Zoom Link
https://muw.zoom.us/j/97059411023
Department
History, Political Science, & Geography
Format of Presentation
Asynchronous
Research Category
Humanities
Description
I conducted an in-depth research project on Emma Ody Pohl, the Director of Physical Education at Mississippi University for Women from 1908 to 1955. I wanted to highlight Pohl's significance on her students and the college. I used the records, letters, and documents in the Pohl Papers at the Beulah Culbertson Archives and Special Collections to analyze Pohl's importance and create a biography of her time at the college. I also conducted further research into the idea of Southern White Womanhood throughout the twentieth century. Through this information, it is evident that the life and teaching of Emma Ody Pohl demonstrate how faculty and students at southern white women's colleges and universities challenged white women and provided them a place to reconsider what they thought they knew about themselves. Pohl used her talent of teaching and passion for dance to orchestrate a sisterhood among the white women of the college and the community, to change and influence the school’s curriculum and history, contribute many lasting memories and traditions for the entire college, and empower her students to expand their past ideas of what they believed women could physically do.
Recommended Citation
Sandlin, Anna, "Emma Ody Pohl: The Untold Story of “Miss MSCW” and Her Influence on Southern White Women" (2025). Undergraduate Research Conference. 1.
https://athenacommons.muw.edu/urc/2025/oral-presentations-i/1
Included in
Emma Ody Pohl: The Untold Story of “Miss MSCW” and Her Influence on Southern White Women
I conducted an in-depth research project on Emma Ody Pohl, the Director of Physical Education at Mississippi University for Women from 1908 to 1955. I wanted to highlight Pohl's significance on her students and the college. I used the records, letters, and documents in the Pohl Papers at the Beulah Culbertson Archives and Special Collections to analyze Pohl's importance and create a biography of her time at the college. I also conducted further research into the idea of Southern White Womanhood throughout the twentieth century. Through this information, it is evident that the life and teaching of Emma Ody Pohl demonstrate how faculty and students at southern white women's colleges and universities challenged white women and provided them a place to reconsider what they thought they knew about themselves. Pohl used her talent of teaching and passion for dance to orchestrate a sisterhood among the white women of the college and the community, to change and influence the school’s curriculum and history, contribute many lasting memories and traditions for the entire college, and empower her students to expand their past ideas of what they believed women could physically do.
https://athenacommons.muw.edu/urc/2025/oral-presentations-i/1