{"id":15,"date":"2021-02-22T14:04:30","date_gmt":"2021-02-22T19:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bsu.edu\/middletownstudies\/?page_id=15"},"modified":"2024-10-28T11:50:06","modified_gmt":"2024-10-28T15:50:06","slug":"research-and-reports","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bsu.edu\/middletownstudies\/home\/research-and-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Research and Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"

Center for Middletown Studies Research\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n

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Welcome to the Center for Middletown Studies Research site.\u00a0 Follow the links below to learn more about the Center\u2019s past and present research initiatives.\u00a0<\/span>In the years since Robert and Helen Lynd completed their seminal studies of Muncie, Indiana, scholars working in a variety of fields have returned to Muncie to follow up on their pioneering work, making this\u202fsmall city among the most studied communities in the nation. The Center continues this tradition by sponsoring and promoting\u202f<\/span>research\u202fon Muncie as Middletown, on\u202f<\/span>small cities\u00a0generally, on the sociocultural impact of\u202f<\/span>large-scale economic change, and on other themes and issues the\u00a0<\/span>Lynds<\/span>\u00a0explored. \u202fIncreasingly the Center\u2019s has emphasized collaborative and inclusive scholarship that engages and empowers the community. It also employs digital tools and technology, particularly in partnership with Ball State\u2019s Digital Scholarship Lab to advance research and teaching in these areas.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Projects:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The Village Revitalization Project<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Jennifer Erickson, Professor of Anthropology, and Assistant Director of the Center for Middletown Studies has been leading a small team of anthropology students since 2023 to investigate Ball State University\u2019s revitalization of The Village, a mixed-use commercial district adjacent to the University. The project asks who benefits most and who benefits least when urban universities lead city and neighborhood revitalization efforts? The project seeks to answer this question through qualitative, ethnographic methods including archival research, surveys, participant observation, mapping, semi-structured interviews, and various multimodal methods, such as sound and visual anthropology. Erickson will lead a larger, interdisciplinary team of students on this project for an immersive learning course in spring 2025, which will result in a website, zines, and articles about the revitalization process ultimately contributing to academic and public anthropology on the role of urban universities in Rust Belt cities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Deep Mapping Middletown<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Deep Mapping Middletown is a joint effort of the Institute for Digital Intermedia Art (IDIA) Lab and the Center for Middletown Studies to create a detailed multimedia depiction of Muncie, Indiana, that capitalizes on the extensive archive created by the century of social research focused on the city as a result of its role in\u00a0Middletown<\/em>, Robert and Helen Lynd\u2019s pathbreaking investigation of modern American life.\u00a0 In Summer, 2022, the Center for Middletown Studies and IDIA Lab will host a hybrid (in-person\/virtual) workshop for a select group of scholars who will devise a plan for designing and developing Deep Maps of the city that rest upon the rich archive of material generated by researchers who have studied Muncie as \u201cMiddletown,\u201d from the Lynds\u2019 initial 1920s investigation down to the present.<\/p>\n

Initial work on the project has been supported by Ball State University\u2019s Sponsored Projects Administration and the\u00a0George and Frances Ball Foundation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Middletown@100<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The Center for Middletown Studies will mark<\/span>\u00a0the centennial anniversary of the original, groundbreaking Middletown investigation<\/span>\u00a0with a\u00a0<\/span>multifaceted<\/span>\u00a0initiative<\/span>. Middletown@100\u00a0offers\u00a0a case-study investigation of the changes taking place in a broad swath of smaller American cities, particularly those in Indiana and the Midwest.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Library Circulation Histories Workshop<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The Library Circulation Histories Workshop (LCHW) aims to make historic library circulation data more accessible and more analytically powerful.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Everyday Life in Middletown<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Since 2016, the Center has supported the\u00a0<\/span>Everyday Life in Middletown\u00a0<\/span>project<\/span>\u00a0(EDLM)<\/span>,\u00a0<\/span>a collaboration between Ball State and citizens of Muncie, Indiana, to record, represent, and study everyday life in\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0<\/span>city.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Documenting Deindustrialization:\u00a0the\u00a0Middletown Digital Oral Histories\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The Center for Middletown Studies\u00a0<\/span>has<\/span>\u00a0working to create a historical record of economic\u00a0<\/span>and social\u00a0<\/span>changes in “Middletown”\u2014Muncie, Indiana\u2014and their impact on the life of the community.\u202f<\/span>\u00a0A key facet of this effort has been a series of oral history projects examining different aspects of\u00a0<\/span>the transition from a manufacturing-based community to a city dominated by a large state university and a regional hospital<\/span>.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

