By the end of the twentieth century, there were few scholarly studies of the Ozarks in such fields as history, literature, religion, historical archaeology, anthropology, and sociology. The past two decades have witnessed the emergence of a corpus of studies that collectively have established a budding subfield in regional studies, in Ozarks Studies. While all of these works are grounded within the scholarship of a specific discipline, many of them consciously place the Ozarks and its people at the locus of scholarly debate, evincing a burgeoning Ozarks studies movement and a growing recognition of it among scholars.

The Ozarks Studies series acknowledges the awakening of a scholarly Ozarks studies movement—one that crosses disciplinary boundaries as it approaches regional study from a variety of vantage points—and positions the University of Arkansas Press as the publisher at the forefront of the movement. As the only university press headquartered within the Ozarks region and as a press with a solid background in the publication of books on the region—Rafferty’s The Ozarks, Land and Life, Morrow’s Shepherd of the Hills Country, Harper’s White Man’s Heaven, Sizemore’s Ozark Vernacular Houses, and many more—the University of Arkansas Press is ideally suited for the first series that will level a scholarly eye on the Ozarks and Ozarkers.

The editor invites the submission of proposals for scholarly, book-length manuscripts that expand our  understanding of the region and in the process contribute to broader disciplinary fields and dialogues. Though grounded in a comprehension of the region’s history, the multidisciplinary series also considers manuscripts in literature, religious studies, anthropology, historical archaeology, political science, and cultural geography, among other disciplines. We accept proposals for monographs, anthologies, edited collections of scholarly articles or essays, and edited manuscripts based on primary sources. Manuscripts should reflect a familiarity with previous scholarship on the region and its people and engage themes and interpretations relevant to Ozarks studies.

“Until very recent times, serious studies of Ozark history and culture have been few and far between. Most of us have been content to let travel writers and folklorists portray the region as a place where life was simpler, the landscape remained unspoiled, and time stood still. While some of that description was true, much of it was not. Now, finally, we can drink from a deep, clear, wellspring of Ozark reality instead of the snake oil that produced bucolic visions of the good old days. To force the scales from our nostalgic eyes, the University of Arkansas Press has launched its Ozarks Studies series to publish new scholarship about the old Ozarks. Brooks Blevins, Noel Boyd Professor of Ozarks Studies at Missouri State University, serves as the series editor, guaranteeing the works included will examine the region with objectivity and clarity.”

—Susan Young, Arkansas Historical Quarterly (Autumn 2017)