Appalachia in Regional Context: Place Matters

by Dwight B. Billings (Editor), Ann E. Kingsolver (Editor)

Overview

In an increasingly globalized world, place matters more than ever. This concept especially holds true in Appalachian studies—a field that brings scholars, activists, artists, and citizens together around the region to contest misappropriations of resources and power and to combat stereotypes of isolation and intolerance. In Appalachia in Regional Context: Place Matters, Dwight B. Billings and Ann E. Kingsolver assemble scholars and artists from a variety of disciplines to broaden the conversation and challenge the binary opposition between regionalism and globalism.

In addition to theoretical explorations of place, some of the case studies examine foodways, depictions of gendered and racialized Appalachian identity in popular culture, the experiences of rural LGBTQ youth, and the pitfalls and promises of teaching regional studies. Drawing on ideas from cultural anthropology, sociology, and a variety of other fields, and interleaved with poems by bell hooks, this volume furthers the examination of new perspectives on one of America's most compelling and misunderstood regions.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813175348
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	03/02/2018
Series:	Place Matters: New Directions in Appalachian Studies
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	264
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dwight B. Billings is professor emeritus of sociology at the University of Kentucky. He is a past president of the Appalachian Studies Association, a recent editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies, and the author or editor of several books. Ann E. Kingsolver is professor of anthropology and past director of the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program at the University of Kentucky. She is the author or editor of seven books, including Tobacco Town Futures: Global Encounters in Rural Kentucky

Ann E. Kingsolver is professor of anthropology and past director of the Appalachian Center and Appalachian Studies Program at the University of Kentucky. She is the author or editor of seven books, including Tobacco Town Futures: Global Encounters in Rural Kentucky.

Table of Contents

Introduction: Place Matters
'Placing' Futures and Making Sense of Globilization on the Edge of Appalachia
Transforming Places: Toward a Global Politics of Appalachia
Places, Autonomy, and the Politics of Hope
The Power of Place and the Place of Power
'There Are No Gay People Here': Expanding the Boundaries of Queer Youth Visibility in the Rural United States
Gathering Wild Greens: Foodways Lessons from Appalachia's Past
Buckwild Mad Men: Necropolitics and Masculinity in Appalachia
Reclaiming Place: Making Home
Somewhere on the Track: Place, Art, and Music in Eastern Kentucky
Teaching Region

What People are Saying About This

Stephen L. Fisher

"What's so valuable about this book is that it gathers so many different ideas and approaches in one volume, thereby making them more easily accessible to audiences in Appalachian studies as well as other disciplines."

From the Publisher

"What's so valuable about this book is that it gathers so many different ideas and approaches in one volume, thereby making them more easily accessible to audiences in Appalachian studies as well as other disciplines." — Stephen L. Fisher, coeditor of Transforming Places: Lessons from Appalachia

"There is much to like in this stimulating volume; in many ways it is another significant example of Appalachian studies continuing to explore new boundaries, terrain, and perspectives. It's a solid example of the strength of regionalist inquiry today." — Chad Berry, author of Southern Migrants, Northern Exiles

Chad Berry

"There is much to like in this stimulating volume; in many ways it is another significant example of Appalachian studies continuing to explore new boundaries, terrain, and perspectives. It's a solid example of the strength of regionalist inquiry today."

Editorial Reviews

This book provides material to refocus attention on the importance of the places we occupy, share, love, visit, and study.

The Pennsylvania Geographer

What's so valuable about this book is that it gathers so many different ideas and approaches in one volume, thereby making them more easily accessible to audiences in Appalachian studies as well as other disciplines.

Stephen L. Fisher

Appalachia in Regional Context: Place Matters highlights tensions within the field of Appalachian studies, particularly tensions rooted in the diverse political, economic, and epistemological paradigms... Gathering previous talks, panels, and parts of larger projects, Billings and Kingsolver weave them together in a way that urges the reader to make new connections between familiar yet often distant texts.

Journal of Southern History

Overall, this book offers a provocative reexamination of Appalachia and place.

Choice

There is much to like in this stimulating volume; in many ways it is another significant example of Appalachian studies continuing to explore new boundaries, terrain, and perspectives. It's a solid example of the strength of regionalist inquiry today.

Chad Berry

"This book provides material to refocus attention on the importance of the places we occupy, share, love, visit, and study." -- The Pennsylvania Geographer

" Appalachia in Regional Context: Place Matters... highlights tensions within the field of Appalachian studies, particularly tensions rooted in the diverse political, economic, and epistemological paradigms... Gathering previous talks, panels, and parts of larger projects, Billings and Kingsolver weave them together in a way that urges the reader to make new connections between familiar yet often distant texts." -- Journal of Southern History

"Overall, this book offers a provocative reexamination of Appalachia and place." -- Choice

From the Publisher