Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Drinking And Remaking Place: A Study Of The Impact Of Commercial Moonshine In East Tennessee, Helen Rosko

Masters Theses

Moonshine has undergone resurgence in recent years with the passage of the 2009 liquor laws in Tennessee, allowing for 41 counties to open and operate commercial moonshine distilleries. The rise of legalized moonshine is connected to broader economic changes and has already had a significant impact on the cultural landscape and the selling and remaking of place, in both East Tennessee and Appalachia, two historically underserved regions of the United States. Specifically this thesis research asks: How is place being sold, represented, and re-made through the proliferation of moonshine in East Tennessee? I address this question through an analysis of …

Future Care Planning Practices Of Aging Services Professionals In Rural Appalachia, Natalie D. Pope Ph.D., Lcsw, Jacquelyn Lee Ph.D., Lcsw, Diane N. Loeffler Ph.D., Msw

Contemporary Rural Social Work Journal

Planning for future care is an important aspect of professional practice with older adults, and social workers play a key role in helping elders engage in future care planning (FCP). This study examined geriatric social service professionals’ practices and perspectives on helping older rural Appalachians plan for care needs in later life. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 case managers who live and work in southeast Ohio, a part of rural north central Appalachia. Themes related to efforts made to assist elders with FCP include: a) valuing client self-determination; b) developing positive helping relationships; and c) using initial crises to …

Media Representation Of Islam And Muslims In Southern Appalachia, Saundra K. Reynolds

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Southern Appalachian attitudes about the religion of Islam and Muslim adherents are influenced largely by mass media's representations. With more than 80% of Appalachia’s population following Protestant Christianity, exposure to Islam in daily life is limited. Media outlets offer the greatest exposure to information about the religion and its adherents. This thesis examined the region's media representation of Islam and Muslims to determine what images are most often portrayed. Research following a twoyear span of reporting in Southern Appalachia studied substance, word frequency, imagery, and editing used in articles that focused on Islam and Muslims. Through the use of content …

O Brother, Where Art Thou? Understanding Culturally-Produced Limitations On Gay Male Community Formation In South Central Appalachia, Michael Brandon Brewer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research examines limitations presented to gay men living in south central Appalachia that are produced by Appalachian culture itself, in regard to community formation. This qualitative study intersects existing scholarship on rural sexualities, gay communities and Appalachian culture in order to gain insight into the complexities that effect men in the region. The data is synthesized through a contextual dialectics framework in order to position both the Appalachian culture in its entirety, and gay men residing in the region, as agentic actors that are simultaneously informed by and produce tensions between the two. This study explores ways in which …

Those Who Choose To Stay: Narrating The Rural Appalachian Queer Experience, Amy Michelle Jordan

Masters Theses

“Those who choose to stay” is a qualitative exploratory study compromised of four LGBT youth from rural towns in East Tennessee. These young adults were recruited through LGBT listservs, pride festivals, and word of mouth. Each young adult was interviewed over the course of one to three hours. The interviews were then transcribed and coded using Atlas.ti software, allowing codes to surface from the text. Four main themes were discovered: religious atmosphere, family, coming out, and peer networks.

Religious atmosphere was generally found to be a destructive part of these youths’ environments, making them fear for their safety and worry …

What Is The Nature Of Appalachian Identity?, Elizabeth Trout

Communication Studies Student Scholarship

Personal identity affects the way one views themselves, and the world around them. This in turn affects the way that they interact with others, and how they communicate. The Appalachian region in the United States impresses on its people a strong, undeniable identity that sets them apart from others. This identity is influenced by region and sense of place, race and language. The Appalachian identity is unique and complex in nature.

A Comparative Study Of Compliance Among Patients Attending An Opiate Outpatient Treatment Center In Rural Appalachia, Jerry Russell Morris

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Adults with an opiate addiction have a higher rate of noncompliance with treatment, which limits its effectiveness and increases the burden of care for society. Effective treatment decreases emergency room visits, and overdoses. The tristate area of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Ohio has experienced increased opiate-related arrests and deaths. This study sought to measure the extent to which treatment type (medical treatment (MS) or faith-based component of service (FBS)) predicts compliance when measured by number of clean urine drug screens (UDSs) and number of kept pill count, over and above dual diagnosis, college education, and income. The on-site records of …

Growing Up Appalachian: In The Van Camp Community Of Wetzel County, West Virginia, Jack Wayne Furbee

Faculty Emeriti Books

Three miles south from the lovely Wetzel County Courthouse on Routes 2 and 180 is an almost forgotten community called Van Camp. In the nineteenth century, it flourished with a post office, store, church with cemetery, and school. My good fortune was to be born on the Bernan Hill amid the Van Camp lure so often expressed by my parents and grandparents. The hills of Van Camp were high and steep; the valleys were peaceful and inviting. It covered an area south from Cider Run along Point Pleasant Creek and Old Route 18 into Tyler County and west along Paden …

The Persistence Of Place In Appalachia: The Phenomena Of Post-Death Migration, 1930-1970, Marjorie Fey Farris

Online Theses and Dissertations

The research for this paper has been over forty years in the making as I first read the obituaries of deceased Kentuckians in state and local newspapers beginning in 1972. A pattern became clear that Kentuckians who had left their mountains and moved to northern industrial cities in order to find work as the coal fields played out and after the Great Depression often returned, or were returned after death, to their birthplaces for burial. Further investigation revealed that the religious beliefs that were deeply embedded in so many mountaineers' lives played a large part in their desire to have …

Adolescent Perceptions Of Nutrition: Identifying Memorable Messages, Audrey S. Bachman

Theses and Dissertations--Communication

Research is necessary to uncover ways to improve adolescent nutrition and reduce obesity rates, particularly in the Appalachian region, which has high rates of food insecurity and adolescent obesity. The current study examines rural cultural norms about food, memorable messages adolescents received about nutrition, and the sources of identified memorable messages. Adolescents shared memorable messages during comprehensive, semi-structured, small group interviews in which participants revealed their individual experiences. Thematic framework analysis is used to present the range and nature of memorable messages about nutrition and to develop strategies for future health campaigns and interventions. This qualitative method of sequential inductive …