The Southeastern Geographer is published by the University of North Carolina Press for the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers. The quarterly journal publishes research papers on all geographic topics and regions, but the editors especially invite submissions that focus on the American South. SEDAAG WEB SITE: http://www.sedaag.org
EDITORS
David M. Cochran, Jr. and Carl A. Andy Reese
University of Southern Mississippi
BOOK REVIEW EDITOR
Jerry O. Joby Bass
University of Southern Mississippi
CARTOGRAPHIC EDITOR
George T. Raber
University of Southern Mississippi
EDITORIAL ASSISTANT
Sam Miller
University of Southern Mississippi
SPANISH LANGUAGE TRANSLATOR
David M. Cochran, Jr.
University of Southern Mississippi
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE
Derek H. Alderman University of Tennessee
Ling Bian State University of New York, Buffalo
Jason K. Blackburn University of Florida
Robert Brinkmann Hofstra University
Laurence W. Carstensen, Jr. Virginia Tech
Kelley Crews University of Texas
Maria G. Fadiman Florida Atlantic University
Douglas W. Gamble University of North Carolina, Wilmington
Michael E. Hodgson University of South Carolina
Sally P. Horn University of Tennessee
Russell L. Ivy Florida Atlantic University
Allan L. James University of South Carolina
Ron Kalafsky University of Tennessee
Barry D. Keim Louisiana State University
Lisa M. Kennedy Virginia Tech University
Soren C. Larsen University of Missouri
Scott A. Lecce East Carolina University
Jonathan I. Leib Old Dominion University
Kent Mathewson Louisiana State University
Klaus J. Meyer-Arendt University of West Florida
Tyrel G. Moore University of North Carolina, Charlotte
John T. Morgan Emory and Henry College
Keith R. Mountain University of Louisville
Leslie A. North Western Kentucky University
Kavita Pandit University of Georgia
John Pickles University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Craig S. Revels Central Washington University
John C. Rodgers Mississippi State University
David Shankman University of Alabama
Graham A. Tobin University of South Florida
Front cover image: The Buddha Abides in Mississippi. Photograph by Mark M. Miller.
2014 Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers.
This publication is printed on 30% recycled, acid-free paper.
Contents
COVER ART
The Buddha Abides in Mississippi
PART I: PAPERS
PART II: REVIEWS
SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION
Members of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers receive the Southeastern Geographer as part of their annual dues ($50 per single; $52 per couple; $25 per student and retiree). The subscription rate for non-member individuals in the United States is $50 per year, and $82 per year outside the U.S. The rate for U.S. institutions is $55 per year, and $87 for institutions outside the U.S.
SUGGESTIONS FOR CONTRIBUTORS
The Southeastern Geographer welcomes manuscripts on any geographical subject as long as they reflect sound scholarship and make a significant contribution to geographical understanding. Residence and professional affiliation of the author/s are not considered when determining the acceptability of a manuscript.
Guidelines for preparing manuscripts for submission are available on the World Wide Web at www.sedaag.org. All manuscripts submitted are reviewed under a double-blind system by selected members of the editorial committee and other authorities at the discretion of the editors.
Reprints may be obtained at the expense of the author. Abstracts of all articles appearing in the Southeastern Geographer are submitted for inclusion in GeoAbstracts, an international publication. Full text versions of recent articles are available online by subscription through Project Muse (http://muse.jhu.edu). Issues in 2014 will also be available as an eBook through Amazon, Kobo, or Barnes and Noble.
All requests for subscriptions, back issues, and address changes should be directed by mail to Journals Department, University of North Carolina Press, 116 South Boundary Street, Chapel Hill, NC 27514.
All manuscripts should be emailed to:
David Cochran and Andy Reese
Co-Editors, Southeastern Geographer
Department of Geography and Geology
University of Southern Mississippi
118 College Dr., Box 5051
Hattiesburg, MS 39406
segeditors@gmail.com
Cover Art
The Buddha Abides in Mississippi
MARK M. MILLER
The University of Southern Mississippi
I am a southern Buddhist. No, I dont mean Sri Lankas Theravada Buddhist tradition. I live in Mississippi, the deepest of the Deep South, and I practice Zen Buddhism with a sizeable Sangha (congregation) of fellow practitioners across the state.
Among the Souths many fascinations is the extent to which we both exceed but also defy our many stereotypes. Even here within the belly of the Bible Belt, a wide variety of spiritual practicesinfluenced from traditions around the globeabide in an atmosphere of relative tolerance and mutual respect.
A few years ago, I resolved to attend a teaching by Thch Nht Hnh, Vietnamese Zen Master and prolific author. As of this writing, Nht Hnh is age 87. I found his travel schedule on the website for Plum Village: the Engaged Buddhism center he founded in France after his forced exile from Vietnam. (Nht Hnh and his followers were too engaged in human rights advocacy for the comfort of his home country; Martin Luther King Jr. nominated him for the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Vietnam.)
As I expected, Nht Hnhs travels that year took him to the usual intellectual centers of the world: Paris, London, Tokyo, San Francisco, New York City, monasteries his followers had founded in California and New York state... and Batesville, Mississippi.
Batesville, Mississippi? The small, unremarkable industrial city on the edge of the Mississippi River Delta? As I learned, Nht Hnhs followers had recently established a new monastery and meditation center, named Magnolia Grove, just outside town. Admirers from the greater Memphis region donated 120 acres of rolling, wooded land, which has since become home for monks and nuns from monasteries in Vietnam and France. The cover photo shows the Magnolia Grove lotus pond, in the heart of the growing campus.
Along with hundreds of others in 2011, I helped welcome Thy (Vietnamese for teacher, as he is commonly addressed) on his first visit to Mississippi: a three-day meditation and teaching retreat. This tradition of Zen is intended to be relatively accessible to a Western practitioner: emphasizing affirmation-like chants and engagement with real-world problems, both personal and social. Thy returned again two years later for another retreatagain attended by hundredsand today more than thirty monks and nuns reside and practice at Magnolia Grove, Mississippi.
