Presenters
19th Annual Ozarks Studies Symposium
September 17-19, 2026
Theme: "The Missouri Ozarks: Through a 250-Year Lens"
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.
2026 Missouri State University-West Plains Keynote Speaker
Joanna Dee Das, Washington University
“You’ve Got a Great Past Ahead of You”: Performing American History in the Missouri Ozarks
Dr. Craig Albin
Professor of English, Missouri State University-West Plains
Presentation: The Resonant Howl: Democracy, Dignity, and the Socioeconomic Divide in Daniel Woodrell's
Fiction
Jo Van Arkel
Professor of English, Drury University
Presentation: Ozarks Stories and Wonder Tales
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
Faith Collins
Writer
Presentation: Early African American Settlement in Howell County, Missouri, 1850-1882: Tracing Migration
from Bedford County, Tennessee, and Marion County, Arkansas
Allison Cundiff
Lindenwood University and Parkway Schools
Presentation: The Mysterious Women of J Road: A Literary Celebration of the Mythology of the Missouri Ozarks
Brian Fickett
Springfield Art Museum
Presentation: Preserving the Ozarks at Springfield Art Museum
Dr. James Fowler
Professor Emeritus, University of Central Arkansas
Presentation: "Rounds"
Dr. John J. Han
Professor of English and Creative Writing, Missouri Baptist University
Presentation: Law and Justice in Nancy Allen's Ozarks Crime Fiction
Danette House
Ozarks Storyteller
Presentation: From Scotland to the Ozarks: The Martin Family and a 250-Year American Journey
Mara W. Cohen Ioannides
Ozarks Studies Association
Presentation: Murder-Suicide in the Ozarks: The Story of William and Malinda Lowenstein
Susan Croce Kelly
Author
Presentation: 100 Years of Route 66 in the Ozarks--And Then Some
Tom Kersen
Jackson State University
Presentation: Reunion and Archaeology of Identity: Returning to Moark After Forty Years
Bethany Kiele
University of Arkansas
Presentation: An Ozarks' Hillbilly: The Charge to Build a Missouri Community College
Dr. Dawn Larsen
Professor of Theater Emerita, Francis Marion University
Presentation: Andy Miller: Missouri Ozarks Visionary
Taylor Nichole Libbert
Independent Researcher
Presentation: Quantification of Missouri Ozarks Literature
Dave Malone
Poet and Screenwriter, West Plains, Missouri
Presentation: Early African American Settlement in Howell County, Missouri, 1850-1882: Tracing Migration
from Bedford County, Tennessee, and Marion County, Arkansas
Film Screening: Tennyson's Maud
Kim McCully-Mobley
Aurora High School/Drury University/Crowder College
Presentation: Letters from Home
Sarah K. Moore
University of Arkansas
Film Screening: Witch Hazel Advent, The Story of an Ozark Poet
John Mort
Author
Presentation: "Her Pretty Feet"
Crockett W. Oaks III
Founder and Executive Director, Lincoln School Project
Presentation: Lincoln School Project: Preservation, Memory, and Community Transformation in the
Missouri Ozarks
Zachary W. Omans
Game Designer
Presentation: Discovering My Roots Through Game Design
Dr. Jared Phillips
University of Arkansas
Presentation: Deep Ecology in the Hills: How Bioregionalists in the Missouri Ozarks Built the National
Bioregional Movement, 1977-1990
Leslie Reed
Arkansas State University
Presentation: The Rhetorics of Ozark Swimming Holes along the Lawrence County, Arkansas, Ecotone
Area
Susanna Reichling
Missouri State University
Presentation: Discovering a Treasure in the Dust: The Unexpected Story of an Ozarks Folk Music Collaboration
Stephanie Saunders
Lyon College
Presentation: Covered Buttons
James Seawel
Therapist, Essayist
Presentation: Hymns and Honky Tonks: The Ozarks World That Created Ashley McBryde
Steve Wiegenstein
Author
Presentation: John R. Kelso, Ozarks Radical
Barbara Williams
Artist
Presentation: The Challenges of Making Art in the Rural Missouri Ozarks: Lennis Leonard Broadfoot
and James Edward Deeds