18th Annual Ozarks Studies Symposium
September 18-20, 2025
Theme: "Conflict and Consensus in the Ozarks"
Entrance to the symposium is free and pre-registration is not required. Those who
attend will be invited to register on site when they arrive.
All presenters are found in the Full Conference Program.
2025 Missouri State University-West Plains Keynote Speaker
Olivia Paschal, University of Virginia
Creating the Neoliberal State: Arkansas in the Clinton Era
Dr. Craig Albin
Professor of English, Missouri State University-West Plains
Presentation: " ' Sunk to a Moaning Place': Defying Despair in Winter's Bone"
Vincent Anderson
Baxter County Library, Mountain Home, Arkansas
Presentation: Armageddon in the Ozarks: The Rise and Raid of the CSA Compound in Marion County,
Arkansas
Jo Van Arkel
Professor of English, Drury University
Presentation: We Know How to Read the Clouds: Consensus, and the First-Person Plural Voice in Fiction
Michael Blanchard
University of Central Arkansas
Presentation: Ozarks Pastorals - Poems of Time, Memory & Mountains
Chuck Davis
Visual Artist and Independent Curator
Presentation: Healing Waters and Segregated Springs: Stereo Views of Arkansas
Dr. James Fowler
Professor Emeritus, University of Central Arkansas
Presentation: Short Story: "Harvest"
Dr. John J. Han
Professor of English and Creative Writing, Missouri Baptist University
Presentation: Redemption and Exclusion: Race, Class, and Eugenics in Harold Bell Wright's Social
Vision
Danette House
Traditional Ozarks Storyteller and Folk Practitioner
Presentation: Feuding Families of the Ozarks
Mara W. Cohen Ioannides
Ozarks Studies Association
Presentation: Reading from Yellowjack and Turpentine
David H. Jerome
University of Arkansas
Presentation: Elwin "Preacher" C. Roe
Susan Croce Kelly
Author and Editor
Presentation: The Ozarks' King-of-the-Road-Succession-Conflict and Other Close Encounters of the
Horse/Car Kind
Tom Kersen
Jackson State University
Presentation: America's Greatest Psychic Marvel: The Strange Case of Dr. Khiro and Mr. Darnell
Jan Stock LaFever
Presentation: Lloyd "Shad" Heller's Legacy
Dr. Dawn Larsen
Professor of Theater Emerita, Francis Marion University
Presentation: The Rockaway Beach Riot
Kitty Ledbetter
Professor Emerita, Texas State University
Presentation: Headed for the Big Time: Dottie Goes to Nashville
Dave Malone
Poet and Screenwriter, West Plains, Missouri
Presentation: Tire Lots, Grounded Grannies, and Roving Black Bears: Nature, Family, and Neighbors
in Conflict and Consensus
Kim McCully-Mobley
Aurora High School/Drury University/Crowder College
Presentation: Storytelling At Its Best
Aleshia O'Neal
Associate Professor of English, College of the Ozarks
Presentation: The Life and Work of Charlie May Simon
Cathy Otten
Founder and Healthcare Coach, Patient to Partner
Presentation: Take Charge of Your Healthcare: A Rural Missouri Perspective on Medical Mistrust and
Patient Empowerment
Dr. Jared Phillips
University of Arkansas
Presentation: Creating an Organic Ozarks
Leslie Reed
Instructor of English, Arkansas State University
Presentation: New Light in a Dark World: The Rhetoric of Extinction and Survival in Daniel Woodrell's
Landscapes
Kristen Ruccio
Associate Professor of Englosh, Arkansas State University
Presentation: "We're Still Hear": Nature as Character in Laura Ingalls Wilder's Little House Books
Denise Henderson Vaughn
Science Journalist
Presentation: Ozarks Karst Dramas (documentary screening and discussion)
Steve Wiegenstein
Author
Presentation: Reading from the author's upcoming novel, Bring Daybreak
