Ozarks Studies Symposium Schedule
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.
Thursday, September 17, 2026, On the Mezzanine, West Plains Civic Center
Description:
The Ozarks along Route 66—Photographs by Chuck Davis
Commemorating the Route 66 Centennial and America 250, The Gallery at the Center on the mezzanine level of the West Plains Civic Center presents a fine art perspective of the "Mother Road" as it traverses the Ozarks. By focusing on this specific regional segment, the photographs tell a regional tale that reflects the broader American experience along the historic route.
These images by Chuck Davis are on view from Saturday, September 12 to October 18
Chuck Davis, an Arkansas Artist Fellow (2025), has spent four decades photographing Route 66 from end to end. His award-winning work has been exhibited at major venues such as MASS MoCA and Mount Sequoyah’s Creative Spaces, and recently appeared in the Oxford American. He operates the only daylight tintype studio in the Ozarks on the grounds of the abandoned city of Electric Springs, Arkansas.
Refreshments will be served, and the artist will be available to discuss the exhibit.
Friday, September 18, 2026, Magnolia Room, West Plains Civic Center
Description:
- Mara W. Cohen Ioannides, Ozarks Studies Association
- Murder-Suicide in the Ozarks: The Story of William and Malinda Lowenstein
- Jo Van Arkel, Professor of English, Drury University
- Ozarks Stories and Wonder Tales
- Danette House, Ozarks Storyteller
- From Scotland to the Ozarks: The Martin Family and a 250-Year American Journey
Description:
- Jared Phillips, University of Arkansas
- Deep Ecology in the Hills: How Bioregionalists in the Missouri Ozarks Built the National Bioregional Movement, 1977-1990
- Tom Kersen, Jackson State University
- Reunion and Archaeology of Identity: Returning to Moark After Forty Years
- Barbara Williams, Artisti
- The Challenges of Making Art in the Rural Missouri Ozarks: Lennis Leonard Broadfoot and James Edward Deeds
Description:
Film Screenings (Civic Center Auditorium)
- Dave Malone, Poet and Screenwriter:Tennyson's Maud
- Sarah K. Moore, University of Arkansas: Witch Hazel Advent, The Story of an Ozark Poet
Panel 3: Ozarks Literary Criticism
- Craig Albin, Missouri State University-West Plains
- The Resonant Howl: Democracy, Dignity, and the Socioeconomic Divide in Daniel Woodrell’s Fiction
- John Han, Missouri Baptist University
- Law and Justice in Nancy Allen’s Ozarks Crime Fiction
- Taylor Nichole Libbert, Independent Researcher
- Quantification of Missouri Ozarks Literature
Description:
- Dawn Larsen, Francis Marion University (Emerita)
- Andy Miller: Missouri Ozarks Visionary
- Steve Wiegenstein, Author
- John R. Kelso, Ozarks Radical
Description:
Author Joanna Dee Das discusses how performances at Silver Dollar City theme park and on the stages of Branson have shaped ideas about American history.
Dr. Joanna Dee Das is Associate Professor of Dance at Washington University in St. Louis. She is the author of Faith, Family, and Flag: Branson Entertainment and the Idea of America (The University of Chicago Press, 2025).
Saturday, September 19, 2026, Magnolia Room, West Plains Civic Center
Description:
- Dave Malone, Poet and Screenwriter, and Faith Collins, Writer
- Early African American Settlement in Howell County, Missouri, 1850-1882: Tracing Migration from Bedford County, Tennessee, and Marion County, Arkansas
- Crockett W. Oaks III, Founder and Executive Director, Lincoln School Project
- Lincoln School Project: Preservation, Memory, and Community Transformation in the Missouri Ozarks
Description:
- James Fowler, University of Central Arkansas (emeritus)
- "Rounds"
- "Rounds"
- John Mort, Author
- "Her Pretty Feet"
- Stephanie Saunders, Lyon College
- Covered Buttons
- Allison Cundiff, Lindenwood University and Parkway Schools
- The Mysterious Women of J Road: A Literary Celebration of the Mythology of the Missouri Ozarks
Description:
- James Seawel, Therapist, Essayist
- Hymns and Honky Tonks: The Ozarks World That Created Ashley McBryde
- Zachary W. Omans, Game Designer
- Discovering My Roots Through Game Design
- Leslie Reed, Arkansas State University
- The Rhetorics of Ozark Swimming Holes along the Lawrence County, Arkansas, Ecotone Area
- Susanna Reichling, Missouri State University
- Discovering a Treasure in the Dust: The Unexpected Story of an Ozarks Folk Music Collaboration
Description:
- Susan Croce Kelly, Author
- 100 Years of Route 66 in the Ozarks—And Then Some
- Brian Fickett, Springfield Art Museum
- Preserving the Ozarks at Springfield Art Museum
- Kim McCully-Mobley, Aurora High School/Drury University/Crowder College
- Letters from Home
- Bethany Kiele, University of Arkansas
- An Ozarks' Hillbilly: The Charge to Build a Missouri Community College
2026 FULL PROGRAM (PDF 812 KB)
Prior Schedule(s)
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