Participation Type
Panel
Session Title
Session 4.10 (Appalachian Studies) Early Career Academics Take on Issues from Home: Dispatches from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Ohio
Session Abstract or Summary
In this panel we encourage a new perspective on Appalachia by offering interventions in discourse about Appalachia using three different case studies: Disrupting the Hollowing Out, Community and Mobility Among Young Adults, and the West Virginia Water Crisis. As students pursuing Ph.D.s, we approach each of these projects, all based in our home state of West Virginia, as a way to push back against narratives that depict complicated regional issues in simplified ways. This tendency to simplify makes finding solutions or new paradigms for thinking about entrenched issues difficult. We present applied scholarship and place-based activism that offer new approaches to (1) understanding why young people may leave rural areas--often for pragmatic reasons (i.e. lack of jobs) as opposed to value based reasons (i.e. urban is better); (2) understanding the role of young adults in Appalachian communities given their relatively high mobility; and (3) developing a new framework for a regional rhetoric for advocacy and activism in Appalachia.
Presentation #1 Title
Stop the Hollowing Out: Dissenting Voices to Elsewhere is Better
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In my dissertation research, I take a fresh perspective on the phenomenon of the hollowing out of rural areas that depicts the best students as leaving and the rest as staying behind. Over the course of 1 year working with high school seniors in two West Virginia schools, one suburban and one rural, I have seen evidence of students’ lives and experiences pushing back against the predominance of the hollowing out narrative. As students made decisions about what to do after high school, their choices were heavily tinged with ties to family and place—across social class and achievement spectrums. These ties also showed up in family and school narratives depicting commitments to help students follow their dreams and achieve success—and dismay that students often need to leave the community to do these things. Ties to family and place have been mainstays on the list of Appalachian cultural traits and in this scenario I see these as strengths that can contribute to an emerging and creative force of young people who are committed to their local communities. These commitments disrupt the hollowing out narrative that success is found elsewhere and students who stay home are settling for less than the best. However, this commitment is challenged by a serious lack of infrastructure that would allow young adults to pursue their dreams locally. I look at the complexities of this situation as couched within the educational, economic, and political contexts of West Virginia.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Brandi Weekley is a Ph.D. candidate in the Interdisciplinary Education program at West Virginia University. Her dissertation ethnographically examines how social class structures and Appalachian culture are engaged as West Virginia students make the postsecondary transition, paying particular attention to students’ agency and identities during this process. She will graduate in the Spring of 2015.
Presentation #2 Title
Community and Mobility Working Together: The New Mobilities Paradigm and Young Adults in Appalachia
Presentation #2 Abstract or Summary
I present a fresh perspective on youth and the relationship between people and place in Appalachia. Relying on the idea of a “new mobilities paradigm,” I show that mobility and community are not necessarily oppositional social forces for youth in Appalachia. I base this analysis on my research examining sense of belonging and mobility, both physical and social, among college-educated young adults active in West Virginia communities. The role of young adults in Appalachia is fraught in the context of out-migration and the “hollowing out” of communities. Young adults are a mobile population in general, and this characteristic has been theorized as problematic to the sustainability of Appalachia. On the other hand, limited mobility among youth is not desirable, and Appalachian in-migrants also fulfill important community and activist roles alongside long-term residents. I present quantitative and qualitative data showing high levels of mobility among youth in the state. However, the qualitative data also reveal mobility to be a crucial component of community participation, especially for youth in the context of gender, race, sexuality, and place. This research destabilizes “metronormative” narratives, which perpetuate the idea that young people should leave Appalachia for urban centers and shines a light on the struggles and perseverance of youth in Appalachia. These results draw our attention to the way mobility might be evaluated as a dynamic asset to communities. In addition, these findings contribute important information about the extent to which young people ally themselves with people and places for environmental, social, and economic sustainability.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Rachel Terman recently earned her Ph.D. in the Rural Sociology and Women’s Studies dual-title program at Penn State University. Her dissertation, Hillbilliy Women, Affrilachians, and Queer Mountaineers, examines the gender, race, sexuality, and class among young adults in West Virginia and the relationship of these identities to sense of belonging and mobility.
Presentation #3 Title
A Regional Rhetoric for Activism in Appalachia: The West Virginia Water Crisis
Presentation #3 Abstract or Summary
I will outline the framework for advocacy and activism in Appalachia that deconstructs the three commonplace solutions to the “Appalachian problem” that Henry Shapiro first defined: 1) modernization, assimilating the region into modern, urban cultural, economic, and technological systems, 2) preservation, acknowledging the distinctiveness and difference of the culture and preserving it as an isolated, monolithic, homogeneous entity, and 3) abandonment, allowing nature to take over as the people are relocated to urban and suburban areas. By focusing on one particular site of rhetorical intervention -- the discourse surrounding the West Virginia Water Crisis, which was caused by a chemical spill that rendered the tap water for 300,000 people unusable for several weeks – I will outline a regional rhetoric for activism in Appalachia. This rhetorical model considers the historical, sociopolitical, economic, and cultural axes upon which Appalachia is defined and with which Appalachians self-identify. Based upon this understanding of Appalachia, this regional rhetoric intervenes in public discourse about Appalachia at each of Shapiro’s commonplace solutions to the Appalachian problem, offering historical and theoretical counters to the assumptions that underlie each. I will demonstrate the benefits of this rhetorical model for activist work in Appalachia by discussing a website I created, www.wvwatercrisis.com, where I provided exclusive public health and safety information concerning the water crisis, a space for victims of the chemical spill to share their stories, and a critical public voice informed by both an academic and insider’s understanding of the region.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Krista Bryson is a Ph.D. candidate in Rhetoric, Composition and Literacy at The Ohio State University. She will defend her dissertation on a regional rhetoric for activism in Appalachia in March 2015. She is also the recipient of a National Science Foundation grant for her work on the West Virginia Water Crisis (www.wvwatercrisis.com) and is releasing a documentary about the crisis in Spring 2015.
Stop the Hollowing Out: Dissenting Voices to Elsewhere is Better
In my dissertation research, I take a fresh perspective on the phenomenon of the hollowing out of rural areas that depicts the best students as leaving and the rest as staying behind. Over the course of 1 year working with high school seniors in two West Virginia schools, one suburban and one rural, I have seen evidence of students’ lives and experiences pushing back against the predominance of the hollowing out narrative. As students made decisions about what to do after high school, their choices were heavily tinged with ties to family and place—across social class and achievement spectrums. These ties also showed up in family and school narratives depicting commitments to help students follow their dreams and achieve success—and dismay that students often need to leave the community to do these things. Ties to family and place have been mainstays on the list of Appalachian cultural traits and in this scenario I see these as strengths that can contribute to an emerging and creative force of young people who are committed to their local communities. These commitments disrupt the hollowing out narrative that success is found elsewhere and students who stay home are settling for less than the best. However, this commitment is challenged by a serious lack of infrastructure that would allow young adults to pursue their dreams locally. I look at the complexities of this situation as couched within the educational, economic, and political contexts of West Virginia.
