Race/Ethnicity: Multidisciplinary Global Contexts
Volume 6, Number 1 (Autumn 2012) Race, Ethnicity, and Appalachia
Papers must be received by January 15, 2012 to be considered for publication in this issue.
Please send manuscript submissions to the editor: shortlidge.2@osu.edu
See Style Guidelines (www.raceethnicity.org/styleguide.html) to prepare your document in accordance with the style guidelines of Race/Ethnicity.
Submission of artwork for the cover that relates to the theme of the issue is welcome. See website at http://www.raceethnicity.org/coverart.html for submission guidelines.
Though referring to a specific geographic space, the word “Appalachia” often conjures a set of stereotypes stemming from the notion that Appalachia is an isolated and homogenous region when in fact international migrations and markets have been true presences for more than 100 years.
We invite proposals from scholars, activists/practitioners, and creative non-fiction/fiction writers who consider a host of issues evoked by “Appalachia.”
We invite papers that consider the following questions.
- What are the political and ideological implications of the gap between the demographic realities of Appalachia and outsiders’ perceptions of those same demographics? Do these perceptions have an impact on policymaking decisions that affect the region, including resource allocation?
- If misinformation and misperceptions about Appalachia have real consequences in terms of policy and resource allocation, in what ways are activists/practitioners working to counter these consequences? In other words, what does it mean to do activist/practitioner work “on the ground” in Appalachia?
- As the touchstone of many of the “white poverty” stories we tell ourselves, it’s important to consider the particular metaphorical space Appalachia occupies within these stories. If the realities that potentially call these narratives into question were more widely known and appreciated, then what? What lessons about race, culture, and class should we be drawing from the stories we tell ourselves about the Appalachian experience?
- The plight of Appalachia's natural resources defines Appalachian studies and politics. That is, national and international companies routinely create a boom and bust cycle in the region to the extreme detriment of the land, culture and political influence of the area. How do these cycles influence cultural and political realities? What kinds of interventions by activists and practitioners do the misuses of natural resources demand? In what ways does the notion of Appalachia as a region of great natural beauty often repress dialogues about the misuse of Appalachia’s natural resources?
- How are concerns of race/ethnicity implicated in geographical circumstances?
