Purdue doctoral student in English awarded 2025 Eudora Welty Research Fellow to study Pulitzer-Prize winning author
Purdue University doctoral candidate Kyle Alvey has been named the 2025 Eudora Welty Research Fellow, using the prestigious honor to examine the Pulitzer-Prize winning author’s short story “Where is the Voice Coming From?” about the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers.
Alvey, who began his PhD studies in English at Purdue this fall, will use archival holdings in the Eudora Welty Collection housed at the Mississippi Department of Archives and History to research the life and work of the southern author. The $5,000 fellowship award covers travel, housing and other expenses incurred while Alvey conducts his primary Welty research at the William F. Winter Archives and History Building in Jackson, Mississippi.
“Like many American writers, the legacy of Eudora Welty is complex and requires an understanding of contextual layering, looking at aspects of race, gender, class, identity, southern qualities and more,” said Alvey, who was previously an instructor with the Ashland Community and Technical College system in Kentucky.
“It is my hope with this fellowship to produce a series of essays fit for publication that focus on Eudora Welty’s short story ‘Where is the Voice Coming From?’ that tells the story of the assassination of civil rights activist Medgar Evers from the perspective of the assassin. My focus is the role this story had in her life as a southern writer and a social activist, as well as in the overall trajectory of the 20th century Civil Rights Movement.”
Alvey received a Bachelor of Arts in English from the University of Kentucky. He completed a Master of Arts in History at Marshall University in May before starting his PhD at Purdue this fall. His doctorate will focus on American Literature of the 20th and 21st centuries.
“I am certain Kyle will gain valuable insights this summer, making excellent use of digitized Welty Collection materials and extensive paper archives to conduct his research,” said David Pilcher, director of the MDAH Archives and Record Services Division, citing that the foundation makes those materials accessible through MDAH.