Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
Whose AppalachA’ville is it Anyway?: Queer(ing) Approaches to Appalachian Studies and Identity
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
We begin this presentation with an ethnographic reflection—we are two outsiders to Appalachia who found ourselves working and living in Morgantown, West Virginia, and being repeatedly reminded (consciously or unconsciously) by some who were born and raised there that we are (and will always be) outsiders. Ruminating on these experiences, we ask: how do we foster an Appalachia based on inclusion and what would that look like? Further, reflecting on work by Billy-Ray Belcourt (2015) and Sara Ahmed (2012) on the “non-performative,” we contend that Appalachian studies may inadvertently contribute to this exclusionary culture and politics by presupposing a subject, the “Appalachian,” who comes into being in order to be studied. Following Belcourt, we argue that with the Appalachian, “there is a history of coming-into-being that needs to be fleshed out.” In this predominantly white region in which the settler colonial project was particularly successful, how do we ensure that the subject of Appalachian studies encompasses more than the white cisgender, heterosexual, Christian male?
In response to these questions and drawing from Indigenous studies, settler-colonial studies, and queer studies, we call for a queer approach to Appalachian studies—one which considers the Appalachian as a constantly shifting subject imbued with a sense of radical queer and destabilizing potentiality. Further, we specifically call for Appalachian studies to engage in decolonizing methodologies and frameworks (articulated by Indigenous peoples) in order to understand and challenge its settler colonial inheritances. We conclude with a brief look at the collective Queer Appalachia, as a site which invokes us to examine the possibilities of a queer(ed) Appalachian studies.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Charlotte Hoelke is a PhD candidate in the School of Indigenous and Canadian Studies at Carleton University. Her research interests include: visual culture, pop culture, sex and media, settler colonialism and queer studies, and national identity and the gendered/sexualized politics of culture in what is currently known as Canada and the US.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Jorge Castillo is a PhD candidate at the University of Connecticut focusing on queer sexualities and globalization in Caribbean literature and film, where he also earned a Master’s in Spanish literature and language. His research interests include: Latin American and Latinx cultural production, Queer of Color critique, and Comparative Ethnic Studies.
Whose AppalachA’ville is it Anyway?: Queer(ing) Approaches to Appalachian Studies and Identity
We begin this presentation with an ethnographic reflection—we are two outsiders to Appalachia who found ourselves working and living in Morgantown, West Virginia, and being repeatedly reminded (consciously or unconsciously) by some who were born and raised there that we are (and will always be) outsiders. Ruminating on these experiences, we ask: how do we foster an Appalachia based on inclusion and what would that look like? Further, reflecting on work by Billy-Ray Belcourt (2015) and Sara Ahmed (2012) on the “non-performative,” we contend that Appalachian studies may inadvertently contribute to this exclusionary culture and politics by presupposing a subject, the “Appalachian,” who comes into being in order to be studied. Following Belcourt, we argue that with the Appalachian, “there is a history of coming-into-being that needs to be fleshed out.” In this predominantly white region in which the settler colonial project was particularly successful, how do we ensure that the subject of Appalachian studies encompasses more than the white cisgender, heterosexual, Christian male?
In response to these questions and drawing from Indigenous studies, settler-colonial studies, and queer studies, we call for a queer approach to Appalachian studies—one which considers the Appalachian as a constantly shifting subject imbued with a sense of radical queer and destabilizing potentiality. Further, we specifically call for Appalachian studies to engage in decolonizing methodologies and frameworks (articulated by Indigenous peoples) in order to understand and challenge its settler colonial inheritances. We conclude with a brief look at the collective Queer Appalachia, as a site which invokes us to examine the possibilities of a queer(ed) Appalachian studies.
