Exploring the unique social and environmental challenges facing the heartland.
Midwest Connections is an incubator project integrating interdisciplinary narrative research on the changing cultural composition in the Midwest. Funded through the Office of the Vice President for Research at the University of Iowa, Midwest Connections explores the unique social and environmental challenges facing the heartland through storytelling. Midwest Connections has supported Iowa Stories and Lived Experiences (ISLE), Homebuilding in the Heartland, and other events.
Stories Matter. They teach us about ourselves, our communities, the world we live in, the people that lived before us. Stories help us make sense of our lives, but they also help others feel less alone. Explore the Midwest Connections photobook to learn more about what it means to leave home and what it means to find home in a strange, new world.
Iowa Stories and Lived Experiences (ISLE)
ISLE is an intensive multimedia workshop offered by the School of Journalism and Mass Communication that gives students real-world experience in collaborative journalism. Students are embedded in an Iowa community to document and explore its connection to a central theme. The experience incorporates photography, video, audio, emerging media, and data visualizations. The 2025 workshop, themed Found in Translation, explored the cultural, economic, and political currents that shape the lives of African immigrants in Eastern Iowa.
Homebuilding in the Heartland
Homebuilding in the Heartland is an oral history project that explores the experiences of African immigrants in Iowa. The project documents migration motivation and experience, cultural adjustment, and the role of humanitarian and faith-based organizations in facilitating transitions. Products include community events such as the African Festival of Arts and Culture (AfricaFest), features in local media outlets, and forthcoming scholarly articles.
Events
Film screening in Iowa City
Midwest Connections, in collaboration with FilmScene, hosted a public screening of short documentary films produced during the Iowa Stories and Lived Experiences (ISLE) workshop. Collectively themed "Found in Translation," the documentaries featured the stories of Darius and Wealee Nupolu, Wazy and Lydie Sato, Roger and Catherine Atchou, and other African immigrants living in Eastern Iowa. A panel discussion and reception followed the screening, which was attended by over 100 community members.
Archiving the lives of African women in Iowa
African women who participated in a series of interviews for the "Homebuilding in the Heartland" project visited the Iowa Women’s Archives at the University of Iowa Main Library, where their stories were officially deposited into the collection. The IWA holds more than 1,200 manuscript collections that chronicle the lives and work of Iowa women, their families, and their communities, dating from the 19th century to the present. Midwest Connections facilitated the first collection about African immigrants in Iowa.
Gallery
