Middle West Review

09/13/2026

The Center for Western Studies (CWS) at Augustana University has named Dr. Jon K. Lauck as its next executive director — only the center’s fourth leader since its founding by author and Augustana Professor Emeritus of English Dr. Herbert Krause in 1964.

09/09/2026

Calling all Midwest historians, journalists, writers, and artists! 🌞

America turned 250 this year. Most of those stories get told from the coasts. The Midwest has its own view, and we’re gathering the people who can tell it.

Join the Lost Region Recovery Project in Sioux Falls, November 19-21, for three days of conversation, creativity, and community. Scholars, reporters, photographers, editors, and writers from the Midwest (and beyond) will share perspectives on our region, past and present.

What is “The Midwest”? Why do so many call it “flyover”? What’s changing for our papers, jobs, art, and food? And what does the Midwest look like through Midwestern eyes?

If you write about the Midwest, study it, paint it, photograph it, report on it, or just can’t stop thinking about it, we want you in Sioux Falls.

🔗 Register here: https://tinyurl.com/lostregionconference2026
📖 Explore the conference program: https://uimiddle.wordpress.com/2026-lost-region-recovery-project-conference/

06/29/2026

Found him! Our cover boy, Hermann the German, in New Ulm, Minnesota... Having fun since 1854. Read all about him and Germans in the Midwest in our latest issue.

06/03/2026

It's a lot. We're a lot. Pick up our latest issue. https://nebraskapressjournals.unl.edu/journal/middle-west-review-an-interdisciplinary-journal-about-the-american-midwest/

05/22/2026

Now available on YouTube: our roundtable discussion of Between Loving and Leaving: Essays on the New Midwestern History (University of Oklahoma Press, 2025) from the 2026 Midwestern History Conference at Miami University of Ohio.

Chaired by Jon K. Lauck, the conversation features Timothy Anderson, Ashley Howard, R. Douglas Hurt, and Marcia Noe — assessing a decade of the New Midwestern History movement and the scholarship that has reshaped how we understand the American Midwest.

🎥 https://youtu.be/WmoaSNf4ZpI

What does it mean to study a region long dismissed as America's "Lost Region"? In this roundtable from the 2026 Midwestern History Conference, scholars gathe...

05/20/2026

“Dismantling stereotypes of a conservative and homogenous Heartland, McDuffie reveals a ‘midwestern Garveyite front.’” Read a review of this groundbreaking work in our latest issue. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/17/article/986723

05/19/2026

Brutalism: scourge or godsend? Read the essay "The Midwest and the Scourge of Brutalism" by Catesby Leigh in our current issue. And learn more about these Brutalist examples in Kansas, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, and North Dakota. https://muse.jhu.edu/issue/56644

05/15/2026

"These photographers are carrying on an artistic tradition. In 1935, the U.S. government's Resettlement Administration sent photographers across the country to document life." —Robert Loerzel, "The New Midwestern Photography Movement." In our latest issue. Out now: https://bit.ly/4fmlSCX

05/09/2026

Now on YouTube: the launch panel for "The Missouri, America's Longest River: A Cultural and Environmental History" edited by Middle West Review Editor-in-Chief Jon Lauck and Harry F. Thompson of Augustana University's Center for Western Studies.

Watch here!🎥 https://youtu.be/jA0myeUOO4s

Purchase here! 📚 https://www.nebraskapress.unl.edu/the-center-for-western-studies/9780931170928/the-missouri-americas-longest-river/

Watch the official launch of the newest publication through Augustana University's Center for Western Studies:The Missouri, America's Longest River: A Cultur...

05/07/2026

Is the Midwest left out of the national story? Read "Narrative Inequality and the Flickering Flames of Midwestern Regionalism." Free. https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/17/article/986701