Participation Type
Roundtable
Session Title
Environmental History: Possibilities and New Directions
Session Abstract or Summary
Environmental history, the study of intersections between Nature and human nature, is one of the fastest growing subfields in the humanities. The Appalachian region is an ideal arena for this study due to the mountains' age, complicated geology, and diverse flora and fauna, as well as the variety of human interactions with the landscape including agriculture, mining, gathering, and dam-building, to name only a few. This roundtable initiates conversation about previous Appalachian environmental histories, current research in the field, and potential future studies.
The roundtable will discuss Appalachian environmental history with an eye to urban spaces, comparative mountain studies, the ecological reach of Appalachian industries (both in the region and beyond), responses to natural disasters, and the influence of rivers and forests in the region over time. It includes both senior scholars and graduate students, and aims to identify research trends and opportunities through dialogue with participants and the session audience.
The interdisciplinary Appalachian Studies meeting is an ideal setting for this discussion. Activists and academics in the region--whether historians, scientists, or environmentalists--are among the diverse voices that can contribute to productive dialogue on environmental scholarship and policy in the region. Despite its interdisciplinary strength, Appalachian Studies has generally lacked broad participation from the natural sciences. By studying Appalachian history with an emphasis on the ways in which the natural world affects human behavior, we aim to arrive at a more holistic understanding of the region’s past in order to help secure a more sustainable future.
Presentation #1 Title
Environmental History: Possibilities and New Directions
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Environmental history, the study of intersections between Nature and human nature, is one of the fastest growing subfields in the humanities. The Appalachian region is an ideal arena for this study due to the mountains' age, complicated geology, and diverse flora and fauna, as well as the variety of human interactions with the landscape including agriculture, mining, gathering, and dam-building, to name only a few. This roundtable initiates conversation about previous Appalachian environmental histories, current research in the field, and potential future studies. The roundtable will discuss Appalachian environmental history with an eye to urban spaces, comparative mountain studies, the ecological reach of Appalachian industries (both in the region and beyond), responses to natural disasters, and the influence of rivers and forests in the region over time. It includes both senior scholars and graduate students, and aims to identify research trends and opportunities through dialogue with participants and the session audience. The interdisciplinary Appalachian Studies meeting is an ideal setting for this discussion. Activists and academics in the region--whether historians, scientists, or environmentalists--are among the diverse voices that can contribute to productive dialogue on environmental scholarship and policy in the region. Despite its interdisciplinary strength, Appalachian Studies has generally lacked broad participation from the natural sciences. By studying Appalachian history with an emphasis on the ways in which the natural world affects human behavior, we aim to arrive at a more holistic understanding of the region’s past in order to help secure a more sustainable future.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Kathryn Newfont joined the University of Kentucky history department in 2015. At UK she also works closely with the Appalachian Center and serves on the interdisciplinary Appalachian Studies and Environmental and Sustainability Studies faculties. Her first book, Blue Ridge Commons: Environmental Activism and Forest History in Western North Carolina, won ASA’s 2012 Weatherford Award for Non-fiction and the 2012 Thomas Wolfe Literary Award. Her current project, “The Land Speaks,” is an edited volume examining the intersections of oral and environmental history, expected to appear in 2016.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Originally from southern West Virginia, Ron Eller has spent more than forty years writing and teaching about the Appalachian region. A descendent of eight generations of families from Appalachia, Dr. Eller served for 15 years as the Director of the University of Kentucky Appalachian Center where he coordinated research and service programs on a wide range of Appalachian policy issues including education, health care, economic development, civic leadership and the environment. Currently retired as Distinguished Professor of History at UK, Dr. Eller continues to be in demand as a speaker on Appalachian issues at colleges, conferences, and community forums throughout the nation, and he serves as a frequent consultant to civic organizations and the national media. A former Rockefeller Foundation Scholar, he holds the Ph.D. in American history from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and is widely known as a scholar of Appalachian history and the study of rural economic development and social change. He has published more than sixty articles and reports but is most well known for his award-winning books. Miners, Millhands and Mountaineers: The Industrialization of the Appalachian South was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1983 and won the 1982 Willis Weatherford Award in Appalachian Studies and the 1983 Thomas Wolfe Literary Award. His most recent book, Uneven Ground: Appalachia Since 1945 won the 2008 Willis Weatherford Award and the 2009 V.O. Key Award for the best book on Southern Politics from the Southern Political Science Association.
