Current and past historians from the University of Arkansas presented at the annual meeting of the Ozarks Studies Association, held last week at Historic Cane Hill. The day-long meeting also marked the largest program for the young association, with presenters from across the region and nation giving cutting edge talks on the history, memory, culture and ecology of the nation's interior highlands.

Rebecca Howard, a professor at Lone Star College in Houston and a U of A graduate, provided the keynote address in which she discussed immigration trends and the establishment of the Italian community in Tontitown. Thomas Medford and Bethany Kiele, current U of A master's students under the direction of professor Jared Phillips of the Department of History, presented on their work on landowner displacement along the Buffalo National River and the life and work of painter Daisy Cook, respectively.

Phillips presented on landscape, loss and the history of rural gentrification in the Ozarks. Arley Ward, a U of A history and gender studies professor, presented his research on the success of Black defense workers in gaining jobs in the Oklahoma Ozarks during World War II, and Lisa Childs, a U of A history alum and director of the university's Technology Commercialization Office, challenged narratives of a stark racial divide in the upland South with her investigation of interracial marriage.

U of A participants included, from left: Thomas Medford, Rebecca Howard, Lisa Childs, Jared Phillips and Bethany Kiele.

Other U of A-affiliated folks presented as well:

• Julia Nall Soule, an alum of the U of A International Studies program who studied under Phillips and is now a graduate student at Yale, presented on her work thinking through the creation of a new model for public-led community conservation.

• Emaline Pendleton, an alum of the Honors College Signature Seminar on the Ozarks — led by Joshua Youngblood of the University Libraries, Virginia Siegel of the university's Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts, and Phillips — presented on the origins of mountain biking at Devil's Den State Park.

• Lauren Willette of the Arkansas Folk and Traditional Arts presented on the life and impact of Billy Jo Tatum at the Ozark Folk Center.

• Justin Hunter of the Department of Music also presented on the folkore legacy from Mary Celestia Parler.

• Lisa Pruitt, professor at University of California-Davis and an alum of the journalism program and law school, presented on the history and changes in Newton County’s outdoor recreation economy.

Phillips, the program organizer, was also named the new president of the Ozark Studies Association, as the outgoing and founding president, professor Mara Cohen Ioannides, stepped into retirement.