Marcie Cohen Ferris Papers, 1960s-2020

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Summary

Creator:
Ferris, Marcie Cohen
Abstract:

Marcie Cohen Ferris is a white retired professor of American Studies and associate director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies (CCJS) at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. The collection consists of sound recordings of guest speakers from a fundraising event hosted by the CCJS and from interviews conducted and classes taught by Marcie Cohen Ferris. The recordings discuss the CCJS, the history of Jews in the South, and the practice of Jewish history research. Additions to the collection consist of personal and professional papers that document her youth and family, her academic training, and her career researching, teaching, and publishing about foodways and the Jewish experience in the South.

Extent:
31,000 items (45 linear feet)
Language:
Materials in English
Library Catalog Link:
View UNC library catalog record for this item

Background

Biographical / historical:

Marcie Cohen Ferris (1957- ) was born in Blytheville, Ark., to Jerome and Hudda Cohen. Ferris received her B.A. from Brown University in 1981, her M.A. from the College of William and Mary in 1985, and her Ph.D. from George Washington University in 2003. In 2004, she joined the American Studies faculty at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, where she regularly taught seminars exploring the history of the Jewish experience in the American South, American Jewish women, and the meaning of food in American culture. She also served as the associate director of the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies. Before moving to Chapel Hill, Ferris worked in the field of museums, public history, and oral history for over twenty years in Maine, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Mississippi. She is married to William (Bill) R. Ferris.

Scope and content:

The collection consists of sound recordings of guest speakers from a fundraising event hosted by the Carolina Center for Jewish Studies (CCJS) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and from interviews conducted and classes taught by Marcie Cohen Ferris, a now retired American Studies faculty member and associate director of the CCJS. The recordings discuss the CCJS, the history of Jews in the South, and the practice of Jewish history research.

Additions to the collection consist of Marcie Cohen Ferris's professional and personal papers that document her dissertation and later research for scholarly publications, teaching, and museum exhibit work; academic training; lectures on campus; and board and committee work for the Center for Jewish Studies, the Jewish Heritage Foundation of North Carolina, and the Southern Jewish Historical Society. Personal papers document her youth and school years, the Cohen family in Blythville, Ark., and her marriage to William (Bill) R. Ferris.

Materials include research files on foodways and the Jewish experience in the South, with copies of recipes, interview transcripts, copies of archival and published sources among handwritten notes, journals, and photographs of Jewish sites in South; professional and personal correspondence, photographs, and scrapbooks; yearbooks from Blytheville public schools; and ephemera, such as pamphlets, posters, and programs from events at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, museums at which Ferris worked, and relating to her books, Shalom Y'all and Matzoh Ball Gumbo.

Acquisition information:

Received from Marcie Cohen Ferris of Chapel Hill, N.C., in October 2005 (Acc. 100236), May 2007 (Acc. 100659), February 2008 (Acc. 100907), October 2015 (Acc. 102261), August 2018 (Acc. 103413), January 2019 (Acc. 103561), and August 2025 (Acc. 20250818.1).

Processing information:

Processed by: Nancy Kaiser, February 2006

Encoded by: Nancy Kaiser, February 2006

Revised by: Amanda Sentmanat-Perez, September 2025

In 2017, we began using "white" as an ethnic and racial identity for individual and families, in addition to "Black," "African American," "Jewish," and other familiar identity terms that we have used for decades in collection descriptions. We use this identity term so that whiteness is no longer the presumed default of the people represented in our collections. To determine identity, we rely on self-identification; other information supplied to the repository by collection creators or sources; public records, press accounts, and secondary sources; and contextual information in the collection materials. Omissions of ethnic and racial identities in finding aids created or updated after August 2017 are an indication of insufficient information to make an educated guess or an individual's preference for identity information to be excluded from description. When we have misidentified, please let us know at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu.

Sensitive materials statement:

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Access and use

Restrictions to access:

Use of audio cassettes may require production of listening copies.

This collection contains additional born digital materials that are not available for immediate or same day access. Please contact Research and Instructional Service staff at wilsonlibrary@unc.edu to discuss options for consulting these materials.

Restrictions to use:

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], in the Marcie Cohen Ferris Sound Recordings #5177, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Special Collections Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Location of this collection:
Louis Round Wilson Library
200 South Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27515
Contact:
(919) 962-3765
wilsonlibrary@unc.edu