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The Small Cities Conference<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Since 2001,\u00a0<\/span>the Center for Middletown Studies <\/span>has convened\u00a0<\/span>periodic\u00a0<\/span>multidisciplinary conferences devoted to examining the history, present challenges, and future prospects of communities that are neither metropolitan centers nor small towns<\/span><\/p>\n

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What Middletown Read<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The Center for Middletown Studies and Ball State University Libraries collaborated with the Muncie Public Library to convert these records into\u00a0<\/span>an<\/span>\u00a0online, searchable database that contains details on\u00a0<\/span>more than 6,000 patrons, 11,000 books, and\u00a0<\/span>175,000<\/span>\u00a0circulation transactions<\/span>\u00a0for the period from 1891-1902 (with one gap).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Muslims in Muncie<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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A Virginia B. Ball Center for Creative Inquiry project headed by Elizabeth Agnew (Philosophy and Religious Studies) and undertaken in collaboration with the Islamic Center of Muncie, Muslims in Muncie produced an hour-long documentary and archived twenty-two oral history interviews that examine the experiences of local Muslim residents from the 1960s to the 2010s<\/p>\n

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Workers and Industry in Muncie, Indiana, 1880-2012\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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Graduate Students Brendan White (History\/Center for Middletown Studies) and Ike Obi (Digital Scholarship Lab) constructed a timeline of labor history in Muncie, Indiana, covering the period from the late nineteenth century to the early twenty-first century.<\/p>\n

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Virtual Middletown<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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The Center for Middletown Studies<\/span>\u00a0collaborated with<\/span>\u00a0the Institute for Digital Intermedia Arts and University Libraries<\/span>\u00a0to create<\/span>\u00a0Virtual Middletown<\/span>, a 3-D\u00a0<\/span>simulation<\/span>\u00a0of\u00a0<\/span>1920s Muncie that draws on the archival record generated by Middletown research<\/span><\/p>\n

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Comparative Urban Studies<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The Center for Middletown Studies sponsors the Comparative Urban Studies series with Lexington Books, a division of Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. It is an outgrowth of the center\u2019s work on small cities in both the U.S. and abroad.<\/p>\n

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Print Culture Histories Beyond the Metropolis<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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Building on its What Middletown Read Project, the Center held a conference devoted to the theme\u202fof \u201cPrint Culture Histories Beyond the Metropolis\u201d in 2013<\/p>\n

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Changing Gears<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

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From 2009-2011,\u00a0<\/span>Ball State\u2019s Institute for Digital Education and Entertainment and the Center for Middletown Studies jointly produced\u202f<\/span>Changing Gears<\/span><\/i>, a feature-length documentary film about the 2009 closing of Muncie\u2019s century-old Warner Gear auto parts plant and the loss of industry in the city<\/span><\/p>\n

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Adolescent Well-Being in Muncie\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The Adolescent Well-Being in Muncie project\u00a0<\/span>wa<\/span>s a collaborative partnership between the Center for Middletown Studies and the Department of Sociology to establish an interdisciplinary immersive learning course. <\/span><\/p>\n

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Social Change Report<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The Center for Middletown Studies distributed The Social Change Report from 1991 to 2006. Edited by Theodore Caplow of the University of Virginia, the Report reviewed important social trends in the United States and was distributed to scholars and opinion leaders in this country and in Europe<\/p>\n

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Middletown Area Studies<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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The purpose of these studies was to assess the views and lifestyles of citizens on a diverse range of subjects. The major topics included questions on life satisfaction, education, income, family, religion, and politics.<\/p>\n

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