Your profs

David R. Davies

Dr. Dave Davies, instructor for the British Studies in Journalism course, has taught at the University of Southern Mississippi since 1991, teaching courses in reporting, editing, and media history. He entered academe after a 10-year journalism career in Arkansas, where he worked most recently for the Arkansas Gazette.

Davies sips java at a Paris cafe, Summer 2002.

He holds degrees from Arkansas, Ohio State, and Alabama.

"I went to London in 1999 to set up the British Studies course, and the course has met every summer since," Davies says. "As instructor, I design the course. In class I provide context and background as needed, but lecturers always come from the ranks of British journalism experts. I try to make the class both enlightening and fun, and I'm always available to accompany students on informal field trips in and around London. Chinatown, anyone?"

Davies enjoys taking side trips with students while abroad. He's traveled with students to Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, Brussels, and elsewhere. Around London, he's known as the "fifth Beatle" because of his yearly visits to Abbey Road, where he and students re-enact the Beatles' famous album cover.

At home Davies specializes in media history research. He's written two books, The Press & Race: Mississippi Journalists Confront the Movement (University Press of Mississippi, 2001) and The Postwar Decline of American Newspapers (Praeger, 2006).

Davies has served as chair of the USM Journalism Department (1998-2001) and interim director of the School of Mass Communication & Journalism (2004-2005). Since August 2007 he has been dean of the Honors College at the University of Southern Mississippi.

Contact Davies by writing him at dave (dot) davies (at) usm (dot) edu. [Davies puts his email address this way because spammers harvest email addresses off web sites. He hates spam, both the kind you eat and the kind you open in email.] He has a web page at http://daviddavies.org, which he dearly loves to update. You can also reach him on Facebook or by calling the Honors College at 601-266-4533.

Maggie Williams

Maggie Williams, instructor for the British Studies in Journalism course, has taught at the University of Southern Mississippi in both adjunct and full-time capacities since the mid 1980s. She’s specialized in teaching courses in reporting and writing. Since 1998, she has served as the School of Mass Communication and Journalism’s publication manager and in that capacity, advises The Student Printz newspaper at

Maggie at St. Margaret's Church, London.

USM. She also oversees the school’s internship program.

She has been in one classroom or another for more than 20 years as well as working in the newspaper industry for approximately 15 years. Her degrees are from Millsaps College, where she studied abroad as part of her curriculum, and USM.

"I learned from shadowing Dr. Davies in 2008 and from teaching the course solo in 2009 that British Studies and the journalism course are the best,” Williams said. “I have followed his lead in implementing the course and have added some of my own touches to expand its scope. What a way to spend a summer: Learning and living in one of the most exciting cities in the world. What could be better?”

Contact Williams by writing her at margaret.williams@usm.edu or find her on Facebook or phone her at 601-266-6746.