More than cows and corn: Conference puts the Midwest in the spotlight

National journalists, historians, filmmakers and musicians will gather at Augustana University and downtown Sioux Falls from Nov. 19 to 21 for the second annual Lost Region Recovery Project Conference.

Hosted by Augustana’s Center for Western Studies and the academic journal Middle West Review, this year’s conference is themed “Turning 250: The View from the Midwest.” Funded by a National Endowment for the Humanities, the conference examines the region’s history, politics, literature and arts.

Jon Lauck, executive director of the Center for Western Studies who organized the conference, said the primary goal is to bring national attention to the center of the country and counter perceptions that dismiss the region as “flyover country.”

“There’s a lot of great people here who are writing good books, creating great art, doing great things in civic affairs, but they all get overlooked,” Lauck said. “They only show up if there’s some sort of tragedy or some sort of crazy thing happens, and then the rest of the country gets a distorted view of the middle of the country.”

Lauck said national media and publishing hubs often treat American culture as if it exists exclusively on the East and West coasts.

“The culture is kind of like a barbell to people on the coasts—all the culture happens out here, and there may be a little sliver of something in the middle,” Lauck said. “In order for us to tell our story, we need conferences like this.”

The conference begins at 7 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 19 at the Center for Western Studies with a lecture by Politico senior political columnist and former New York Times politics reporter Jonathan Martin. Martin, who travels across the country covering regional political trends, will discuss the Midwest and the 2026 midterm elections.

Events move downtown to the Washington Pavilion at 6 p.m. on Friday beginning with a keynote address from Patrick Griffin, a University of Notre Dame historian who will examine the Midwest in 1776. The program then shifts to regional cinema with a 10-minute preview of producer Dan Mannat’s upcoming documentary, “Frontier of Freedom,” on the history of African Americans in the Midwest.

Following the preview, the conference will host the feature premiere of “Somewhere in the Middle: Finding the American Midwest”: a documentary produced by local filmmaker Zeke Hanson. Lauck noted that Hanson filmed the project on the road in just a few weeks, demonstrating how modern equipment allows independent Midwestern creators to produce feature films outside of Hollywood.

Friday’s schedule concludes across the street at Trio Jazz Club, where Augustana Director of Jazz Studies Brian Hanegan and trumpet player Jim Speirs, executive director of Arts South Dakota, will perform St. Louis and Chicago-style jazz.

“Our goal is a diversity of topics and people, and we make that our goal because we want to draw in as many different people as possible,” Lauck said. “We may draw someone in to see the film who becomes very interested in our lectures on art and music, or we may draw someone interested in the music who all of a sudden is fascinated by the Civil War lecture or by the Native American lecture.”

Saturday, Nov. 21 features a variety of presentations at the Washington Pavilion covering everything from 1600s French and Native American history to Heartland rock. The day concludes with an interview featuring Wall Street Journal writer and former New York Times Book Review editor Pamela Paul.

Patrick Hicks, Augustana’s writer-in-residence, attended the inaugural conference last year and plans to attend again this month. He noted that although one in five Americans lives in the 12-state Midwest, the region remains overlooked in national scholarship.

“I think there is just very little curiosity about the middle of the United States,” Hicks said. “And because we are the largest region in the United States, I think that it’s too easy to assume that it’s just about corn and cows.”

The conference is free and open to the public, though seating is limited. Non-presenters must register by Sunday, Nov. 15 on the Middle West Review website.

“I think the more you understand your roots and your heritage and where you’re from, the stronger your identity will be, and the less susceptible you are to being told by other people what your identity is and who you should be,” Lauck said. “So explore your place, explore where you came from, explore your own history, and you’ll be a stronger person for it.”