Meet the Staff and Editorial Board
and Journal Committee
Co-Editors:
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Christina Fisanick teaches writing and literature at Pennsylvania Western University and is an internationally known expert in digital storytelling. A native West Virginian, her creative and scholarly work often explores themes of labor, resilience, and identity in working-class communities. Fisanick is a founding member and current president of the Writers Association of Northern Appalachia (WANA) and the co-host of WANA LIVE!: The Virtual Reading Series. She is the author or editor of more than 30 books, including Pulling the Thread: Untangling Wheeling History (North Meridian 2024) and Digital Storytelling as Public History: A Guidebook for Educators (Routledge 2020). Her shorter works have appeared in Still: The Journal, Archiving Appalachia, Rust Belt Magazine, the Journal of Appalachian Studies, and Pine Mountain Sand & Gravel, among others. Learn more at christinafisanick.com.
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Contact Christina:
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Hailing from the Shenandoah Valley, David Powers Corwin is an associate professor of integrative studies at George Mason University where they teach courses in writing and rhetoric, friendship studies, Appalachian studies, television studies, trauma and gender-based violence, LGBTQ+ Studies, qualitative research methods, and student development. They are also part of the Pop Culture Research Lab at Mason, a co-lead for Leadershape (The Institute), and serve as area chair for pedagogy and popular culture for the Southwest Popular Culture and American Culture Association. Their past and upcoming scholarship appears in College Composition and Communication, About Campus, Journal of Women and Gender in Higher Education; Women's Writing, and Queer Studies in Popular Culture. Their current research and creative work focuses on traumatic experiences in friendships; an ecofeminist critique of Hubert Skidmore's Hawk's Nest; and gendered rhetoric in the Menendez Brothers' case. Learn more at integrative.gmu.edu/dcorwin.
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Contact David:
​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Associate Editor: ​
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Michael S. Martin is Associate Professor of English, Modern Languages, and Cultural Studies at Nicholls State University, located in the Bayou Region of South Louisiana, where he is also the Leonard and Belle Toups Endowed Professor of Literary Study. Originally from the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, Michael has published original essays in Postmodern Culture, the Journal of Appalachian Studies, Imago Mundi: An International Journal of Cartography, Leviathan: A Journal of Melville Criticism, and more. He is very excited about his new position as Associate Editor of the Journal of Appalachian Studies. His first book in Appalachian Studies, Appalachian Pastoral: Mountain Excursions, Aesthetic Visions, and the Antebellum Travel Narrative, was published by Clemson University Press in 2023. In his free time, he enjoys running, spending time outdoors, watching horror films, and doing various activities with his family, both of the two-legged and four-legged variety.
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Contact Michael:
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Managing Editor:
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Mary K. Thomas is the executive director of the Appalachian Studies Association headquartered at Marshall University in Huntington, WV.
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Contact Mary:
Assistant Managing Editor:
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Ann E. Bryant is the office manager of the Appalachian Studies Association headquartered at Marshall University in Huntington, WV.
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Contact Ann:
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Book Review Editor:
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Allen Fletcher, a native of Breathitt County in Appalachian Kentucky, is a PhD candidate in History at the University of Kentucky. His dissertation, tentatively titled “Building Schools, Building Communities: Appalachian Women, Schoolhouse Activism, and the Politics of Reform,” explores the intersection of gender and public education reform in twentieth century southern Appalachia. The project charts how mountain women of diverse backgrounds performed acts of “everyday activism” in their efforts to improve the Appalachia’s public schools and draw support for a more socially responsible state. Allen currently lives and works in Lexington, Kentucky.
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Contact Allen:
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Send books to be considered for review in the Journal of Appalachian Studies to:
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Allen Fletcher, Book Review Editor
Journal of Appalachian Studies
121 N Martin Luther King Blvd, #201
Lexington, KY 40507
Media Review Editor:
​​​Abby N. Lewis, is a poet from Dandridge, Tennessee. She is the author of the poetry collections Aquakineticist (2025) and Reticent (2016) and two chapbooks. She holds several master’s degrees in English and Communication Studies, and she is currently pursuing an MLIS degree. Her creative work has appeared in over a dozen journals and magazines, most notably Timber. Her book reviews and interviews can frequently be found on Chapter 16’s website. Keep up with her on her website, freeairforfish.com.
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Contact Abby:
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Editorial Board:
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Carson Benn, History Lincoln Memorial University
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Chad Berry, History Berea College
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Dwight Billings, Sociology University of Kentucky
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Martha Billips, Literature/Women’s and Mountain Literary Traditions Transylvania University
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Wesley R. Bishop, History Jacksonville State University (Alabama)
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Alison Buck, Sociology Eastern Kentucky University
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Richard J. Callahan, Jr., History, Religion, Folklore, and Folklife Gonzaga University
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Cicero M. Fain, III, African American & Black Appalachian History Marshall University
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Rebecca Adkins Fletcher, Appalachian Studies East Tennessee State University
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Wilburn Hayden, Social Work York University (Ontario)
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Thomas Alan Holmes, Literature/ Popular Culture East Tennessee State University
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Christopher L. Leadingham, History University of Kentucky
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James Maples, Sociology Eastern Kentucky University
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Meredith McCarroll
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Richard P. Mulcahy, History and Political Science; University of Pittsburgh at Titusville
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Ted Olson, Appalachian Studies/Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies Program East Tennessee State University
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Edwina Pendarvis, professor emeritus College of Education and Human Services Marshall University
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Douglas Reichert Powell, English Columbia College, Chicago
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Erin Presley, Appalachian Literature Eastern Kentucky University
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Mary Beth Pudup, Geography University of California, Santa Cruz
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Gloria Goodwin Raheja, Anthropology University of Minnesota
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Rachel Rosolina, Publishing; Appalshop
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Becky Scott, Sociology, University of Missouri
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Shaunna L. Scott, Sociology University of Kentucky
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Anna Rachel Terman, Sociology Ohio University
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Karen Tice, Education and Women’s Studies University of Kentucky
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Barry Whittemore, History and Religion University of North Georgia
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Susan Williams, Education Coordinator Highlander Research and Education Center
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Jacqueline Yahn, Education Ohio University
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International Board of Advisors:
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Lászlo Kulcsár, Rural Sociology Gödölló University, Hungary
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Margaret Mackay, Scottish Studies University of Edinburgh, Scotland
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Alessandro Portelli, English Studies University of Rome, Italy
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Gerald Preher, Southern Literature and Gender Issues; Institut Catholique de Lille and Université d’Angers
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Michael Ward, Education, Gender, and Social Inequality; Swansea University, Wales
