Reynolds College Blog -

“Rent” opens Spring 2025 Theatre and Dance production schedule

January 23, 2025 by Lynn M. Lansdown

Missouri State University’s Department of Theatre and Dance continues its 2024-25 “Connection” series with the production of Jonathan Larson’s “Rent.”

Evening showtimes are 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21-22, 24 and Feb. 26-March 1. Matinee showtimes are 2:30 p.m. Feb. 23 and March 2.

Directed by Dr. Kurt Heinlein, all performances will be held in the Craig Hall Balcony Theatre.

Tickets are $25 for adults, $22 for students/seniors. Special advance rates are available for students with an MSU ID.

A special group rate is available for 10 or more. Call 417-836-7678 for details.

Purchase tickets

Criminology graduate advocates for justice and community

January 21, 2025 by Damilola R. Oyedeji

When Haley O’Brien first visited Missouri State University in fall 2020, she knew she had found her home.

“I grew up in Marion, Iowa, but I knew I wanted to study out of state,” she said. “When I walked onto [the Missouri State] campus, I fell in love with the environment.

“The handwritten acceptance letter I received also made me feel like I was more than just a number here,” she added. “It felt like a community.”

And so, from the middle of Iowa to MSU, O’Brien has spent the past four years carving out her path in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice.

Her passion for advocacy and restorative justice, combined with her education at MSU, shaped O’Brien’s journey. She now feels equipped to make a meaningful difference in the lives of others.

O’Brien graduated in December 2024 with a degree in criminology, a minor in sociology and certificates in victim advocacy, criminal courts and family and juvenile support services.

MSU’s Spring 2025 Francophone film festival begins Jan. 24

January 15, 2025 by Lynn M. Lansdown

The Department of Languages, Cultures and Religions at Missouri State University announces its annual Albertine Cinémathèque Francophone film festival, opening Jan. 24, 2025.

Organized by Dr. Antoinette Barffour, associate professor of French and Applied Linguistics, this year’s festival selections reflect a wide range of cinematic styles, including fiction, documentary, repertory and animation.

“The LCR department invites all MSU students to participate in our festival to enrich their language, cultural and historical knowledge through the viewing and discussion of diverse and dynamic French and Francophone films,” Barffour said.

MSU earns festival host honors again

MSU has hosted the festival multiple times and was selected to host the 2025 program as well.

“Once again, MSU was selected from among a competitive field and awarded a grant to host the festival,” Barffour said.

The festival is sponsored by a cooperative partnership between the Albertine Cinémathèque film festival, the Franco-American Cultural Fund, and the Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée (CNC) – an agency of the French Ministry of Culture.

One goal of this partnership is promote French-American Cultural Exchange (FACE) in Education and the Arts by showcasing French and Francophone cinema for American colleges and university campuses.

The festival is open to the entire MSU community: students, faculty and staff. Those interested can sign up to participate in an online discussion of each film.

New book features research of CAR’s Dr. Daniel Pierce

January 13, 2025 by Lynn M. Lansdown

Research archaeologist Dr. Daniel Pierce of the Bernice S. Warren Center for Archaeological Research (CAR), has published his findings on Aztatlán culture in a new book from University of Utah press.

Edited by Michael D. Mathiowetz and John M. D. Pohl, “Reassessing the Aztatlán World: Ethnogenesis and Cultural Continuity in Northwest Mesoamerica” presents the work of leading West Mexican scholars. The book provides a broad perspective of Aztatlán culture through a variety of different studies, Pierce said.

Pierce’s chapter, “Obsidian Usage and Trade in Postclassic West Mexico,” examines the Aztatlán culture’s obsidian trade. Obsidian is a volcanic glass used to make stone tools such as blades, knives and spear points.

“This book has been in the works for nearly a decade, so it is exciting that it has finally seen the light of day,” Pierce said. “I think it will be the go-to text for anyone interested in West Mexican archaeology, as it is the first volume of its kind.”

The book was published in 2024.

Examining Aztatlán culture

According to Pierce, scholars believe that Aztatlán society, especially its trade activity, helped shape Mesoamerican culture in the American Southwest, including religion, culture and exotic goods.

“The Aztatlán culture of West Mexico dominated western Mexico during the Post Classic period (AD 900-1350),” Pierce said. “Though it is less well known than other Mesoamerican cultures, the Aztatlán were seemingly the link that connected the great cultures of the American Southwest with those in Mesoamerica.”

“They even brought things like chocolate and macaws into the deserts of the southwest,” he added.

Man demonstrating archaeological equipment to group — Dr. Daniel Pierce demonstrates obsidian analysis to university students from Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit in Tepic, Mexico. Photo credit: Maurico Garduño Ambriz.

Anthropology Club visits historic Danforth Cemetery

January 10, 2025 by Lynn M. Lansdown

Members of Missouri State University’s Anthropology Club visited the historic Danforth Cemetery in Strafford, Missouri, during the Fall 2024 semester as part of a field trip learning experience.

Nine members, along with club officers Erin Ashford and Cora Darmody, accompanied Dr. Elizabeth Sobel and Dr. Scott Worman from the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology on the trip.

Danforth Cemetery history

According to Sobel, the Danforth cemetery was established in the nineteenth century for the burial of White and Black pioneers. The oldest surviving grave markers date to 1860, but the cemetery may have been established before then.

“Black pioneers were enslaved, brought to southwest Missouri by force, rather than by choice,” Sobel said. “Like many other historic cemeteries, the Danforth Cemetery was historically racially segregated, with the south end serving as a burial ground for Black individuals.”

Sobel added that the cemetery remains active, used by descendants of both the White and Black founding families as well as other community members.

Historic ties to MSU

According to Sobel, one goal of the field trip was for students to understand the historical relationship between Danforth Cemetery and MSU.

The Black section of the Danforth Cemetery is but one example of the history of racial segregation in Missouri, she explained. It illustrates for students how their experience at MSU is connected to that history.

Danforth Cemetery is the resting place of Mary Jean Price Walls, the first Black person to apply to (then) Southwest Missouri State University.

Price Walls applied to MSU in 1950, prior to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education ruling. She was denied admission to the university despite being an academically strong student, Sobel said.

In 2010, MSU granted Price Walls an honorary undergraduate degree in recognition of her significance as the university’s first Black applicant. MSU then named its Multicultural Resource Center after Price Walls in 2016. More recently, in August 2024 the Springfield-Greene County African American Heritage Trail placed a historical marker on the MSU campus to honor Price Walls.

Price Walls died in 2020.