Kallye Smith is a PhD student from Mississippi studying 20th century American literature, looking at American folklore. By some form of divine providence, she was drawn to the University of Tennessee, wanting to specifically look at the university’s connection with the region and with Appalachian folklore. She’s fascinated by the stories that we tell each other, sometimes before bed or sometimes around the campfire, to explain the world around us, and she enjoys thinking about what gets passed down and what doesn’t, what stays popular and what fades into obscurity. She’s also interested in how these stories change depending on who tells them and where. She’s intrigued by local traditions and customs, as well as superstitions that can get passed down from so many generations past that folks don’t even know why they still uphold them, really, just that they’re something integral that must be upheld. Kallye enjoys ghost stories especially, how people use them to explain away what goes bump in the night, not just because she’s a fan of all things spooky, but also because there’s so much that the stories about the dead can tell us about the living. What gets passed down is important, after all. In the words of Mississippi writer William Faulkner, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”