The Ball State English Department’s Creative Writing Program Visiting Writer Series, cosponsored by the Center for Middletown Studies, welcomes Indiana award-winning novelist Brian Allen Carr for an evening of reading, conversation, and book signing. 📅 Wednesday, September 23, 2026 🕔 5:00 PM 📍 Robert Bell 125, Ball State University 🎟️ Free and open to the […]

Jen Erickson (Assistant Director and Professor of Anthropology) published an article, “Imperial Entanglements: Afghan Refugees and the Reimagining of Midwestern Identity in Muncie, Indiana,”that connects the arrival of Afghan refugees to Muncie in 2021 to a longer history of U.S. imperialism in Afghanistan and beyond and situates Muncie, Indiana, within that history. Abstract Since the U.S. […]

On November 15 at 3:00 p.m., the Center for Middletown Studies will host a conversation with urban sociologist Richard Ocejo about his new book, Sixty Miles Upriver: Gentrification and Race in a Small American City. The book is an intimate exploration of the moral dilemma at the heart of gentrification in Newburgh, New York, a small, […]

Warren Vander Hill, Provost Emeritus, Ball State University, passed away on July 1, 2024. Warren had huge impact on Ball State, spearheading the creation of our Honors College and the University’s environmental commitments. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Center for Middletown Studies and remained a strong supporter of the Center during […]

2024-25 Fellowships Awarded: The Center for Middletown Studies is pleased to announce the recipients of 2024-2025 Middletown Studies Faculty Fellowships.  These awards support Ball State faculty scholarship tied to the themes and issues addressed in Middletown Studies scholarship and with the potential to earn external funding. The three recipients are: Max Felker-Kantor, Associate Professor of […]

On March 21, 2024, Darius Scott of McGill University presented a talk entitled “Normalized Alterity: Visualizing Black Spatial Humanities” to the Center’s Qualitative Research Interest Group.  Scott recounted his work on a project that animated aspects of Black spatial experience contained oral histories of life in rural Orange County, North Carolina.  Contact the Center for […]

Location: Maring Hunt Library, 2005 S. High St, Muncie Time: 5:30-6:30 pm Date: Feb 23, 2024 Max Fraser will speak about the importance of the mid-twentieth-century migration from the South to industrial cities such as Muncie.  Fraser’s new book, Hillbilly Highway: The Transappalachian Migration and the Making of a White Working Class, traces the movement […]

“Oral History” is all about learning about the past from the people who lived through it. Interviewing gives us data that we can’t find in other places. It’s an especially helpful methodology for learning about the people and communities who are often left out of traditional historical sources. In this workshop, we’ll learn more about […]

And we’re back.  We’ve wrapped up a busy spring and summer during which several of our projects moved forward. Everyday Life in Middletown held a diary day in May and solicited directive responses focused on two topics, work and social media, in July. Project directors Pat Collier and Jim Connolly also completed an essay entitled […]