Ozarks Studies Association

The Ozarks Studies Association’s mission is:

1. To foster cooperation among Ozark writers, artists, scholars, and members of Ozark-oriented organizations, agencies, and communities.

2. To further the exchange of information concerning the people and region of the Ozarks, including such items as knowledge or research projects, research data and findings, creative work, academic programs and community-based programs through such means as conferences and online media.

3. To further the goals of scholarship, teaching, and learning about the people and places of the Ozarks.

4. To stimulate new works of significance in the field of Ozarks studies by communicating research information as well as a concern about research activities that affect public policy regarding the Ozarks.

The Ozarks Studies Association will facilitate an annual conference and interdisciplinary scholarship focused on the Ozarks, including biology, ecology, folklore, history, geology, literature, and music.

This year’s conference will be held Thursday, September 23, 2021, just preceding the Opening Reception for the 2021 Ozarks Studies Symposium. Cost is $30, lunch included.

Register via Eventbrite Ozarks Studies Association Annual Conference Tickets, Thu, Sep 23, 2021 at 8:30 AM | Eventbrite

Check the Facebook page for any updates

(2) Ozarks Studies Association | Facebook

Inaugural Meeting

September 23, 2021

West Plains Civic Center

West Plains, Missouri

Program

8:00-8:15          Coffee and Registration

8:15-8:45          Introduction and Welcome

Mara Cohen Ioannides, MSU, OSA President

Dennis Lancaster, Chancellor, MSU—West Plains

8:45-9:45          PANEL: Ozarks Waterways

                              Chair: Robert Pavlowsky, MSU Springfield

“Utilizing Next-Generation Sequencing for Bacterial Source Tracking And Pathogen Detection In Greene And Polk County Streams”

John Kincaid, MSU

“Surface/subsurface connectivity promotes high diversity in a flashy Ozark stream”

Debra Finn, MSU

“Dawn of the Dam: Powersite Dam and Lake Taneycomo at the Dawn of Large Dams and Reservoirs in the Ozarks”

Thomas Peters, MSU

10:00-11:10    PANEL: Ozarks Ecology

                              Chair:

“Reforestion in the Ozarks: The Potential to Reduce and Sequester Carbon Dioxide”

Rex Robbins, Independent Scholar

“Ozark oak/hickory woodlands as a “natural environment”: management to maximize ecological function for generations”

D. Alexander Wait & Grace Hall, MSU

“Wild Grapevines of the Ozarks: Genetic Resources for Sustainable Grape Cultivation”

Laszlo Kovacs & Hunter Bartlet, MSU

11:10-11:20    Coffee Break

11:20-12:15    PANEL: Ozarks Economy

Chair:

“The Industrial Ozarks: environmental and socioeconomic impacts of quarrying and lime production in northwest Greene County, Missouri, ca 1880-1930”

Elizabeth Sobel and Scott Worman, MSU

“Homemade Home Scrapbooks: The Idea of Modern Farm Homes and the Arkansas Ozarks, 1934-1944” 

Darren Bell, Arkansas State Archives

12:30-1:45       Keynote Address (Lunch will be served.)

Brooks Blevins, Noel Boyd Professor of History, MSU

“Judge Hay and the 100 Percenters: The

Untold Story of the Ozarks Origins of the Grand

Ole Oprey”

2:00-2:45          PANEL: Ozarks Music and Literature

                              Chair: Leigh Adams, MSU-West Plains

“Writing the Ecology of the Ozarks”

Cathie English, MSU

“In the Mist: Seeing the Ozarks in Bonnie Stepenoff’s Big Spring Autumn” 

Craig Albin, MSU

“Healing in the Ozarks: How Ozarkers

Use Home Remedies and Other Medicines to

Treat Illnesses”

Timothy Nutt, UAMS

3:00-3:45          PANEL: Ozarks History

                              Chair:

“A River Runs Through It:

The expansion of Jews into the Ozarks” 

Mara Cohen Ioannides, MSU

 “hia digadusi hinega:  The History of                 Welling, Oklahoma, 1828-1945 (Cherokee             Translation is “The Hills Speak”)”

Russel Jones, Independent Scholar

4:00-4:15          Dismissal & OSA 2022 Announcement