January 24 - 2 pm to 4 pm
Region and Regionalism (Notes from this meeting can be found here)
How is Region defined by geographic, economic, industrial, political, and/or other terms; and how they shape the region’s life style and expression?
Reading:
- "Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture of Resistance” Kenneth Frampton, from The Anti-aesthetic: Essays on postmodern culture, Bay Press, 1983.
- Critical Regionalism, Douglas Reichert Powell. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill, 2007. (Introduction p12-26)
- Regionalism and the Humanities, Timothy R. Mahoney and Wendy J. Katz, Editors.
University of Nebraska Press, 2009. (Introduction)
Presenters:
- Jeeyea Kim, Dorian Bybee: Limestone Veneer and Ornament Styles, Material Culture
- Marleen Newman: Midwestern Modernism and Indiana: The Other French Connection
- Nathan Schmidt: John Muir, Environmental History, and Technology
February 21 - 2 pm to 4 pm
Memory (Notes from this meeting can be found here)
How are value, character, and identity of a place reflected by stories, old or new, true or fable, in big cities or small towns? How do these stories connect the past with the present?
Reading:
- The American Midwest in Film and Literature, Adam R. Ochonicky. IU Press, 2020.
- Avant-Garde in the Cornfields: Architecture, Landscape, and Preservation in New Harmony, Michelangelo Sabatino and Ben Nicholson, Editors. University of Minnesota Press, 2019.
- Michael Martone, Double Wide: Collected Fiction of Michael Martone, 2007. Quarry Books Pages 1-5
- Winesburg Indiana, Edited by Michael Martone and Brian Furuness, 2015. Indiana University Press Constance H Wootin by Michael Martone. Pages 78-84
Presenters:
- Jonathan Michaelsen: Michael Martone’s Winesburg, Indiana
- Tanya Palmer: Early utopian community in Indiana, new interpretations
- Invited speaker: Adam R. Ochonicky, Lecture of English, University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh; Media Review Editor, Middle West Review
March 27 - 2 pm to 4 pm (postponed to April 10)
Institution
How much do institutions such as museums, galleries, music festivals, and research universities establish the cultural agenda and/or mirror/preserve the existing cultural condition of a region?
Presenters:
- Elliot Reichert: Robert Indiana, Identity of museums and cultural institutions
- Linda Pisano, Heather Milam: Legacy and Identity through Fashion of Indiana University’s First Ladies
- Jennie Williams: Community music making in southern Indiana, Traditional Arts Indiana, and public programs
- Invited speaker, Mark Ruschman, Chief Fine Art Curator, Indiana State Museum
April 24 - 2 pm to 4 pm
Expression
How are styles formed, imported, and circulated in a region? How do residents in and outside of the region interpret and identify with those styles?
Reading:
- Regionalism and Reform: art and class formation in Antebellum Cincinnati. Wendy J. Katz. The Ohio State University Press, Columbus, 2002.
Presenters:
- Brenda Weber: Family lore and social history of Indianapolis
- Faye Gleisser, Freda Fair: Styling “Homegrown”, Emerging Artist of Color
- Tim Kennedy: Plein Air tradition, Vernacular subject matters
- Jooyoung Shin: Indiana Fashion, Formative and Conceptual Identity
Additional References
Recommended Books:
- Dissent in the Heartland, Mary Ann Winkoop (Indiana Univ Press, 2002 or 2017 2nd edition)
- Sex in the Heartland, Beth Bailey
- All our Kin, Carol Stack (must use 2nd edition)
- Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut
- John Mellencamp Born in a Small Town, Heather Johnson (Omnibus Press, 2007)
- The Circus in Winter, Cathy Day
Films:
Music Man, Breaking Away, Hoosiers, The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, John Mellencamp: It’s About You, and Kinsey.
