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First Annual Symposium on Small Towns
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Biographies

 

Amato, Joseph

 Dr. Amato is Professor Emiterus of History at Southwest State University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. In addition to numerous works in European intellectual and cultural history, he has authored many books on rural life and the contemporary countryside. They include Countryside, Mirror of Ourselves; When Father and Son Conspire: A Minnesota Farm Murder; The Great Jenusalem Artichoke Circus: The Buying and Selling of the Rural American Dream; Servants of the Land: God, Family, and Farm, the Trinity of Belgian Economic Folkways in Southwestern Minnesota; To Call It Home: The New Immigrants of Southwestern Minnesota; and, most recently, Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible. He can be contacted at (507) 537-6295 or via email at amatoj@ssu.southwest.msus.edu.

 

Bergland, Robert

 Mr. Bergland was born in Roseau County, Minnesota in 1928. He represented Minnesota's 7th District in the U.S. House of Representatives (1971-1977) and held the post of U.S. Secretary of Agriculture (1977-1981). A graduate of he University of Minnesota. Bergland served as a member of the United States Congress (1970-1977) in the 7th district and served as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture under President Carter (1977-80). He was president of Farmland World Trade from 1981-1983 and general manager of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. He represented the rural electric cooperatives before Congressional committees and regulatory agencies. Mr. Bergland also served as Regent to the University of Minnesota (1997-2003). Mr. Bergland lives on the family farm where he was born and raised near Roseau, Minnesota. He retired in 1994 but is still active in promoting rural community and economic development.

 

Cantrell, Dr. Randy

 Randy Cantrell is currently a Professor and Community Resource Development Specialist with Nebraska Cooperative Extension, Center for Applied Rural Innovation. Dr. Cantrell received his B.A. in Anthropology and Economics from Michigan State University (1971), M.S. in Labor Studies from the New York State School of Industrial and Labor Relations (1973), and Ph.D. in Development Sociology from Cornell University (1976). He joined CARI's staff in October of 2001, following six years as Director of the University of Nebraska Southeast Research and Extension Center. Prior to coming to Nebraska, Dr. Cantrell had a 17-year career with Cooperative Extension at the University of Minnesota in various outreach and administrative roles, culminating in five years as Director of Outreach at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs. He can be contacted at (402) 472-1772 or email rcantrell1@unl.edu.

Freymuth, Dirk

Dirk has been a session guitarist on more than 30 pop, folk, and international and classical recordings. He's also produced more than 15 recordings of classical music featuring players from the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, and six recordings from traditional Irish music. Dirk composed the soundtrack for the film, Lawrence Melm, and served as the music director for the film Being Human.

Dirk has served as writer, editor and researcher for recording liner notes, concert program notes, and performing editions of Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque Music.

 

Geller, Jack Dr.

 Dr. Jack M. Geller currently serves as the president of the Center for Rural Policy and Development. Based in St. Peter, MN, the Center is the State s only rural policy research center. As such, the Center is dedicated to the study of the economic, social and cultural forces that impact rural Minnesota. Jack received his doctorate in rural sociology from Iowa State University in 1986. Prior to his appointment at the Center for Rural Policy and Development, Jack served as a professor of community medicine and rural health; and director of the Center for Rural Health at the University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences in Grand Forks. Jack and his wife Diane and their 4 children reside in rural Mankato township.

 

Hart, Dr. John Fraser

 Ph.D., Northwestern University, 1950
M.A., Northwestern University, 1949
A.B., Emory University, 1943
I am just an old-fashioned country geographer who likes to make and use maps. I try to understand what I see as I ramble through rural areas, and I supplement my observations with census data and maps that are based on these data. I enjoy sharing what I have learned, both in the classroom and through scholarly publication, which to me are inseparable aspects of the research process. Most of my publications have dealt with aspects of rural landscapes in the Midwest and in the South. Dr. Hart can be contacted at (612) 625-4026. Professor Hart does not use email.

McMurry, Dr. Martha

 Martha McMurry is a senior research analyst with the State Demographic Center at the Minnesota Department of Administration in St. Paul, Minnesota, where she has worked since 1980. Her responsibilities include preparing population, household, and labor force projections and tracking demographic trends. She received a Ph.D. in sociology from Indiana University.

Olson, Paul

 Paul Olson is the president of the Blandin Foundation.

 

Ostroushko, Peter

 Peter has spent more than 25 years as a frequent performer on A Prairie Home Companion, and for a few seasons, he did a stint as Music Director for the popular radio show. You may have caught Peter on TV, too. He's appeared on Austin City Limits, Late Night with David Letterman, even Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.

Composer Peter Ostroushko has undeniably come into his own. His works have been performed by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Sinfonia, the Rochester (Minnesota) Symphony Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra, among others. Twin Cities Public Television commissioned Peter to provide music for their nationally distributed programs, The Dakota Conflict and Grant Wood's America. Ken Burns used music from Heart of the Heartland for his PBS documentary Lewis & Clarke, and Peter's haunting arrangement of "Sweet Betsy from Pike" was underscore for Burns' Mark Twain.

 

Schuman, Dr. Sam
Sam Schuman is Chancellor at the University of Minnesota, Morris.

Wilcox, Carol

  

 

Winchester, Benjamin

 Benjamin Winchester is the Coordinator of Data Analysis and Research at the Center for Small Towns located at the University of Minnesota, Morris. Ben received B.A.'s in Mathematics and an Area of Concentration in Statistics from the University of Minnesota, Morris (1995) and M.S. in Rural Sociology from the University of Missouri (2001). Ben can be contacted at (320) 589-6451 or email benw@morris.umn.edu.

 

 
 

 

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