Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 2.15 Gender and Sexuality
Presentation #1 Title
Appalachia Revisited Panel 1: Transformations in Understanding Identity and Language
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
The participants in this panel present their contributions for the forthcoming Appalachia Revisited edited by William Schumann and Rebecca Adkins-Fletcher. Yunina Barbour-Payne presents “Carolina Chocolate Drops: Globalization and the Performative Expressions and Reception of Affrilachian Identity.” Barbour-Payne redresses the underrepresentation of Black communities in Appalachian Studies by presenting the groups’ members as 21st century musicians whose works address the local and global character of an Affrilachian presence and influence. Amanda Zeddy’s piece “Gender and Political Subjectivity in northwestern North Carolina” connects regional and feminist scholarship. Zeddy maps the “acceptable” understandings of Appalachian gender identity and politics to the corresponding “acceptable” forms of political participation in northwestern North Carolina from 1945-1990 to reveal the shifting ways patriarchy functions in different historical eras and contexts. Rachel Terman presents, “Intersectionality and Appalachian Identity.” Through contemporary sociological and feminist research perspectives, she analyzes ways young people negotiate their gender, race, and sexuality in the context of sense of belonging in West Virginia to better understand hegemonic and marginal notions of Appalachian identity. Finally, Kirk Hazen et al. present, “Continuity and Change for English Consonants in Appalachia.” Using sociophonetics, they explain the language variation patterns of consonants in West Virginia, including their future trajectories. Taken together, these topics reflect new directions in interdisciplinary scholarship on identities and language in the region. The presenters hope to use the panel discussion as a space to discuss connections among the topics with audience members and each other.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Anna Rachel Terman is a PhD candidate in the Rural Sociology and Women’s Studies dual-title program at Penn State University. She earned her master’s degree in Appalachian studies from Appalachian State University and is currently completing her dissertation analyzing the way gender, race, and sexuality affect sense of belonging and youth out-migration in Appalachia.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Yunina Barbour-Payne is currently a second year Masters student in the Department of Performance Studies at Texas A&M University. As a scholar/artist her current work focuses on embodied performances and personal expressions of survival among African American women in Appalachia.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Amanda Zeddy is a Ph.D. candidate of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Her dissertation is on the constellation of material constraints and internal identity constructions that affect how rural women in northwestern North Carolina receive and process political information, and is being advised by Cedric Robinson and Edwina Barvosa at UCSB.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
With undergraduate researchers and NSF funding, the West Virginia Dialect Project has been studying the dialect patterns of English in Appalachia since 1998.
Appalachia Revisited Panel 1: Transformations in Understanding Identity and Language
Harris Hall 302
The participants in this panel present their contributions for the forthcoming Appalachia Revisited edited by William Schumann and Rebecca Adkins-Fletcher. Yunina Barbour-Payne presents “Carolina Chocolate Drops: Globalization and the Performative Expressions and Reception of Affrilachian Identity.” Barbour-Payne redresses the underrepresentation of Black communities in Appalachian Studies by presenting the groups’ members as 21st century musicians whose works address the local and global character of an Affrilachian presence and influence. Amanda Zeddy’s piece “Gender and Political Subjectivity in northwestern North Carolina” connects regional and feminist scholarship. Zeddy maps the “acceptable” understandings of Appalachian gender identity and politics to the corresponding “acceptable” forms of political participation in northwestern North Carolina from 1945-1990 to reveal the shifting ways patriarchy functions in different historical eras and contexts. Rachel Terman presents, “Intersectionality and Appalachian Identity.” Through contemporary sociological and feminist research perspectives, she analyzes ways young people negotiate their gender, race, and sexuality in the context of sense of belonging in West Virginia to better understand hegemonic and marginal notions of Appalachian identity. Finally, Kirk Hazen et al. present, “Continuity and Change for English Consonants in Appalachia.” Using sociophonetics, they explain the language variation patterns of consonants in West Virginia, including their future trajectories. Taken together, these topics reflect new directions in interdisciplinary scholarship on identities and language in the region. The presenters hope to use the panel discussion as a space to discuss connections among the topics with audience members and each other.
