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Full-Text Articles in Appalachian Studies

Navigating Place And Gender: A Multicontextual Critical Narrative Inquiry Of Rural Trans* Student Experiences, Jessie Lynn O'Quinn Jan 2023

Navigating Place And Gender: A Multicontextual Critical Narrative Inquiry Of Rural Trans* Student Experiences, Jessie Lynn O'Quinn

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

The purpose of this critical narrative study was to understand how rural West Virginia trans* students navigate cultural norms of their rural home communities and higher education contexts. An essential part of this critical narrative was to provide rural trans* students with an avenue to share their unique experiences and give them a platform to share their voices. The resulting narratives suggested that the normative tensions rural trans* college students experience across contexts stemmed from negative regional experiences that reinforced traditional gender norms. Negative home contexts and experiences forced students to feel like they had to build walls and distance …


Levantine Immigration And Community Building In Charleston, West Virginia, 1900-1930, George P. Jacobs Ii Jan 2023

Levantine Immigration And Community Building In Charleston, West Virginia, 1900-1930, George P. Jacobs Ii

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Immigrants from the Levant, a region of the middle east made up of Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Palestine, settled in the United States in large numbers between 1890 and 1920. Many eventually decided to make Charleston, West Virginia their permanent home. When they arrived in Charleston, most Levantine immigrants worked as peddlers, selling modern wares and household goods to families that needed them. This research explains the context for this immigration wave, the important economic niche Levantine immigrants satisfied in the developing economy of southern West Virginia, and how over time Charleston’s Levantine community contributed significantly to the city’s culture.


Black Hillbilly: An Exploration Of The Black Erasure From The Appalachian Historical Narrative, Suzanne S A Blunk May 2022

Black Hillbilly: An Exploration Of The Black Erasure From The Appalachian Historical Narrative, Suzanne S A Blunk

Master of Arts in Humanities | Master's Theses 1936 - 2022

In 1915 two Black businessmen, Archie McKinney and Matthew Buster, secured the purchase and operation of Eagle Coal Company Inc. in Montgomery, West Virginia. A Black-owned coal company operated and existed in southwestern West Virginia. Eagle Coal has all but disappeared, even from historical memory. What exactly happened to this coal company remains very much a mystery and is a poignant image that represents the mystery that surrounds the Black experience in Appalachia. In the face of “social injustice, racial violence, disfranchisement, and the intensification of the segregationist system,” Black Americans set out from the South in search of better …


"Our Women Are Made Of The Right Stuff": Gender, Politics, And Conflict In Civil War West Virginia, Amanda Romain Shaver Jan 2021

"Our Women Are Made Of The Right Stuff": Gender, Politics, And Conflict In Civil War West Virginia, Amanda Romain Shaver

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

“’Our Women Are Made of the Right Stuff:’ Gender, Politics, and Conflict in Civil War West Virginia” examines the lives and contributions of white West Virginia women and argues that they were not merely victims of the war, but dynamic participants whose opinions were influential and whose actions determined the ability of both the Union and Confederate armies to wage war in Appalachia. Striking a balance between the antebellum standards of “True Womanhood” and the emerging ideals of the women’s rights movement, West Virginia women became politically engaged in both the statehood movement and the Civil War. They transformed their …


“A Constant Reminder To All”: Remembering Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson In West Virginia, Steven Cody Straley Jan 2021

“A Constant Reminder To All”: Remembering Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson In West Virginia, Steven Cody Straley

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This thesis argues that Confederate heritage groups leading the Lost Cause Movement in West Virginia promoted Stonewall Jackson, through tactics such as ceremonies, publications, and monuments, to the point where his appeal expanded beyond that of former Confederates and their descendants. During the late 1800s, Confederate supporters in the state formed branches of Confederate heritage organizations and espoused a Lost Cause narrative with Stonewall Jackson as its figurehead. In doing so, they accomplished two things: to integrate the seemingly proUnion West Virginia into Confederate memory, and to gain acceptance of Confederates as full members of West Virginia society. Jackson’s advocates …


Doctors, Miners, And Black Lung: A Transatlantic Comparison Of Organized Medicine's Role In The Fight For Black Lung Recognition In West Virginia And Wales, Mollie M. Cecil Md Jan 2021

Doctors, Miners, And Black Lung: A Transatlantic Comparison Of Organized Medicine's Role In The Fight For Black Lung Recognition In West Virginia And Wales, Mollie M. Cecil Md

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Black lung disease is a crippling occupational lung disease experienced by coal miners throughout the world. However, this disease was not always recognized by the medical profession and required significant efforts on the part of miners’ unions to force mainstream recognition. The historiography on the subject is limited, especially with respect to the relationship between organized medicine and organized labor. This work further explores this relationship, particularly how this relationship differed between the parties in Wales and in West Virginia. In doing so, it portrays a more detailed picture of the fight for black lung recognition as well as highlights …


Engaging Underserved Voters In West Virginia During The Pandemic Election, Jacob Wasserman Dec 2020

Engaging Underserved Voters In West Virginia During The Pandemic Election, Jacob Wasserman

Capstones

This report is the final product of my Social Journalism practicum for the Class of 2020 at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism. My community focus for the degree program was underserved voters in West Virginia during the pandemic election. Within this report, I discuss the community that I intended to serve with engagement journalism, the activities and approach that I took to pursue that engagement, and how I evaluated the project with both quantitative and qualitative metrics. I also discuss ideas that I learned during the process of this project, and offer reflections on the philosophy of engagement …


