Ozarks Lecture Series (2012)

Rachel Reynolds Luster

Rachel Reynolds Luster is a folklorist working in the Missouri Ozarks. She is a frequent speaker and writer on the topic of cultural sustainability and is currently pursuing a doctorate in heritage studies at Arkansas State University, where her dissertation explores a holistic approach to rural community revitalization. She is the contributing editor for The Art of The Rural, a non-profit corporation dedicated to using social media to explore the rural arts.

Event Schedule:

"Bringing It All Back Home: Holistic Approaches to Community Renewal and Cultural Sustainability in the Ozarks" 9/10, 12:55 p.m. PSU 313

David L. Burton

David L. Burton is a civic communication and community development specialist for the University of Missouri Extension in Springfield, Mo., but he works throughout southwest Missouri. He is also the County Program Director for Greene County Extension. He writes and manages the Southwest Region News Service and teaches on topics related to public issues and community journalism. He has a master's degree in communication from Drury University that he earned in 2001. That degree complements his 1984 graduation from Ash Grove High School and his 1988 Bachelor of Arts in political science and communication/journalism from Drury University. He has a lifelong interest in Ozarks history and manages a program known as the Ozarks Country School Association. David and his wife live near Republic, Mo., with their son Matthew and daughter Lauren.

Event Schedule:

"Saving One-Room Schools in the Ozarks" 9/10, 2:00 p.m. PSU 313

Dr. Brian Campbell

Dr. Brian Campbell is an associate professor of anthropology at the University of Central Arkansas. He received his master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Georgia, studying in their environmental and ecological anthropology program. He lists his current focus as agricultural biodiversity conservation, sustainability, and visual anthropology in the Ozark Highlands. His film, The Natural State of America, depicts the long struggle to prevent unnecessary herbicide use in the Arkansas Ozarks.

Event Schedule:

"Film Viewing: The Natural State of America" 9/10, 7:00 p.m. PSU 313

"Cutworm, Crow, Share and Grow: The Conservation of Ozark Agrobiodiversity" 9/11, 9:30 a.m. PSU 313

Dr. William G. Piston

Dr. William G. Piston earned his doctorate from the University of South Carolina in 1982 and has taught in the history department at Missouri State University since 1988. He specializes in the fields of American military history, the Civil War, and Reconstruction periods, with emphasis on the Civil War in Missouri. With Thomas P. Sweeney, he edited the book Portraits of Conflict: A Photographic History of Missouri in the Civil War, which won the 2010 Missouri History Book Award from the State Historical Society.

Event Schedule:

"Forgotten Local History: The Confederate Attack on Springfield, January 8, 1863" 9/11, 12:30 p.m. PSU 313

Dr. Phillip Howerton

Dr. Phillip Howerton holds a doctorate in American literature from the University of Missouri-Columbia and is an English instructor at North Arkansas College. His photographs, reviews, poems, and essays have appeared in various journals and reference books, such as The Hurricane Review, South Carolina Review, The Journal of Kentucky Studies, Red Rock Review, Big Muddy, Arkansas Review, Elder Mountain, Writers of the American Renaissance, and History through Literature.

Event Schedule:

"The Ozarks Novel and the Culture of Expectation" 9/11, 2:00 p.m. PSU 313