Reynolds College Blog

CAR’s Kevin Cupka Head honored with Lincoln School Light Award

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Missouri State University’s Kevin Cupka Head, director of the Bernice S. Warren Center for Archeological Research (CAR) has been honored by the Lincoln School Project of West Plains, Missouri, with its Lincoln School Light Award.

The Lincoln School Project recognized Cupka Head, along with Dr. Bolaji Ogunwo from the University of Lagos, during a dedication ceremony held May 17, 2025, at the Lincoln School. Both individuals received the honor for their preservation efforts and service to the community.

According to the project’s website, the organization does not give out the Light Award annually nor do they accept nominations. Instead, the organization reserves the award for individuals who deserve special recognition because they “reflect a steady light, guiding, uplifting, and inspiring others in meaningful and lasting ways.” These individuals “are living examples of illumination” who bring “dignity to the past and hope to the future.”

Cupka Head said he felt “extremely humbled” to receive the award.

“To have my contributions highlighted through this award is inspiring,” he noted. The award “reaffirms my personal commitment to public history, archaeology and the stewardship of our precious cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible.”

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Dr. Philippa Koch featured in Mind’s Eye

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Congratulations to Dr. Philippa Koch, assistant professor of religion, on her feature story in the 2025 issue of Mind’s Eye magazine.

Her research focuses on the intersections of religion, health, gender and society in early America.

Research feature story now online

The Mind’s Eye story featuring Koch’s research is now published online.

Excerpt:

In a world teeming with religious narratives and expectations, what happens when lived experiences do not align?

Dr. Philippa Koch, Missouri State University associate professor of religion, explored this question through her research on how Christians in colonial America held onto the doctrine of providence. This is the belief that God oversees everything and sometimes intervenes in the world.

This research led to the publication of her book, “The Course of God’s Providence: Religion, Health and the Body in Early America,” in 2021.

In it, Koch explores how Christians maintained this belief, even as medical advancements made it possible to treat illnesses.

Read the full story

Dr. William Meadows publishes new book on Native handgame tradition

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Missouri State University’s Dr. William Meadows has published a new book exploring the culture and history of the Native handgame tradition.

Book cover
Click book cover image to learn more.

Meadows is a professor of anthropology in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology.

“The Handgame of the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache: Spirited Competition on the Southern Plains,” is an ethnic study that documents a previously unexplored topic, Meadows explained. “I’ve played this game off and on for a little over 30 years, but always with the goal in mind of doing an ethnography on it. It is a subject that no one has taken the time to deal with.”

The subject interested him theoretically because handgame is not just a “game of chance.” It requires “keen observation” of human behavior, psychology, mathematics and spiritual belief, he argues,

“The handgame constitutes its own arena of social activity in tribal communities,” Meadows writes in his book. “It is just as important and traditional as other Native cultural institutions such as the powwow or sweat lodge ceremonies.”

From observer to player

As part of his broader research on Indigenous cultures, Meadows conducted field work from 1993-2023. He interviewed individuals from the Kiowa, Comanche, Plains Apache, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Ponca, Wichita, Delaware and Fort Sill Apache communities.

During this period, Meadows interviewed Bill Koomsa, Jr., who introduced him to the game.

“They were hosting the Crows, and he invited me to one of the games to look on, enjoy it and everything,” Meadows said. “Once you see it, it’s such a lively, peppy game, it’s really addictive.”

After that, Meadows continued to play so frequently, one family invited him to join their team.

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Missouri State University professors deliver second conference on poverty

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Missouri State University and the Center for Ozarks Poverty Research (COPR) hosted the second annual Community Conference on Poverty April 11, 2025, on the Springfield campus.

Anthropology professor Dr. Marnie Watson and sociology instructor Christina Ryder founded COPR. They currently serve as co-directors for the organization. They also teach in the Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Gerontology (SAG), part of the Reynolds College of Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (RCASH) at Missouri State.

Journalist and anthropologist Dr. Brian Goldstone was the conference’s keynote speaker. In addition to discussing his latest book, “There is No Place For Us: Homeless and Working in America,” Goldstone participated in a panel discussion and signed copies of his new book afterward.

Watson and Ryder saw an opportunity to build the second conference around the theme of housing and employment with the release of Goldstone’s book. Conference topics and themes differ each year, they said.

“Each year we choose a different angle to look at poverty from,” Watson said. “The first year we focused on housing and homelessness. This second year the focus was on housing and employment, specifically individuals who are unhoused and working.”

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Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives publishes new book on Hans Memling

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The Department of Art and Design’s Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives, professor of art history and visual culture, has published her latest research on the fifteenth-century German painter Hans Memling.

Released in April 2025 through Reaktion Books and the University of Chicago Press, “Hans Memling and the Merchants,” takes readers into Memling’s world in Bruges, Belgium, far from the courts and churches that usually defined artistic success.

Vibrant career in fifteenth century Bruges

Book cover featuring artwork of Hans Memling
Click book cover image to learn more.

Kirkland-Ives noted that instead of painting for kings or cardinals, Memling found his audience within the rising urban middle class among bankers, politicians and artisans. He subsequently built a thriving career in Bruges.

“He’s an interesting figure,” she said. “He’s not originally from the Low Countries, but he shows up in Bruges and winds up being one of the most called upon painters of his moment there.”

The book builds on Kirkland-Ives’s long-standing interest in the intersections of art, ritual and society in late medieval Europe. Her previous book, “In the Footsteps of Christ: Hans Memling’s Passion Narratives and the Devotional Imagination in the Early Modern Netherlands,” offers a close study of Memling’s narrative strategies and the ways viewers engaged with images as part of their devotional lives.

In that book, Kirkland-Ives invites readers to consider how a single panel painting could guide the imagination through complex religious experience.

She expands on this theme further in her new book by exploring the social and material realities of Memling’s world.

This includes how his workshop operated, how he sourced his pigments and how his portraits and altarpieces reflected the politics and power plays within Bruges. In fact, Memling’s works often elevated an individual’s or a family’s status or publicly demonstrated status that they already had.

Bruges was an international hotspot at the time, Kirkland-Ives noted. Memling’s client list reflected this. His work traveled across Europe—from Castile to Florence—thanks to a system of patrons who often ordered pieces while visiting and had them shipped home. [Read more…] about Dr. Mitzi Kirkland-Ives publishes new book on Hans Memling