Missouri Matters
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Study Where You Live, Live Where You Study
The Kinder Institute’s new Missouri Matters program offers students multiple ways to enrich their understanding of the Show-Me State through coursework, research, and internship opportunities that cultivate a deep connection to and appreciation for Missouri, whether they’re newcomers or lifelong residents.
Missouri Studies Minor
With a flexible, interdisciplinary curriculum drawing from a dozen (and counting) different departments at the university, the 15-credit hour Missouri Studies Minor lets students chart their own course of study on the state’s history, politics, economy, culture, environment, and social landscapes, from its founding to the present day.
Students in the Minor are required to take at least nine credit hours from the following four courses:
- English 2310: Missouri Writers
- Geography 2130: Missouri Geography
- History 2440: Missouri History
- Political Science 2250: Missouri Politics
Students take an additional six credit hours from a list of electives that includes courses in Health Science, Public Administration, Theatre, German, and more. The full elective curriculum can be found here.
At least nine of the degree’s required fifteen credit hours must be taken in residence at Mizzou at the 2000-level or above. A minimum GPA of 2.00 in classes being applied to the Minor is required to receive the degree, and grades below C- will not be accepted.
Students with questions about the Minor should contact Sr. Academic Advisor for History and Constitutional Democracy Brittony Hein, corneillierb@missouri.edu, or one of the degree’s three co-directors:
- Prof. Sam Cohen (English), cohenss@missouri.edu
- Prof. Scott Lacombe (Truman School/Kinder Institute), sjlacombe@missouri.edu
- Prof. Jarod Roll (History/Kinder Institute), jroll@missouri.edu
Undergraduate Research
Missouri Matters supports undergraduate research through faculty-led ASH Scholars teams that investigate the people, places, and policies that have shaped Missouri’s history and will continue to influence its future.
Click here to find out more about the four ASH teams that the Kinder Institute currently sponsors, which explore everything from AI policy in modern day Missouri to the long history of the Lake of the Ozarks. Details about how to apply for an ASH Scholars team can be found here.
Internships
The program also offers valuable hands-on learning opportunities that prepare students who remain in-state to become effective leaders in their career field, regardless of their major. The growing list of internship sites that Missouri Matters partners with include:
- The Missouri State Archives’ Supreme Court of Missouri Records Project
- The Missouri AFL-CIO Office
- The Missouri Historical Review Editors’ Office
- The State Historical Society of Missouri
- Boone County Rural Life and Agricultural History Project
- The Columbia Music Trail Project (Research Assistantship)
Students can receive course credit for interning at any of the above sites and apply it to the Missouri Studies Minor by enrolling in and meeting the requirements for the Kinder Institute’s internship course, Constitutional Democracy 4940. Students can also apply CLIP internships at the Missouri Capitol to the Minor via Service Learning 3028 or propose a for-credit internship to count toward the Minor by contacting one of the degree’s co-directors at the email addresses listed above.
Contact
A project of the Kinder Institute on Constitutional Democracy, made possible with support from across the MU campus, Missouri Matters launched in 2025 with the hiring of program curators and KICD Professors of Missouri History and Missouri Politics, Jarod Roll and Scott LaCombe. Anyone with questions about Missouri Matters can contact them at the email addresses below.
- Prof. Jarod Roll, jroll@missouri.edu
- Prof. Scott LaCombe, sjlacombe@missouri.edu
Coming Soon!
The inaugural Lecture in Missouri Studies, featuring MU J-School alum and award-winning novelist Michelle Collins Anderson, will take place in March 2027. Stay tuned to this space for more information.