2014 Presenters

Dr. Gary R. Kremer

Executive Director, State Historical Society

Presentation: “Slavery and Freedom in the Rural Missouri Ozarks: A Look at Wright County.”

Dr. Gary R. Kremeris the author or editor of numerous works, including James Milton Turner and the Promise of America: The Public Life of a Post-Civil War Black-Leader, Missouri’s Black Heritage and George Washington Carver: In His Own Words. His new book, Race and Meaning: The African American Experience in Missouri, will be released by the University of Missouri press in October.

Before becoming executive director of the state archives, Kremer taught history at Lincoln University in Jefferson City and William Woods University in Fulton. He also served as the State Archivist of Missouri from 1987 to 1991, and was a student and research assistant of African American history pioneer Dr. Lorenzo J. Greene while a student at Lincoln University in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Dr. Craig Albin

Professor of English, Missouri State-West Plains

Presentation: “Hard Toward Home”

Albin will read his short story, “Hard Toward Home,” which is set in the northern Arkansas Ozarks and concerns the encroachment of the illegal drug culture into the life of protagonist Lid McKee, a laid-off factory worker and part-time logger.

Charles Baclawski

PhD Candidate, Heritage Studies, Arkansas State University

Presentation: “Childbirth in the Ozarks – Where the Old becomes New”

This presentation uses the Arkansas midwife war of the 1980s as a framework to address concepts of modernity.

Dr. Jamie C. Brandon

Research Archaeologist, Southern Arkansas University in Magnolia

Presentation: “Mountain Modernity and Archeology in the Arkansas Ozarks: A Case Study from Van Winkle’s Mill”

This presentation will explore the archeological investigations that have been ongoing at Van Winkle’s Mill, the site of a late-19th century sawmill community in the Arkansas Ozarks.

Laura Bowles

Writing Instructor, University of Central Arkansas

Presentation: “Another Good Story Shot Down by an Eyewitness: Textile Production in the Ozarks.”

This presentation will challenge the romantic pioneer stereotype of the housewife single-handedly growing cotton, spinning it, weaving it and making clothing, bed coverings and quilts.

Jeff D. Corrigan

Oral Historian, The Historical Society of Missouri

Presentation: Oral History in the Ozarks, Views from Arkansas and Missouri

Larry Dablemont

Journalist and Editor, Lightn’ Ridge Publications

Presentation: “The Front Porch Regulars”

Dablemont will discuss his new book, The Front Porch Regulars, in which he tells stories of some of the old-time river men and farmers he knew when he was a child.

Dr. John J. Han

Professor of English and Creative Writing, Chair, Humanities Division, Missouri Baptist University

Presentation: “Echoes from Across the Ocean: Traditional Japanese Poetry and American Country Music”

This presentation explores the kinship between pre-modern Japanese poetry, especially tanka, and modern American country music in content and tone. In diction, both Japanese poetry and country music are simple and clear. In tone, both of them are sad, melancholy, sentimental, gloomy, didactic, and nostalgic. Japanese poetry and country music typically address comparable themes, such as drinking, nostalgia, love (especially unrequited or painful love), loneliness and homesickness, rural life, loss and poverty.

Dr. Matthew J. Hernando

Instructor of History and Government, Ozarks Technical Community College

Presentation: “Faces Like Devils: The Bald Knobber Vigilantes in the Ozarks”

In this presentation, Hernando will discuss the activities and the form of justice meted out by the Ozarks Bald Knobbers.

Dr. Phillip Howerton

Associate Professor of English, Missouri State University-West Plains

Presentation: “Bloodroot: Poems of Rural Missouri”

Dr. Howerton will read a selection of his poems that engage a number of themes central to life in this region, such as urban sprawl, inflated farmland prices, the demise of the small and independent farmer, the inability of outsiders to fully understand native culture, the loss of respect for manual labor and the loss of connection to past folkways and traditions.

