Joseph A. Amato, Professor emeritus of the Center for Rural and Regional Studies and Professor emeritus of History, 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; Dust: A History of the Small and the Invisible, Rethinking Home: A Case for Writing Local History, and most recently, A Place Called Home: Writings on the Midwestern Small Town.

Office: ST 203A
Phone: (507) 537-6295

Jan Louwagie received her B.A. in history from Southwest State University. She is coordinator of the Southwest Minnesota Regional Research Center, an archive of public documents located at SSU. One of the founders and an officer of the Society for the Study of Local and Regional History, she coordinates and organizes grant projects and conferences. She, her husband, and four children operate a family farm in Lyon County.

Office: ST 203B, SS 133
Phone: (507) 537-7373
E-mail: jlouwagie@southwestmsu.edu

Charles L. Kost, Director of the GIS Center, received a graduate certificate in GIS from St. Cloud State University. He coordinates the activities of the GIS Center providing technical support through consultation to faculty, students and regional GIS users, conducting training workshops in the use of GIS software, and gathering and storing data of significance for use in preparing maps of the region.

Office: SM 206
Phone: (507) 537-6371
E-mail: kostc@southwestmsu.edu