Wealth & Poverty | Research Talk ‘Hillbilly Women, Affrilachians, and Queer Mountaineers,’ April 12

The Wealth & Poverty theme presents a Poverty and Inequality Research Talk by Dr. Rachel Terman on “Hillbilly Women, Affrilachians, and Queer Mountaineers: Belonging and Mobility among Young Adults in Appalachia,” on Tuesday, April 12, from 1:30-2:50 p.m. in Alden 319.

Dr. Anna Rachel Terman

Abstract: Many rural communities in Appalachia are struggling to survive and thrive as processes of deindustrialization and globalization lure youth away to urban areas. Meanwhile, young people who do reside in rural places struggle to negotiate the parts of their identity that are connected to place and their gender, race, and sexuality, which can often seem at odds with the norms of their community. I apply an intersectional approach to the experiences of young, college-educated people in Appalachia to understand if and how they are able to reconcile their identities in order to create a sense of belonging and how this affects their physical and social mobility and participation in their communities. The title of my presentation refers to “hillbilly women, Affrilachians, and queer mountaineers,” all of which are terms that reappropriate and reconcile the sometimes mutually exclusive identities of gender, race, sexuality, class, and place. This research contributes important information about the struggles and perseverance of young people in marginalized places who have the potential to help create a more sustainable and just future.

Terman is Assistant Professor of Sociology at Ohio University and is a core faculty member of the Wealth and Poverty Theme as well as an affiliate faculty member of the Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program. She specializes in the sociology of Appalachia and the rural U.S. Rachel is primarily a qualitative researcher who has worked with youth and young adult community organizers in central Appalachia for over ten years and is the author of “Intersections of Appalachian identity.” In R. Fletcher & W. R. Schumann (Eds.), Appalachia Revisited. Forthcoming from the University Press of Kentucky. Before moving to Ohio, she also worked with the Pennsylvania Women’s Agricultural Network and is a coauthor of The Rise of Women Farmers and Sustainable Agriculture forthcoming from University of Iowa Press.