Mara W. Cohen Ioannides

Senior Instructor of English, Missouri State University-Springfield.

Presentation: “Jews, Gentile, and Intergroup Relations in Springfield, Mo.: A Change in Modernity”

This paper will examine incidences of anti-Semitism in the 1940s, 1960s and the turn of the 21st century. It will show the differences in how the 20th and 21st century Springfield Jews reacted to these incidents and the responses of the larger Springfield community.

Dr. Thomas M. Kersen

Associate Professor of Sociology, Jackson State University

Presentation: “Exploring Regional Identity in Arkansas: The Salience of the Ozark Term”

Kersen will present findings that suggest that, rather than getting less Southern and more Americanized, Arkansas regions are increasingly identifying more in terms of Ozark culture. Results also suggest that Southern exceptionalism is moot, that is, to be Southern is to be American.

Dr. Ed McKinney, Panel Moderator

Professor of History, Emeritus, Missouri Stae University-West Plains

Presentation: “Favorite Fiddle Tunes, Old and New”

This panel presentation will offer discussions about some of the favorite fiddle tunes of past and present Ozarkers and will offer live renditions of these songs.

Kim McCully-Mobley

Adjunct Professor, Drury University

Presentation: “Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves: Reflections on Traveling Medicine Shows and Our Quest to be Entertained While Fighting Gravity, Old Age and Pain”

This presentation will offer a humorous and quick look at the traveling medicine shows of the 19th century, the clinical studies of the 20th century and the 21st century’s grasp of class-action suits, disclaimers, side effects and insights in the age-old war against pain and our quest to be entertained while fighting gravity, old age and constipation.

Dr. Mark Morgan

Associate Professor of Parks, Recreation and Tourism, University of Missouri in Columbia.

Presentation: “Hook, Line and Sinker: A Collection of Fish Tales from Missouri Anglers”

Morgan will explore the reasons for the reduced numbers of people engaging in recreational fishing in Missouri and discuss his new book, Hook, Line & Sinker: A Collection of Fish Tales from Missouri Anglers.

Dr. Blake Perkins

Associate Professor of History, Williams Baptist College

Presentation: “The New Deal, Dam Progress and the End of Producerist Populism in the Arkansas Ozarks”

Perkins will argue that, although observers today may find it surprising when considering the region’s current tea party political culture, rural Arkansas Ozarkers in the 1930s generally supported enlarging the powers of the federal government in order to promote greater economic security and democracy for common, working-class Americans.

Dr. Lisa Perry

Independent Oral Historian and Adjunct Public History Faculty, Arkansas State University

Presentation: Oral History in the Ozarks, Views from Arkansas and Missouri

Possum Holler Fiddlers

This 11-member musical group, based in the Branson area, will provide a special performance of Ozark mountain music at 3 p.m. Sept. 20 in the West Plains Civic Center Theater. The performance is co-sponsored by the symposium and the Delta Kappa Gamma Xi Chapter, a regional professional honorary society of women educators.

Alex Primm

Freelance Oral Historian and Writer

Presentation: Oral History in the Ozarks, Views from Arkansas and Missouri

W. Scott Tomlin

Academic Advisor, Arkansas Tech University

Presentation: “From Mules to Monsanto: Modernity’s Impact on Agriculture in Northern Pope, Johnson and Franklin Counties (AR)”

This presentation discusses the transformations in agricultural practices in the northern portions of Pope, Johnson and Franklin counties from the 1870s until the 1970s.

Barbara Williams

Adjunct Faculty, Missouri State University-West Plains

Presentation: “Ozark Snapshots”

This exhibit and presentation will offer “snapshots” of Ozarks family members caught in a moment of time and will show actual people and actual places in could-have-been combinations.

2014 Schedule

Missouri State University-West Plains in collaboration with the West Plains Council on the Arts is honored to host this two-day symposium by providing a home in the West Plains Civic Center.

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