Appalachian Studies Commons^™

1961 Journal Of The Kentucky Conference: The Proceedings Of The One Hundred And Forty-First Session (Twenty-Third Session Of The United Church), The Methodist Church

Journal of the Kentucky Conference

No abstract provided.

1938 Minutes Of The One Hundred Eighteenth Session Of The Kentucky Annual Conference Of The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, Methodist Episcopal Church, South

Minutes of the Kentucky Annual Conference

No abstract provided.

Appalachian Futures Introduction, West Virginia University Libraries, West Virginia University Humanities Center, West Virginia University Reed College Of Media, West Virginia Library Commission, Appalachian State University Libraries, Marshall University Libraries, Arts Monongahela

Exhibit Panels

Appalachian Futures is a look at how people in our region envision a better future for themselves, their communities, and their environment. By thinking about the issues that occupy discussions of Appalachian identity through the eyes of its scholars, writers, workers, and artists, Appalachian Futures wants you to think, “How can optimism about the diversity of our region, our industry and education, our traditional culture, and our most forward-looking arts help us make for better lives?”

Speculative Futures And Futurism In Appalachia, Liz Pavlovic, Jamie Banks, Nicholas D. Bowman, David Smith, Baaria Chaudhary, Ben Babbitt, Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy, Daniel Boyd, West Virginia University Press

Exhibit Panels

What if we thought of Appalachia as futuristic? Could the mountains be the setting for imagining better, maybe weirder, futures? Artists, writers, and game designers have been asking just those questions, speculating through science fiction, fantasy, and magic realism to rethink the ways cultural traditions in wildly creative ways. From folktales to videogames, cryptozoology to underground highways, this section asks what a future Appalachian utopia (or dystopia) might look and feel like?

The Question, Sharon Ryan

Exhibit Panels

The Question is a project designed to inspire inquiry and respectful discussion about big ideas. WVU Libraries collaborates with The Question to bring relevant interactive elements to the Art in the Libraries exhibits.

thequestion.wvu.edu

Future Of Appalachian Culture, Emily Hilliard, Travis Stimeling, Michael Kline, Carrie Kline, Trevor Mckenzie, Nancy Abrams, Torey Siebart, Chris Haddox, Mehmet Oztan, West Virginia University Press

Exhibit Panels

Appalachia is often associated with its traditional arts and culture, but that does not mean that we are stuck in the past. Local traditions often play a crucial role in galvanizing forward-thinking cultural institutions, involving artists and workers alike in making new futures that are still distinctively Appalachian. This section of the exhibit highlights this kind of work from the West Virginia Humanities Council, Arthurdale Heritage, and more, connecting to a traditional past to new traditions yet to be forged.

A Kentucky Pioneer In Music Therapy: An Oral History On The Life And Career Of Lorinda Jones, Emma Powers

Theses and Dissertations--Music

Lorinda Jones, MT-BC, is the longest practicing music therapist in Kentucky. She began her work as a music therapist in 1995 and built a private practice, which expanded over the course of the next 20 years to include services in 16 counties. Ms. Jones’ perspective on the growth of music therapy, both within the state and nationwide, as well as her extensive knowledge of Appalachian folk music, makes her an invaluable resource to Kentucky music therapists. The purpose of this study was to present a historical account of the life and career of Lorinda Jones, to gain her perspective on …

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

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

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 …

Finding The Singing Spruce: Craft Labor, Global Forests, And Musical Instrument Makers In Appalachia, Jasper Waugh-Quasebarth

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

Musical instrument makers in the state of West Virginia in the United States pursue “singing,” lively instruments that capture ideals of musical tone and “re-enchant” their work and lives through relationships with craft materials and the forest landscape. Suitable tonewoods that grow in the region, such as red spruce (Picea rubens), intersect with makers’ desires to craft instruments in the style of famed makers such as the C.F. Martin Company and the Gibson Company as well as provide instruments imbued with a sense of place. While the demand for and symbolic import of instruments made with local wood …

Consuming Appalachia: An Archaeology Of Company Coal Towns, Zada Komara

Theses and Dissertations--Anthropology

Material culture is an understudied aspect of social life in Appalachian Studies, the multi- disciplinary investigation of social life in the Appalachian region. Historically, material culture in the region has been largely studied for its semiotic properties, decoded as a tangible symbol of “a region apart,” lagging behind the rest of America in terms of moral, mental, economic, and social development. Critical material studies from archaeology and other disciplines paint a different picture, however, and construct a region as American as any other. This study utilizes discourse analysis of material rhetoric about Appalachia and archaeological and oral historical data from …

The Mountains At The End Of The World: Subcultural Appropriations Of Appalachia And The Hillbilly Image, 1990-2010, Paul L. Robertson

Theses and Dissertations

There is an aversion within the field of Appalachian Studies to addressing the cultural formulations of the Appalachian/hillbilly/mountaineer as an icon of aggressive resistance. The aversion is understandable, as for far too long images of the irrationally and savagely violent mountaineer were integral to the most gross popular culture stereotypes of Appalachia. Media consumers often take pleasure or comfort in these images, which usually occur in a reactionary context with the hillbilly as either a type of nationally necessary savage OR as an unregenerate barbarian against whom a national civilization will triumph and benefit by the struggle.

I bookend my …