The Center for Middletown Studies at Ball State University invites submissions of proposals for sessions and individual papers for the Fourth Annual Small Cities Conference, to be held at Ball State University and the Minnetrista Cultural Center on November 5-6, 2004. The conference theme will be "The Legacies of Middletown," in commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the publication of Middletown: A Study in Contemporary Culture (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1929), by Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd.

Staughton Lynd, son of Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd, and the author of Lucasville: The Untold Story of a Prison Uprising (forthcoming, Temple University Press, 2004) will be the keynote speaker at the conference. Lynd will address the topic of "Making Middletown." Also speaking at the conference will be Theodore Caplow, Commonwealth Professor of Sociology at the University of Virginia and author of Middletown Families (University of Minnesota Press, 1982) and All Faithful People (University of Minnesota Press, 1983) and Philip Raisor, Professor of English at Old Dominion University and author of Outside Shooter: A Memoir (University of Missouri Press, 2003).

Session and paper submissions will be sought on the following topics: the political, social, cultural, and economic history of Muncie, Indiana; the professional careers of Robert S. and Helen Merrell Lynd; the educational and literary impact of Middletown upon the field of social science; and the use of Middletown in classroom teaching situations. The conference committee welcomes paper and session proposals from social scientists, journalists, educators in elementary and secondary schools, media specialists, and humanists, as well as undergraduate and graduate students. Selected papers will be published in a special publication relating to the conference.

Queries may be directed to the contact below. Final submissions are due by May 15, 2004 and should be sent to the address provided.