Meyer Library Hosts OSA Annual Conference

Meyer Library Hosts OSA Annual Conference

Duane G. Meyer LibraryOn Friday, May 26, 2023 the Ozarks Studies Association (OSA) will hold their third annual one-day conference in Duane G. Meyer Library on the main Springfield campus of Missouri State University. 

OSA 2023 Program Details
 
Host: Ozarks Studies Institute, Missouri State University
 
Sponsors:
  • Ozarks Studies Institute, Missouri State University;
  • Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, Missouri State University;
  • English Department, Missouri State University;
  • African American Studies Program, Missouri State University
 
8:00-8:15 Coffee, snacks, registration
 
8:15-8:30 Introduction and Welcome
Mara W. Cohen Ioannides, OSA President
Tom Peters, Director, Ozarks Studies Institute
 
8:45-10:00 Panel 1:
Facing Economic Challenges: Telling Stories and Learning Lessons in the COVID-Era Ozarks
  • “Man, put in a good word for me:” Reflections of Eden Village Residents on the Persistence of Barriers to Employment Mackenzie Whitaker and Marnie K. Watson, Missouri State University.
  • Least of These, Inc’s Food Pantry Food Insecurity Survey 2022 Christina Ryder and Sadie Hutchinson, Missouri State University
  • Term Life Insurance and Other Folk Tales: The View from a Financial Literacy Class in the Missouri Ozarks Elizabeth Tackett-Turner and Erin Kenny, Missouri State University
 
10:15-11:45 Panel 2:
Stewarding Community Stories in the 20th and 21st Century
  • Community Minded: A Holistic Approach to Outreach and Programming Lauren Willette, Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts
  • Exhuming Randolph: Identifying Relevance in Vance Randolph’s Ozarks in the 21st Century Curtis Copeland, Society of Ozarkian Hillcrofters
  • Love and Dynamite Along the Buffalo River Rex Robbins, Independent Scholar
  • Raising Cane (native bamboo): The Lore and Legend of Giant River Cane will Restore its Associated Culture and Ecology to the Ozarks Robert Kipfer and D. Alexander Wait, Missouri State University
 
12-12:45 Lunch
 
1:00-2:45 Panel 3:
Expanding Narratives of Community in the Hill Country
 
  • “The Legacy of Untold Stories: The Birth of the Springfield-Greene County African-American Heritage Trail” Lyle Q. Foster, Missouri State University
  • How a White Rapist Became Black in Historic Memory: The Case of Andrew Springer’s Lynching in Lawrence County, Arkansas Fatme Myuhtar-May, Arkansas State University
  • “The African American Community of Leslie Arkansas: Expanding on the little known and its impact on the Ozarks” Darren Bell, Arkansas State Archives
  • The Elusive Etz Chiam: The synagogue that grew and died in one generation in the Ozarks Mara W. Cohen Ioannides, Missouri State University
 
3:00-4:00 Plenary
“The African American Heritage in the Ozarks Project: An Overview”
Sean Rost, State Historical Society of Missouri
Gary R. Kremer, State Historical Society of Missouri
 
The plenary is open to the public and no registration is required, but for the rest of the conference a registration is required.
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