Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures

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Welcome

The Center for the Study of Upper Midwestern Cultures is committed to the languages and cultural traditions of this region’s diverse peoples. We foster research and the preservation of archival collections, while producing educational and outreach programs for a broad public audience. We also assist community groups, classrooms, and scholars with projects involving Upper Midwestern Cultures.

The Region

A territory of woods, waters, fields, small towns, and blue collar cities, the Upper Midwest has long been a cultural middle ground: the meeting place for centuries of Woodland and Plains Indians, the American region with the most entrenched and varied European-American population as well as growing communities of African, Asian, and Hispanic Americans. While the contours of the Upper Midwest are not precisely defined, most consider Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan as the heart of the region (with overlap into lower Michigan, Ontario, Manitoba, the Dakotas, Iowa, and Illinois).

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