“Places are not fixed, static, preservable entities, but more like processes, and…they are not bounded territories, but are permeable—they are both shaped by and they shape other parts of the world.”

–Shelley Trower, Place, Writing, and Voice in Oral History

I created Where the Heartland Is to explore how ordinary people feel about where they’re from, who they belong with, and the stories—personal and public—that shape their identities. It is grounded in research on oral history, affect theory, nationalism, nostalgia, personal performance narrative, and collective memory (see recommended reading below). My goal was to design an experience of a conversation in medias res, an eavesdropping of sorts. The audio weaves through subtle shifts in opinion and interpretation; it reflects my own noticing and invites others to notice.

I chose to focus on the Elson Girls because I am one of them, and I suppose I, too, believe in the uniqueness of this story. I’m also an American and a Midwesterner, and I often wonder—what exactly does that mean? I think it would be interesting to ask anyone these questions—imagined communities are, after all, made up of the people going about their everyday lives wherever they happen to be.

Recommended reading
Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism, Benedict Anderson
The Future of Nostalgia, Svetlana Boym
The Hundreds, Lauren Berlant & Kathleen Stewart
Midwest Futures, Phil Christman
Storytelling in daily life: Performing narrative, Kristin Langellier & Eric Peterson
Outside Belongings, Elspeth Probyn
Ordinary Affects, Kathleen Stewart
Place, Writing, and Voice in Oral History, Shelley Trower

The theme song for this podcast is Clouds Over Ranch by Nick Gordy, licensed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA 3.0.