Pamela A. Kaylor, Abstract: "Roots and Routes" This interdisciplinary project investigates the interconnected themes of heritage, migration, and community, with a focus on how places of origin and movement shape identity. The presentation will emphasize the process of organizing and securing funding for the project, which involves collaboration among faculty from multiple campuses. Faculty from diverse disciplines, including English, Education, History, and Communication Studies, are working together to develop and implement experiential learning opportunities that promote community engagement in Central and Southeast Ohio. This initiative aims to deepen participants' understanding of local histories and their global significance, linking these insights to broader cultural narratives. The project is expected to unfold over several phases, culminating in the production of video vignettes, interviews, and creative works. Through an in-depth exploration of the concepts of "community" and "place," students will examine heritage, migration, and community within both historical and contemporary frameworks. The populations under study include Indigenous peoples of Ohio, refugees and immigrants, restored citizens, and African American communities. Matt Wanat, Abstract: "Ohio Sites of Authorship, Ohio Sites of Revision" Ohio’s place names and places are historically contingent; they change over time, marking and erasing not “the past” but rather plural pasts. Both my current creative scholarship, which involves Ohio history, and several of my classes at the Lancaster campus and in the Ohio University system have aligned with “Roots and Routes” campus programming around a series of interrelated questions, including (1) What happens when we rethink Ohio places as sites of cultural flux, e.g., of Indian presence and removal, and (2) What happens when we rethink the American literary canon through Ohio sites? My presentation explores relationships between Ohio writers and Ohio sites in the context of shifting definitions of place, definitions sometimes inclusive and at other times exclusionary. I argue that these shifting site definitions remain germane not only to the literary and cultural histories of the state, but also to its future. Stella McGuire, Abstract: “Formed by Place—How Region Shapes Us” As a regional campus student, my life is contained within a thirty-minute radius. Students who, like I, study in the humanities might find themselves inspired about human culture and history, subsequently prompting the student to wonder what their culture and history is, and then, what it means. One’s curiosity likely leads to sincere introspection regarding the purpose and importance not only of what their regional branch has to offer, but also of what the existence of their branch suggests. More than just a simple convenience, regional campuses garner and harbor community differently than “main” campus hubs do. Along with regional branch’s ability to garner community, smaller branches create an understanding of region and rurality and how those factors may shape higher education. My work study with Dr. Wanat prompts me, a student at Ohio University Lancaster, to understand place and region through research pertaining to Native American presence and removal in the late 18th and early 19th centuries Ohio history. Regional campuses allow students in higher education at regional branches in rural areas to harmonize with their otherwise unrightfully overlooked local culture.