#  2024: Appalachia Betwixt & Between: Folkloristic Perspectives on a Region in Flux 

 



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 ![Collage of three stills from the film ](/sites/g/files/omnuum9481/files/folklore/files/king_coal_header_copy.jpg)

 

(Stills from the film *King Coal* (2023), dir. Elaine McMillion Sheldon)

This year’s Symposium explores the folklore of Appalachia — past and present — to understand how the expressive culture of one region can enliven understandings of local, national, and transnational relationships to and through place. Appalachia has a storied relationship to national narratives of progress. Often imagined as the quintessential place of authentic, White, poor America, the region is, in fact, a place in flux, with cultural traditions shaped by and reflecting the many groups who call, and have called, Appalachia home. This conference convenes leading and emerging scholars for conversations about the role of folklore and the work of the folklorist in a future-oriented Appalachia. We highlight dynamic folkloristic scholarship and work from folklore-adjacent fields to tell better stories about this much-storied region and its peoples. As an additional treat, we are thrilled to partner with the Mahindra Humanities Center and the Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability to bring Elaine McMillion Sheldon's newest film, [*King Coal*](https://www.kingcoalfilm.com/) (2023), to Harvard. This event is made possible with generous support from the Provostial Fund for the Arts and Humanities.

### **Friday, April 19th |** Thompson Room, Barker Center

6:30pm Welcome and Screening of *King Coal* (2023)

8:30pm Q&A with Director Elaine McMillion Sheldon  
 *discussants Jason de Lara Molesky and Sarah Craycraft*

### **Saturday, April 20th** **|** Thompson Room, Barker Center

8:30am Breakfast

9:00am Opening Welcome

9:15am Panel: Student papers from "Folklore and Appalachia"

10:15am Coffee break

10:30am Panel: (Re)Making Appalachia: Taste, Craft, and Home

Kelley Totten (Assistant Professor of Folklore, Memorial University of Newfoundland): “Defining and Re-defining Appalachian Craft: The John C. Campbell Folk School’s Legacies of Making”

Debra Lattanzi Shutika (Associate Professor of Folklore and Cultural Studies, George Mason University): “Newcomers to an Old Town: The Legacy of the Back to the Land Movement in Berkeley Springs, WV”

Danille Christensen (Associate Professor, Department of Religion and Culture, Virginia Tech): "Consuming Appalachia"

11:30am Lunch break (on your own)

12:30pm Keynote address by Carl Lindahl (Professor of English, University of Houston):  
 "Loyal Jones, Mountain Tricksters, and the Social Contract"

1:45pm Panel: Collaborative Curation: Representation, Display, and Public-Facing Storytelling

Kenton Butcher (Assistant Professor of English, Bucknell University): "Unrequited: Betwixt and Between Survival/Life in Appalachian Ohio"

Joel Chapman and Ellie Dassler (Program Associate and Program Director, respectively, Folk and Traditional Arts, Mid Atlantic Arts): "Trust-Based Public Folklore Work in Appalachia"

Lee Bidgood (Director, Institute for Appalachian Music and Culture, East Tennessee State University): "“Kosodrevina, 2019”: Bluegrass Music in Fieldwork, Video, and Mountain Regions"

2:45pm Coffee break

3:00pm Panel: Recovery, Resistance, Resilience? Strategic Organizing in Appalachia

Emily Hilliard (Folklorist at Berea College): "The Daughters of Mother Jones: Lessons of Care Work and Labor Struggle in the Expressive Culture of the West Virginia Educators’ Strike"

Jordan Lovejoy (Visiting Professor of American Studies & ACLS Postdoctoral Fellow, University of North Carolina): "Growing Environmental Communication: Expressive Culture and Slow Activism in Southern West Virginia"

Sydney Varajon (Instructor of Folk Studies, Western Kentucky University): “We’re still here”: Disaster, Displacement, and Architectures of Endurance in Southern Appalachia

4:00pm Coffee break

4:15pm Keynote address II by Mary Hufford (Associate Director of LiKEN (Livelihoods Knowledge Exchange  
 Network)): "Appalachian Forest Farming, Then and Now: Articulating Ecological Imaginaries in a Time  
 Between"

5:30pm Musical entertainment

6:30pm Dinner: Blue Ribbon Barbecue (catered)