Welcome

Welcome to the Delta Studies Center! In 1994 by Board of Trustees' Resolution 94-103 Arkansas State University created the Delta Studies Center. You may read the board resolution and newspaper articles regarding construction through 1994-1996. The Delta Studies Center operated as a component of Academic Affairs, with a university-wide advisory committee from 1998 through 2000 and is now a part of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences.

In 1998, Arkansas State University employed Peggy Robinson Wright, an ASU undergraduate and MPA recipient, to serve as Coordinator and later was named Director. The Center was housed on the 7th Floor of the Dean B. Ellis Library until 2007 when it was relocated temporarily to the International Building until other space was identified. In addition to serving as full-time Director, since 1998, Wright has taught a Fall and Spring Semester "Introduction to Geography Course" to gain college teaching experience and to maintain a "sense of region" as expressed/displayed by ASU's students. Read the article here.

The Delta Studies Center operated with two staff members (Coordinator/Director and Secretary) from 1999-2006 until university budget cuts eliminated the full-time Secretary position. Since inception, ASU-DSC's Director has raised all outside monies in support of the Centers operation. The Delta Studies Centers current projects are described on the projects page.

ASU-Delta Studies Center  raised $84,000 in service learning internship stipends through the Lower Mississippi Delta Service Corps and $748,435.66 in direct grant support from various sources.

ASU-Delta Studies Center continues to maintain a broad range of interagency board and membership collaborations at the national, state, regional, and local level and provides an Information Clearinghouse with a website, information and referral service and archives, in addition to publishing a quarterly newsletter.