cambonga at 601-576-6868, or by email at fellowships@mdah.ms.gov.