This thesis analyzes how Taylor Swift has changed the way she expresses her Southern identity, specifically her dialectal features, over the course of her career and through her switch from country music to pop music. There were two processes to assess the change in Swift’s speech: the production of /ai/ tokens in interviewed speech and the perception of dialectal change by fans in the comment sections of the interviews on YouTube. Seven interviews on YouTube and their comment sections were used as the data source for this study. Production of /ai/ was measured through an auditory analysis to determine whether tokens were monophthongal, diphthongal, or somewhere in the middle. Perception was evaluated by scraping the comments from the YouTube videos and running key word searches related to accent. The results of the production portion of the study confirm that there has been a decrease in monophthongal tokens of /ai/ from 2007-2019 in Swift’s speech. The results from the perception part of the study show that fans do notice a change in “sounding Southern” and try to explain that change through either labeling Swift as “fake” or by positing other theories related to Swift’s individual life experiences (such as moving around the country). The implications of this study point to how dialectal features are linked with identity performance, and also how non-linguists justify changing dialectal features.

"For Alexander" is an exhibition about masculinity as it is exhibited by Southern "good ole boys". I rely on original and appropriated imagery, as well as memories of loss and humor from my childhood in Alabama. Combining mixed media and sculptural elements has allowed me to investigate the subjects that interest me. I explore and artistically comment on these subjects through a mix of personal and culturally loaded imagery that records what I have either experienced or researched, and which I realize through the ironic use of non-traditional materials, such as sequins and rhinestones. My work examines stereotypes and my own beliefs about Southern good ole boys. I also reflect on elements of Southern hypocrisy, and I question long standing social practices with the help of historical and contemporary media sources. My exhibition is dedicated to my great uncle, who was murdered by his father, a preacher, during the Great Depression.

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This diploma thesis focuses on the role of the American Civil War memory in the American society today. It examines this phenomenon through the perception of American Civil War reenactors. The thesis analyses their opinions on the current issues that are linked to the history of this conflict - the omnipresence of the Confederate monuments and the Confederate battle flag in the American public space. It also explores the subject of the Southern identity, the role of the Confederacy in its formation and whether the ideas of the Confederacy are still present in the South today. It is necessary to understand the Southern mentality and how it is perceived by the rest of the United States, because the individual characteristics of the Southern identity are reflected in the current debates on the Confederate heritage. An idea that interconnects the individual chapters of the thesis is that the American Civil War memory is strongly influenced by the Lost Cause ideology and the overall mythologization of the conflict. While the Civil War reenactors' main motivation is to educate society about the conflict, their opinions are also mostly supportive of the romantic perception of the Confederacy.

This thesis examines the relationship between Southern literature and socio-cultural realities of the Southern region of the United States of America. Analyzing works of five distinguished Southern writers, this thesis examines the reflection of specific Southern culture features in literature of the region in the period from the end of the American Civil War to the second half of the 20th century. The thesis oppose the opinion that the primary goal of Southern literature was to promote Southern identity and its cultural superiority above the North. The central hypothesis, that is being verified by this thesis, is that despite the indisputable contribution of highly recognized Southern writers to building of Southern identity, these authors expressed in their works also often sharp critiques of the social conditions in the South.