Preliminary Call for Participation
2017 Appalachian Studies Association Conference
EXTREME Appalachia!
March 9-12, 2017, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia

“Extreme Appalachia” is the theme for the 40th annual Appalachian Studies Conference. By “extreme” we mean the impassioned commitments people have to the region, the land, and Appalachian communities, ways of life, and livelihoods. We mean the ways extreme economics—excessive resource extraction and use, underfunding of public education and services, and dismal job opportunities—have sparked community resilience and activism that advance a sustainable future for the region. “Extreme Appalachia” also references exploitative pop culture products like reality television programming—as well as the countering power of the region’s visual, performance, and literary arts to nurture, provoke, and inspire. In the face of extremity, regionalist scholarship continues to augment ongoing struggles for racial, social, economic, and environmental justice.

The 2017 Program Committee invites proposals for panels, papers, posters, roundtables, performances, workshops, or organizing sessions. Papers and posters should feature original unpublished work in progress. The full call for participation with details for online submission will go out August 15. Scholarships are available. Deadline for proposals is October 1, 2016, with the preliminary program announced in December 2016.

Conference highlights

¨    Keynote by Dr. James Hansen, director, Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions, Columbia Univ.

¨    Dori Freeman, southwest Virginia singer/songwriter inspired by bluegrass, rhythm & blues, and old country

¨    Pre-conference grassroots activism training and intergenerational organizing workshop by Virginia Organizing

¨    “Extreme Appalachia! Rage and Renewal” plenary designed by Barbara Ellen Smith and Steve Fisher