Major Works
- Kudzu on the Ivory Tower: From the Backwoods to an Academic Career in the Deep, Deep South (a Memoir) 2021. Borgo Publishing, Tuscaloosa, AL
- Mississippi Archaeology Q & A. University Press of Mississippi, Jackson (2005)
- Many scholarly works
Biography of Evan Peacock
Early Life
Evan Peacock was born in Clarksdale, Mississippi, on October 11. 1961. He is the sixth of seven sons born to Dennis Lamar Peacock, Sr. and Joye Ann Peters Peacock. His family moved a lot while he was growing up– often correlated with when the rent was due as his family was very poor. The family eventually settled in Choctaw County, Mississippi, for most of Peacock’s early life.
His mother encouraged reading and as a child, he read voraciously. He and his brothers did some dangerous and bizarre activities growing up which today would cause parents major concern, but somehow they survived.
Peacock claims to have been a clown in junior high school which made him popular with his peers but not his teachers. In high school, he took up boxing and was very good at it. He also had a chance to sign up for music in ninth grade and signed up for cello lessons. He still enjoys playing music as he plays by ear.
Post-High School
Three days after Peacock graduated from high school, at age 17, he was inducted into the U.S. Air Force and sent to Texas. In 1980 he was sent to Germany. He had many job assignments in Europe and was then transferred to Florida where, despite his knowledge of electronics, he felt people assumed because of his very Southern accent that he was racist, sexist, and ignorant. In 1983 he received honorable discharge papers and headed home.
Following a succession of blue-collar jobs, Peacock, with an interest in archaeology, decided to enroll at Mississippi State University (MSU) in the summer of 1984 where in 1988, he received a B.A. in Anthropology. He also met his first wife, Janet Rafferty, while a student there. Janet was a professor, and they had 34 happy years together before she died of cancer in 2018.
Early Career
In 1988, Janet (on sabbatical) and her two children, David and Nikki, traveled with Evan to the University of Sheffield in England, so Evan could earn a Master’s Degree in Environmental Archaeology and Palaeoeconomy, which he received in 1990. The family returned to the United States, but Evan had no job prospects in education at the time.
He therefore took several jobs until he landed a job as an archaeologist with the U. S. Forest Service in Mississippi, where he experienced many interesting finds and gained useful knowledge when he later taught his students about laws that affect archaeological practices.
In 1993 Evan’s father died at the age of 64. His mother died in 2002 at the age of 69.
Deciding to get a Ph.D. and enter academia, Evan returned again to Sheffield. After receiving his doctorate, Peacock applied for a number of academic jobs–one of which was at MSU in the same department in which his wife Janet worked. He accepted the position and helped to create a new master’s program in Applied Anthropology, which began in 2001. Before his retirement in 2018, Peacock served as Interim Director of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology at MSU.
Retirement
After the death of his wife Janet, Peacock retired from MSU in order to fish, reconnect with family, and finish his memoir Kudzu on the Ivory Tower: From the Backwoods to an Academic Career in the Deep, Deep South.
He is the author of more than one hundred scholarly works and has written articles for Mississippi Outdoors, Forest Perspectives, and Hobo Pancakes. His book, Mississippi Archeaology Q & A, was published by University Press of Mississippi and has received wide acclaim.
Peacock lived in Starkville, Mississippi, for thirty-eight years; but in 2021, he met Josie Strain. They became fast friends, and in April of 2022, they married. Peacock and Strain now live in Tupelo, Mississippi.
Related Websites
- The story of an unlikely journey from a poverty-stricken upbringing in the Mississippi backwoods to a career in academic archaeology. https://www.amazon.com/Kudzu-Ivory-Tower-Evan-Peacock/dp/1734573074
- University Press of Mississippi page for Peacock’s works published by them. https://www.upress.state.ms.us/Contributors/P/Peacock-Evan
- Borgo Publishing page for Kudzu on the Ivory Tower. https://www.borgopublishing.com/evanpeacock
- Scholarly works by Peacock https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Evan-Peacock–
- Sunday at the Bluff program to feature Dr. Evan Peacock https://www.muw.edu/news/2787-sunday-at-the-bluff-program-to-feature-dr-evan-peacock
- Kudzu available at Barnes and Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/kudzu-on-the-ivory-tower-evan-peacock/1139994807
- Kudzu on Google Books https://books.google.com/books/about/Kudzu_on_the_Ivory_Tower.html?id=EuOXzgEACAAJ
Bibliography
- Peacock is professor emeritus at MSU. Biographical information can be found here. https://www.cobb.msstate.edu/directory/peacock
- Curriculum vitae information is found here. https://msstate.academia.edu/EvanPeacock/CurriculumVitae
- Academia page for writings and reports by Evan Peacock. https://msstate.academia.edu/EvanPeacock
- Evan Peacock named interim leader of MSU’s Cobb Institute https://www.msstate.edu/newsroom/article/2017/08/evan-peacock-named-interim-leader-msus-cobb-institute