Resilience In The Mountains: Exploring The Labor And Motives Of Food-Caregiver Women Repairing Broken Food Systems In West Virginia Communities, Heidi Lynn Gum Jan 2020

Resilience In The Mountains: Exploring The Labor And Motives Of Food-Caregiver Women Repairing Broken Food Systems In West Virginia Communities, Heidi Lynn Gum

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

Over the past four years the Food Justice Lab, now housed within the Center for Resilient Communities at West Virginia University, hosted a series of food access planning workshops across the state of West Virginia. Mobilizing more than 200 participants, the Nourishing Networks workshop training program was designed to build grassroots capacity for food system change. Eighty-percent of workshop participants were women and dialogues recorded at these events revealed how women are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity and disproportionately labor to repair a broken food system. Women in West Virginia are not only growing food, feeding their families, selling it …


West Virginia Waterscapes: Surface And Mineral Owners’ Perspectives On Groundwater Contamination Due To Natural Gas Extraction, Bethani Turley Jan 2019

West Virginia Waterscapes: Surface And Mineral Owners’ Perspectives On Groundwater Contamination Due To Natural Gas Extraction, Bethani Turley

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

In the past decade, northwest West Virginia has experienced increasing natural gas extraction from the Marcellus shale. Because water usage for natural gas extraction is high and increasing, there has been a proliferation of concerns about gas extraction’s impacts on surface and groundwaters, especially how hydraulic fracturing and drilling impacts residents’ access to safe household well water. This issue is particularly salient in rural West Virginia, where many residents rely on groundwater wells for household uses. This thesis, based on 30 in-depth interviews with surface and mineral owners, explores resident perspectives and lived experience of natural gas extraction’s impacts on …


Swiss Settlement In Randolph County, West Virginia: A Study Of Land Deals, Policies, And Immigration, Elizabeth Satterfield Jan 2018

Swiss Settlement In Randolph County, West Virginia: A Study Of Land Deals, Policies, And Immigration, Elizabeth Satterfield

Munn Scholars Awards

No abstract provided.


Iron Road: The Rise Of Huntington, West Virginia, 1870-1920, Brooks Bryant Jan 2018

Iron Road: The Rise Of Huntington, West Virginia, 1870-1920, Brooks Bryant

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

The city of Huntington, West Virginia, did not occur gradually, nor did the city grow organically. Collis P. Huntington’s purchase of the Chesapeake & Ohio Railroad in the winter of 1869 led to the conception of the first new city of a State born out of the Civil War. Collis Huntington specifically chose the future site of Huntington for the terminus of the C&O Railroad to reach areas rich in coal, timber, and agriculture in West Virginia, providing natural resources a way to market. For Collis P. Huntington to profit from shipping natural resources out of West Virginia, he needed …


Surviving Fallout In Appalachia: An Examination Of Class Differences Within Civil Defense Preparation In West Virginia During The Early Years Of The Cold War, Tristan Miranda Williams Jan 2017

Surviving Fallout In Appalachia: An Examination Of Class Differences Within Civil Defense Preparation In West Virginia During The Early Years Of The Cold War, Tristan Miranda Williams

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Civil defense and West Virginia are not likely to be considered in tandem. What would make West Virginia significant during the Cold War? West Virginia is a state that has been synonymous with family feuds, hillbillies, moonshine, and coal mining. Few have considered West Virginia beyond these stereotypes and scant work has been done beyond that. The impact of the Cold War has been looked at through multiple angles but few have looked at the significant role West Virginia played during this time. Possibly, few have even considered that it played a role at all. Through examination of primary sources …


An Appeal For Racial Justice : The Civic Interest Progressives' Confrontation With Huntington, West Virginia And Marshall University, 1963-1965, Bruce A. Thompson Jan 1986

An Appeal For Racial Justice : The Civic Interest Progressives' Confrontation With Huntington, West Virginia And Marshall University, 1963-1965, Bruce A. Thompson

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

In 1963, the shock waves of the sit-in movement and the growing black unrest throughout the country reached Huntington. This growing discontent with the status quo of segregation and racial discrimination and the impulse from the sit-in movement for direct, non-violent protest combined to mobilize several students at Marshall University who formed the Civic Interest Progressives (CIP), a biracial civil rights group.


A Survey Of The Snake-Handling Cult Of West Virginia, Kenneth Paul Ambrose Jan 1970

A Survey Of The Snake-Handling Cult Of West Virginia, Kenneth Paul Ambrose

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

For over half a century the snake-handling cult has been active in the United States, especially in the Appalachian area. There has been little scientific information published about this cult. The two major works were mainly confined to a single church in Durham, North Carolina, and a single church in Scrabble Creek, West Virginia. This investigator studied four churches in West Virginia, and one in Durham, North Carolina, for two and a half years to gain a deeper understanding of these people and their religious behavior.


Educational Development Of Preston County, George P. Ayersman Jan 1949

Educational Development Of Preston County, George P. Ayersman

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Preston County 1g ono of the important counties of the State of West Virginia. It borders on two state a, Pennsylvania and Maryland, and four counties of West Virginia, Tucker, Barbour, Taylor and Monongalia. Preston County was formed from Monongalia in 1818. It has an area of seven hundred square miles, being one of the larger counties of the state. It extends along the full eastern Maryland line, thirty-six miles and along the Mason and Dixon line, twenty-two miles. The first efforts to provide education were patterned after the schools in England. Also, included apprenticeships for orphans sent from the …


The Early History Of Grafton, Joseph Franklin Snider Jan 1945

The Early History Of Grafton, Joseph Franklin Snider

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports

No abstract provided.