Public programming offers exciting opportunities for the Center to engage with the community and disseminate scholarship to a wide audience. The Center sponsors a variety of public events, including lectures, conferences, exhibits, and symposia, to connect students and the community with scholars. Center faculty regularly consult and collaborate with local cultural institutions as they develop and execute their public programming.
Recent Public Programming Initiatives Include:
- Border Wars Conference
- Interpreting Slavery Workshop for Museum Educators
- Kansas City History Bike Tour
- Kansas City’s Golden Age Conference
- Quindaro Symposium
- Richard D. McKinzie Lecture
- The Edgar Snow Project
“KC Histories” Smartphone App
The Center for Midwestern Studies will explore Kansas City’s many historic sites through a new tablet and smartphone application that tells the history of the city through maps. Using open-source exhibition software, the “KC Histories” app will not only identify historic buildings and museums, but also tell the Kansas City community’s broader history by placing digitized primary sources, audio walking and driving tours, scholarly essays, and video clips on top of a fully interactive map of the city. This project is currently in the planning stages as we work with area stakeholders. Once complete, the “KC Histories” app will be an invaluable resource for Kansas Citians seeking to understand their home’s vibrant past.