Participation Type
Roundtable
Session Title
Recognition, Ownership, and Authority in Organizing for Land Reform
Session Abstract or Summary
In this roundtable presenters will provide preliminary evidence from an ongoing collaborative region-wide study of land ownership inequality. The data presentation will serve as a springboard for dialogue about the diverse patterns of land use and claims to land in the region. Examination of the preliminary data in the context of very different histories of occupation, settlement, and land use that characterize differences within the region reveals both common themes about the present sociopolitical challenges to land reform and economic diversification as well as important place-based differences. We hope to facilitate a vibrant conversation that generates new thinking and dialogue about competing visions and claims to land, with particular emphasis on the history of multiple dispossessions. The roundtable will be part of a series of critical conversations to generate clear frameworks for studying land ownership and organizing for inclusive land reform as part of the Appalachian Land Study effort.
Presentation #1 Title
Recognition, Ownership, and Authority in Organizing for Land Reform
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In this roundtable presenters will provide preliminary evidence from an ongoing collaborative region-wide study of land ownership inequality. The data presentation will serve as a springboard for dialogue about the diverse patterns of land use and claims to land in the region. Examination of the preliminary data in the context of very different histories of occupation, settlement, and land use that characterize differences within the region reveals both common themes about the present sociopolitical challenges to land reform and economic diversification as well as important place-based differences. We hope to facilitate a vibrant conversation that generates new thinking and dialogue about competing visions and claims to land, with particular emphasis on the history of multiple dispossessions. The roundtable will be part of a series of critical conversations to generate clear frameworks for studying land ownership and organizing for inclusive land reform as part of the Appalachian Land Study effort.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Lindsay Shade is a member of the Department of Community and Leadership Development in the University of Kentucky College of Food, Agriculture, and Environment. Her research/activism focuses on social and environmental justice issues, with an emphasis on the political ecology of extractive industries and property governance in Appalachia and the Andes.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #2
Lill Prosperino is working on the Appalcahian Land Study as a Highlander Economic Transition Fellow. Lill’s experience as a grassroots organizer involves prison abolition work with the Letcher Governance Project and the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons, anti-oppression and anti-racist popular education with the Holler Network, and youth leadership development with the Stay Project. Lill has also served on the steering committee for Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, and a Trans* Health Advisory Board for the Kentucky Health Justice Network.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #3
Since 1997, Robert Gipe has been the director of the Appalachian Program at Southeast Kentucky Community & Technical College in Cumberland, Kentucky. He is one of the producers of Higher Ground, a series of community musical dramas based on oral histories and grounded in discussion of local issues. He is also a faculty coordinator of the Crawdad student arts series, and has had fiction published in Appalachian Heritage and attended the Appalachian Writers Workshop in Hindman every year since 2006.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #4
Maria Crillo is a grassroots leader who was instrumental in the creation of the Woodland Community Land Trust in Tennessee’s Clearkfork Valley in 1979 -- one of the first community land trusts in the US. She has dedicated her life to land reform in Appalachia and continues to work with a wide range of leaders locally, regionally, and nationally to further social and economic justice initiatives in Appalachia.
Presentation #5 Abstract or Summary
Jacob Meadows is a graduate student at Appalachian State University whose thesis focuses on land ownership inequality in North Carolina. He is also the co-chair of the Committee for Young Appalachian Leaders and Learners (Y’ALL) and recently completed an Appalachian Teaching Project Fellowship through the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Recognition, Ownership, and Authority in Organizing for Land Reform
In this roundtable presenters will provide preliminary evidence from an ongoing collaborative region-wide study of land ownership inequality. The data presentation will serve as a springboard for dialogue about the diverse patterns of land use and claims to land in the region. Examination of the preliminary data in the context of very different histories of occupation, settlement, and land use that characterize differences within the region reveals both common themes about the present sociopolitical challenges to land reform and economic diversification as well as important place-based differences. We hope to facilitate a vibrant conversation that generates new thinking and dialogue about competing visions and claims to land, with particular emphasis on the history of multiple dispossessions. The roundtable will be part of a series of critical conversations to generate clear frameworks for studying land ownership and organizing for inclusive land reform as part of the Appalachian Land Study effort.