Professor Eller has also served as Chairman of the Governor’s Kentucky Appalachian Task Force, the first Chairman of the Kentucky Appalachian Commission and as a member of the Sustainable Communities Task Force of President Clinton’s Council on Sustainable Development. Among other awards, he is the recipient of the Jim Wayne Miller Award for Distinguished Service to Appalachia, two East Kentucky Leadership Foundation Special Awards (1999 and 2009), and the University of Kentucky William E. Lyons Award for Outstanding Public Service. He has worked on projects in rural education reform with the Ford Foundation, the American Council on Education, and the American Association of Community Colleges and has served as the John D. Whisman Visiting Scholar for the Appalachian Regional Commission in Washington. He is currently retired and working on a book of essays about the history of Appalachia.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
David E. Whisnant, a native of Asheville NC, grew up in the employee village of American Enka Corporation (opened 1928. He received a B.S. in Physics from Georgia Institute of Technology (1961) and a Ph.D. in American Literature from Duke University (1965). He taught at the University of Illinois (1965-72; American Literature), University of Maryland Baltimore County (1975-88; American Studies), and UNC Chapel Hill (1988-2000; American Studies, Folklore, Latin American Studies). David’s books include Process, Policy and Context: Contemporary Perspectives on Appalachian Culture (1979; edited volume); Modernizing the Mountaineer: People, Power and Planning in Appalachia (1981); All That Is Native and Fine: The Politics of Culture in an American Region (1983); and Rascally Signs in Sacred Places: The Politics of Culture in Nicaragua (1995). David has published more than eighty articles and reviews on American literature, Appalachian history and culture, the politics of culture, cultural policy, Nicaraguan history and culture, traditional and country music, documentary film, planned economic development, vernacular culture, and folklife festivals. He has served on the boards of the Foxfire Fund, the American Folklore Society, the National Council for the Traditional Arts, and Highlander Research and Education Center. He and his wife Anne Mitchell Whisnant founded Primary Source History Services, through which they have done extensive contract research and writing for the National Park Service, including Small Park, Large Issues: De Soto National Memorial and the Commemoration of a Difficult History (2007) and Gateway to the Atlantic: Cape Lookout National Seashore Historic Resource Study (forthcoming). In 2010, they also published When the Parkway Came, a children’s book about the history of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Asheville Junction, David’s current blog project, explores neglected aspects of the social, cultural, racial, industrial and class history of Asheville.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Donald Edward Davis, Ph.D., is the author of six books and has published numerous articles in such journals as Environmental Ethics, The Ecologist, and the Utne Reader. He has been a research assistant and consultant to the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, DC, collaborating there with Jeremy Rifkin on the book Biosphere Politics: A New Consciousness for the 21st Century (Crown Books, 1991). His books include Ecophilosophy: A Field Guide to the Literature (R & E Miles, 1989), the award-winning Where There Are Mountains: An Environmental History of the Southern Appalachians (UGA Press, 2003), Homeplace Geography: Essays for Appalachia (Mercer University Press, 2006), and Southern United States: An Environmental History (ABC-CLIO, 2006). A Fulbright Fellow, Davis has lectured widely in the United States and abroad, including the countries of France, Romania, Ukraine, England, and the Czech Republic. He currently volunteers as the Governmental Affairs Representative for the American Chestnut Foundation and serves on their Board of Directors. His latest book, The American Chestnut: An Environmental History, is scheduled for publication in 2016.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #5
Luke Manget is a PhD candidate at the University of Georgia where he is working with John Inscoe on a dissertation entitled "Sang Digger: An Environmental History of the Botanical Drug Trade in Southern Appalachia." His research interests include Appalachian history, environmental history, agricultural history, and the New South. He runs the blog southernhighlander.org, which explores the history, nature and culture of southern Appalachia. Prior to graduate school, he was a newspaper reporter and high school social studies teacher in Murphy, North Carolina.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #6
Savannah Paige Murray is a graduate student in the Appalachian Studies program at Appalachian State University. Her research interests include grassroots environmental organizations, the origins of American environmentalism, hydrology, ecocriticism and her current research involves the 1960s opposition to dams on the New River in Grayson County, VA.
Environmental History: Possibilities and New Directions
Environmental history, the study of intersections between Nature and human nature, is one of the fastest growing subfields in the humanities. The Appalachian region is an ideal arena for this study due to the mountains' age, complicated geology, and diverse flora and fauna, as well as the variety of human interactions with the landscape including agriculture, mining, gathering, and dam-building, to name only a few. This roundtable initiates conversation about previous Appalachian environmental histories, current research in the field, and potential future studies. The roundtable will discuss Appalachian environmental history with an eye to urban spaces, comparative mountain studies, the ecological reach of Appalachian industries (both in the region and beyond), responses to natural disasters, and the influence of rivers and forests in the region over time. It includes both senior scholars and graduate students, and aims to identify research trends and opportunities through dialogue with participants and the session audience. The interdisciplinary Appalachian Studies meeting is an ideal setting for this discussion. Activists and academics in the region--whether historians, scientists, or environmentalists--are among the diverse voices that can contribute to productive dialogue on environmental scholarship and policy in the region. Despite its interdisciplinary strength, Appalachian Studies has generally lacked broad participation from the natural sciences. By studying Appalachian history with an emphasis on the ways in which the natural world affects human behavior, we aim to arrive at a more holistic understanding of the region’s past in order to help secure a more sustainable future.
